THIS WEEK

The investment-performance paradox: When skills meet systems

Across Africa, investment in skills is accelerating. This week, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, the African Development Bank, UNDP, Google and other partners launched free artificial intelligence training for African public officials. The courses will cover AI fundamentals, leadership, trust, innovative culture and smarter procurement.

This is encouraging. Africa needs capable people who can navigate a rapidly changing world of work. But as I read about the initiative, a familiar question returned to me: What happens after the training?

A public official learns to use AI and returns to an institution where approvals still travel through cumbersome processes. A manager completes a leadership program but returns to a workplace where decision-making remains highly centralized. An employee gains new digital skill but has neither the tools nor the authority to apply them.

The people have changed. The system has not.

Here lies the investment-performance paradox – organizations can spend considerably on training, certifications, conferences, technology, employee benefits and leadership development without seeing a corresponding improvement in performance.

The problem is not necessarily the quality of the investment. Sometimes, we are trying to solve a system problem by developing the individual.

When performance declines, one of the easiest organizational responses is, “Let’s train them.” But what if employees already know what to do? The real constraint may be unclear expectations, conflicting priorities, weak supervision, inadequate tools, slow processes or a culture in which people have learned that taking initiative carries more risk than maintaining the status quo.

You cannot train your way out of a system that makes performance difficult.

Interestingly, another conversation at UNGA81 this week reached a similar conclusion from the perspective of Africa’s AI workforce. UNDP argued that technical skills alone are insufficient; people also need tools, work experience, networks, finance and pathways through which their capabilities can create economic value.

That principle deserves attention inside our organizations too.

After an employee attends a program, we often ask, “How was the training?” Perhaps the more important questions begin afterwards. What can this person now do differently? Does the workplace allow it? Has the manager created room for it? What obstacle must be removed? And what organizational result should eventually change?

Training is an input and attendance is an activity. Capability creates potential, but the real test is performance.

Through my Workforce Optimisation lens, this is where People, Purpose and Performance must meet. Investing in People without creating the conditions for them to contribute meaningfully to Purpose will not automatically improve Performance.

Africa should continue investing aggressively in its people. Our emerging workforce will need AI capability, digital fluency, leadership capacity and skills we may not even have names for today. But developing capable people is only half the work.

We must also build organizations capable of using capable people.

Perhaps that is the question African leaders should carry into the next training budget, leadership retreat or workforce-development initiative – Are we merely developing our people, or are we changing the conditions in which they are expected to perform?

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“Optimize! Africa” is a weekly leadership column focused on the issues that shape Africa’s future through the lens of people, purpose, and performance. It explores themes such as leadership, workforce optimization, education, employability, organizational culture, governance, productivity, institutional effectiveness, and human capital development across the continent. The column’s initiator/author is Amara C. Ezediniru, Ph.D., a Nigerian workforce optimization strategist.