Training Doesn’t Change People. Conversations Do.

I’ve spent 25 years in L&D across luxury hotels and cruise lines, and here’s the hardest truth I’ve learned: no one changes because of a training module. They change because of the conversations that follow.

We pour energy into slides, LMS dashboards, and compliance checklists. They tick boxes. They transfer knowledge. But knowledge alone doesn’t create commitment. Commitment comes from dialogue.

I’ve seen it play out too many times to ignore:

A compliance session becomes culture only when people wrestle with what the rule means in their reality—asking, “What if this happened on my shift?” Suddenly policy isn’t abstract. It’s personal.

A safety drill sticks when a crew member recalls a near miss, and others jump in: “Here’s what I’d do differently next time.” That exchange imprints far deeper than any manual ever could.

A leadership workshop turns alive when a manager admits, “This is where I failed,” and the room leans in—not to judge, but to learn from the honesty.

A service session transforms when an associate shares the smile they created for a guest—and peers swap ideas on how to repeat that magic.

Notice the pattern? It’s never the slide deck. It’s the stories. The debates. The reflections. The moments when people own the learning instead of just attending it.

The day I stopped asking, “What should I deliver?” and started asking, “What conversation should I spark?”, everything shifted. Engagement deepened. Readiness accelerated. Performance sustained. But most importantly, learning became theirs, not mine.

So here’s the question for every leader and L&D professional: Are you proud of the training you delivered—or the conversations you unleashed?

Because training ends when the session closes. Conversations echo long after. And those echoes are what shape culture.

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