Are training sessions and seminars effective?

I will present a summary of the book ‘What Works: Gender Equality by Design’ by Iris Bohnet, the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government and co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School.

Amazon.co.jp: What Works: Gender Equality by Design : Bohnet, Iris: Foreign Language Books

Few people consistently check their actions and attitudes with an ethical perspective, analyze their root causes, and remind themselves of corrective measures. Many corporate diversity training programs overlook this aspect and waste their budgets. One large-scale study on this topic, which reviewed nearly 1,000 research results, concluded that was "the death of evidence" supporting the effectiveness of such initiatives.

Conducting diversity training can sometimes have the opposite effect, as people may feel it serves as a moral license. There is an experiment involving smoking and multivitamins. In reality, everyone was given a placebo, but those who believed they were taking multivitamins smoked more and engaged less in exercise and healthy eating.

"At this point we have to conclude that diversity training either does not work or, at the very least, that we do not have enough evidence to know whether and under what conditions it does any good.  Given the billions of dollars being spent globally on diversity training, this should give many companies pause."

Opinions that challenge the effectiveness of training sessions and seminars have also emerged from Japan.

“Unfortunately, many current awareness-raising training books and corporate training programs for employees have not been validated for effectiveness with objective data. (…) It is often claimed that the training was effective based on participant surveys stating ‘It was effective’ or ‘I’m glad I attended.’ (…) It is necessary to always verify what kind of effect it had on whom and to proceed with ingenuity.”　(「職場で使えるジェンダー・ハラスメント対策ブック」)

As mentioned above, scholars have pointed out that the effectiveness of training sessions and seminars that are not scientifically validated cannot be objectively determined. Organizations that conduct such training sessions and seminars need to take this criticism seriously and make improvements if it applies to them.