{"id":18725,"date":"2025-06-25T02:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T06:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learningguild.com\/uncategorized\/making-security-training-less-painful-more-human"},"modified":"2025-06-25T02:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T06:01:00","slug":"making-security-training-less-painful-more-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningguild.com\/articles\/making-security-training-less-painful-more-human","title":{"rendered":"Making Security Training Less Painful &#038; More Human"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On May 3, 2019, I received a letter offering me my first cybersecurity position. I was ecstatic. After 16 years in Human Resources with the federal government, I had decided to make a complete career change.<\/p><div class=\"learn-content-medium-rectangle-guild-insert-pages-2\" style=\"text-align: center;\" id=\"learn-567756406\"><div class=\"learn-adlabel\"><a href=\"\/advertise--exhibit\/\">Advertise Here<\/a><\/div><a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu\/masters-learning-design-technology\/lp\/dyna\/?utm_campaign=msldt-leadgen&#038;utm_source=learningguild&#038;utm_medium=display&#038;utm_content=&#038;leadsource=Display%20Ad%20-%20The%20Learning%20Guild\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"a2t-link\" aria-label=\"Earn your MS in Learning Design and Technology\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.learningguild.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/LDT_Learning_Guild_300x250-px.png\" alt=\"Earn your MS in Learning Design and Technology\"  width=\"300\" height=\"250\"  style=\" max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" \/><\/a><\/div><p>There was one condition I had to meet: I had to obtain my Security+ certification within two weeks of accepting the position.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The endless loop of training<\/h2><p>I signed the offer letter, then I was off to the races. I had to learn massive amounts of content and pass an exam in just 14 days. Looking at how other cybersecurity professionals succeeded, I began to do what they did: study material, take a practice test, watch a video, repeat. Study more material, take another practice test, watch another video, repeat. The process worked. I passed the exam on the first try.<\/p><p>Once I got the job, that same program kept running, but for annual compliance training. Watch a video. Take a quiz. Score 85% or higher. Watch another video. Take the quiz. Pass the test. Same checkboxes. Same format. Same loop, different day.<\/p><p>It was exhausting. Not challenging. Just dull and something I <i>had<\/i> to do. There was a lot of training, but very little learning. In fact, the routine squeezed the desire to learn right out of me.<\/p><p>Coming from years of learning and development in HR, I already knew there was a better way to train and to learn. But in cybersecurity\u2014a highly technical field\u2014expert knowledge is widely shared, often through training programs with little deliberate design.<\/p><p><a href=\"\/articles\/pivot-time-to-reframe-compliance-training-for-better-results\/\">Training that works<\/a> is training that produces changes in attitude, beliefs, thinking and behavior. Training that works doesn&#8217;t feel like training at all. It feels like work\u2014the real kind. The kind that produces something different and valuable.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Real learning leaves a trail<\/h2><p>Work and learning are the same process.<\/p><p>Work is physical and mental energy used to produce something. Learning is the same. If nothing gets produced, I have to ask\u2014did learning actually happen? It doesn&#8217;t have to be big. But <a href=\"\/articles\/to-engage-learners-focus-compliance-training-on-outcomes\/\">there should be evidence<\/a>.<\/p><p>In one workshop, I looked for evidence. What did people actually create during the session? Flipchart notes? A shared document? A question that sparked discussion? A comment that shifted the room?<\/p><p>Sometimes the answer was nothing. In those cases, the only thing I could say was that people showed up and sat through it.<\/p><p>That&#8217;s not learning. That&#8217;s attendance.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Well-designed learning is not passive<\/h2><p>In well-designed learning environments, people aren&#8217;t just clicking through slides or passively listening.<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>They ask better\u2014and different\u2014questions<\/li><li>They show their work; what went right and what didn&#8217;t<\/li><li>They share what they learn and help others get unstuck<\/li><\/ul><p>Well-designed learning environments produce excited, confused, contemplative and frustrated learners, and they encourage each other through all of it. That&#8217;s not just engagement. That&#8217;s community.<\/p><p>There&#8217;s a different energy in these spaces because learning is not about checking things off a list. Learning shows up as a shift in understanding, skills, the way people process information, and in the way people show up for each other. You might not see it on a quiz. But you can see it in their effort, their curiosity, and what they create together.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cybersecurity training isn&#8217;t a game<\/h2><p>Too many cybersecurity programs still treat learning like a video game. Teach the rule, test the rule, track the score. It&#8217;s like running a cyber range where the goal is to win points\u2014break something, defend something, keep a tally. But the real work environment isn&#8217;t that clean.<\/p><p>Games have rules. Real life doesn&#8217;t care about rules. Especially in cybersecurity. A policy doesn&#8217;t stop a cyber attack. A checklist doesn&#8217;t explain why the firewall failed.<\/p><p>If you&#8217;re building training for the real world, you must ask: Are we preparing people for the mess? Or just helping them memorize the map?<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What growth actually looks like<\/h2><p>In real training spaces, especially technical ones, this is what I watch for:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A learner makes their own troubleshooting sheet because the course one doesn&#8217;t fit<\/li><li>Someone who was silent starts helping others<\/li><li>A question shifts from \u201chow do I&#8230;\u201d to \u201cwhat happens if&#8230;?\u201d<\/li><li>A person says, \u201cI want to teach this next time\u201d<\/li><\/ul><p>None of these are required and you won&#8217;t find any of them on a multiple-choice quiz. But every one of them is a sign of life.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What gets in the way<\/h2><p>Let&#8217;s talk about what shuts learning down:<\/p><ol><li><strong>Fear-based scenarios.<\/strong> The kind that says, \u201cClick this and you&#8217;ll get hacked.\u201d They scare people into silence. Fear isn&#8217;t fuel, it&#8217;s fog.<\/li><li><strong>Rigid delivery.<\/strong> Everyone gets the same content, the same way, at the same speed, but people don&#8217;t learn in order. They loop. They jump ahead. They circle back.<\/li><li><strong>Surface-level evaluation.<\/strong> If the only thing you&#8217;re measuring is how pretty the report looks, you&#8217;re missing the actual work.<\/li><\/ol><p>Consider this: judgment is about merit, worth, and significance. And those things demand substance. If all you can say after a session is that \u201cpeople looked at the screen\u201d and \u201cchairs were comfortable,\u201d then the training didn&#8217;t do what it was supposed to. It might have been efficient. It might have followed the plan. But it didn&#8217;t move anyone.<\/p><p>Real training should leave behind more than attendance records and slick slides. It should leave behind decisions made differently, questions asked more deeply, or even just one person taking a risk they wouldn&#8217;t have taken before. If we can&#8217;t point to something that shifted\u2014internally or externally\u2014then what exactly are we calling success?<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A real example<\/h2><p>In one session focused on secure login practices, I didn&#8217;t start with a lecture or a list of objectives. I asked a simple question: \u201cShow me how you log in. What gets in your way?\u201d<\/p><p>That question came from a deliberate choice. I built an environment around trust, relevance, and agency. I didn&#8217;t tell them what to learn, I asked what they already did. I let their real routines lead the conversation. There was no pressure to perform, just room to reflect, test ideas, and respond to each other.<\/p><p>People opened up. They shared password habits without shame or fear. One person explained how they used a password manager. Another tried it out in real time. Someone else admitted they used two-factor authentication but didn&#8217;t understand how it worked. Within minutes, others were explaining it better than I could.<\/p><p>Two people who were quiet at the start ended up leading a short session, showing others how to reset a password and use an app to confirm their identity when logging in.<\/p><p>None of that was planned. But it happened because the space was designed for discovery and proficiency, not just performance. That shift\u2014from showing up as a student to showing up as a contributor\u2014is where the learning happened.<\/p><p>They used mental and physical energy to produce something: a change in behavior, a shared understanding, a tool tested in real time.<\/p><p>I didn&#8217;t just see it. They did too.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">If you build cyber training, try this<\/h2><p>Let&#8217;s stop building for compliance. Start building for change.<\/p><p>Here&#8217;s what helps:<\/p><ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Design for emergence.<\/strong> Let people discover things. Don&#8217;t just tell them.<\/li><li><strong>Track behavior, not just answers.<\/strong> Confidence is visible.<\/li><li><strong>Notice the energy.<\/strong> Frustration and curiosity are clues.<\/li><li><strong>Create safe places to fail.<\/strong> That&#8217;s where the work gets real.<\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Final thought<\/h2><p>Cybersecurity isn&#8217;t about memorizing rules. It&#8217;s about consistently making smart decisions in unpredictable situations.<\/p><p>That takes more than knowledge. It takes confidence. It takes trying, failing, adjusting, and trying again.<\/p><p>Let&#8217;s make space for that kind of learning.<\/p><p>Because most people want to grow and mature. They just need a room where it&#8217;s okay to show up messy.<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p><p>Image credit: Cecilie_Arcurs<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On May 3, 2019, I received a letter offering me my first cybersecurity position. I was ecstatic. 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