Written By Cari Borden
Have you ever noticed the irony?
Organizations pour time, money, and emotional energy into learning and development…
but the moment someone tries to use what they learned, suddenly there’s a process, a policy, a chain of command, a “not right now,” or a “run it by leadership first.”
Somewhere between the workshop and the workday, growth gets… stuck.
Welcome to The L&D Paradox, where we teach people to level up and then structurally block them from leveling anything.
1. The Skill Adoption Gap (aka the Bermuda Triangle of Development)
Here’s the truth most leaders hate admitting:
Employees want to apply new skills.
They’re excited. They’re motivated. They even come back from training with that shiny “I’m about to change things around here” glow.
But when they try to:
- Suggest a process improvement
- Take initiative
- Lead a micro-project
- Apply emotional intelligence
- Communicate differently
…they hit resistance.
Not because the skill is wrong.
But because the system hasn’t transformed with the learner.
Training evolves fast.
Organizations… not so much.
2. The Organizational Permission Problem
L&D says: Empower your people.
Leadership says: Please make sure empowerment doesn’t disrupt anything.
This tug-of-war creates a silent rule employees learn quickly:
“You’re allowed to grow… but not too much, too fast, or too visibly.”
And when growth requires permission, it stops being development and starts being performance art.
You can’t build an agile, high-performing culture when approval is more valued than curiosity.
3. The Growth Bottleneck Nobody Wants to Talk About
Many organizations train for future leadership but design jobs that keep people frozen in place.
Employees hear:
“Be innovative. Be strategic. Make decisions.”
Job descriptions say:
“Follow this script. Don’t deviate. Stay in your lane.”
You can’t practice new skills without:
- Authority
- Psychological safety
- Stretch opportunities
- Leaders who actually let go
Training without space to apply is like teaching someone to swim, then telling them the pool is only for senior leadership.
4. The Real Cost of Stalled Development
When employees can’t use what they learn, you see:
- Frustration
- Quiet quitting
- Resentment toward leadership
- Career stagnation
- Talent drain
High performers don’t leave because training was bad.
They leave because training was pointless in a system unwilling to change.
5. The L&D Renaissance We Actually Need
If organizations want real growth, they must stop treating learning as an event and start treating it as an operational norm.
That means shifting from:
❌ Training → ✔ Application
❌ Awareness → ✔ Accountability
❌ New knowledge → ✔ New behaviors
❌ “We support learning” → ✔ “We design for learning”
A true L&D renaissance looks like:
- Leaders modeling what they expect
- Safe-to-fail spaces
- Delegation as a development strategy
- Cross-functional visibility
- Careers that move in real time, not yearly cycles
- Trust as the oxygen for growth
Learning isn’t the problem.
Culture is.
6. A Message to Leaders Who Want Growth (But Fear the Mess of It)
Growth isn’t clean.
It isn’t predictable.
And it definitely isn’t linear.
But if you want people to grow, they need room.
If you want them to stay, they need trust.
If you want a culture of learning, you need courage.
L&D can teach skills.
But only leadership can unlock them.
When you remove the bottlenecks, the fear, the micromanagement, and the cultural mixed messaging, you get what every company claims to want:
A workforce that grows, adapts, experiments, contributes, and stays.
A Final Cari-Style Truth Bomb
Don’t ask employees to grow if you’re not willing to let the organization grow with them.
Training is the spark.
Culture is the oxygen.
And without both, nothing catches fire.
🔥 Want more leadership, culture, and emotional intelligence insights?
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