When Training Isn’t the Answer: Diagnosing Performance Problems

Jordan Avery

So Priya, I got this frantic call yesterday from a VP of Sales who was, I mean he was practically shouting. He wants a mandatory sixty minute training session scheduled by Friday because, uh, his reps are not writing detailed deal notes in the CRM. Just, absolute radio silence in the client files.

Priya Nair

Oh, the classic CRM panic. And let me guess, the standard move here is, you know, L&D says yes, we build a beautiful slide deck, we host three separate Zoom sessions, track the completion rates, and then, what, three months later, the CRM is still a complete ghost town.

Jordan Avery

Every single time. It is a complete cycle of futility. But, you know, it made me think of this landmark framework from Robert Mager and Peter Pipe. Way back in nineteen seventy, they wrote this book, Analyzing Performance Problems, and they put forward this incredibly elegant diagnostic question. They said, if a person could do a task because his or her life depended on it, is it a training problem?

Priya Nair

If their life depended on it. Wow. That is, um, it is incredibly clarifying, actually. Because if you put a gun to a sales rep's head and said, write a detailed deal note right now or else, could they do it? Well, yes, obviously. They know how to type words into a text box. They just, they just are not doing it.

Jordan Avery

Exactly! And that, right there, is the divide. Mager and Pipe are pointing out the difference between a true skill deficiency, which is where the learner literally does not know how to do the steps, and an execution or, you know, an environmental gap. That is where they have the capability, but the workplace environment itself is actively working against them executing it under normal working conditions.

Priya Nair

It makes so much sense, but Jordan, let is be real about the power dynamics here. If a powerful VP comes to you demanding a training course, and you just flat out say, no, this is not a training problem, you look completely uncooperative. I mean, I remember years ago at a tech startup, the head of engineering insisted we needed a training course on time management because people were missing project deadlines. I knew, we all knew, the project scope was just totally unrealistic, but I felt so pressured to just build the course and check the box for them, just to keep the peace.

Jordan Avery

Oh, I have been there too. It is a really tough spot. But that is actually why we need to show them the diagnostics, rather than just saying a flat no. We have to guide them through the flow.

Priya Nair

Okay, so how do we actually do that without getting kicked out of the VP's office? How do we use the Mager and Pipe flow to diagnose the real issue in our CRM example?

Jordan Avery

Well, we look at the environment, and we ask three really specific questions. The first one is, is performing actually punishing? So, think about those sales reps. If a rep actually takes twenty minutes to write meticulous, detailed notes about a deal, what happens? Often, their manager reads those notes and uses them to pick the deal apart during the next pipeline review. But the reps who leave the notes blank? They get left alone. So, writing notes is literally being punished.

Priya Nair

Oh, that is so true. You are basically penalizing them for being transparent. Okay, so what is the second question?

Jordan Avery

The second one is the flip side. Is nonperformance rewarding? In this case, if a rep skips the data entry entirely, they save, say, thirty minutes a day. That is thirty extra minutes they can spend making outbound calls, hitting their call quotas, and ultimately earning more commission. So, they are actively being rewarded for ignoring the CRM.

Priya Nair

Right, they are literally making more money by not doing what the VP wants. And what about the third layer? The physical obstacles?

Jordan Avery

Yes, the physical obstacles. Like, is there a barrier in the way? For these reps, maybe logging into the CRM requires this incredibly slow, dual factor VPN that constantly drops connection. A simple update that should take two minutes ends up taking ten minutes of frustrating tech troubleshooting. No amount of training on how to use the CRM is going to make that slow VPN run any faster.

Priya Nair

So, if we look at those three things, the punishment, the reward for skipping it, and the horrible VPN obstacle, training is not just useless, it is actually insulting to the reps. It is telling them they do not know how to do something they are actively being discouraged from doing. This is brilliant, Jordan. Next time a stakeholder comes to me with a training demand, I am not going to say no. I am going to walk them through these three questions. It completely changes the conversation from a turf war to a real diagnostic clinic.

Jordan Avery

Exactly. It makes us partners instead of just order takers. Alright, let is go tackle those CRM notes. Good chatting, Priya.

Priya Nair

Talk soon, Jordan.