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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

How to Conduct a Training Pilot That Predicts Full-Scale Success

A training pilot is more than a small launch before the “real” programme begins. Designed well, it provides evidence about learner engagement, manager support, operational fit, knowledge transfer and business value. It can show whether a learning solution is ready to scale, what needs refinement and which assumptions are unsafe.

For Australian organisations, the pilot must reflect local working conditions. A programme used by teams in Sydney, Melbourne and regional Queensland may face different rosters, connectivity, travel demands and customer pressures. A credible test therefore measures the whole learning system, not simply whether participants enjoyed a workshop.

Define Success Before Content Development

Start with the business problem and establish measurable outcomes before choosing modules, activities or technology. If the aim is to reduce customer complaints, define the baseline complaint rate, target improvement and period in which change should appear. If the objective is safer work, identify observable behaviours and relevant incident indicators.

Separate learning measures from business measures. Assessment scores can show whether people understood a concept, while workplace observation, system data or quality results can show whether they applied it. This distinction prevents a high satisfaction score from being mistaken for a return on investment.

A useful success statement might be: “Within 90 days, participating service teams will use the new escalation process consistently, reducing avoidable repeat contacts by 8 per cent.” That statement gives the pilot a decision rule rather than a vague aspiration.

Select A Representative Pilot Group

The pilot group should resemble the eventual audience in role, tenure, location, workload and technology access. Avoid selecting only enthusiastic volunteers from head office. Include a practical mix of frontline employees, supervisors, new starters and experienced staff, with enough participants to reveal patterns without making the test unmanageable.

Australian conditions make sampling especially important. A Melbourne office using high-speed connectivity may experience a digital programme differently from a regional or remote team. Include shift workers, part-time employees and people who access learning on mobile devices during short breaks. School holiday periods, public holidays and peak retail or tourism seasons can also affect attendance and completion.

Secure manager participation before launch. Managers should know what behaviours to reinforce, how much time employees receive and which performance signals will be reviewed. Their role is to create opportunities for practice, not to police completion figures.

Build A Measurement And Evidence Plan

Use a combination of leading and lagging indicators. Leading indicators include enrolment, attendance, activity completion, confidence, practice quality and manager check-ins. Lagging indicators include productivity, error rates, customer outcomes, staff retention, sales conversion or safety events. Establish baseline data before the pilot starts and agree when each measure will be collected.

A predictive evaluation approach can connect these measures to likely enterprise outcomes. Track where participation drops, which activities correlate with workplace use and what support conditions influence performance. Include a comparison group where practical, such as a similar team that receives the programme later. This strengthens the evidence without delaying access indefinitely.

Evidence area Pilot question Useful measure Scale decision
Participation Can employees complete the experience? Attendance, completion and time-on-task data Retain, simplify or redesign delivery
Learning Do participants understand the content? Scenario assessments and observed practice Adjust activities or explanations
Transfer Are new behaviours used at work? Manager observations and system records Strengthen coaching and job aids
Business impact Is performance moving in the desired direction? Quality, productivity, customer or safety data Scale, modify or stop
Operating fit Can the organisation support delivery? Platform reliability, facilitator effort and cost Confirm resources and rollout model

Run The Pilot Under Real Conditions

A pilot should be realistic enough to expose friction. Use the intended learning platform, communication channels, manager routines and support materials wherever possible. If the full programme will be blended, test the blend rather than delivering an isolated workshop. Record technical issues, scheduling conflicts, facilitator workload and questions that recur across groups.

For distributed Australian teams, plan around time zones and travel. A session scheduled for Sydney may be inconvenient for Perth participants, while face-to-face delivery can create substantial travel cost for regional staff. Test asynchronous options, downloadable resources and short learning bursts where these fit the workflow. Confirm that digital materials meet accessibility expectations and function on common workplace devices.

Build in rapid feedback, but do not rely solely on end-of-course surveys. Short pulse checks after key activities, facilitator notes and manager observations reveal problems while they can still be fixed. Expertise in emotional intelligence expertise can be particularly useful when the pilot involves difficult conversations, leadership behaviour or cultural change.

Analyse Adoption And Business Impact

Review results by segment rather than averaging everything together. A strong overall completion rate may conceal poor adoption among night-shift employees, new supervisors or one location. Compare outcomes by role, manager, work pattern and delivery mode, while protecting individual privacy. Under the Australian Privacy Act, collect only information needed for the evaluation, explain its purpose and control access to identifiable data.

Analyse the reasons behind the numbers. Low completion may indicate irrelevant content, poor scheduling, workload pressure or an unreliable platform. Weak transfer may reflect limited manager reinforcement rather than a content defect. If the pilot affects workplace safety, align implementation with relevant WHS duties and consult the people responsible for operational risk.

Look for leading signals that forecast future performance. Consistent practice, manager follow-up and use of job aids often provide earlier evidence of adoption than quarterly business results. Document assumptions, confidence levels and unanswered questions so senior leaders receive a balanced forecast rather than an inflated success claim.

Convert Findings Into A Scale Decision

Use explicit thresholds for scale-up. For example, the organisation might require 85 per cent completion, demonstrated competence in critical scenarios, positive manager evidence and a defined movement in one operational metric. Not every threshold needs to be met immediately, but exceptions should be recorded with an owner and due date.

The pilot may show that the programme is ready, ready with conditions, or not ready. Conditions might include rewriting examples for Australian roles, improving accessibility, adding manager coaching, shortening modules or changing the delivery calendar. A review of learning strategy warning signs can help place pilot findings within broader capability and portfolio decisions.

Practical Controls For A Reliable Pilot

  • Define business outcomes and baseline measures before enrolment.
  • Recruit participants who reflect locations, roles, tenure and work patterns.
  • Test the actual platform, resources, support model and delivery schedule.
  • Combine learner data with manager observations and operational evidence.
  • Protect personal information under the Australian Privacy Act.
  • Review WHS, accessibility, industrial and award-related requirements where relevant.
  • Set scale criteria in advance and document every exception.

A successful pilot does not prove that every part of a programme is perfect. It demonstrates that the learning experience can be adopted, supported and linked to meaningful workplace results. The practical takeaway is to treat the pilot as a controlled prediction exercise: define the outcome, test the real operating conditions, measure behaviour over time and scale only when the evidence supports the decision.

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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