Any other year, I’d be on the family ski holiday right now. But alas, this year it’s not to be for obvious reasons. Even though I’m not a great skier, I do love our week away and being in the mountains. It energises me physically and mentally, and I draw inspiration from it, as I do so many things.

I was reminded of a day when I finished early because the conditions weren’t great. Light snow was falling and visibility was poor. Even doing ‘blue’ runs was a challenge.

Yet the previous day I’d skied from one end of the skiable area in Andorra and back again. Mostly on the harder ‘red’ runs which I found relatively easy. The previous day the sun was shining, the air was clear and the runs were in good condition.

My ability on skis didn’t change in one day, but my performance certainly did! It’s all down to conditions…the environment in which I could use my skills.

It really brought home to me how vital conditions are for people going back to work after training. If the conditions are good, i.e. Supportive and in line with what’s been trained, performance will surely follow. Skiing in good conditions is easy…and I’m willing to push myself. Skiing in poor conditions is hard, and I have to concentrate to do the basics.

As a training designer, I can help to create great training programmes, as indeed can internal L&D teams. That on its own isn’t enough. Managers, HR departments and organisations in general need to make it easy for people to apply their training and perform to the best of their ability.

So the question is, are we investing enough time, energy and thought into making the conditions to transfer learning the best that we possibly can? Or, are we creating conditions that make people want to give up early?