People development is no longer a matter of simply offering training sessions. Today’s leaders face a more complex challenge: building stronger teams while proving the ROI of these initiatives, all without sacrificing productivity. With traditional training methods struggling to keep up, the challenge is no longer just about offering learning opportunities but integrating them into everyday work in a way that drives measurable outcomes.
For example, consider companies that invest heavily in leadership workshops but struggle to see these skills applied on the job. This gap between training and real-world application leads to stagnant growth and missed opportunities. Employees are left juggling development and productivity as two opposing forces, often feeling that time spent learning pulls them away from their responsibilities.
What is the real challenge? Training disconnected from daily work feels like a waste to participants and upper level leaders.
Organizations need strategies to improve performance faster. Adding more training sessions is rarely the answer; it often comes down to embedding practical guidance into the flow of work so development happens when it’s needed most—on the job, in real time.
The Productivity vs. People Development Paradox
One of the toughest challenges for Talent Development leaders is the constant pull between getting work done and helping teams grow. High performance is always expected, but so is developing your people. This creates a paradox: time spent learning can result in time lost on the job.
Workshops, one-on-one coaching sessions, or LMS can struggle to bridge this gap. While they can help provide valuable learning, these insights can seem abstract and disconnected from an individual’s daily responsibilities. As a result, people walk away with great ideas but rarely get the chance to apply them where they’d have the most impact.
Research shows that growth happens when development isn’t at odds with productivity. The 70-20-10 model shows that learning is most applicable when relevant and contextual to one’s work. The 70-20-10 Model indicates that 70% of learning is experiential—in other words, it happens through doing. Another 20% comes through social interactions like mentorship or team discussions, and only 10% is formal. Yet, most traditional programs focus too heavily on that 10%, missing out on the opportunity to make development relevant to daily work.
How much time and budget are wasted on programs and training models that don’t lead to meaningful improvements in team performance? The cost isn’t just lost time—it’s reflected in low engagement, high turnover, and missed growth opportunities.
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Find Out How To Quickly:
- Close the gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Personalize growth to individual strengths and needs
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- Develop human skills fast enough to solve business problems
- Prove the ROI of your development programs
People Development Strategies Are Evolving
Workshops, formal training, and one-on-one coaching have their place but can struggle to match the speed and complexity of modern work environments. People need support that speaks directly to their work challenges. Teams face people problems, difficult feedback conversations, or collaboration issues that can’t wait for scheduled training sessions.
What if development and work did not have to compete as opposing forces?
Forward-thinking organizations have realized that pulling employees away from their daily responsibilities for formal training is not a one-and-done solution. Instead, development needs to happen where the work happens. By embedding personalized coaching into employees’ daily routines, companies can ensure that learning is relevant and immediately applicable, driving growth and performance without disrupting productivity.
Effective development cannot happen by squeezing learning into downtime—instead, it should partner with work through practical, actionable learning. Teams need in-the-moment guidance that directly addresses the challenges they’re facing. It’s not about theory—it’s about helping individuals solve the problems they’re tackling right now, whether it’s managing team dynamics, navigating a tough conversation, or preparing for a project. Providing this kind of actionable support makes development practical and results-driven.
Picture this: a manager preparing for a difficult conversation receives a personalized tip a few hours before the meeting, helping them adjust their approach. It’s fast, easy, and directly impacts the outcome of that interaction. This kind of support not only builds better skills but does so without pulling people away from their work.
When development becomes a natural part of daily tasks, its impact grows exponentially. An integrated approach ensures that development directly influences employee growth and team performance to soften the tension between learning and productivity.
Microlearning Tools To Build Skills in the Moment
Microlearning addresses a critical gap in traditional development. Waiting for scheduled sessions often means teams miss out on immediate solutions to pressing challenges. Teams facing conflicts, feedback issues, or urgent decision-making can’t afford delays. In these fast-paced environments, learning that happens on demand and in direct response to current problems is vital.
For example, an employee dealing with a tough client interaction can’t wait for a quarterly workshop on communication—they need help managing the situation effectively. Microlearning shines in these instances. It integrates learning directly into workflows, providing timely solutions that drive quick decision-making without interrupting productivity.
Time-sensitive problem-solving becomes seamless when learning is immediately available. Whether it’s handling a difficult conversation or adapting project strategies, microlearning delivers insights precisely when needed, ensuring that development is actionable and applicable in the moment.
This approach doesn’t just build skills—it ensures those skills are immediately put to use, allowing for continuous improvement and growth without sacrificing team performance.
Using Tech To Support & Develop People In Every Role
Personalized coaching used to be limited to top executives; however, with massive technological advancements, so much is possible today that was implausible a few short years ago. Using data from behavioral and strength assessments, learning can now be customized to each individual’s specific needs and situations. This means employees receive relevant guidance based on what they’re currently facing, whether it’s a challenging meeting or improving communication with a teammate.
Unlike one-size-fits-all solutions, people development tools can provide context-specific advice that speaks directly to the person and their role. For instance, someone preparing for an important meeting might receive tips on how to better collaborate with a teammate who has a different problem-solving style. This way, coaching becomes practical, directly helping people navigate their daily responsibilities.
Because this coaching is embedded into tools teams already use, like Slack or Microsoft Teams, consuming it is easy because it’s a natural part of the workday—not an additional burden. By providing this kind of continuous, on-the-spot support, automated coaching ensures that development happens in a way that’s personal, helpful, and scalable for every person, from entry-level to senior leaders.
Rethinking People Development: Traditional Approaches vs. New Strategies
Let’s compare traditional learning methods with Automated Coaching™.
Strategy A: Passive Development with Delayed Impact
A middle manager is recommended by their direct leader to attend a virtual course on giving feedback. Excited by the opportunity, they sign up for a 90-minute session. The course is insightful, offering various perspectives and techniques. By the end, they walk away with a handful of ideas and some potential strategies to try. But when they return to their desk, they find 25 unread emails and 15 Teams messages. Overwhelmed by the backlog, the actionable ideas from the training quickly fade as they scramble to catch up.
The time investment feels heavy, and by the time they’ve cleared their inbox, the training’s value has already begun to slip away.
- A manager completes a feedback training session but struggles to implement the lessons amid their workload.
- Training feels disconnected from their day-to-day tasks, resulting in lost opportunities to apply what they learned.
- Insights quickly fade without reinforcement or immediate context, diminishing the effectiveness of the development effort.
Strategy B: Continuous Development with On Demand Support
Instead of carving out time for a lengthy training, imagine the same middle manager receiving personalized, actionable insights just one day before a 1-1 meeting with a direct report. They get tailored Automated Coaching™ tips that explain how their direct report prefers logical, direct feedback without unnecessary small talk. They can also search for different coaching tips to add to their strategy. The tips suggest sending an agenda before the meeting to set clear expectations.
With this quick, relevant coaching, the manager adjusts their approach and adds a simple agenda to the invite. The process is brief (think minutes, not hours) and is done seamlessly between their responsibilities or even in the moment with a customized dashboard.
The result? They’re better prepared, and the feedback conversation feels more productive and personalized.
- Automated Coaching provides timely, personalized tips for upcoming tasks or meetings, such as preparing for a feedback session.
- The manager receives guidance directly relevant to the team’s dynamics and communication styles.
- Development can happen at the moment in just a couple of minutes, ensuring that learnings are immediately applied for better team outcomes.
Bridging Learning with Real-World Application
Embedding development into daily work isn’t just a matter of convenience; it’s a breakthrough in creating lasting behavior change. Learning is more effective when it’s applied immediately, as the brain is better at retaining knowledge when it’s used in real scenarios rather than abstract settings. Traditional learning methods often leave a gap between theory and practice, causing valuable insights to fade before they are implemented.
If learning isn’t applied immediately, teams miss critical growth opportunities. Delayed application can lead to a lagging leadership pipeline, eroding team culture, and underdeveloped skills. These lapses create a ripple effect—hindering productivity, growing frustration, and diminishing team performance over time.
Applying learning in directly related teamwork also builds muscle memory around key human skills such as communication, feedback, and collaboration. These skills are crucial to team performance, but they’re often undervalued when left to traditional training methods that don’t offer immediate reinforcement.
Measuring the ROI of People Development: Uncovering the True Value of Human Skills
For too long, human skills like collaboration, communication, and leadership have been undervalued because they’re difficult to measure. Yet, these skills are often the most critical factors in a team’s success. As the pace of work accelerates, organizations can no longer afford to overlook the real impact that effective people development can have on both performance and profitability.
The challenge for People Strategy Leaders? Proving the connection between these “soft” skills and hard business results.
This disconnect exists because most organizations focus on measuring the wrong things. Attendance rates at training sessions or simple pulse surveys only tell part of the story—they don’t reflect whether teams are truly growing in ways that impact the business.
The solution lies in shifting from measuring participation to measuring behavior change. Tools like Cloverleaf’s Automated Coaching™ provide leaders with data that shows how development efforts are driving real, measurable improvements over time. For example, by tracking how individuals adapt their communication styles or improve in areas like conflict resolution and teamwork, Cloverleaf helps leaders see a direct correlation between skills growth and team performance.
How Cloverleaf Quantifies Human Skills:
- Behavioral Insights: Cloverleaf uses data-driven insights to track improvements in key areas like communication, collaboration, and leadership. It’s not about whether someone attended training—it’s about how their behavior changes in real work scenarios.
- Collaboration as a Measurable Asset: Cloverleaf analyzes the quality of team interactions, such as feedback loops and communication effectiveness, to show how well teams are working together. Effective collaboration is no longer intangible—it’s measurable.
- Real-Time Impact: Rather than waiting months for performance reviews or quarterly reports, Cloverleaf provides real-time data on how development initiatives are impacting individual and team performance. This makes it easier for leaders to pivot their strategy based on immediate insights.
By quantifying the human element—the relationships, communication styles, and leadership qualities that fuel high-performing teams—leaders can finally draw a clear line between people development and business outcomes. This data-driven approach provides more than just proof of ROI; it helps organizations optimize their investment in the human skills that drive long-term success.
Taking the Next Step in People Development
People development is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor—it’s about understanding and responding to each individual’s specific, ever-evolving needs. Today’s leaders must embrace tools that adapt to these complexities and support personal growth without interrupting productivity. The future of people development lies in deep personalization and the ability to deliver insights that guide individuals toward their best performance in the moment it’s needed most.
By leveraging behavioral insights and focusing on practical, applied learning, tools like Cloverleaf’s Automated Coaching™ don’t just train individuals—they transform how teams collaborate, solve problems, and achieve success. It’s not about offering more learning opportunities; it’s about making learning integrated, accessible, and relevant at every step of the journey.
The ability to build high-performing, adaptive teams that can rise to the challenges of a rapidly changing workplace is at stake. Are you ready to equip your teams with the tools they need to grow where it matters most—on the job?
Cloverleaf provides a scalable, personalized solution to do just that. Schedule a demo to explore how our platform can redefine your strategy for people development and drive meaningful, lasting change across your organization.
For today’s Talent Development Leaders, a disruption is reshaping how we think about people development strategies. Employee growth is not solely limited to yearly workshops or exclusive coaching for senior leadership. The conversation is now focused on scalability, personalization, and continuous learning—concepts that may sound familiar but have only recently become truly feasible thanks to technological advancements.
Leaders in this space understand the stakes: retention, engagement, and performance all hinge on effective development programs. Yet many established models, even those grounded in popular platforms like BetterUp, Torch, and Coachello, often struggle to evolve beyond traditional variations of scheduled learning frameworks. While these platforms are robust and helpful in certain applications, they lean heavily on episodic coaching or leadership-centric models, which sometimes miss the nuanced needs of an entire organization.
What’s the Missing Piece?
If you’re already invested in people development, you’ve likely noticed the growing array of tools and platforms designed to support your efforts.
So, why explore further?
Because the way we approach development is shifting rapidly, and your organization’s needs are evolving just as quickly. The future isn’t just about scaling what already works; it’s about reimagining how development can happen in the flow of work, in real-time, for everyone—from individual contributors to the C-suite.
The tools available today—whether it’s BetterUp’s well-being-focused coaching(Josh Bersin), Torch’s integration of mentoring(Torch), or Leadr’s personal development plans for leadership—offer a range of solutions designed to meet different aspects of people development. (SourceForge)
But here’s the question: How are these platforms addressing the broader, systemic need for behavior change? There’s a difference between development that’s personalized in theory and personalized because it is unique to the person, contextual, and in real time within in the flow of work.
Speaking of that, what does everyone even mean when we talk about things like:
Coaching for Everyone
Sure, many platforms promise scalable coaching, but is it really reaching everyone in a meaningful way, or is it still reserved for high performers and leadership?
Learning in the Flow of Work
We hear this phrase everywhere, but how often is it executed well? Is development truly woven into work, or does it still require stepping away from productivity to make time for learning?
Personalization
All platforms claim personalization, but how deep does it go? Is the content tailored based on role and department, or does it adjust dynamically based on real-time team interactions and individual needs?
Measuring Impact
It’s easy to track engagement or satisfaction scores, but are you able to clearly see how development impacts business outcomes like retention, team performance, and communication?
AI in Coaching
AI sounds great, but how is it actually being used? Is it helping match users with coaches, or is it going a step further—delivering real-time, adaptive coaching insights based on day-to-day challenges?
Is there more to development than scheduled coaching sessions or leadership-focused programs? As we look to the future, the challenge isn’t just about providing access to coaching—it’s about integrating development into the everyday moments that shape team dynamics, decision-making, and performance.
Automated Coaching™ is designed with this in mind, offering more than LMS style learning, content libraries, role based suggestions, or episodic mentoring. It provides real-time, micro-coaching nudges, customized to your team’s unique dynamics and each individual’s specific needs.
If your current tools have been effective, that’s fantastic. But consider this: Are there advanced capabilities that today’s technology can unlock to make your talent development efforts even more impactful
By the end of this article, you’ll see not only how platforms like BetterUp, Torch, and Coachello contribute to the development space but also why Automated Coaching’s approach is different. It’s a new standard for people development—deeply personal, immediate, embedded, and scalable.
Ready To Build Human Skills At Scale With Your Managers?
Get Strategies To:
- Close the gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Personalize growth to individual strengths and needs
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- Develop human skills fast enough to solve business problems
- Prove the ROI of your development programs
What Are The Actual Barriers Blocking People Development?
It’s easy to assume the barriers to effective people development are surface-level—limited budgets, lack of time, or employee disengagement. But for many Talent Development Leaders, these challenges often mask deeper, systemic issues that are much harder to spot. What if the real obstacles aren’t what we think they are?
Leaders often focus on getting the right tools or securing leadership buy-in, but the true barriers could be how development programs are structured and delivered. For example, we might blame low engagement on lack of motivation, but the root cause could be the disconnect between training and application in the real world of work. Is your development program really embedded in the day-to-day workflow, or is it an isolated initiative? Are you scaling growth for everyone or only offering personalized coaching to a select few?
The real problem may not be in common approaches to measuring success but in how deeply development is embedded into the culture and workflow of an organization. Understanding these underlying barriers is the first step in creating solutions that work in theory and practice.
1. Truly Personalized Learning
While many platforms promise personalized development, most rely on generalized, role-based content that doesn’t account for the individual’s contextual needs, strengths, or challenges. This one-size-fits-all approach results in development that is actually impersonal and disconnected from the day-to-day experiences of employees.
2. Disruptive Learning Opportunities
Development often happens in isolated bursts—through annual workshops or sporadic coaching sessions—leaving employees without the continuous reinforcement they need to apply new skills or change behaviors over time. Without ongoing learning, development is confined to one-off event rather than an embedded growth process. Employees need learning delivered in manageable doses that align with their daily responsibilities to drive growth.
3. Limited Resources
Scaling development across an entire organization is no easy feat. Due to time constraints, budget, and resources, most organizations struggle to offer individualized coaching at scale. The challenge lies in extending meaningful development opportunities to everyone without sacrificing quality.
4. Proving Impact
Leaders often struggle to connect development programs to measurable business outcomes like retention, performance, or collaboration. Satisfaction surveys or engagement metrics might provide some insight, but they don’t capture the real impact of people development efforts, making it difficult to justify ongoing investment.
What People Development Software Are We Talking About?
BetterUp: A Market Leader Focused on Well-Being and Leadership
BetterUp is a leading platform in well-being and leadership development. It focuses on combining personal growth with professional effectiveness. The platform offers flexible learning paths with 1:1 coaching, allowing users to work on personalized goals while improving mental fitness.
Torch: Mentoring and Coaching For Leadership Development
Torch is a platform that focuses on leadership development through a blend of 1:1 coaching and mentoring. By leveraging behavioral science and feedback loops, Torch aims to align leadership coaching with key business outcomes.
Coachello: AI-Powered Coach Matching and Asynchronous Support
Coachello focuses on providing AI-driven service to match team members with ICF certified coaches to offer asynchronous coaching through familiar workplace apps.
Cloverleaf: It’s Not A Chatbot Or Human Coach. It’s Automated Coaching.
Automated Coaching™ offers personalized, on-demand coaching at the moment it’s needed, tailored to who you are and where you are. Team members receive immediate insightful nudges that are specific to their current needs, team dynamics, and individual strengths. Available in workplace tools to impact areas central to quality teamwork and performance.
What Makes Each Platform Different?
If the barriers to people development revolve around personalization, continuous learning, scalability, and proving impact, it’s essential to understand how each platform tackles these challenges. By exploring how BetterUp, Torch, Coachello, and Cloverleaf approach these key pillars, you’ll be able to evaluate which solution best aligns with your organization’s needs for effective development.
1. Personalization
BetterUp offers 1:1 coaching, matching users with a coach based on detailed assessments. This ensures that each leader receives guidance tailored to their unique leadership style, needs, and goals. These assessments allow for a customized experience, although the content, delivered through the platform’s video library and assessments, is often triggered by role-based changes.
Torch provides 1:1 coaching where users are matched with a coach based on job experience, demographics, and individual preferences. Its algorithm ensures a 96% success rate for coach matching, allowing participants to connect with coaches who meet their specific needs and goals. While the focus is on leadership coaching, the platform also incorporates learning materials based on behavioral science and user feedback.
Coachello’s AI-powered platform recommends coaches for 1:1 coaching based on an intake self-assessment, allowing for a coaching journey that aligns with their development goals around specific soft skills. Participants can also select coaches manually based on preferences.
Cloverleaf provides accurate, layered insight that are based on each person’s unique psychometric data and the specific individuals a team member interacts with daily. Each coaching moment is not only customized to an individual’s strengths but also contextually relevant to their current team dynamics and relationships.
2. Continuous Learning
BetterUp integrates a program-driven approach with ongoing learning opportunities. The platform offers 1-2 minute videos and monthly content updates through both self-guided learning paths and instructor-led sessions so that users receive fresh content relevant to their roles. This structure provides a steady flow of new ideas from a content library to emerging and established leaders. BetterUp’s model allows users to choose when they engage with content, whether through individual coaching, group sessions, or self-directed pathways.
Torch allows participants to access both asynchronous coaching and live 1:1 video sessions through various formats, such as drop-in coaching, one-on-one sessions, and group mentoring. Torch also tailors development programs to each organization’s unique values and competencies, aligning coaching with business strategy.
Coachello offers 6-8 session-based coaching programs, which focus on objective-driven paths. Participants follow development journeys with clear, outcome-based goals that help them progress in areas like leadership or personal development.
Cloverleaf integrates coaching into daily tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, and calendars, ensuring employees receive real-time, situational coaching without needing to leave their workflow. With unlimited, daily access to short, actionable tips (1-2 sentences), employees get immediate insights tailored to their specific tasks and team dynamics. Whether preparing for a meeting or working with teammates, coaching is timely, specific, and always available, making learning a seamless part of everyday work.
3. Scalability
BetterUp has delivered over 2 million coaching sessions since its inception, making it one of the largest people development software available. User can experience a blended assortment of coaching based on their specific leadership assessments and according to their role. The platform delivers coaching either in-person or via video, providing flexibility in how sessions are conducted.
Torch provides a configurable platform to help organizations design coaching and mentoring programs. It offers multiple coaching formats—1:1 coaching, group mentoring, and collaborative learning—which can be expanded across leadership levels, from emerging leaders to executives.
Coachello can connect a broad range of employees, from emerging leaders to senior executives, with 1:1 coaching opportunities. They use AI-driven technology to match participants with coaches efficiently.
Cloverleaf starts at ($13 per user) with unlimited access for each person to make development for everyone a real possibility, not just high level leaders or departments. By creating a common language through psychometric assessments and coaching insights teams can address challenges collectively and unify personal development into a shared experience.
4. Proving Impact
BetterUp frames its approach to proving impact by focusing on three primary business outcomes: Performance, Retention, and Well-Being. Its impact is centered around leadership development and mental health outcomes and its link to broader business success.
Torch measures impact by providing pre-built reports that track metrics like sentiment, satisfaction, and engagement, while using impact surveys and peer feedback to assess the influence on work performance. With additional tools like retention analysis, user-level engagement reports, and 360-degree feedback.
Coachello measures impact by using sentiment scores, surveys, and business insights to track progress in areas such as retention, performance, sales growth, and career transitions.
Cloverleaf measures growth in competencies of communication, teamwork, and collaboration. The platform also monitors engagement and usage, helping leaders understand how often coaching is used and which assessments are being taken.
Aligning The Right Tool With Your People Development Needs
Each platform—BetterUp, Torch, Coachello, and Cloverleaf—offers unique ways of delivering personalization, continuous learning, scalability, and impact measurement, but how they meet these needs differ significantly.
BetterUp focuses on 1:1 coaching matched through detailed assessments to support personal growth and mental fitness. Its model is structured around scheduled sessions and content libraries concerning development goals. It may work for organizations that want dedicated coaching, but it may still be challenging to accelerate behavior change and learning into the daily workflow.
Torch provides a combination of mentorship and coaching to align leadership development with business outcomes. The platform focuses on organizations that measure progress using sentiment and feedback surveys, but its emphasis may lean more toward structured leadership programs rather than scalable spontaneous learning moments.
Coachello uses AI to match team members with coaches to facilitate asynchronous coaching via workplace apps. Consider whether its asynchronous nature aligns with your team’s requirement for in-depth, interactive coaching or the ability to scale to each person.’
Cloverleaf offers something different: deeply personalized, automated coaching embedded into daily workflows through tools like Slack and email. Cloverleaf personalizes coaching based on psychometric data and the specific team dynamics, providing coaching at the moment it’s most relevant. This makes it particularly powerful for organizations looking for continuous, scalable development integrated into everyday work.
Automated Coaching Is A Different Approach To People Development
Automated Coaching is a different approach for organizations needing scalable, continuous, and deeply personalized development for people at all levels. Its affordable, unlimited access model, combined with psychometric-based insights, ensures that development is accessible to everyone while driving measurable behavioral change in key areas like communication, teamwork, and collaboration. Cloverleaf offers a unique, shared learning experience that transforms how teams communicate, collaborate, and grow.
Take the Next Step Toward Developing Your People
Want to offer personalized, real-time development for your entire team? Cloverleaf makes coaching accessible to every employee, every day—empowering them with insightful, context-specific coaching delivered right within the tools they already use. No more waiting for scheduled sessions or high-cost coaching reserved for leadership—Cloverleaf drives continuous learning in the flow of work.
