By definition, training is the act of teaching a person specific information or a particular skill. We might have a tendency to think of training as a formal classroom experience with a group of people and an instructor. But training can take place in a one-on-one session such as on-the-job or just-in-time training. It can also happen during a regularly scheduled status meeting as in, "Let's give John from accounting 15 minutes during our next staff meeting to train everyone on the proper way to file expense reports."

Training is different from development, which is focused on teaching someone a skill or information, usually for a future job. Often we hear the terms "training and development" in the context of training employees for both current and future work responsibilities.

Before we can move forward with the subject of training, we have to decide whether the topic that needs to be conveyed is actually a training issue. Not everything can be addressed with...