I’m really proud of my clients.
In two separate cases, instead of cutting their training and development budget through tough times– they doubled down on them.
One client was in education services and was experiencing the pinch from stifling public policy.
One client was in manufacturing and feeling the impact of slowed construction and soaring raw material costs.
In both cases, they needed to reduce costs, which included letting go of people. In both cases, restructures, closures of sites, and changes to the way services were provided was necessary. They’d kept me in the loop, and I was fully expecting the call to say “we’re sorry, but we need to hit the pause button on the program”.
Instead, when they called, they talked about how important their people were, and how necessary it was to support these people through these tough times with training that would help them through this period.
When times are tight and budgets need to shrink, professional development is often the first item to go. On the surface, this seems logical. Training isn’t immediately linked to revenue, nor does it produce a measurable return within the next quarter. But when we look a little deeper, we start to see the true cost of that decision—and it’s one few organisations can afford to bear.
While it’s tempting to think of training as a luxury for boom times, it’s one of the few strategic levers that can help a business not just survive—but adapt and improve—through a downturn. In fact, when the business environment becomes volatile, the ability to adapt becomes a critical differentiator. That capability isn’t innate. It’s developed.
More often than not, capability issues are what stall execution. When strategy fails to land, it’s rarely because the strategy itself is flawed. It’s because the people responsible for delivery aren’t equipped with the tools, language or alignment to bring it to life. This is where training delivers its real value. It closes the gap between intention and execution. It provides the operating system that connects people to purpose, and purpose to performance.
There’s also the matter of culture. When employees feel they are being invested in—even during lean times—they respond with loyalty, effort and belief in the organisation’s future. Development communicates confidence. It builds psychological safety and a sense of shared responsibility. These are not soft metrics. They are essential conditions for high performance, especially when resources are scarce.
In my work, I’ve seen what happens when training is treated as optional. I’ve also seen the transformative effect when it’s treated as a core part of strategy. One path leads to burnout, attrition and diminishing returns. The other creates alignment, engagement and financial resilience.
Investing in your people is not a cost to be minimised. It’s the platform that makes performance possible.