Trainings Are Such a Waste of Time
Edition 20: When Learning Becomes a Checkbox: Training Often Fails.
Welcome to Edition #020 of People Please! My mission with this newsletter is simple but ambitious: to help 100,000 professionals shift from being ‘People Pleasers’ to becoming ‘Culture-Builders.’
In this edition, we’re diving into a quiet truth often whispered in corporate corridors the growing disinterest in workplace trainings.
Why does this happen? Too often, trainings are delivered to please bosses, not to drive real learning. And many participants attend only to please their managers - to mark presence, not to grow.
Let’s unpack why this perception “Trainings Are Such a Waste of Time” exists, what the real scenario looks like, and how we can change it.
Many employees feel that trainings are a waste of time and the real question is, why? Before designing better programs, we need to understand the root of this perception. Is the content irrelevant? Is the delivery dull?
Or is there no clear link to real work outcomes? When learning feels like a checkbox activity, people tune out. To fix this, we must stop asking what to train and start asking why people should care.
THE PROBLEM
Seven Reasons Why Training Often Fails:
No Real Need Identified: Trainings are conducted because they’re "supposed to," not because there's a real skill gap.
One-Size-Fits-All Approach: Everyone gets the same content, regardless of role, context, or learning style.
Zero Engagement: Boring slides, generic examples, and no interaction make it forgettable.
No Follow-Through: No reinforcement, no application, no measurement so nothing sticks.
No Connection to Business Goals: Learners don’t see how it helps them perform better or grow.
Just for Compliance: If the goal is only to tick a legal or HR box, that’s all it achieves.
Leaders Don’t Model the Learning: If managers and leaders don’t attend, talk about, or apply the training themselves, it signals to employees that it’s not important.
"The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay." — Henry Ford
THE SCENARIO
Every year, if you find yourself searching for fresh, impactful learning programs: Leadership, Bias Training, POSH Awareness, Sales Training, and more, you’re not alone.
Most organisations turn to L&D partners who are strong on program design and delivery but often lack the expertise to design campaign-style programs that blend communication, engagement, and learning into something truly memorable.
Organisations also bring in Ad/Event agencies to create posters, videos, or standees to promote these trainings internally. But these agencies lack the subject matter depth to craft the message that resonates. The result? Promotions feel like a push, not a pull and learners who attend come out of obligation, not curiosity.
Working with either one or even both partners often misses the mark.
What’s lost is the blend of subject expertise and communication sensitivity needed to promote learning with meaning and impact. That’s the GAP!
At Be.artsy: Awareness Experts, we’ve been bridging it for 15 years.
And now, organisations can bridge it too: by designing and executing powerful learning campaigns in-house, with little to no outsourcing.
THE SOLUTION
Be.artsy is now handing over its 15 years of proven formula to selected organisations.
HRBPs who are tired of pulling campaigns off Google.
DEI Heads who are looking for more than tick-box ally-ship.
Marketing teams who are struggling to build internal trust.
OD Leaders who are eager to embed real change into culture.
You’re exactly who we created the Be.artsy: Awareness Experts Playbook for, that we are handing over in our upcoming bootcamp.
If your organisation wants to use the Be.artsy Playbook year after year, sign up for our upcoming Internal Campaign Crafter Bootcamp. Nominate yourself or your Marketing Manager, OD Head, DEI Head, or HRBP to join the ICC Bootcamp, write to megha@be-artsy.com.
What You May Not Know About Be.artsy
With over 15 years of deep domain expertise across 48+ industries, and our proprietary Awareness–Sensitisation–Consciousness framework, Be.artsy is more than a training provider - we are culture-shapers and business enablers.
We place people at the centre of every program, with performance as the outcome.
Whether organisations kickstarted their learning journey with us, opted for a powerful mind-shift program, or committed to a full-scale learning transformation - here’s what they consistently received:
✅ Customised, contextual content for leaders, white-collar, and blue-collar employees
✅ 85% of participants joined out of curiosity, not obligation—and rated our programs 4.4+/5 consistently
✅ Programs that engage the head, heart, and habit—because real change is lived, not just lectured
✅ Measurable impact—because we believe learning should always move the needle
Be.artsy brings proven expertise from working across a wide spectrum of industries. We’ve designed and delivered transformative learning and awareness programs across sectors including:
This diversity gives us a powerful lens to design programs that work across teams, geographies, and mindsets making our people-first approach practical, scalable, and relevant. We understand people, context, and compliance not just content.
Yes, our programs come at a price because they’re built with deep subject expertise and real-world insight. But we’re now going beyond just delivering services.
We’re opening up our proven formula so that organisations can invest once and build the capability to do it themselves—year after year.
Be.artsy is opening up its niche formula to organisations that want to design powerful, in-house learning journeys and sustainable internal campaigns without being dependent on external agencies for everything.
Because let’s be honest outsourcing everything isn’t scalable in the long run. Not in terms of cost, and definitely not in terms of culture.
When the purpose is real, the process must be owned.
Be.artsy: What’s Beneath the Surface
At the heart of Be.artsy’s learning programs lies a proprietary framework: Awareness, Sensitisation, and Consciousness, designed for real impact and long-term behaviour change.
The diagram below brings our core philosophy to life: literally and visually. The description that follows breaks down each stage, helping you understand how organisations can move beyond just compliance and partner with Be.artsy to drive real culture change: from awareness to action, from information to transformation.
The 3 Stages That Shape Every Be.artsy Learning Program:
At Be.artsy, every learning program is designed to move participants through a deep, meaningful journey beyond just information-sharing. Here's how:
Stage 1: Awareness
This is the starting point.
When an organisation's goal is to introduce a topic or issue, the outcome we design for is that “Oh, I didn’t know!” moment. It’s about opening eyes and starting the conversation. This stage is what we call Kickstarter.Stage 2: Sensitisation
This is where deeper engagement happens. It’s not just about knowing, it’s about feeling, thinking, and questioning.
2a: Second-layer communication – More details and perspectives are shared.
2b: Understanding the ‘Why’ – Participants start thinking critically.
2c: Taking a position – They begin forming opinions: agreeing or disagreeing.
2d: Weighing perspectives (Processing) – They reflect on pros and cons.
2e: Forming beliefs – A personal belief system begins to develop.
This stage is what we often call our mind-shift programs.
Stage 3: Consciousness
This is where learning turns into intentional action.
3a: I now choose – Participants make a conscious decision.
3b: Creating the right conditions – They consider courage, resources, biases, and what's right - before choosing to act, not act, or undo.
This stage is called Be.artsy’s learning journey programs.
Example: ARISE IIP Case Study WIP
While most companies showcase only their past work, we’re happy to share what we’re working on right now. Our video case studies, brochures, and documents highlight completed projects but what they don’t capture is the work in progress. Here’s a glimpse of one such ongoing project, shared for your reference:
We started with a culture-building awareness initiative—“Strong Voices, Safe Spaces,”** a two-day program designed for ARISE IIP, a Dubai-based organisation founded by Indians and operating across 11 African countries.
The goal: to introduce and open up conversations around prevention of sexual harassment and whistleblowing. Here are the topics we covered in the two day in-person training using gamification, videos, movies and interactive sessions.
Now progressing to the Sensitisation stage with a deeper, mind-shift program. At this point, we’re advancing further by building an exclusive Internal Committee training: focused on effectively preventing, prohibiting, and redressing sexual harassment, addressing internal biases, and fostering a fair and inclusive workplace for all.
Once this phase is complete in August 2025, we’ll deepen the Stage 1 topics using engaging formats like comics, posters, videos, live trainings, and targeted online coaching for specific groups and bring stage 3 - “Consciousness’ alive and lay out a learning journey for the entire organisation.
How are we ensuring that “Strong Voices, Safe Spaces” is truly owned by the people at ARISE?
By making sure the program’s core message doesn’t just inform - it resonates. We’re doing this by embedding the campaign through all seven pillars of impactful campaign design, so it reaches both the head and the heart.
Here you can know more:
Comprehensive Learning Programs Designed by Be.artsy, Using One or More Stages of Our Three-Stage Framework, Across 450+ Organisations.
Self-Development & Essential Work + Life Skills and Well-being
Emotional Intelligence
Time Management & Productivity
Financial Literacy, Fraud Awareness| Insurance Literacy | (Be Your Own Lakshmi)
Stress Management & Resilience
Effective Communication for Men & Women
Critical Conversations
Mental Health
People Management & Leadership Skills
Leadership Development
Inclusive Leadership
Managerial Skills for New & Mid-Level Managers
Women in Leadership
Working Across Generations
Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)
Unconscious Bias Training
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)
Gender Sensitisation
LGBTQ+ (Pride) Inclusion
Disability (PWD) Inclusion
Workplace Safety, Compliance & Ethics
POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) – Legal + Behavioural
Psychological Safety at Work
Whistleblower Awareness
Workplace Ethics & Values
Road Safety Programs
Workplace Culture & Performance
Company Vision & Mission Alignment
Conflict Resolution at Work
Sales Capability Building
Competency building
Want to Partner With Us?
If your organisation would like to partner with Be.artsy for our end-to-end L&D and OD services, feel free to reach out to me directly at shikha@be-artsy.com.
But if you're looking to take our proven formula and apply it independently, year after year: sign up for our upcoming Internal Campaign Crafter (ICC) Bootcamp.
To nominate yourself or your Marketing Manager, OD Head, DEI Lead, or HRBP, write to megha@be-artsy.com.
Best | Shikha Mittal | Founder, Be.artsy
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Why Trust Be.artsy?
Over the past 15 years, I’ve collaborated with 450+ organisations across 48 industries, designing and delivering culture + learning and developing programs impacting over 500,000 professionals through my enterprise, Be.artsy. which I founded in 2010 in Delhi, India.
The impact of Be.artsy’s work led to it being documented as a Harvard Business School Case Study. Be.artsy’s work has been widely featured in national and international media outlets including Forbes India, BBC, DW Media.
From small beginnings to global impact, Be.artsy has led the way in using learning programs to drive revenue. We're not just in the business of training—we’re in the business of Trainings with ROI! Today, we go beyond learning to deliver measurable impact.
For other business inquiries, please reach out to Be.artsy’s Growth Manager at adarsh@be-artsy.com.