Note: Reading time is approximately 12 minutes.Last week I was invited to train the senior leaders of a large IT firm. The training was scheduled at a STAR hotel and while I was at the lobby, I overheard an interesting conversation that most leaders were involved in. The conversation was about – “how every year they attend these trainings which was nothing but time off from work, how they look forward to cherish their time away from work.” Few minutes into the conversation, I noticed they were already planning their evening party.I recollected my initial conversations with the HR head, she had mentioned how the HR and training team was considered mere operational than strategic partners and how trainings are perceived as fun events. Every year the teams spend a lot of money and they would go to the best 5 STAR resorts or hotels but the results never seemed to improve.Any trainer who has been in the industry for some time certainly knows that this is a very common occurrence with several employees not just with senior leaders but almost at every level in the organization. Usually by the end of the training, most participants complain that the training should have been for their seniors or their peers and not for them at all.This always reminds me of the famous comedian George Carlin. He explained this phenomenon of how people think that they are right and others are always at fault in most satirical way. He said “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” That’s exactly what most people think when they attend trainings.So what is it that’s different or unique here?Well, honestly there is nothing unique until we kick-started the session. Few minutes into the session I asked – “How many of you believe that these trainings are just a waste of time?” and most of the hands went up. What followed was an enriching discussion. Most of them mentioned that they have been part of trainings like Time Management, Stress Management, etc and have done extensive trainings in the past and how they love displaying certificates of the courses that they have done in the past. They also mentioned that no significant impact of these trainings was ever felt.During the discussion we agreed to first resolve the point “why trainings don’t get applied in the real time job?”One of the first questions that I asked them was - “how did we learn certain behaviors?”Jack – one of the senior vice-presidents said – “most behaviors are formed during our childhood and are constant throughout our lifetime. We cannot change the behaviors”.Rakesh another participant paused and said, “Jack, it’s not about when was the behavior formed but how did we learn certain behaviors.” “My answer is, I learnt most of it from my parents, siblings and teachers.” Jack nodded in agreement and said “Agreed, we learnt it by observing others”.I Said, “Great! Do most of us agree that we learn most our behaviors from our environment? And if that is true, how do we learn to change our behaviors?”Jack affirmed by saying – “We cannot change the behaviors and that’s exactly why I believe that these trainings are just waste of time. I have never noticed any change in my behavior or of my team’s in spite of spending lakhs of money. Most training programs are just eye wash where people are entertained and motivated enough to last for a day or two but as soon as the reality hits them, everything falls apart. No one ever is successful in following it through.”Vikram another senior leader went on to say – “I think what Jack said is right, most training do not have any relevance to the real world.”The debate continued, someone pointed out how he actually nominated his team members just because it is in his KRA, it was only to ensure that his team members attend 40 hours of training programs. Another person debated and said “we must hire qualified people so we do not actually incur any expenses on trainings.”We had a Pandora box open!Rakesh again pointed out that the question was – “how do we learn to change our behaviors?”Vidya raised her hand, she wanted to share something. She pointed out that once she attended “Time Management” training and she learnt how managing time is not possible at all but what she needed to manage was her own self. She said “it was a great learning and I tried to apply the tools but eventually I gave up. I accept that I should have taken more responsibility but I could not avoid the circumstances around me which demanded more out of me. Every time I made a plan, people around me had different plans or rather no plans. I gave my best for sometime but I would say, though I wanted to follow-through, I never had a strong support around me.”Rakesh said, “I once attended a session on “Presentation Skills” because I was told that I was not very good at presentations. I had presented only once in the whole year. After attending the training, I never gave any presentation till date and it is almost a year now.”There was silence in the room.I said, “Thank you for being honest and sharing your experiences. The points made were very important and I think it is the best time to learn from a case-study.” I invite you to read, discuss and ponder on the questions at the end of the case-study.******The case study was of a 10 year old e-commerce company ABC Pvt Ltd.Arjun, CEO of ABC Pvt Ltd is most loved and admired in the organization. His story was just like any Bollywood movie. He was from a middle class family and worked really hard to build ABC Pvt Ltd. Like every start-up, the initial 2 years were a roller coaster ride. People joined and left, cash-flow was turbulent most of the time, they only had enough money to pay the salaries and bills.Next 3 years Arjun built a strong team – a team of 35 associates who worked more than 12 hours each day and had never complained about extra time or bothered to ask for salary hike. Everyone in the team was always excited, happy and ready to help one another. Arjun had built the organization only on one belief. A happy workplace is more productive. He would emphasize that if the organization has to grow, each of us in the team must help each other grow. He encouraged everyone to learn from everyone. He emphasized that building a happy culture is everyone’s responsibility and not a specific department’s role. In team meetings, he would always say – “we are all social beings, we learn from one-another more than we learn from reading books and hence it is important that we care more and share more.”Most employees felt at home at the workplace. They loved giving more than required and they were open to learn from anyone. Though they worked for longer hours, no one ever demanded for a time-management training or stress management training. There were conflicts in board rooms but no one ever took it back to work station. It was a happy workplace.In the 6thyear, ABC Pvt Ltd experienced the most turbulent time. They lost two of their major clients. Arjun gave everyone the option to leave as he could not afford to pay them at least for next 4-6 months. None of the team members left. The team that had worked with Arjun from the inception decided to stick around. They were back to work with the same belief of growing together.In the next 2 years the profits quadrupled.Question: What made the team stay strong? What made individuals to work harder and longer hours without complaining? What kept the team happy and supportive in spite of conflicts?*********Jack said – “I don’t understand how this case-study is relevant here. It’s quite straight and simple – they were a bunch of highly motivated and self driven individuals who liked their leader. I am more than certain that Arjun spent a lot of time in hiring them”It was Vidya’s turn; she said “I believe it was the cumulative effort of the team that helped them fight through the tough time. The team had created a culture of belongingness and I think that is what kept them motivated throughout. It is also fascinating to notice how they worked harder and longer without complaining and I think it is also an outcome of an inspired culture which Arjun has built.”Rakesh interrupted and said, “I do not think Arjun built the culture, Arjun always pointed out that building the culture is everyone’s responsibility and not specific department’s role. Hence, I strongly believe that it was built by everyone.” Vidya nodded in agreement with Rakesh.Jack agreed with a little resistance.“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – this was the discussion point for sometime.Jack said, “I agree that culture is critical but what does it have to do with the point we are discussing? How does culture have an impact on trainings not getting applied at the workplace?”I said, “That’s exactly what culture can do. It can transform a mediocre-performer to a good performer and an exceptional performer might leave the organization because he did not fit-in.”I asked – “How many of you saw the movie – “Taare Zameen Par”? Most of them had seen. In the movie, when the kid was with parents, he was never allowed to make mistakes and he could not learn because of the disturbing and disempowering environment at home. The same kid when sent to a teacher who created an empowering environment everything for the kid changed. He could learn faster and retain more. A clear indication of how behaviors change with the change in the environment?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWMRHTdqUqs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUd5j0NVdRk After a bit of silence, we moved to the topic of “Time management”.Time management is not about utilizing the number of hours at workplace but it is about being productive during the hours you are at workplace. Productivity broadly comes down to two things.1) Managing your energy 2) Managing your focus. Let us say one of your team members attends training on Time Management and while he gets excited during the training but as soon as he gets back to the workplace he experiences negativity, what would happen to him? Even if he tries to build his energy and tries to stay focused, the culture drains his energy and distorts his focus. What is the likelihood of the employee coming back to work passionately and applying his learnings? What will be the willingness of the employee to go extra mile? And if the culture is more supportive, encouraging and reinforces the learnings then the retention and applicability of learning is higher. Have you heard of the phrase – “who you spend time with is who you become?”Vikram was firm to say, “Then what is the role of an external consultant? Should he not see the effectiveness of the training?”I firmly replied, “Well, Yes. Vikram, a doctor is responsible for the birth of a child but not how his character shapes up. Isn’t it?” "The parents consult the doctor but they spend more time with the child than the doctor. Who will have more influence on the child? Doctor or Parents?”After a long silence Jack said, “I agree that culture acts as a positive reinforcement and encourages you to learn, unlearn and relearn. However, what about conflict management or any other topics? Or do you think there are topics which are based on individual’s interest?I replied, “Well, unfortunately, we are a product of our environment and the one equation that has changed my perspective towards learning is our environment is more powerful than our will-power.” Because it is constantly influencing us.Watch one of the social experiments here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Y9Ilp3lacAnother video on the impact of our environment:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Y9Ilp3lacBy now most of the leaders understood what was missing. It is an empowering culture that can reinforce the importance of learning. Till then, most leaders considered training was either waste of time or can create magic. The critical piece of the puzzle was the reinforcement by creating an empowering culture.Vidya was curious and asked – “What should we do now? Though most of us understand this but what could be our way forward?”A good and empowering workplace culture is the key to any organization’s exponential growth. Employees who feel happy are more productive and are willing to go extra mile. An empowered culture builds an entrepreneurial mind-set and employees take pride in talking about the organization. They not only stay with you long but also refer the best talent pool to join the workplace. A simple truth which is often ignored, in my experience it is ignored because building a culture is often considered as a single department’s role and often confused as an employee engagement activity than an everyday enablement practice.Here are 4 practices to build a strong organization culture:1)     Live It & Lead It - Leaders must be the ambassador of culture2)     Make building culture every person’s responsibility3)     Reward To Reinforce – Reward the supportive behaviors to reinforce it!4)     Most importantly, let building culture be part of the MBOHere are my final thoughts; culture is a crucial piece of the puzzle when you look at behavior because your brain reacts profoundly to its surrounding environment. Yes, training is important but training alone without supportive environment will only yield minimum or no results. Research now reveals that when you learn how to optimize your environment, you learn how to make behavioral change easier and be more successful.So let us commit to build a happier and inspired workplace!