I remembered a management practice we had in the '80s back at Great Yellow Father.
Every few years, there would be an announcement for a new Quality Management Program for the company (TQM and its variants, a plague upon the land). The CxOs would get the training. The vice-Cs would get the training. Their subordinate managers would get the training. Each layer would get trained, working down, and each layer took about two months.
It was time for the first-level managers to get trained, and then it would be time for us front-line grunts.
Then a change happened at the CxO level. Whoever was the champion of this program lost their mojo, or was replaced, or whatever. The training for the first-levels and the front line was cancelled. Millions of dollars and thousands of hours, and the people who would actually have to implement the program never saw it. Pallet-loads of three-ring binders and workbooks went into the trash.
Three years later, a new quality management program was announced, and training would begin at the C level…