Workshop to workflow: how to make human skills stick
When did you last hear of someone learning to handle a prickly client by reading about it in a textbook? You learn by sitting near someone who does it well, hearing how they empathise, how they listen, and how the phrase the hard conversations - then getting it a little wrong yourself the first few times.
That ‘apprenticeship’ by osmosis has quietly disappeared into zoom onboarding, hybrid work and even cross-border teams. It doesn’t have to be this way, we can choose to optimise how we train, educate and build experiences.
COVID, Humans … skills haven’t bounced back.. And now? AI.
BetterUp tracked more than 351,000 people and found human-centric skills fell sharply between 2019 and 2021, and still haven't recovered. Among Gen Z employees, 42% feel they're missing development experiences because AI now does tasks they would once have learned from.
The tasks that were used to teach people are being done for them. Very efficient - right up until someone needs to respond with emotional intelligence to de-escalate a situation or to problem solve the latest tech error.
Did you know that your managers are the curriculum?
Did we teach them this?
Human skills mostly travel through managers. In Robert Walters research of 2,000 managers, 44% had no additional training for the role, and only 22% felt empowered and supported. Why? Because they were good at their job; and therefore an (ill-informed) assumption was made that they would also therefore be good at teaching to be … well… like them. Humans have variables, layers, and at their core - different strengths. To develop strong leaders, we need to invest in developing their leadership skills.
Now add AI. A survey of 1,008 Australian leaders and workers found 53% of managers who use AI had leaned on it for at least one sensitive task (e.g. ‘How do I explain this to my junior?’). Another 12% had used it specifically to avoid a difficult conversation.
An untrained manager is a closed road. An untrained manager with a chatbot is a closed road with a very polite sign.
New to Leadership tackles this head on, with nine weeks covering conflict and difficult conversations, delegating and influencing, and bouncing back from setbacks. Emerging Leadership builds the foundations earlier.
More channels, more change, less energy
Slack, Teams, email, WhatsApp - most of them strip out tone, pause and facial expression. theSHIFT found 46% of managers say their relationships with their teams have become more transactional. Meanwhile, 41% of employees say they lack the energy to keep up with constant change.
Communication and adaptability are still skills. They're just harder ones now. Communicate & Connect builds clear, confident communication. Human Skills for AI Excellence develops the creative problem solving, collaboration and ethical judgement that every AI rollout depends on.
Let's build habits.
Knowing isn't doing. A great feedback session is forgotten by the first tense one-on-one. Or, as Mindflick's Pete Lindsay put it to HR Magazine, "Pressure reveals habit."
So build the habit where the pressure builds:
Anchor learning to real moments.
Onboarding, feedback, career conversations, change.
Spread it out.
A weekly rhythm beats a one-day download. Between sessions, people practise in Hodie, our app with interactive learning and practical missions.
Start with self-awareness.
EQ Foundations & Strengths Discovery is a 90-minute workshop linking emotional intelligence, self-leadership and performance.
Make it a team sport.
MaxInUs maps each team member's strengths to the work where they'll have the most impact.
Check your operating system
Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index shows how this plays out locally. It found 68% of Australian AI users fear falling behind, yet only 13% say they're rewarded for reinventing their work when results aren't immediate. Ask people to experiment, then reward only certainty, and they'll choose certainty every time.
Look hard at performance reviews, recognition and meeting design. Each one either reinforces human skills or teaches the opposite. Reward collaboration, emotional intelligence and communication.
Measure behaviour, not attendance
Completion rates tell you who turned up, not who built the habit. Measure what people do differently: pulse checks, peer and manager feedback, observable shifts in how teams work.
Every Maxme program ends with a report on skill improvement, engagement and next steps. Across our programs, participants report an uplift of approximately 25% in confidence, ability and behaviours tied to key skills.
What it looks like when it works
Custom Fleet wanted to grow its pipeline of emerging women leaders. Maxme ran a fully virtual nine-week program for 25 participants across ANZ, built into Custom Fleet's existing leadership frameworks. The result was an average lift of more than 27% in self-awareness, an NPS of 76 and a LearnX Platinum Award. Read the case study.
Ashurst's younger professionals had spent much of their early careers remote, missing the everyday moments where interpersonal skills are built. Maxme designed a 10-week program for 23 people using real consulting scenarios, role-play and peer coaching. Participants improved across every topic, with the strongest gains in self-awareness, conflict management and difficult conversations. In Ashurst's words, "these individuals are now leading high-performing, empowered teams." Read the case study.
The cost of doing nothing
BetterUp estimates that if today's employees were measured against 2019 performance standards, almost 75% would land in a lower performance decile. That's your productivity gap hidden in plain sight.
The fix isn't another lanyard and a lunch. It's capability built into the work, week after week, until it's just how your people operate.
Talk to our team about building human skills into the way your organisation works.
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