Training Teaches. Only Repetition Sustains.

People retain about 10% of what's presented to them in a training. That's the uncomfortable math nobody wants to admit.

Someone on a call recently called a training "critical" for managers to do something the right way. That word stuck with me. I believe in training. I believe in experiential learning more, because a one-time session doesn't stick. Most people walk out with one or two ideas, if that.

My father built his career on this problem. In 1980 he pioneered a training method for executives that gave them 7 to 14 rounds of video feedback, watching themselves speak, over and over. That repetition is what worked. Watching yourself once is a curiosity. Watching yourself every week, correcting one habit at a time, is how people actually change.

McDonald's training works for a different reason: employees repeat the exact same task hundreds of times a shift. It becomes muscle memory through repetition, not the training itself.

Managers and knowledge workers don't get that repetition built into their job. They sit through training once and go right back to old habits, because nothing in their day forces the new behavior to repeat.

If a behavior is genuinely critical, in my experience training alone isn't enough. What's worked for me is building a repetition and feedback loop around it: real-time feedback, mentors, checklists, audits, whatever makes the new habit happen again and again. Training teaches. Only repetition sustains.

What's the last "critical" training your team sat through once... and never touched again?