An Observation from an IVD Training Session
During a recent language training session with a product manager in the IVD sector, the conversation took an unexpected turn.
Reflecting on how his communication needs had evolved, he remarked that his vocabulary had become noticeably smaller. Expressions that had once come naturally no longer appeared as readily, particularly when speaking.
He had already identified the reason.
Since AI had become his primary tool for writing emails, he no longer searched for words, compared alternative expressions or constructed sentences himself. Writing had become faster and more efficient, but much of the thinking that writing had previously demanded had quietly disappeared.
The observation itself did not surprise me.
What mattered was that it came from him.
The Difference Between Knowing and Recognising
There is a significant difference between understanding an explanation and recognising a phenomenon in one’s own experience.
As trainers, we explain ideas, demonstrate techniques and provide evidence. We hope our reasoning will be convincing enough to change behaviour.
Sometimes it does.
More often, however, learning remains intellectual until the learner encounters the consequence personally.
Once that happens, the conversation changes completely.
There is no longer a need to persuade or justify. The problem has become real. Improvement stops being a response to external advice and becomes a response to an internal observation.
Recognition creates a kind of ownership that explanation alone rarely achieves.
Why This Matters
Looking back over years of working with professionals, I have noticed that many breakthroughs begin in exactly this way.
Someone realises they are exhausting themselves by trying to understand every word while listening. Another notices that technical precision has quietly shaped the way they approach communication. Someone else discovers that fluency is being held back by a habit they had never previously questioned.
The particular insight differs from person to person.
The mechanism does not.
Training, at its best, is not simply the transfer of knowledge. It is the creation of conditions in which people begin recognising patterns they could not previously see.
From that point onwards, progress becomes far more durable.
Once something has been genuinely recognised, it is remarkably difficult to stop seeing it.
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