Learn more about the real reasons behind the industry talent gap.
By Henna Pryor
The talent gap isn’t really a talent problem. It’s an influence problem, and most leaders are solving it backwards.
Last month, I was on a call with a regional VP at a material handling distributor. Twenty-three years in the business. He was venting about a training rollout that had gone sideways — a new digital platform meant to upskill his service techs on automated equipment his company was betting the next decade on.
He’d done everything right. He budgeted for it, built the business case, sent the emails, and scheduled the sessions. His best tech — the one everyone else looks up to — nodded politely through the kickoff and then quietly didn’t log in. Not once.
“What the heck is wrong with him?” the VP asked. “I’m giving him every reason to do it.”
Nothing was wrong with him. The VP was just solving the wrong problem.
The Verification Era
Here’s what I’ve been telling leaders across every industry dealing with the talent gap: the skills gap isn’t going to be closed by better training programs alone. It’s going to be closed by leaders who understand we’ve entered what I call the “Verification Era” — and the psychology of influence has permanently changed underneath us.
Two shifts did it.
The first is information access. Every person you’re trying to influence — your techs, your sales team, your supervisors — has already consulted Google, YouTube, Reddit, and some guy named Dave who runs a forklift TikTok with 400,000 followers and has a very strong opinion about your preventative maintenance schedule before they ever sit down with you. They have a Google degree and they’re wearing it proudly.
The second is darker: we trust less. Clients have been burned by vendors who overpromised. Employees have been burned by companies that said, “We invest in our people,” and then cut the training budget the second margins tightened. Add in AI-generated everything, and skepticism is now the default setting.
So, here’s the paradox every leader in material handling is walking into: information access has made your people feel like they don’t need your help, and the believability crisis has made them afraid to trust your help. And the old playbook — the one where you explained the thing clearly and people nodded and did it — is collecting dust right next to my iPod Nano.
When people resist training, upskilling, or workforce development, most leaders double down on information. That usually looks like more stats, better decks, and another lunch-and-learn with a branded pen. But information was never the problem.
Three Frictions
The problem is friction. And friction shows up in three invisible headwinds that, once you learn to spot them, you’ll see everywhere.
Inertia is the first. The gravitational pull toward what’s familiar, even when what’s familiar isn’t actually working. This is the tech who isn’t refusing your new platform because he thinks it’s bad — he’s refusing it because it’s unfamiliar, and the human brain will choose a Known Hell over an Unknown Heaven every single time. The antidote isn’t more pressure. It’s validate and familiarize. Say, out loud, “You’re right that our current process works. I’m not asking you to throw it out. I’m asking you to try the new platform on one service call — just one — and tell me what breaks.” Make the ask feel familiar slowly, until it feels less like a change and more like a favor.
Effort is the second headwind. Not actual effort — perceived effort. When your best warehouse supervisor won’t sign up for the leadership track, she’s not lazy. She’s running a fast internal math problem: How much will this cost me in money, time, and brainpower? And when the answer feels fuzzy, her brain assumes it’s a lot. The antidote is to make the start ridiculously easy and the path ridiculously clear. Map very step. Tell her exactly what happens week one, week two, week three.
I bought fully into this when I started asking for LinkedIn recommendations. I used to say, “Hey — could you write me a recommendation?” and people would immediately spiral: What do I say? How long should it be? I’m not even a writer. Now I say, “Would you write me one sentence? Two, if you’re feeling wild. And here are three questions you can pick from if it helps.” My success rate went to somewhere north of 99 percent. Not because people suddenly liked me more, but because I made the start ridiculously easy.
Emotion is the third and sneakiest. Because humans aren’t rational — we’re rationalizing. We decide based on what makes us feel safe, and then we build the logic backwards. When a senior tech resists cross-training on automation, the stated reason is almost never the real one. The real one is usually some flavor of “I’m afraid I’ll look stupid in front of the younger guys.” You can’t argue him out of that with a training budget. You can only meet it with curiosity: “What’s making this feel hard right now?” And then — this is the part leaders skip — you actually zip it and wait for the answer.
A Better Playbook
So, hear me on this, leaders: you’re being handed the talent gap as your problem to solve, and you deserve a better playbook than “run more training.”
You can’t force people to upskill, you can’t bulldoze someone into belief, and you definitely can’t logic a 20-year veteran into trusting a digital platform he didn’t ask for.
But you can create conditions where inertia softens, effort shrinks, and emotion finds a place to land safely. In the Verification Era, that’s not a soft skill. It’s the whole job.
Your best people aren’t resisting change – they’re resisting force. Give them permission instead.
About the Author: Henna Pryor is a workplace performance expert, 2x TEDx, Certified Speaking Professional, and author. She works with leaders navigating the talent gap and the believability crisis. Henna presented “The Changing Psychology of Influence: How to Overcome Resistance to Move Your Ideas Forward in the Modern Era” at MHEDA’s 2026 Emerging Leaders Conference.
ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS
- The Real Gap Is Trust. The talent gap isn’t a shortage of skills—it’s a breakdown in adoption. People won’t use what they don’t trust or don’t believe is worth the effort.
- Friction Blocks Performance. Underperformance often reflects friction, not ability: workers default to familiar methods when new tools feel uncertain, effortful, or risky.
- Influence Beats Training. Closing the talent gap requires influence, not training volume—make upskilling easy to start, clearly valuable, and psychologically safe to embrace.
