Received a call from a friend at a large well-known company yesterday to tell me he is leaving the company. One key reason: HR just doesn't "get" training for performance. My friend said that the business units all "get it" but he just couldn't get his HR organization on board.

Must admit this frustrates me so much. Having been in the HR profession for 30 years I continue to be baffled why so many HR organizations don't "get" that improving performance is the ONLY reasons we exist. It seems like such a simple concept to me but yet one that HR continues to resist embracing.

I just don't understand why. I have searched and searched for the key and have lots of ideas but have yet to find the magic answer. CEO's get it, business units get it, CFO's get it so why can't HR.

I truly believe that HR, and especially training, will simply wither away if we don't embrace performance improvement. My friend told me that in his company the business units simply go around HR to get the kind of training they need. While that works, it is quite a condemnation of HR as a profession when business units can't depend on them to support their performance improvement needs.

It remains a mystery to me.