Laura: A recent study found that 75% of organizations believe their training programs don't actually improve performance. Three-quarters! That’s a staggering amount of wasted time, money, and soul-crushing boredom. What if the problem isn't the training itself, but the entire philosophy behind it? Sophia: Wow, 75%? That number feels both shocking and completely, utterly believable. I think I’ve personally attended at least half of those failed trainings. You know the ones—where you’re just clicking 'Next' through endless slides, and the only thing you learn is how to look engaged while you’re actually planning your grocery list. Laura: Exactly. And that feeling is precisely the problem at the heart of Cathy Moore's book, Map It: The Hands-On Guide to Strategic Training Design. It’s become a bit of a cult classic among learning professionals for basically giving a name to that pain we’ve all felt. Sophia: And Moore isn't just an academic theorizing from an ivory tower, right? I read that she started as a technical trainer back in the 80s and got so deeply frustrated with creating what she calls 'information dumps' that she developed this whole new system out of sheer necessity. You can feel that real-world practicality in every chapter. Laura: You absolutely can. She’s not just critiquing the system; she’s offering a way out. And it starts by diagnosing the disease that everyone recognizes but few know how to cure. I’m sure you can picture it now: a manager walks into your office, drops a huge PowerPoint deck on your desk, and says…

Sophia: Oh, I know this one. They say, "We need a course on this. By Friday." Laura: Precisely. Moore kicks off the book with a perfect, almost painfully real story. A hospital manager named Harold comes to a training designer, Tina, with 97 slides about sharps safety—you know, handling needles. His request is simple: "Turn this into an online course for our 8,200 hospital workers." Sophia: Okay, but hold on. Safety training sounds important. What’s the problem with that request? Isn't that what training designers are for? Laura: That's the trap! The problem isn't the topic; it's the assumption that a course is the solution. Harold and Tina are operating under what Moore calls the "school model." They think the goal is to "transfer knowledge." They believe the workers are empty vessels, and if they just pour these 97 slides of information into their heads, they'll magically start handling needles more safely. Sophia: Right, the classic 'tell, then test' approach. We'll talk at you for an hour, then give you a multiple-choice quiz to prove you were awake. But that rarely changes how people actually behave when they're back on the job, under pressure. Laura: It almost never does. Moore argues that this turns the training department into a "course factory." The focus shifts to production—how many slides, how slick the graphics are—instead of performance. The designer becomes an order-taker, not a problem-solver. The result is an expensive, time-consuming information dump that doesn't solve the underlying problem and, worse, makes employees feel like their time is being disrespected. Sophia: That’s a great way to put it. It’s like a patient walking into a doctor's office, handing them a prescription for a powerful drug, and saying, "Just sign this for me." A good doctor would say, "Whoa, let's diagnose the problem first." You don't just hand out medicine without understanding the illness. Laura: That is the perfect analogy. And that's where Moore says most organizations go wrong. They jump straight to the prescription—the course, the workshop, the e-learning module—without ever diagnosing the performance problem. For example, a company rolls out new software. It’s a huge investment. So, they create hours of training on every single feature. Sophia: I’ve been in that training! It’s overwhelming. Laura: And what happens? The book cites a classic case: a company’s sales were stagnating, so they invested in a new CRM system and extensive training. But the sales team just kept using their old spreadsheets. The training focused on the software's features, not on how it would help them close more deals. It was a massive, expensive failure. Sophia: Because nobody stopped to ask the right question. They asked, "What do the salespeople need to know about this software?" Laura: Exactly. And the right question, the one that changes everything, is completely different.

Sophia: Okay, so we've established that we're all drowning in these pointless 'information dumps.' It's a bit depressing. So what's the cure? How does Cathy Moore's 'Action Mapping' fix this broken system? Laura: It fixes it by changing the first question. Instead of starting with the content—those 97 slides—an action mapper starts with a measurable business goal. Moore tells a brilliant follow-up story to illustrate this. Imagine the same request for sharps safety training, but this time it goes to another designer, Anna Action von Mapp. Sophia: I love that name. Very heroic. Laura: She is the hero of the story! When Harold comes to her, she doesn't just take the slides. She asks, "What is the business goal here? What are we trying to achieve?" Harold says they want to reduce needlestick errors by 8%. Anna's next question is the game-changer: "Okay, what do people need to do on the job to make that happen? And more importantly, why aren't they doing it now?" Sophia: That feels like such a simple question, but I bet it uncovers a universe of issues that have nothing to do with a PowerPoint deck. Laura: A complete universe. Anna starts investigating. She talks to the nurses. And she discovers the real reason for many of the errors. It wasn't that the nurses didn't know they should dispose of needles safely. The problem was that the sharps disposal containers were often across the room, not right next to the patient's bed where they were needed. So, in a rush, a nurse might recap a needle—a huge safety risk—just to get it across the room. Sophia: You have got to be kidding me. The solution wasn't a 97-slide course on safety... it was just moving a plastic box closer to the bed? Laura: That was a huge part of it! The solution was environmental. It was a workflow problem. Anna's analysis led the hospital to attach sharps containers to the wall next to every bed. They also created a simple, one-page job aid—a visual guide—that could be posted in utility rooms. The "training" she designed was a short, realistic scenario where learners had to make a decision in a tough situation and see the consequences. The whole thing was targeted, fast, and focused on action. Sophia: That’s incredible. So Anna, the action mapper, is really more of a performance detective or a consultant than a course creator. She's digging for the root cause. Laura: That's the core of the philosophy. One of the most powerful quotes in the book is, "Your job is to solve the problem, not produce courses." Tina, the traditional designer, produced a 130-slide course that people clicked through and forgot. Anna solved the actual problem, helped the hospital reach its safety goal, and in the process, made the training function look like a strategic partner, not just a cost center. Sophia: It treats employees like adults, too. It respects their intelligence and their time. Instead of assuming they're ignorant, it assumes they're trying to do their jobs but something is getting in the way. The action mapper's job is to find out what that 'something' is. Laura: And that 'something' is rarely a lack of information. Moore breaks it down into four categories of barriers: the environment, like the misplaced sharps container; a lack of skills, which requires practice; a lack of knowledge, which might just need a job aid; or a lack of motivation, which is often a symptom of one of the other three. A course only addresses one small part of one of those categories. Sophia: It’s like performance surgery. Instead of blasting the whole body with the radiation of a boring course, you're making a precise incision to fix the exact thing that's broken. Laura: That's a perfect way to describe it. It's surgical. It's targeted. And it starts with that simple, powerful shift in perspective.

Sophia: Okay, this is all incredibly insightful. It feels like it should be required reading for every manager on the planet. If there's one big takeaway for someone listening right now—a team lead, an executive, anyone who's ever requested or designed training—what is it? Laura: It's about fundamentally changing the first question you ask. The moment someone says the word "training," you have to resist the urge to talk about content, slides, or formats. Your first question must be: "What do people need to do differently on the job, and what is the measurable business goal we are trying to achieve?" Sophia: From "what to know" to "what to do." Laura: Exactly. That question forces the conversation away from information and toward behavior and results. And the data backs this up. The book references a Brandon Hall Group study which found that organizations using action-oriented training methods were 30% more likely to report positive business outcomes. It’s not just a feel-good idea; it’s a more effective business strategy. Sophia: So the next time your boss asks for a training course, your first response shouldn't be "yes." It should be a question. Something like, "That's interesting. What performance change are we hoping to see from this?" Laura: That is the single most powerful thing you can do. You immediately shift your role from an order-taker to a strategic partner. You might discover that the solution isn't a course at all. It might be a checklist, a change in a process, or just better communication from leadership. You save the company time and money, and you save your colleagues from another soul-crushing information dump. Sophia: I love that. It’s empowering. It gives people a tool to push back against the "course factory" mentality. Laura: It really is. And we'd love to hear from our listeners. Have you survived a particularly memorable 'information dump'? Or, on the flip side, have you ever seen a tiny, non-training change lead to a huge performance boost in your workplace? Share your stories with us on our social channels. We want to hear the good, the bad, and the truly pointless. Sophia: This is Aibrary, signing off.