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 a Leadership Development Journey for Future Executives

Australian organisations are watching a senior cohort prepare to retire, often within a compressed window. ASX-listed boards increasingly flag executive succession as a top-tier risk in their annual reports, and learning teams are being asked to act.

The usual response is to promote the strongest operator into the role and hope for the best. In practice, this exposes gaps in strategic thinking, board presence, and people leadership once the new executive is in seat.

A deliberate, multi-year leadership development journey is a more reliable answer. Rather than relying on a single high-potential programme, organisations build a sequenced pathway that grows future executives over two to three years.

The sections below walk through how to design that pathway, drawing on practices used by learning teams across Sydney, Melbourne, and the resources sector.

Defining the Executive Profile Your Organisation Actually Needs

A clear target is the starting point. Many leadership programmes launch with off-the-shelf competency frameworks that do not reflect the strategic priorities of the business. The profile should be drawn from your strategy, your operating model, and the customer environment you operate in.

For an Australian financial services firm, this might mean a stronger emphasis on regulatory fluency and APRA engagement. For a resources business in Perth, it could include community engagement with Traditional Owners. The profile is a living document, refreshed as strategy shifts.

This step aligns HR, the executive team, and the board around a shared definition of executive readiness. Without that alignment, development activity drifts toward generic executive coaching that does not move business outcomes.

Structuring the Journey in Phases

A multi-year journey works better than a one-off programme. Most successful pipelines run between 18 and 36 months across three broad phases: foundation, stretch, and transition.

The foundation phase covers self-awareness, business acumen, and leading through others. It typically runs six to nine months and includes 360-degree feedback, executive mentoring, and exposure to the wider leadership team.

The stretch phase assigns participants to business challenges outside their current remit, such as leading a cross-functional productivity programme in a regional office or running a small acquisition integration in a second-tier market.

The transition phase prepares individuals for the executive role itself, covering board reporting, capital allocation conversations, and managing a P&L. Sponsors and executive mentors remain involved throughout, grounding the journey in real organisational context.

Building Real-World Capability Through Action

Classroom learning has its place, but capability is built when participants apply new skills under live conditions. A good journey blends short learning bursts with substantial on-the-job assignments.

Learning bursts of 90 to 120 minutes work well in the Australian context, where senior leaders protect their calendars fiercely. Anything longer tends to be moved, shortened, or skipped.

Action learning projects give participants a way to test new behaviours with real consequences. Common formats include leading a transformation initiative, sitting on a steering committee for a major capital investment, or partnering with a customer advisory board.

Measuring Adoption, Impact, and Return

Measuring a leadership journey well separates credible programmes from feel-good activity. The right approach answers three questions: did participants adopt the new behaviours, did those behaviours shift business outcomes, and what was the return on the investment made?

Adoption metrics include observed behaviour change in meetings, 360-degree pulse surveys at six and twelve months, and direct feedback from the participant's leadership team. These are leading indicators that tell you whether learning has actually changed how someone leads.

Impact metrics connect to business outcomes the participant can influence, such as engagement scores for their team, time-to-market for a product they sponsor, or safety performance in a site they oversee. For boards that want a tighter view of value, a structured Predictive Evaluation methodology can provide that line of sight, forecasting and measuring training adoption, impact, and ROI from the start of the journey.

Sustaining Momentum Across the Pipeline

A leadership pipeline needs governance, not just good intentions. Most successful programmes assign an executive sponsor, a programme lead, and a small steering group that meets quarterly to review progress and unblock barriers.

Alumni networks keep the cohort connected after the formal journey ends. Regular gatherings, peer coaching circles, and reverse mentoring opportunities reinforce the mindset that leadership is a continuous practice.

Local context matters too. In Australia, where the "tall poppy syndrome" can discourage emerging leaders from stepping forward, visible sponsorship from senior executives carries extra weight. Advocacy from the CEO and chair helps high-potentials feel licensed to lead.

Practical Recommendations for Your Leadership Journey

Run a 12-week discovery phase to map strategic priorities and define the executive profile before any learning design begins.
Structure the journey across 24 to 30 months rather than a single programme to allow real behaviour change to take hold.
Blend 90-minute learning bursts with substantial stretch assignments that carry genuine accountability for outcomes.
Assign each participant an executive mentor from outside their direct reporting line to broaden perspective and reduce conflict of interest.
Build measurement into the design from day one, using leading indicators alongside business impact metrics.
Refresh the executive profile every 12 to 18 months to keep the pipeline aligned with shifting strategy.
Treat governance as seriously as content, with quarterly steering reviews and clear escalation paths.

A leadership development journey is a business strategy delivered through people. When it is well designed, it gives emerging executives the runway to grow into the role rather than being dropped into it. The natural first move is a short diagnostic that maps the current pipeline against three-year executive needs, with findings reviewed by the steering group within thirty days to agree the first investment.

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.