Story A

All of a sudden, the trainer realized it:
“Wait a minute… that man is their manager!”

Now it all made sense.

She had already been puzzled by this participant, Toàn, who always gave the first answer to every open question—sometimes even correcting her explanations mid-session.

The rest of the group? Silent. Eyes occasionally flicking toward Toàn for approval—or possibly out of fear. Respect? Probably. Fear of judgment? Definitely.

When the topic “how to convince someone who is stubborn” came up, it should’ve triggered lively discussion. It didn’t.
No one had an example. No one volunteered. Roleplay exercises died before they started. The group sat stiffly, obediently flipping through the slides like high school students before finals.

The training wrapped up with polite applause and warm words.
But the trainer knew: none of it would stick. No application, no change.
It had been a waste of time for everyone involved.

Story B

“I’m planning to join the training myself, if that’s okay with you…”
The manager sounded friendly enough when he brought it up weeks in advance.

The trainer felt her internal sirens go off.
“Safe training environment. Safe training environment.”

She smiled—and pushed back gently:
“Are you sure you want that? People might focus more on your presence than on speaking freely.”

“Oh, my team always speaks their mind,” the manager said. “I’m an open-door type of guy.”

The trainer tried once more, carefully:
“Still… performance review season is coming. People might not want to risk being fully open. I’m just worried it will impact their learning.”

Then she added a light suggestion:
“How about you open the training with a short welcome message, show your support—and then step out to focus on other work?”

After a pause, the manager agreed. And that made all the difference.

Without the boss in the room, the team relaxed. They practiced. They challenged each other. They laughed. They shared real stories.
And weeks later, the trainer heard back: the new skills? Actually being used.