CAPABILITIES
Sitting in my first LTEN annual conference this past July, I listened to learning and development (L&D) professionals who approached their work with the passion of true craftspeople. These were people who lived and breathed learning, yet a recurring theme kept coming up in each session that bothered me deeply.
“We can’t get buy-in for skills training.”
Different words, same fatigue. Communication workshops: postponed. Critical thinking series: tabled. Meanwhile, certification prep and product knowledge moved forward because it is more easily measurable and urgent.
Though I’m newer to life sciences L&D, I recognize this deprioritization for what so many other educators also see it as, “a costly blind spot.” The system rewards the immediate and measurable, leaving the compounding power of “soft skills” or capability development perpetually on tomorrow’s agenda.
Let me be clear: The training programs for certifications and product knowledge I’ve encountered in life sciences are efficient. Knowledge transfer happens. Teams meet their metrics.
However, as we’re becoming a more disconnected and distributed workforce, we need to revisit our foundations. According to Forbes, 75% of those who give presentations say they would like to be better at presenting. In addition, another Forbes study shared that 50% of individuals reported that ineffective communication impacted job satisfaction while 42% said it affected stress levels. There’s an unseen accelerant we’re not fully leveraging, a force that amplifies everything it touches.
When we develop soft skills alongside technical knowledge, we’re not fixing what’s broken, we’re expanding what’s possible. Product knowledge gives someone facts, but curiosity and active listening teaches them which facts matter in each conversation. Compliance provides rules, but problemsolving helps navigate where rules intersect with reality.
My own learning journey taught me something about the compound nature of capabilities.
I didn’t have access to formal education through many of my formative years. So, when I needed to understand something, I couldn’t rely on rote steps and formulas that most children learned in school. I had to create visual and tactile representations, break them into parts and rebuild them until they made sense to me. There were no calculators or answer keys, just curiosity and creative problem solving.
People skills were on the menu too: I studied body language and emotions with intensity because understanding people, and truly listening to what was being communicated, meant the difference between a good day and a bad day for me.
When I finally made it to college in my mid-20s, my peers knew more than I did. I expected that, but I did not expect the impact of the learning scaffolding I had inadvertently built in myself. The foundational capabilities I’d developed out of necessity allowed me to accelerate my learning in unexpected ways. I could listen attentively, synthesize concepts deeply and adapt knowledge intuitively.
The knowledge came fast because I had built an infrastructure that helped me be curious and demand understanding, not just answers. This pattern revealed itself repeatedly as I studied music theory before touching a piano, and became a classically-trained pianist teaching within three years. I also started CrossFit at 30 and was coaching within two years, competing within five years. This wasn’t based on talent; it was the foundational learning capabilities that kept compounding.
I am passionate about teaching people because I want to share the one truth my journey made undeniable: When you build the right foundations, your potential compounds in ways you never could have imagined.
When teams take the time to develop curiosity and listening skills, product knowledge lands differently. It becomes something they adapt, not just recite, and compliance training transforms from “rules to remember” into “principles to apply.”
A demand for skill-based learning experiences can have a lasting impact. When we develop these capabilities in people, we’re not just improving their work performance, we’re enhancing how they navigate the world. They bring more to work because they have more to bring, period.
Creativity doesn’t just improve problem solving; it builds confidence to innovate. Storytelling doesn’t just make someone a compelling presenter; it helps them connect with their teenager. Critical thinking doesn’t just handle objections; it makes them a better citizen, partner and friend.
The next budget conversation doesn’t have to follow the old script. What if we asked: “What percentage of our training successfully translates to varied field situations?” or “What would it look like if our knowledge transfer rate improved by 20%?”
This is what traditional ROI struggles to capture. It sees training as an event with measurable outcomes. But capabilities aren’t events. They’re infrastructure. They compound. They transform not just what people know, but what they’re able to become.
These aren’t “gotcha” questions. They’re invitations to explore what we miss when we only count what’s easily countable.
So, here’s what I want you to know: Every time you advocate for capability development, you’re planting seeds. Every skills workshop you shepherd through, every conversation where you gently redirect from “what’s the ROI?” to “what becomes possible?” you’re closing that blind spot and contributing to a true learning culture.
David Cox is an experiential learning producer with Wilson Dow. Email David at dcox@wilsondow.com or connect through www.linkedin.com/in/david-cox-63168463/.
