I was lucky enough to escape the dreary UK for the Alps over Christmas. It was an amazing week. Made even better by the fact that I FINALLY got to grips with skiing.

Now, I’ve been skiing for 25 years on and off, but even though I have been able to get down blue and red runs, and even the occasional black, it’s always been hard work. I couldn’t keep up with my family, I was always exhausted by the end of the day, and if I’m honest, I didn’t always enjoy it. That all changed this year.

For the first time in over 20 years I had ski lessons. I stayed 90% of the time on the blue runs, with people who at the same level as me (as opposed to my family who are all much better) and went back to basics.

Because although I could get down the mountain, and to the untrained eye I could ski just fine, I really was making things hard for myself. Part the way through the week I realised that although I was basically competent, I had NEVER been confident, I wasn’t consistent, and it certainly didn’t come naturally. I knew the theory and managed to get by, but my goodness, when I changed a few things I REALLY felt the difference! Whilst I wasn’t making any big mistakes, I was doing lots of things just slightly wrong, and that adds up. Changing ingrained bad habits was hard, and I didn’t always get it right but with encouragement and perseverance, I made a noticeable improvement: I skied faster, for longer and with more confidence.

Of course, it’s not just the case with skiing: Many L&D professionals have never been taught to design training. They get by, they are doing OK but it feels like hard work; it takers longer than it should; and other people seem to make it look so much easier. They aren’t doing it WRONG, they are just not doing it as well as they could.

It’s the same in other skills, including those we train people in. I’ve seen an increase in requests for managers to have training on Difficult Conversations, but how many of these managers have actually mastered giving feedback? Sure, they know the theory, they’re just about getting by but until those basics are embedded and second nature, they are going to struggle to progress the next level.

Training should give us the competence to do something. But it takes practice, reflection, feedback and more practice to enable us to master something and become confident.

Our ski instructor told us that local kids stay in the same level class for a whole year. Holiday makers expect to move on after 1 week! So of course the locals are superior skiers – they practice, consolidate and embed their skills.

Taking a step back and revisiting the basics brought my skiing on no end. Perhaps it can do the same for your training design, or help your managers manage performance more successfully.

And here are some short courses to help you to refresh your training design skills…