At &now we strongly believe that investment in People Capability isn’t optional.

It’s the foundation of consistent performance, scalable growth, and the ability to navigate both short term pivots and long term resilience. And organisations need to invest more now than ever.

But when you say “we need to invest in people capability”, many hear “training and development”. Which often leads to “that’s a waste of time and money”.

Unfortunately, data backs this scepticism. Research suggests at least 60% of training fails to make a meaningful difference, and in high pressure client situations like objection handling or sales, the failure rate can be closer to 90%.

But the problem isn’t that people capability building doesn’t work.  It’s that most organisations only invest in one half of capability.

There are two types of capability – individual and collective

Individual capability is the more recognisable part: recruiting people with the right experience or training them in the skills and knowledge they need.

Collective capability is everything else that makes those individuals effective or, more frequently, the things that stop them being more effective. Collective capability is broader, more structural, and often somewhat invisible. It includes

•  expectation setting, review and reward

•  team structures, roles and behaviours

•  company procedures and ways of working

•  culture, leadership approach, communication and trust

It’s the ecosystem your people operate within – and it determines whether individual capability can actually take root.

The two types of capability are symbiotic: How your people work drives your success. How your business works shapes how well your people can perform.

This means that investment in individual capability initiatives only makes a difference if it is supported by the right management, processes and defined behaviours.

Without that, even excellent individual training has nowhere to land. This lack of joined up thinking is why so many initiatives fail. You can’t just train individuals alone and expect overall capability to improve.

The three tenets to success

1 Leadership first

Have clear sponsorship, visible buy in, and leaders who model the behaviours. It is often the ‘middle management’ tier that can be the sticking point if they are not part of the senior sponsorship team and they feel that it is “not how I do things”. Expectations must be explicit and fair

2 Plan holistically

Consider behavioural theory to ensure barriers are identified and avoided, consider how the company can ease adoption. Cover organisational processes and specific behaviours as well as technical and soft skills. Make it possible, as well as necessary, for people to adopt the desired initiatives

3 Review, revise, iterate

So, invest enough of your time and budget in getting 1, 2 and 3 right. If that means prioritising fewer initiatives, so be it – meaningful change comes from doing the right things well.