Do You Want to Be Future Ready? Then Stop Training.

Stop Training

In talent development, every leader has a moment where they realize their passion lies in helping others grow in their career. For Dr. Selina Neri, this realization ignited her search to discover what it takes for a human being to be prepared for the future, if that is even possible.

At the ATD25 conference in Washington, DC, this May, Dr. Neri, CEO, dean, and co-founder of the Institute for Future Readiness, shared her insights in an interview-style conversation with John Cone with an invite-only audience of talent development leaders. As a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025, Dr. Neri had an important message to share:

Stop training.

There was a mix of applause and confusion when Dr. Neri shared this charge with the audience. Stop training? But we are in the business of training. We are leaders of talent and learning; how can we stop training?

Dr. Neri explained that in her 26 years in higher education, she continuously observed executives attend programming, buy-into training, and even champion the L&D function, but still the needle on progress was not moving. Her conclusion was that while many programs looked shiny on the outside, employees were not becoming better versions of themselves by the end. There was no sparkle behind the shine.

The programs were stagnant and only focused on the immediate future. Dr. Neri argued that the purpose of future readiness programs should be ongoing preparation of all generations of learners, using a dynamic and responsive strategy.

She asked the audience, “How often is talent discussed in boardrooms and how often is it pushed to the side?” The crowd of TD leaders nodded in agreement. Dr. Neri repeated herself, “Stop training.”

Instead, she said, Start enabling.

Start Enabling

Easier said than done, right? It’s still up to the TD leader to reach the higher ups and make the business case. Start by strategically building the enablement of performance and naturally making the connection to business goals. This will grab the attention of your C-suite. It should be an easy enough sell if you remind executives what your organization’s biggest and most important assets are: human capital, human performance, and human potential. If you invest in your employees and they feel you have prepared them sufficiently, there will be strong relationships that will be mutually beneficial, no matter the path either side takes.

Dr. Neri explained that there are four components that factor into future readiness in both our work and our lives. These components (competencies, experiences, drivers, and preferences) can be built and adopted.

1. Competencies – These are your abilities, skills and behaviors that come both naturally to someone and can be learned. This is the area that most leaders focus on in future readiness, and while it is important, it is not the only place to invest.
   

2. Experiences – Formative experiences, particularly nonwork-related ones, allow employees to get to know the world. These include languages, faith, music, arts, volunteering, community, and the like. Such experiences are invaluable when it comes to growth and are often difficult to orchestrate. Encouraging people to find engaging opportunities outside of work can fulfill this component — and your employees.
   

3. Drivers –What motivates, moves, engages, or excites your people? Many employees want to feel some kind of purpose, either in work or in life. Tapping into whatever that desire is in each employee will spark their energy for advancement.
   

4. Preferences – Everyone has different ways they like to live, work, and learn. Leaders need to master this component to engage employees, encouraging their growth, autonomy, and loyalty to the organization.

Dr. Neri argues that as leaders and talent development professionals, it is our task to understand the people we are responsible for and to see them as real humans, not just skills.

“We can waste time and money by not understanding full people,” she said. “If I see people as machines and don’t care to know them and help them, of course you are going to have disengagement and burn out and low retention. The journey to understand these components is a lifelong one for even ourselves, and they are always changing.”

During our Talent Leader session at ATD25, Dr. Selena Neri delivered two key insights that everyone in our field should pay attention to:

Stop focusing on training and focus on enabling performance instead.

Thoughtful observations about AI’s dual nature—while it offers tremendous potential for our field, we must be cautious about the brain drain effects from over-reliance on social media and AI.

While she positioned both of these as “controversial,” these insights reflect where the field is heading. Learning and development practitioners should take note—these aren’t just trendy ideas, they’re practical realities that will separate effective talent professionals from those still stuck in outdated approaches. These are fundamental shifts that forward-thinking talent professionals and leaders need to embrace now.

Michelle Braden, Strategic Partner, Achieve Institute

What's Next?

Dr. Neri says organizations need L&D functions where the responsibility for the future is shared among the team but driven by leaders. Here are three tips for distributing responsibility among your team while driving the vision for future readiness.

Tip 1: Create Learning Circles

A learning circle is a vehicle to enable performance. A group of people (either volunteered or selected) go on a journey to learn and work together through a problem. If another team is struggling with a similar challenge, the two departments can work together and go deeper into problem solving and knowledge sharing. The circle will develop a sense of trust and help everyone involved understand the organization better. It removes the sense of isolation and expectations that things need to be figured out by ourselves.

Learning circles can be taken outside of the organization as well. Create a community of learners with other companies that you are dependent upon for your business.

Tip 2: Move on From KPIs

A hyper-focus on measurement and ROI creates obstacles. Ask yourself why does this specific practice need a KPI? What is the number telling me? Numbers can be warped to say anything, so are they really telling the full story?

In L&D, the effect of an initiative may not appear until months or years later. However, if we keep measuring and not reaching the “desired” results, disengagement will increase. There are things that can be measured and can be a novelty in KPIs, but leaders need to understand that they are going to see results differently. If we continuously look for KPIs, we will never change the game.

Tip 3: Utilize Case Studies

People don’t tend to like difficult conversations, and any kind of change is usually met with resistance. Case studies and examples become vital for demonstrating the need for a program in the absence of data and measurement. When future readiness becomes experimental, you need fresh evaluation methods that are not numerical to know if you are going in the right direction. Case studies could come from your learning circle as well.

In addition, relinquish some of the role you play as a leader. Taking on too much responsibility will bottleneck progress. Organizational infrastructure is set up so that a leader doesn’t need to be there all the time, so rely on your middle managers and what they are hearing and seeing from employees.

“Selina provided unique insights about the importance of balancing advocacy and inquiry, which are critical elements of high-quality conversations. When these conversations are effective, they can ignite ideas, spark innovation, and transform organizations.”

Tamar Elkeles, Senior Advisor, East Wind Advisors

At the end of her session, with the audience captive, Dr. Neri shared a final reminder. Failure is part of learning, so don’t be afraid to get started and get experimenting. Change the conversation about what future readiness looks like and embrace the bruises that come along the way.

Want more? Check out Dr. Neri’s LinkedIn Live session titled “Developing Future-Ready Talent,” in addition to more discussions from other Thinkers50 Radar Class members.

About Dr. Selina Neri

CEO, dean, and co-founder of the Institute for Future Readiness (UAE), Selina Neri is a corporate academic with more than 30 years of professional experience. An expert in leadership development and corporate governance, she is a senior fellow of the Center for Governance, Public Investment Fund (Saudi Arabia), and a professor of leadership and corporate governance at Hult Ashridge Executive Education. A resident of UAE since 2013, Selina started her academic journey at HEC Paris. From 2012 to 2023, she led Hult International Business School Dubai campus as dean and executive director.

Selina researches and publishes in future readiness, leadership impact, and board and investor engagement. A game-changing thinker, she champions future readiness beyond skills and across generations to focus on human capital development, technology, environment, and entrepreneurship. Selina spearheads the work of the UAE’s Institute for Future Readiness (UAE), a capacity-building organization that aims to prepare generations of youth and professionals through relevant educational programs, experiences, and research.