Nobody Wants to Be Bored, So Why Does So Much Training Make Us Feel That Way?

What’s the worst training session you’ve ever attended? The one you remember more for disliking it than you remember any of the content.

Am I interested in which session it was? 100%. If we get together sometime, I’m going to want you to spill all the tea. But truthfully, I’m even more interested in where it went wrong for you because there are a lot of ways for training to go off the rails. Sometimes it can be the speaker – someone who was insincere or who condescended to the audience (or somehow managed to do both!). Sometimes it can be the environment – the room was way too hot or way too cold, the setup was distracting, or you’re packed in so tightly that all you can hear are those weird throat noises that Alan is making right next to you.

But frequently it’s something far less dramatic – like the session just wasn’t engaging at all. It was built solely for the purpose of getting through the material, and it resulted in a class that you found insufferably boring. Not long after the PowerPoint slides began, you stopped taking notes (or more accurately stopped pretending to take notes), your phone came out, then you started yawning, and eventually were asking yourself, “How is this still going? Wait…we’re not even halfway through?”

These are not new problems, for sure, as they have been around as long as we’ve been doing hospitality training. But I did not walk into the breakout session from James Frank, Field Training Manager for Dine Brands Global, at the recent CHART conference in New Orleans expecting him to offer a genuinely different way of thinking about them. The title, “Training Like a Netflix Show,” had a certain optimistic energy that I was fully prepared to be skeptical about, but James’s concept won me over: what if training were structured more like a bingeworthy TV show that people were excited to watch instead of something they just had to get through?

It sounds simple, and it is, but simple is not the same as easy. The Netflix model works because it is built around a specific issue: how do you keep someone engaged long enough to come back for more? Every structural decision its executives make exists to answer that question.

Our work, by contrast, is usually built around a completely different question: how do we get through all this material? This goal feels urgent and measurable because there’s often a checklist, a deadline, or both, and engagement feels optional by comparison, like something you add if you have extra time (which in hospitality you never do). But ignoring it doesn’t make it go away. It just means the material gets delivered to people who stop absorbing it somewhere around slide four, which is a lot of effort for very little return. The ideal objective for us CHART members would be to have content that covers what it needs to cover AND is designed in a way that it resonates with our team members and makes a difference in our workplaces.

For anyone wondering where to begin when it comes to creating this type of connection between the material and the audience, James provided suggestions throughout the session, and the good news is that none of them involve burning your existing training to the ground and starting over. The shift isn’t about replacing what you have, but about rethinking how it’s structured and delivered.

• Break the content into smaller pieces: When too much is delivered at once, even good content gets lost. Narrowing the focus forces you to decide what really matters instead of trying to cover everything “just in case.” It’s the difference between a six-hour movie and a series divided into twelve episodes people can get through. When something is broken up, it’s easier to stay with it, easier to absorb, and a lot more likely to stick. So instead of trying to cover a huge topic like service standards in one sitting, make it more digestible by carving it up. One short session on greeting a guest. Another on handling a complaint. Another on closing out an interaction. Each one should feel complete on its own, but small enough that someone can stay with it from start to finish without mentally checking out.

• Connect those pieces to each other: Breaking content into smaller pieces is only the first step, but if those pieces don’t connect, it just feels like a series of unrelated segments instead of something that builds over time. It is here where some training quietly falls apart because every session ends up feeling like a brand-new pilot instead of part of a larger series. Instead of resetting each time, refer to what came before and pick up where you left off, so that each piece feels like it picks up where the last one left off instead of starting over. That progression makes it easier for participants to stay engaged and understand how everything fits together, and it works the same way a good show does because they will want to know what happens next.

• Cut the filler: One of the fastest ways to lose attention is to include things that don’t need to be there. Long introductions, over-explained concepts, slides that repeat what’s already been said – none of it helps, and all of it adds up. Training often feels long not because the topic is complex, but because no one made the decision to cut it down. The same rule applies to anything people choose to watch. If a scene doesn’t move the story forward, it gets cut, and training should be held to the same standard. If something doesn’t clarify, reinforce, or directly support what someone needs to do differently, it’s probably getting in the way. Tightening the content isn’t about making it shorter for the sake of time, but it’s about making sure every part earns its place. And if you have trouble editing your own material, find the person in your organization who replies to emails in three words or less and ask them to take a pass at it. They will not be gentle, and that’s the point.

• Use real situations: The focus of our sessions should not be on abstract explanations of topics (what good service is, what the standard says, what should happen) because this method forces learners to figure out how they will apply in real situations later, which is where most of it will get lost. It’s all telling and not training. What will work better is to use the “show, don’t tell” motto of the performing world, because this same principle applies to hospitality training. Learning is much easier to absorb when it’s tied directly to what happens in your hotel or restaurant, so you should ground it in specific moments such as a frustrated guest, a delayed order, or a mistake that needs correcting because these scenarios are immediately recognizable. Watching something play out is what holds attention, and it’s what makes the takeaway easier to remember when those circumstances show up again.

• Make it feel human: The most successful TV shows work because they make you feel something not just entertained but also connected. The same is true of training, and it usually comes down to the person delivering it. When a trainer brings genuine enthusiasm, shares a personal mistake, or admits that they found something difficult before they figured it out, it can make a huge difference because the audience will understand that what’s in front of them is real instead of performative. Now this doesn’t mean every training session needs to be a confessional or a comedy set. It means the person leading it needs to be present and not just presenting.

Most people will remember a training session they could not wait to finish, but far fewer can remember one they were genuinely interested in continuing. The difference between those two experiences is not usually the content, but rather the way it was designed, and that gap can be closed. Not with a bigger budget or a complete overhaul, but with a genuine willingness to consider what you are building and who you are actually building it for.

So ask yourself: if your training sessions were a Netflix show, would viewers want to keep watching after an episode or two? Or would they grab the remote and think, “Hmm…maybe there’s a new House Hunters I could watch instead?”