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

Designing Custom Instructional Materials That Actually Engage Employees

Designing custom instructional materials that actually engage employees requires more than attractive slides, polished graphics, or a library of videos. Employees engage when training feels relevant to their work, respects their time, and helps them perform a real task with greater confidence.

Effective learning content connects business priorities with everyday decisions. It gives people a clear reason to participate, opportunities to practice, and support when they apply new skills on the job. That combination turns instructional design from a production exercise into a performance strategy.

Start With the Employee’s Reality

Before writing a learning objective, study the environment in which employees will use the skill. Review workflows, interview managers, observe common obstacles, and examine the language employees use to describe their work. This reveals the difference between what a policy says and what people actually need to do.

Audience analysis should also account for role, experience, motivation, technology access, and available time. A sales representative working between customer meetings needs a different learning experience from a supervisor attending a scheduled workshop. Custom content earns attention when it fits the learner’s context.

Use authentic examples rather than generic scenarios. A compliance course can present a realistic client conversation, while a leadership module can explore a difficult feedback discussion. Familiar situations make abstract principles easier to understand and remember.

Turn Business Goals Into Observable Actions

A business goal such as “improve collaboration” is too broad to guide meaningful content. Translate it into observable behaviors: clarifying ownership, documenting decisions, escalating risks early, or using a shared planning process. Specific actions make learning objectives measurable and instruction easier to design.

Every activity should answer a practical question: What should the employee do differently after this experience? If the answer is unclear, remove information that does not support the desired behavior. Concise, purposeful content generally performs better than a comprehensive module overloaded with facts.

Include decision points that reflect real work. Ask learners to select a response, prioritize competing demands, diagnose an issue, or produce a useful work output. These activities create cognitive engagement because employees must think, rather than simply recognize a correct answer.

Build Practice Around Real Performance

Instructional materials become more engaging when they provide a safe place to make decisions and receive feedback. Simulations, branching scenarios, guided demonstrations, and role-play can mirror the pressure and ambiguity of the workplace without exposing customers or colleagues to early mistakes.

Feedback should explain why an answer works, not merely identify whether it is right or wrong. Show the consequence of each choice, connect it to a workplace principle, and offer a second attempt when possible. Employees gain confidence when practice feels developmental rather than punitive.

Use a blend of formats to support different moments in the learning journey. A short explainer may establish a concept, a job aid can support application, and a manager-led discussion can address local concerns. Custom instructional materials should form a connected experience rather than a collection of unrelated assets.

Design For Attention And Access

Visual design should clarify meaning, guide focus, and reduce unnecessary mental effort. Use plain language, meaningful headings, readable layouts, and one central idea per screen or page. Replace dense paragraphs with diagrams, examples, annotated images, or short demonstrations when those formats communicate more effectively.

Short learning bursts are useful when employees need targeted support during a busy day. However, brevity should not become fragmentation. Each segment needs a clear purpose, a logical sequence, and a connection to the broader capability being developed.

Accessibility belongs in the design from the start. Provide captions and transcripts, maintain sufficient color contrast, use descriptive labels for images, and ensure activities work with keyboard navigation. Inclusive content reaches more employees and usually creates a clearer experience for everyone.

Connect Learning With Measurable Value

Engagement is important, but participation alone does not demonstrate success. A strong evaluation approach tracks whether employees adopt the target behavior, whether performance improves, and whether the improvement contributes to a business outcome. Dave Basarab’s Predictive Evaluation model provides a framework for forecasting and measuring adoption, impact, and return on investment.

Build measurement into the design process rather than adding it after launch. Establish a baseline, define leading indicators, and identify the evidence that would show behavior change. Managers might report improved coaching conversations, while operational data could reveal fewer errors, faster processing, or higher customer satisfaction.

Design Element	Employee Experience	Evidence of Success
Realistic scenario	Practice with familiar decisions	Improved judgment or accuracy
Job aid	Immediate support during work	Higher task completion or consistency
Manager discussion	Reinforcement and accountability	Increased use of the target behavior
Follow-up activity	Retrieval and application over time	Sustained performance change

Plan Reinforcement Before Launch

A single course rarely changes behavior by itself. Reinforcement can include manager prompts, team discussions, coaching guides, refresher activities, email reminders, peer practice, and searchable performance support. Select the methods that match the workflow rather than adding communication for its own sake.

Managers have a central role in adoption. Give them a concise briefing explaining the target behavior, common barriers, and questions to ask after training. When leaders refer to the same language and expectations, employees receive a consistent message that the learning matters.

A practical content strategy should include these elements:

A clear performance objective tied to a business priority
Examples that reflect real roles, customers, tools, and constraints
Practice activities with specific, constructive feedback
Accessible formats that support different needs and devices
Reinforcement and evaluation methods defined before delivery

Make Custom Content Worth Using

Custom development delivers value when it solves a defined performance problem better than a generic course can. It should feel familiar enough to be credible, focused enough to fit the workday, and practical enough to influence behavior after the session ends.

Organizations planning a broader learning strategy can explore Dave Basarab Consulting for support with instructional design, leadership development, training delivery, and learning evaluation. A well-designed experience gives employees useful practice while giving leaders evidence that learning is contributing to business results.

When the content is ready, launch it with a clear adoption plan and a way to learn from early use. To discuss a learning initiative or evaluation need, contact the consulting team and connect the design to the performance outcomes that matter most.

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.