Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

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Custom Design & Delivery

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Predictive Evaluation

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Enterprise Learning Strategy

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Predictive Evaluation

Building Executive Sponsorship for Learning Strategy Initiatives

Learning strategy initiatives gain traction when senior leaders see a direct connection between workforce capability and business performance. Executive sponsorship gives a learning program the authority, funding, visibility, and cross-functional support required to move beyond isolated courses.

Many organizations begin with a reasonable training need but struggle to secure sustained leadership attention. The challenge is rarely the quality of the content alone. Senior stakeholders need evidence that the proposed work supports strategic priorities, changes behavior, and produces measurable operational value.

A strong sponsorship model turns learning and development into a shared business responsibility. It gives executives a clear role in setting direction, removing barriers, communicating importance, and reviewing results.

Connect Learning To Strategic Priorities

The first step is to position the initiative within the organization’s existing agenda. A leadership team is more likely to support capability development when it clearly advances growth, customer experience, productivity, risk reduction, digital transformation, or succession planning.

Learning leaders should translate broad goals into observable performance requirements. If the business wants faster sales growth, the conversation might focus on consultative selling behaviors, manager coaching, or product fluency. If operational risk is increasing, the initiative may center on decision quality, compliance execution, or frontline judgment.

This alignment creates a practical business case. Rather than presenting a catalog of courses, the learning function can show how specific capabilities will help the organization execute its strategy.

Build A Business Case Executives Can Use

Executives typically need a concise view of the problem, the proposed intervention, the expected outcomes, and the investment required. Avoid relying on participation rates or satisfaction scores as the primary argument. Those measures describe activity, not business impact.

A credible case combines workforce data, performance gaps, stakeholder input, and financial assumptions. It should explain who needs to change, what they must do differently, how the change will be supported, and which indicators will demonstrate progress.

Predictive Evaluation can strengthen this conversation by connecting planned learning activities with adoption, impact, and return on investment before full deployment. This Predictive Evaluation approach helps executives assess likely value while decisions can still be adjusted.

Give Sponsors A Visible Operating Role

Sponsorship is more effective when it is defined as a set of actions rather than a title on a project document. An executive sponsor can open a program launch, reinforce expectations in leadership meetings, identify business owners, and remove access or scheduling barriers.

The sponsor should also help establish accountability among line managers. Employees are more likely to apply new skills when their managers discuss expectations, create opportunities to practice, and review performance afterward. This makes reinforcement part of normal management rather than an optional follow-up.

Sponsorship Activity	Executive Contribution	Evidence Of Progress
Set direction	Link capability goals to business priorities	Clear strategic outcomes
Secure resources	Approve funding, time, and technology	Adequate program capacity
Mobilize managers	Reinforce expectations and coaching	Increased workplace application
Review impact	Examine adoption and performance data	Measurable business movement
Remove barriers	Resolve competing priorities and access issues	Faster implementation

Use A Governance Rhythm That Sustains Attention

A single approval meeting rarely creates durable sponsorship. Establish a regular rhythm in which executives receive brief updates on participation quality, behavior adoption, operational indicators, and emerging risks. These reviews should focus on decisions, not lengthy activity reports.

A steering group can include the executive sponsor, business leaders, human resources, learning specialists, and representatives from affected functions. Its purpose is to maintain alignment, test assumptions, and coordinate action across departments.

The rhythm should match the initiative’s scale. A major leadership academy may require monthly governance, while a targeted learning burst may need only milestone reviews. Consistency matters more than meeting frequency.

Translate Senior Support Into Manager Action

Employees experience executive sponsorship through their immediate managers. If leaders announce a program but supervisors do not allocate time, discuss relevance, or inspect application, participation may remain superficial.

Provide managers with practical reinforcement tools: conversation guides, observation checklists, team challenges, coaching prompts, and short progress updates. Custom instructional design, learning bursts, and blended delivery can help fit development into the workflow without weakening expectations.

Leadership capability initiatives deserve particular attention because managers influence culture, performance, and retention. Organizations exploring this connection can draw on leadership pipeline insights when defining the behaviors and progression expected at each leadership level.

Measure What Sponsors Care About

A sponsorship strategy should define success before delivery begins. Relevant measures may include speed to proficiency, quality, sales conversion, customer retention, safety performance, employee mobility, or manager effectiveness. The right indicators depend on the business problem.

Use a balanced measurement system that distinguishes reach from adoption and adoption from impact. Completion data can confirm exposure, while workplace evidence shows whether people are applying new practices. Business metrics then help determine whether the change is producing meaningful value.

Share findings in executive language. Highlight what is working, where adoption is weak, which groups need additional support, and what decisions are required. Transparent reporting builds credibility, even when early results indicate that the intervention needs refinement.

Actions That Strengthen Sponsorship

Executive commitment becomes more reliable when the learning team makes participation easy, relevant, and measurable. The following practices help convert interest into sustained ownership:

Secure a sponsor before finalizing the program design and define specific responsibilities.
Use business data to identify the performance problem rather than starting with a course request.
Give executives concise messages they can repeat consistently across the organization.
Equip managers with reinforcement tools tied to everyday work.
Review adoption and business outcomes on a schedule agreed upon at launch.

Dave Basarab Consulting helps organizations connect enterprise learning strategy, instructional design, leadership development, and training delivery with measurable business results. Its consulting support can help stakeholders move from executive approval to a practical, evidence-based learning system.

When leaders can see the capability gap, understand their role, and review credible evidence of progress, sponsorship becomes part of business governance. Begin by selecting one strategic initiative, identifying the executive who owns its outcome, and building a measurement plan that makes the value of learning visible.

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.