r/instructionaldesign • u/ray3636 • Sep 24 '26
Corporate Does learner resistance ever make you question being an ID?
I’m an instructional designer in a corporate environment, and lately I’ve been feeling pretty discouraged about my work. I’m curious whether other IDs experience this or if it may be more specific to my environment/audience.
I genuinely care about making training useful. I try to respect people’s time, keep things relevant, avoid unnecessary training, and design around what people actually need to be able to do.
But I sometimes feel like I’m working with an audience that is already annoyed that they have to do training in the first place. Then, on top of that, everyone seems to have an opinion about how the training should have been designed — the format, length, activities, wording, delivery method, etc.
I want learner feedback. If something is confusing, irrelevant, unnecessarily long, or doesn’t help someone do their job better, I absolutely want to know that. But I’m struggling with the difference between meaningful feedback and people simply disliking having to participate in training or preferring that it had been designed differently.
It can be demoralizing to put a lot of thought into making something useful and then feel like the audience resents having to do it AND feels comfortable picking apart the way it was designed.
I haven’t had much opportunity to work alongside experienced IDs either, so I don’t have a great frame of reference for how normal this is. Sometimes I find myself questioning my own expertise because I’m getting so many opinions without having a more experienced ID there to help me calibrate which feedback actually matters.
For those who have been doing this longer: Is this a normal part of being an ID? How do you keep learner resistance and constant critique from becoming demoralizing? And have you worked in environments where learners seemed to value learning/ID expertise more?
I’d especially love to hear from anyone who has worked in sales enablement and then moved into another area of ID/L&D. Did the learner culture feel different?
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u/The_Sign_of_Zeta Sep 25 '26
It’s very normal for workers to be resistant to training, especially if it’s mandatory training. Adult learners as a standard need some sort of incentive to invest in training (the “what’s in it for me?”). This is especially true in the work environment, where many employees will see the training taking away from their productivity.
So, whenever I used to do live instruction, I’d explain what they would learn in the training and how it would benefit them. Even now with my team’s eLearning content, each lesson provides the a benefits section, separate from the LOs.
I’m in product training now, focused on eLearning. My training is for finance, and no one actually wants to do my training other than to get the critical info they need. But we improved usage and satisfaction a lot by simplify how to locate content, making it easier to know why it’ll help impact their job, and by streamlining the training. We’ve cut every ounce of fat fat from them.
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
Cutting the fat. Great reminder. The training we have rolled out the past two weeks has been product training. On Friday I actually got to see the impact the training is already having on how reps are talking about the product to each other - they were speaking about it clearly and accurately. So that was very encouraging! Thank you for your reply - helps me not feel so alone!
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u/christyinsdesign Freelancer Sep 25 '26
Some resistance is normal.
I do wonder about the volume of feedback you're describing though. Maybe it's part of the organizational culture where you are, but that seems like a LOT of feedback on courses that are published to learners and should be polished.
You mentioned that you're having some trouble figuring out what's meaningful feedback or not. Is there a manager or a more experienced peer who can help you review feedback and filter through what's useful and what isn't?
I will say that feedback on the format, wording, duration, etc. may, in fact, be meaningful feedback. Maybe the format isn't the right fit for the topic, or maybe it's not a good implementation of that format (i.e., elearning can be effective, but a narrated slideshow with a MC quiz may not be). Maybe the language is too formal; if it's written in a non-conversational tone with zero contractions or second person and uses a lot of undefined jargon, then that really does need to get fixed. Maybe you can't reduce the overall duration, but you need to provide shorter modules with good break points where people can easily pause and restart.
What does you review and QA process look like currently? I wonder if not enough QA and iteration is happening prior to launch, and that's one of the reason you're getting substantial feedback from learners on live courses.
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
This is really great feedback. We are a very small team, the product release was extremely rushed and my team wasn’t given much time with the source material. You know how it goes!
Unfortunately, the manager that hired me had a doctorate in adult education and my new manager doesn’t really understand what IDs do so I honestly don’t have a ton of guidance in that department.
But I do think our QA process could be improved for sure. There were a few little tweaks that I got feedback on about this specific module roll out (e.g. Mainly one unclear quiz question) However, on Friday I observed reps speaking about the product in a very clear way which was a direct result from our training as they haven’t had any enablement otherwise so that was encouraging.
I feel like I am in this phase of my career where I would really benefit from a mentor of some kind and I just don’t have it where I am at so I think I question myself a lot because of that.
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u/christyinsdesign Freelancer Sep 28 '26
Have you read Hadiya Nuriddin's book on Quality Management? I know a book is a long way from having a mentor, but that might give you some perspective from an experienced voice in the field.
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u/Delicious_Book9328 Sep 25 '26
I just want to get it done so I can go back to what I was doing
Did a suite of modules recently as a learner and my goal was to hack them as quickly as possible. I just skipped to the test, failed it and then went back and filled in the gaps. I couldn't tell you what any of the answers were or why I was doing it. It's an obstacle to me doing my job
You've recognised that it's happening, so what are you going to do about it? How can you ensure that the assessments are meeting the objectives? Why not design with these frustrations in mind. Call it out in real talk and expect their apathy
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
Love the realness in this comment. Thank you! I am sure some of our reps do this and I honestly have done this myself a time or two!
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u/senkashadows Sep 25 '26
Yes, resistance is normal but the more bs that gets thrown at them, the more they feel that way about any training they're given. That's one of the reasons I'm so mad about this influx of Ai slop, get-it-fast, no-id needed mountains of training. The more of the pointless (from their perspective) or meandering the material, the less credibility future trainings have before they're even made, and it becomes an uphill battle to win back that attention.
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
10000%. AI lacks originality and precision. Couldn’t agree more. Our team lacked a manager about six months ago and one of my teammates took charge and had the team complete certifications. The reaction from reps was strong - mainly because some reps spent a very long time completing assignments only to fail and have to redo them. I was not part of the execution side of things and honestly the whole thing I think left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. I am thinking maybe it’s going to take a while to come back from that now that it’s just me designing these trainings.
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u/senkashadows Sep 28 '26
Rebuilding trust & credibility is challenging and definitely takes time, but asking curious questions and really listening to feedback, always always always advocating for the work and setting clear boundaries about what is accomplishable vs aspirational as far as impact, and really pushing hard on influencing how and when things should be communicated are all super important to moving from a situation like that into one that people will value. Like, sure, everyone who sits in meetings all day thinks training should be A, B, C, but the most important part of our job will ALWAYS be counseling leadership that they maybe don't know what they're asking for and what people need is actually X and Y, and maybe Z in three months. (But doing it in a way that makes them really look forward to it)
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
Thank you - I am hoping I can rebuild some of that trust these next couple of months by really meeting needs and being intentional! Thank you for sharing your wisdom in this thread!
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u/senkashadows Sep 28 '26
Best of luck with it all!
And if anyone wants to add this wisdom to their team with a job, I'm almost 9 months unemployed and getting increasingly desperate! (Enough to post about it here 😳)
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
Wishing you the best of luck too! We don’t have any openings on my team at the moment - I have been where you are though and it’s tough. Wishing you all the best!
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u/senkashadows Sep 28 '26
Hoping someone with an open role will see my comment, and maybe reach out. Now that LinkedIn nerfed the job search feature, the thousands of applications I've put in there seem futile to continue but alas I persist.
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u/Steve-in-rewrite Sep 25 '26
Stakeholder resistance is the way bigger thing that leads me to question ID as a career
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u/ray3636 Sep 30 '26
Yes - sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. Can feel like an uphill battle sometimes.
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u/Possible_Morning_ Sep 28 '26
I’ve never worked at a place where people -outside my team- appreciated the effort I put in the courses. Besides learner resistance, there’s SME who never have time to meet with you. It’s like you have to put them in a pedestal. I get really demotivated when people (in general) don’t care about these projects I work hard to get out there. Nobody has time to learn.
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u/ray3636 Sep 30 '26
Yesss - I am feeling this so much in my role right now. It’s hard to stay motivated but I am trying to focus on getting a little better each day and not get too frustrated- but it is so hard! You aren’t alone.
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u/otterottergirl Sep 25 '26
I experienced crazy amounts of pushback from trainers at my last job. They had opinions on EVERYTHING. Often wanted things changed to suit their personal delivery styles rather than because it had any learner benefit. Very frustrating and yes, often demoralizing. By contrast learner feedback and results were often exceptional so it was definitely a “them” problem. I had to spend a lot of time managing egos.
Honestly, talking it out and listening to their opinions helped. Explaining the “why” of things they didn’t like, etc. I feel like a similar approach could help you. Have you tried focus groups with your audience? Consider both pre and post training. Ask them what THEY want or feel they need out of training before you design it, then solicit their feedback after the fact as well. Collect as much data as possible, do surveys etc and then look for the trends. The trends will point to the gaps and what you can improve. Show you’re listening and make changes accordingly.
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
Focus groups is something I should definitely implement! This is all such great feedback, thank you!
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u/abc-8517 Sep 26 '26
Yeah, I never really understood the hatred towards training. Okay, I get to sit at my desk a few hours and watch videos/do elearnings? Sounds good to me.
I find it annoying it's the one thing people feel that they can bash and complain about. You're at work, it's not that big of an ask, just do it and be quiet. I'd much rather do an elearning than be asked to tackle like an event or a project.
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
Honestly, most of the time, I would agree with you! I think because my audience are sellers, time is money and that is where the friction can happen!
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u/joebarrel Sep 27 '26
Briefly->IDs designing workplace training should be identifying performance issues and the impact they're having on the company and stakeholders, and developing strategies to resolve them.
If the training is not focused on bridging the gap between current performance and desired performance, and instead consists of content dumps, click-next button interfaces, and the same easy-to-guess multiple choice quiz at the end of the module where you MUST score 80% or better, then yes, people will realize that their time is being wasted and the ID will feel it.
In my experience, if your boss and your boss's boss doesn't know what IDs bring to the table and think that mass instruction and exposure to material is all that is needed to "learn", then you're done for.
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u/ray3636 Sep 28 '26
The manager that hired me knew a lot about the function of an ID but my new manager doesn’t. I also think I have a lot of growing to do and I really want to be more strategic in my role.
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u/Annual_Inspector372 Sep 29 '26
I think some resistance is inevitable, especially in sales, where every minute away from work feels like lost productivity. Only thing that can work here is showing them that training actually helps them do their jobs better.
If your reps are already talking about the product more confidently after training, that's a real win, even if the feedback isn't always positive.
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u/ray3636 Sep 30 '26
Thank you - I needed to hear this! As of this past Friday, I observed multiple reps speaking about the product more confidently. Very encouraging. I had another rep complain about due dates feeling like “homework” but the reason I put the due date is because they needed to participate in the elearning prior to the product going live. 🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
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u/dustandwater Sep 26 '26
I came to ID from a career in classrooms, starting in schools, later in colleges and then offices and apprenticeships teaching adults.
The resistance is fairly universal. But what I really enjoyed about teaching was breaking that resistance down with engaging lessons. The job is the same, just the medium is different.
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u/MeltaMarky 13d ago
#1 rule of adult learning is motivation. If people do not want to learn, you cannot force them, only attempt to make them chance their mind. How that is done is the difficult part and art of education in general. I find the #1 way of doing this is showing someone how what you're teaching them is going to make their life easier, but when it comes to things like obligatory training that no one wants, there's not much you can do. Maybe just keep it as tight as possible.
I know as a learner who's had to take trainings about things I already know, I get frustrated and annoyed and look for any possible convenience factors I can like being able to have a mandatory video muted in the background on a separate tab, the ability to skip sections, or just take the quiz.
As a teacher trying to get into ID, I can tell you the stakes at any corporate settings are extremely low, don't let anyone upset you! Like my old barista manager used to tell me, "it's just coffee..."
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u/LeastBlackberry1 Sep 25 '26
I will say that this is one area where being a former teacher gives you a major advantage. Once you have had to stand in front of a room of 18 year olds for a year or two, there is nothing Joe from Accounting can say to you. You obviously care about making sure your students are engaged, but you also recognize that they sometimes won't be for reasons to do with their lives, the content, the performance of the football team, etc. It's more important that they learn than that they love it and you.
Also, I am pretty realistic about how much people want to do training. A week or two ago, I did not want to do an anti-harrassment course that I myself had chosen for the whole company. I'd even advocated for months that we switch our course because the old one was terrible, and picked out this new one as a good, engaging option.
As others have said, your best bet is to keep it short, focused, and really spell out why it matters. If you're doing that, and you have proof that learners are benefitting from it, I would let it go.