The Goldilocks Guide to Good Training Investment Decisions
Finding the sweet spot between analysis paralysis and rushed implementation can directly impact your business value
When it comes to making training investment decisions, not everyone gets it 'just right'. Some consulting firms take so long to reach a decision that they leave significant value on the table. Others rush in without proper consideration, undermining the programme's effectiveness before it begins. Finding the balance - that Goldilocks moment - is crucial for driving real behaviour change and delivering lasting business value.
What does ‘just right’ look like?
In the consulting world, we often talk about the importance of making good decisions. But what makes a decision 'good'? According to Bain & Company's research1, there are four key dimensions:
Quality: The fundamental correctness of the decision
Speed: How quickly the decision is made
Effort: The resources required (people, meetings, data gathering)
Yield: Whether and how effectively the decision was implemented
Organisations that excel in these areas create more value, grow faster, and achieve higher returns on capital than their peers.
But what does this mean for training investment decisions?
I’ll share what we've learned at Honeycomb from observing patterns across multiple organisations.
Three key decision-making patterns
Our team has worked with organisations ranging from Big Four consultancies and FTSE-listed corporations to smaller boutiques and fast-growing entrepreneurs. Through this, we've observed three distinct patterns in training investment decisions:
1. The Never-Ending Story: Too slow or no decision
We frequently encounter organisations that either can't make a decision, take an extraordinarily long time to do so, or struggle to implement the decision once it’s been taken.
Consider this recent example: a major professional services firm, despite a decision maker giving the training programme the thumbs up, are estimating it will take 3 months to complete supplier onboarding through their procurement department, with actual training delivery pushed to a year away. What makes this particularly striking is that we're talking about relatively small investments - not the kind of big-ticket items that might justify such extensive procurement processes. The bureaucracy involved often far outweighs the level of investment.
Another notable case involves a smaller organisation that took 15 months to give the green light to a sales development programme. Now completed, they’ve seen dramatic improvements - increased deal volumes, higher average deal values, and accelerated pipeline movement - so we can't help but wonder about the opportunity cost of that delayed decision.
2. The Rush: Too fast, too soon
Sometimes, quick decisions can be deceptively attractive. We recently experienced this with a client who moved from initial enquiry to programme commitment for 30 junior team members in just two brief calls. The training sessions received excellent feedback scores, and the team were left buzzing.
However, a revealing moment came 4-5 months later when we were asked to run a session for the Partners to explain to them what we’d taught their junior team. This highlighted a crucial oversight: the Partners hadn’t been adequately engaged in the process. Despite high learner satisfaction, the tools and frameworks weren't being consistently implemented because senior leadership hadn't been properly involved in shaping the programme or engaged in embedding the learning. They absolutely weren’t getting full value on their investment.
3. The Sweet Spot: Balanced and effective
So, where’s the perfect middle ground? What we've observed is organisations that have the impetus to move quickly, but still engage their senior team in the decision-making process, are the ones that create the most impact. This balanced approach seems easier to achieve in smaller organisations, where decision-making environments are less complex and political. However, we've seen it work in larger organisations too, particularly when there's clear leadership ownership of the outcome.
The most successful implementations we've observed share common characteristics:
Partner-level involvement from client-facing leaders
Clear understanding of desired behaviour changes
Engagement of other senior stakeholders
Personal investment in outcomes
Typical implementation timeline of 2-3 months.
What sets these organisations apart is often their 'owner mindset' - whether they are actual owners or Partners operating with owner-like accountability. These leaders think beyond immediate project delivery to long-term value creation. They have both the authority and the discipline to clear diaries, engage stakeholders, and drive implementation. Their personal investment in the outcomes means they're committed to seeing the impact through, understanding that it will help them deliver better projects and build stronger teams.
These organisations demonstrate that it's possible to move quickly while still ensuring proper stakeholder engagement and implementation planning. The opportunity cost is minimised, the real-world impact and investment value is maximised.
How to be Goldilocks in 3 simple steps
The most effective training initiatives we've seen strike a balance between decisive action and thorough stakeholder engagement. As we approach the end of 2024, here are some key considerations for making effective decisions about your training investments next year:
Move with purpose
Don't let analysis paralysis cost you months of potential value creation. The opportunity cost of delayed implementation can be substantial.Plan for implementation
Consider how new skills and behaviours will be embedded in your organisation before the training begins. Identify who will champion the change.Engage key stakeholders
Ensure senior leadership understands and supports the behaviour changes you're targeting. Their engagement is crucial for successful implementation.
TL; DR
While decision paralysis is costly, rushing without proper engagement can be equally damaging. The goal is to make well-considered decisions efficiently, with clear ownership and implementation planning from the start.
The key to successful behaviour change lies not just in making the right decision, but in making it at the right time, with the right people involved, and with a clear path to implementation.
If you need some help thinking about what that looks like, you know where we are.
Thank you for reading The Skilled Consultant. If you haven’t yet subscribed, please do so to receive all our articles direct to your inbox.
There are several other ways you can interact with Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training….
Connect with Deri Hughes (Founder & MD) on LinkedIn
Connect with Colin Mann (MD) on LinkedIn
Book a 30 minute intro call with Deri Hughes
Stay informed about our free workshops and webinars - follow Honeycomb on LinkedIn or visit our website.
If you are interested in learning more about Bain’s research and effective decision making, check out Decide and Deliver: Five Steps to Breakthrough Performance in Your Organization