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

How to Build an Internal Team Capable of Custom Instructional Design

Organizations often turn to custom instructional design when generic courses fail to address operational realities. A strong internal team can translate business priorities, employee needs, and subject-matter expertise into learning experiences that improve performance.

Building that capability requires more than hiring a few talented content developers. The team needs a clear operating model, practical design standards, access to business stakeholders, and a way to connect learning activity with measurable results.

Internal capability also gives an organization greater control over sensitive knowledge, brand voice, learner data, and program iteration. With the right structure, instructional design becomes a strategic business function rather than a production service.

Define The Business Purpose

Begin by identifying the business problems the team is expected to solve. These may include inconsistent leadership practices, slow onboarding, compliance risk, weak sales execution, or poor adoption of new technology. A learning request should be treated as a possible solution, not an automatic diagnosis.

The team should work with leaders to define target behaviors, affected populations, performance conditions, and expected business outcomes. This keeps custom learning focused on capability development instead of content volume. It also creates a foundation for evaluating whether the intervention changed performance.

A concise charter can establish the team’s scope, decision rights, service standards, and relationship with human resources, operations, communications, and technology groups. Senior sponsorship is essential because internal instructional designers need access to data and subject-matter experts.

Build A Balanced Capability

A capable instructional design function usually combines several roles. An instructional designer shapes the learning architecture, while a learning experience designer considers the complete employee journey across formal training, coaching, tools, and workplace practice. A developer or multimedia specialist creates digital assets, and a project lead manages priorities and delivery.

The team may also need expertise in facilitation, assessment design, learning technology, accessibility, writing, and data analysis. One person can hold several responsibilities in a small organization, but the capabilities themselves should be visible and deliberately developed.

Recruit for curiosity, business judgment, communication, and the ability to simplify complex information. Technical authoring skills matter, yet they can be strengthened through practice. An individual who can interview stakeholders, challenge assumptions, and understand workplace context will often produce better solutions than someone who simply builds polished courses.

Create A Repeatable Design Workflow

A shared workflow makes quality more consistent and reduces rework. Start with discovery interviews and performance analysis, then define objectives in observable terms. From there, the team can select the right blend of methods, such as workshops, learning bursts, simulations, manager tools, job aids, or self-paced modules.

Use prototypes before committing to full development. A short scenario, sample activity, or draft facilitator guide can reveal misunderstandings early. Review points should include business alignment, instructional quality, accessibility, legal or compliance requirements, and technical readiness.

A useful workflow should remain flexible enough for different audiences and subjects. A leadership program may require reflection and practice, while a process change may depend on searchable support materials and supervisor reinforcement.

Capability Area	Core Practice	Evidence Of Readiness
Business analysis	Connect learning needs to performance gaps	Clear outcomes and stakeholder agreement
Instructional design	Apply sound adult learning principles	Tested objectives, activities, and assessments
Content development	Produce accessible, engaging assets	Approved prototypes and quality standards
Facilitation	Lead practice and discussion effectively	Consistent learner feedback and observation
Evaluation	Track adoption, impact, and value	Baseline measures and reporting rhythm

Establish Strong Stakeholder Partnerships

Subject-matter experts provide essential knowledge, but they are rarely instructional designers. Give them structured interview questions, content templates, review deadlines, and clear guidance about what learners must do rather than everything learners could know.

The team should build trust with business sponsors by explaining trade-offs in plain language. If a stakeholder requests a two-hour course, designers can explore whether a short learning burst, manager conversation, or performance support tool would produce the desired behavior more efficiently.

External relationships can add capacity when demand exceeds internal resources or specialized skills are unavailable. Guidance on successful vendor partnerships can help an internal team define expectations around ownership, communication, quality, and decision-making before a contract begins.

Develop A Practical Quality System

Quality assurance should be designed into the work rather than added during final review. Create standards for writing, visual design, accessibility, interaction, assessment, data privacy, and brand use. Checklists help designers work faster because they make expectations visible.

Pilot programs with a small, representative group before broad release. Ask learners where instructions were unclear, which activities felt realistic, and what barriers could prevent workplace application. Observe behavior during practice instead of relying only on satisfaction scores.

Build a repository of reusable templates, question banks, scenario patterns, facilitator guides, design decisions, and approved media. A searchable knowledge base shortens development time while preserving flexibility for custom solutions.

Measure Adoption And Business Impact

Evaluation should begin during project scoping. Establish a baseline for the relevant business measure, determine how learning will be used on the job, and identify the managers or systems that will reinforce the target behavior.

Predictive Evaluation offers a useful methodology for forecasting and measuring training adoption, impact, and return on investment. It encourages teams to consider likely participation, transfer conditions, stakeholder support, and business indicators before launch. This makes evaluation a planning discipline rather than a report created after the program ends.

Dave Basarab’s professional journey also illustrates the value of connecting learning work with organizational performance. Internal designers can apply that principle by reporting beyond attendance and completion. Useful measures may include time to proficiency, error reduction, sales conversion, manager observation, productivity, retention, or customer outcomes.

Sustain Growth And Professional Practice

An internal team becomes stronger when learning is continuous. Establish design critiques, peer reviews, communities of practice, and regular opportunities to test new tools. Encourage team members to study facilitation, learning science, accessibility, data storytelling, and emerging delivery formats.

Invite experienced practitioners and business leaders to contribute to team development. Perspectives on corporate identity expertise can be especially valuable when leadership or culture programs must reflect how people experience the organization.

Prioritize the following actions:

Write a capability charter tied to strategic business priorities.
Map current skills against required instructional design capabilities.
Introduce a discovery, prototyping, review, and evaluation workflow.
Create standards and reusable assets for consistent delivery.
Track adoption, behavior change, and business outcomes over time.

With clear expectations, strong partnerships, and disciplined evaluation, an internal team can produce custom learning that feels relevant because it is built around real work. Begin by selecting one high-value business problem, form a cross-functional design group, and measure the results from the first iteration.

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.