The Surgery Was Successful: The Patient Died

When Trainings Are Perfect… But Nobody Learned Anything!

If you work in Learning & Development, you know the feeling very well: the training was perfectly organized, participants showed up (or at least appeared on Zoom with their cameras off), the slides were great, the trainer enthusiastic, the catering solid. Everything went perfectly.

Only… three months later, nobody remembers anything from the training… except the gossip they heard that day!

▪️ Babis from Finance still writes passwords on post-its and sticks them on the keyboard.
▪️ Dimitris, a “first-time Manager” (for 14 months now!), still feels and acts like a buddy with the team, and nobody takes him seriously.
▪️ Kostas from Sales hasn’t applied a single technique he learned in the “Mastering the Art of Closing Deals” seminar.

What happened?

The Brain Is Not a USB Stick (and Learning Is Not Copy-Paste)

Neuroscience tells us that learning is not just about exposure to information. Just because someone “attended” a seminar doesn’t mean they absorbed anything useful.

The brain needs specific things to work:
✅ To understand why it should care. If it doesn’t see “what’s in it for me?”, it just goes into sleep mode. (aka “Why should I care?”)
✅ To do something, not just listen. If you only listen, the brain goes for coffee. If you do things, it says “Oh, we’re working? Great, we’re learning!”
✅ To see it again, to do it again. Without repetition and practice, knowledge disappears faster than pizza at lunch break. (And leaves no crumbs!)

If these elements are missing, training is simply… entertainment with a touch of corporate flavor.

Symptoms of Training That “Succeeded” Without Results

📌 The phrase “It was very interesting” was said at least thirty times … but nobody remembers what was interesting.

📌 Everyone left with notes that looked like artworks and a framed certificate – LinkedIn went on fire, but at work, they kept copy-pasting with the mouse. It’s like going to a nutritionist, getting the plan, posting it on Insta, and then… ordering a double souvlaki with everything!

📌 Management was thrilled! “Well done, we’re doing something about training!” Yes… just like parents who see their child in front of a laptop and think they’re coding apps, while they are playing Fortnite, Roblox, or doing a TikTok challenge with the “Which Elytis are you?” filter.

📌 The platform had gamification – we collected points like Pokémon! Only we ended up learning to chase badges, not skills.

📌 Training was so good it could have been a TED Talk – Only people didn’t come to be inspired; they came to learn something practical and apply it at work (check the learning objectives… yes, those you didn’t consider important to set from the start).

How to Avoid “Successful” but Useless Trainings

1 Make Training “Relevant” (Relevance is King)

Our brain is lazy. If it doesn’t see something as relevant to daily life, it ignores it. Before designing a training, ask: “Will they use this tomorrow at work?” If the answer is “maybe someday,” rethink it.

2 Make Participants Do, Not Just Listen

The brain remembers 10% of what it hears, but 90% of what it does. If training looks like a university lecture, nobody will remember anything after a week.

3 Find Ways for Repetition and Application at Work

Without follow-up, most people forget 90% of what they learned in one month. Provide microlearning, coaching, practical exercises, and reminders – ideally follow a Nano Learning Plan. If learning doesn’t continue after training, it was just an event.

4 Think About Rewards and Interaction

The brain learns better with positive reinforcement. Make learning engaging, add gamification, provide rewards. If the LMS feels like a boring file, nobody will use it.

Final Takeaway

Training is not about delivering material – it’s about changing behavior. If the learning experience doesn’t lead to practical application, we’re just creating nice moments without real impact.

So next time someone says: “The training went perfectly!”
ask the ninja question: “Great! And how do we see that in everyday work?”

If you get awkward silence, hear crickets, or the topic changes… then something wonderful happened:
The surgery was successful, but the patient died!
(And now they’re posting their certificate on LinkedIn, with hashtag #LifelongLearning)