Soft skills corporate training programmes often fall flat due to the fact that training in simulated environments with little or no repercussion of mistakes is very different to the real word. That is why a lot of people struggle on the soft side during meetings or presentations. Instead, organizations can take a leaf out of the way professional sports teams practice. The coach of the New England Patriots for example prepares his teams’ visits to loud stadiums by playing music in the background or wet pitches by making the players practice using wet balls. Sports teams also prepare thoroughly on opposition teams’ strengths and weaknesses. Soft skills trainers must also simulate environments which are as real as possible. Several different scenarios of the same situation must be exposed to just as sports team scouts bring different viewpoints on same opponents.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/02/practice-for-tough-situations-as-youd-practice-a-sport