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

Creating A Learning Portfolio That Balances Skill Building And ROI

A strong learning portfolio gives employees the capabilities they need while directing investment toward measurable business priorities. It combines formal courses, leadership programs, performance support, coaching, learning bursts, and experiential opportunities into a coordinated system.

The goal is not to maximize the number of programs. It is to create a practical mix of learning experiences that improves workforce capability, supports strategic execution, and produces evidence of value. Each initiative should have a clear audience, behavior change objective, delivery approach, and business outcome.

This requires a shift from viewing training as a collection of events to managing learning as a portfolio of investments. Some initiatives may build long-term organizational capacity, while others address urgent performance gaps. Both have a place when their purpose and expected return are understood.

Set Portfolio Priorities

Begin with the organization’s strategic objectives, operational risks, and capability gaps. A portfolio may need to support digital transformation, improve customer retention, strengthen frontline leadership, or accelerate compliance. These priorities provide a decision framework for selecting and funding learning initiatives.

Stakeholder interviews, performance data, employee feedback, and manager input can reveal where learning will have the greatest influence. This analysis helps distinguish a genuine knowledge or skill gap from problems caused by unclear processes, inadequate tools, incentives, or staffing.

Every proposed program should connect to a business need. A concise portfolio brief can define the target population, required capabilities, expected workplace behaviors, supporting conditions, and indicators of success.

Build A Balanced Learning Mix

A healthy learning portfolio includes different time horizons and levels of investment. High-impact leadership academies may require months of design and delivery, while a short learning burst can reinforce a process change within days. A core curriculum can establish foundational skills, supported by coaching, job aids, peer learning, and manager-led practice.

Portfolio balance also means serving different points in the employee journey. New hires may need structured onboarding, experienced employees may need advanced technical development, and managers may need support with feedback, delegation, and decision-making. A consistent architecture prevents isolated programs from competing for attention.

Microlearning is valuable when it addresses a specific moment of need rather than simply making content shorter. Teams can use these microlearning principles to create focused resources that reinforce behavior, prepare employees for a task, or sustain learning after a workshop.

Compare Value And Investment

Return on investment should influence portfolio decisions, but it should not be the only measure. Some programs produce direct financial gains, such as reduced errors or faster sales productivity. Others build strategic capacity whose value appears over a longer period, including succession readiness, innovation capability, or stronger employee mobility.

A simple scoring model can compare initiatives consistently. Score each proposal for strategic alignment, audience reach, urgency, expected behavior change, implementation complexity, and measurable business impact. The results create a transparent basis for sequencing investments.

Portfolio Initiative	Primary Purpose	Typical Evidence	Investment Profile
Compliance learning	Reduce risk and meet obligations	Completion, assessment, incident trends	Moderate, recurring
New-hire onboarding	Accelerate readiness and retention	Time to productivity, early attrition	Moderate, front-loaded
Leadership development	Improve management capability	Team engagement, promotion readiness, manager behaviors	High, long-term
Sales enablement	Increase commercial performance	Win rate, cycle time, revenue contribution	Variable, outcome-focused
Learning bursts	Reinforce targeted behaviors	Usage, confidence, task accuracy	Low to moderate, fast deployment

The comparison should also account for adoption risk. A well-designed program can still fail if managers do not reinforce it, employees lack time to apply it, or the technology is difficult to access. Estimating these conditions before launch makes the business case more realistic.

Design For Transfer And Adoption

Skill building creates value when employees use new capabilities in their work. Instructional design should therefore include realistic practice, feedback, reflection, and opportunities to apply learning to current responsibilities. Assessments should test judgment and performance, not just recall.

Remote and hybrid work adds another layer of complexity. Learning experiences must support different schedules, digital collaboration patterns, and varying levels of manager visibility. These remote learning practices can help designers create accessible activities that sustain participation across locations.

Transfer plans should identify what happens after the formal learning event. Managers might conduct practice reviews, assign workplace challenges, or discuss progress during one-to-one meetings. Communities of practice and targeted performance support can keep capability development connected to daily work.

Measure Outcomes Before Launch

Evaluation should begin during portfolio design, rather than after delivery. For each initiative, define the business problem, expected behavior change, leading indicators, lagging outcomes, and data sources. This makes it easier to test assumptions and identify weak links before significant resources are committed.

Useful indicators may include time to proficiency, quality scores, customer satisfaction, productivity, internal mobility, retention, sales conversion, or safety performance. Learning metrics such as attendance, completion, assessment results, and usage remain useful, but they should be interpreted as evidence of engagement or capability—not proof of business impact.

Predictive Evaluation gives leaders a way to forecast likely adoption, impact, and return before a program is fully deployed. A predictive evaluation dashboard can help decision-makers monitor assumptions, compare initiatives, and communicate portfolio performance with greater clarity.

Govern The Portfolio As An Investment

Portfolio governance provides the rhythm for reviewing priorities, reallocating resources, and retiring low-value programs. A quarterly review might examine participation, adoption, outcome trends, stakeholder feedback, and changes in business strategy. Programs that consistently underperform can be redesigned, repositioned, or removed.

Governance also clarifies accountability. Learning leaders manage the portfolio, subject matter experts protect accuracy, managers enable application, and business sponsors validate outcomes. When ownership is distributed, learning is less likely to be treated as an isolated responsibility of the training function.

Practical Portfolio Decisions

Use these actions to strengthen the connection between capability development and business value:

Group initiatives by strategic outcome rather than by delivery format.
Reserve capacity for urgent performance needs without allowing them to displace every long-term capability investment.
Assign an accountable business sponsor to each significant program.
Define adoption and outcome measures before approving design and delivery funding.
Review the portfolio regularly and reinvest in programs that demonstrate meaningful workplace impact.

A disciplined learning portfolio can support immediate performance while building the capabilities required for future growth. It gives leaders a clearer view of where learning resources go, what employees need, and which initiatives deserve expansion.

Dave Basarab Consulting can help your organization connect enterprise learning strategy, instructional design, leadership development, and Predictive Evaluation to measurable business results. Build a portfolio that makes skill building purposeful, adoption visible, and investment decisions more confident.

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.