Key Takeaways
- Employee engagement improves when training encourages participation, discussion, and practical application.
- Activity-based learning turns employees into active contributors instead of passive listeners.
- LEGO Serious Play®, The Box leadership program, and design thinking workshops enhance collaboration, creativity, and alignment.
- Effective training requires the right approach, strong facilitation, and post-workshop reinforcement.
- L&D leaders should measure success through workplace impact and behaviour change.
About 70% of learning is forgotten within 24 hours and up to 90% within a week. This idea comes from the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, which has been studied for more than a century.
Why Corporate Training Programs Fail to Engage Employees
Countless organisations invest in training in the hope of creating change. Yet many are frustrated by how little seems to change after the training is over. However, most of the time, the content is not the problem. It’s how the training is delivered that makes the difference.
Traditional training focuses on presentations, lectures and knowledge. While it helps people understand new concepts, they do not always get the chance to work through them, discuss them, or put them into practice.
For Indian L&D leaders in 2026, the shift is from delivering training to designing experiences that improve engagement and performance at work.
The Lecture Problem
Lecture-based training is still common because it is easy to deliver. Information is everywhere. Most employees can find information online whenever they need it, so one-way training sessions are often less engaging.
People learn more when they take part instead of just sitting and listening.
The Relevance Gap
Employees lose interest when training fails to connect with day-to-day work.
Frameworks and models only become useful when people can see how they apply to their everyday work. People forget what they learned once the training is over.
Why Activity-Based Learning Works
People learn more when they take part instead of just sitting and listening. Activity-based learning gives them a chance to discuss ideas, practise new skills, and work through real problems. This makes learning easier to understand and remember.
3 Training Formats That Drive Engagement
THE BOX Breakthrough Experience
Through a series of guided activities, The BOX® Breakthrough encourages people to share their experiences, learn from one another, and build stronger connections within the team. The program gives people an opportunity to share perspectives, understand each other better, and have conversations that may not happen in day-to-day work.
DESIGN THINKING WORKSHOPS
Design thinking workshops help teams understand a challenge before jumping to solutions. Participants look at different viewpoints, discuss ideas, and work together.
When used alongside LEGO® Serious Play®, teams can build and discuss ideas in a hands-on way. This helps participants look at challenges from different angles and have more meaningful conversations.
These workshops are often used when organisations need fresh thinking around customer experience, innovation, team challenges, or organisational change.
When combined with LEGO® Serious Play®, participants can build ideas. They look at different ideas and test new approaches in a hands-on way.
LEGO® Serious Play® is a structured method. It uses LEGO bricks to help people think, communicate, and share ideas in a different way. Participants respond to questions by building models and explaining what those models represent. This gives everyone an opportunity to contribute and share their perspective.
The process encourages deeper conversations and helps teams discuss challenges, opportunities, and future plans in a structured way.
LEGO® Serious Play® is often used for team alignment, strategy discussions, organisational change, leadership development, and innovation workshops.
Innovative Leadership and Design Thinking
Leaders face new challenges and important decisions every day. They need to adapt to changing situations and find practical ways to move forward. Design thinking helps leaders approach problems with curiosity and explore different perspectives. It also helps them develop solutions that work in the real world.
Conclusion
People learn more when they are involved instead of just listening. LEGO® Serious Play®, The BOX® Program, and Design Thinking workshops give people a chance to share ideas, learn from each other, and work through real challenges together.
For organisations looking to strengthen their teams and leadership, CtrlX uses LEGO® Serious Play®, The BOX® Program, and Design Thinking workshops to create learning experiences that people can apply in their everyday work.
FAQs
Why is employee engagement low in corporate training?
Many training programs focus mainly on presentations and feel disconnected from everyday work. After the training ends, employees often do not get enough opportunities to apply what they learned.
Is activity-based learning more effective than classroom training?
Yes. People usually learn more when they take part in discussions, activities, and problem-solving instead of just listening to presentations. They are also more likely to remember what they learned and use it in their work.
How can organisations make training more engaging?
Give people a chance to take part. Activities, discussions, real workplace examples, and opportunities to apply learning can make training more interesting and useful than presentations alone.
How can organisations measure training success?
Success is not about attendance. What matters is whether employees are putting the learning into practice and using it to do their work better.