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Dave Basarab Consulting has elevated the training experience, offering an end-to-end comprehensive approach that includes training strategy, instructional design, development, delivery , post program training transfer, and evaluation (via the unique Predictive Evaluation methodology). Virtual Chief Architect Dave Basarab has combined all of these individual training elements with his user-friendly, comprehensive Learning to Performance approach, which significantly increases companies' training ROI.

Why we are different

  • Innovation: Our primary focus is creating learning programs using a Learning to Performance approach.
  • Expertise: Dave offers the depth and breadth of his experience, including working internally at prestigious companies (Motorola, Ingersoll Rand and Pitney Bowes) as well as his knowledge and expertise as a highly-respected, sought-after consultant.
  • Partnership: Basarab collaborates with companies, serving as their own Chief Learning Officer whenever they need to plan, strategize, or implement training initiatives.

Training Services

Enterprise Learning Strategy

Enterprise Learning Strategy

At Dave Basarab Consulting, we're experts in creating Enterprise Learning Plans. We work with you to develop your company's learning strategy and direction.

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Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom Design, Development, & Delivery

Custom training is an effective way of developing the capability required to execute your strategy. We are a custom design house that creates programs specific to your business.

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Learning Burst Development

Learning Burst Development

We can create and deliver your courses via our unique Learning Burst Method - keeping your employees at their jobs while receiving world-class training.

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Predictive Evaluation

Predictive Evaluation

We predict the ROI for your courses and establish success gates. We then evaluate the course against the success gates to show value realized and continually improve results.

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Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Turn-key virtual custom leadership development program that combines world-class leadership speakers/educators with post-event personalized coaching to provide you with a cadre of highly skilled leaders.

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Predictive Evaluation

Building learning bursts around the annual business cycle

Annual business cycles create recurring moments when employees need specific capabilities. Budget planning, sales launches, compliance deadlines, performance reviews, operational peaks, and strategic resets each place different demands on the workforce. A portfolio of short, focused learning experiences helps organizations prepare people before those demands become urgent.

Learning bursts are most effective when they are treated as part of an enterprise learning strategy rather than as isolated microlearning assets. Each burst should connect to a business event, reinforce a practical behavior, and provide evidence that the behavior is being adopted. This turns training activity into a coordinated system for improving performance.

Start with the business calendar

The first step is to map the organization’s annual rhythm. Review financial planning periods, product releases, customer demand cycles, audit windows, leadership transitions, and major technology changes. Then identify the skills, decisions, and behaviors employees need before, during, and after each event.

A calendar view reveals opportunities that are easy to miss in an annual training plan. For example, managers may need coaching conversations several weeks before performance reviews, while customer-facing teams may need product knowledge before a launch. Timing learning close to the point of need increases relevance and reduces the risk that knowledge will be forgotten.

The portfolio should also include space for unexpected priorities. A fixed schedule can support consistency, but a small capacity reserve allows the learning team to respond to market shifts, policy changes, and emerging performance gaps without disrupting the entire program.

Define the role of each burst

Every learning burst needs a clear job. Some bursts prepare employees for an upcoming task, while others reinforce a standard, correct a recurring error, or help leaders apply a new business process. Defining the purpose prevents short content from becoming compressed versions of lengthy courses.

A useful burst may include a brief scenario, a decision exercise, a job aid, a manager conversation, or a follow-up challenge. The format should match the behavior being developed. A complex negotiation skill may require practice and feedback, while a procedural update may be better supported by a concise demonstration and searchable reference.

Instructional design should begin with the desired business outcome and work backward to the minimum learning experience required. Organizations can use custom learning methods to shape content around their audience, technology environment, and operational context instead of forcing every need into the same template.

Build a balanced annual portfolio

A strong portfolio balances immediate performance support with longer-term capability building. It can include bursts for frontline execution, manager effectiveness, leadership development, compliance, customer experience, and strategic transformation. The mix should reflect business priorities rather than the preferences of the learning department.

Annual business moment Capability need Suitable learning burst Evidence to monitor
Budget planning Financial judgment and prioritization Scenario-based decision practice Quality of proposals and approval cycle time
Product or service launch Positioning and customer conversations Demonstration plus field challenge Usage of new messaging and conversion results
Performance review season Coaching and feedback Manager rehearsal with prompts Completion of conversations and employee ratings
Operational peak Consistent execution under pressure Workflow simulation and job aid Error rates, speed, and escalation volume
Strategic reset Alignment and behavior change Leadership story, discussion, and action plan Adoption of priorities and team-level progress

The portfolio should have a coherent progression. A pre-event burst can establish expectations, a point-of-need burst can support execution, and a post-event burst can reinforce lessons from real work. This sequence creates a learning journey without requiring employees to complete a large course all at once.

Connect learning bursts to leaders and teams

Employees are more likely to apply a burst when managers know what it covers and can reinforce it in regular conversations. Provide leaders with short discussion prompts, observation checklists, or team activities that make the target behavior visible in daily work.

Leadership development can be especially valuable when annual cycles involve competing priorities or difficult conversations. A focused burst on conflict resolution, for instance, can be strengthened by practical expertise from Stewart Levine’s collaboration approach, particularly when teams must negotiate ownership, resources, or changing expectations.

The learning team should also engage subject-matter experts without allowing technical detail to overwhelm the experience. Experts can validate examples, identify common mistakes, and explain operational consequences, while instructional designers translate that knowledge into usable practice.

Measure adoption and business impact

Completion rates provide limited insight into whether a portfolio is working. More useful measures include access at the intended moment, successful performance in practice, manager observations, workflow changes, and business indicators connected to the original need.

Predictive Evaluation can help organizations forecast likely adoption, impact, and return on investment before a program is fully deployed. Establishing these measures early clarifies what success should look like and helps stakeholders decide which bursts deserve expansion, revision, or retirement.

Evaluation should occur at several points across the annual cycle. Early signals might include participation and confidence, while later evidence could include productivity, quality, sales performance, retention, or customer outcomes. Comparing results across business units can reveal where reinforcement, manager support, or content changes are needed.

Govern and refresh the portfolio

A portfolio requires ownership. Assign a business sponsor, learning owner, subject-matter expert, and evaluation lead to each major burst or related cluster. A quarterly review can assess relevance, usage, performance evidence, and upcoming business changes.

Use a simple lifecycle: design, pilot, launch, reinforce, measure, refresh, or retire. Content should be updated when policies, systems, products, or customer expectations change. Retiring low-value bursts keeps the learning environment useful and prevents employees from navigating an overcrowded catalog.

  • Prioritize bursts linked to measurable business events.
  • Design for one observable behavior at a time.
  • Equip managers to reinforce learning in normal workflows.
  • Reserve capacity for emerging priorities and rapid updates.
  • Review evidence quarterly and retire content that no longer serves a purpose.

A well-managed portfolio makes learning more timely, practical, and accountable. Begin by mapping the next twelve months of business activity, select the moments where capability will matter most, and define the evidence that will show whether each burst is changing performance. With that foundation, learning becomes an active part of the operating cycle rather than a separate calendar of courses.

Learning to Performance

Learning to Performance, a complete training approach, gives companies world-class training to drive significant return. This approach includes upfront work (Impact Mapping, design), training (for staff and company executives), and post-training efforts to ensure training transfer. This unique recipe - the key for successful training and adoption - is changing the way companies implement training. This methodology could work with any content for organizations in any industry.

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