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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 Estimate the Learning Investment Needed for a Strategic Pivot

A strategic pivot changes more than a product roadmap or operating model. It can alter customer priorities, technology requirements, decision rights, workflows, and performance expectations across the organization. Learning investment must therefore be estimated as a business enablement requirement rather than as a simple course-development expense.

A sound estimate connects the future state to the capabilities employees must demonstrate. It accounts for design, delivery, practice, manager reinforcement, technology, measurement, and the time people spend away from their regular work. This produces a funding request that leaders can evaluate against expected business results.

Clarify The Pivot Before Pricing Learning

Start by describing the pivot in observable terms. Identify which markets, products, processes, customer segments, or revenue models are changing. Then define what employees must do differently for the new strategy to work.

A capability map can connect strategic priorities to roles and behaviors. For example, a move toward consultative selling may require stronger discovery skills, commercial judgment, product knowledge, and use of customer data. A shift to agile operations may require new planning routines, collaboration behaviors, and technical fluency.

Separate enterprise-wide requirements from role-specific needs. Every employee may need awareness, while selected groups require intensive practice or certification. This distinction prevents broad, expensive training from being assigned to people who need only targeted communication.

Quantify The Capability Gap

Estimate the gap between current performance and the required future standard. Use performance data, manager interviews, customer feedback, assessments, observation, and operational metrics. Avoid relying solely on employee confidence surveys, since confidence does not always predict skill application.

For each priority capability, specify the population, proficiency level, deadline, and evidence of success. A sales role might require 800 employees to conduct a structured value conversation within six months. A technical role might require 120 specialists to complete a validated task without supervision.

The size of the gap determines the learning architecture. Awareness may be addressed through learning bursts and manager conversations. Complex behavioral change usually requires practice, feedback, coaching, job aids, and reinforcement over time.

Build A Complete Cost Model

A credible learning budget includes more than vendor fees or instructional designer hours. Model each cost category separately so decision-makers can see what drives the estimate and where assumptions can change.

Include analysis, instructional design, content production, facilitator preparation, learning technology, localization, accessibility, delivery, coaching, administration, measurement, and ongoing maintenance. Add employee time as a real investment, especially when the pivot affects large populations or requires repeated practice.

Use ranges when uncertainty is high. A preliminary estimate might show low, expected, and high scenarios based on population size, content complexity, customization, and delivery method. This is more useful than presenting a false level of precision early in the planning cycle.

Compare Delivery Scenarios

Different delivery approaches produce different combinations of cost, speed, reach, and behavior change. A self-paced module may scale efficiently, while instructor-led practice may be essential for negotiation, leadership, or operational judgment. Blended learning often provides a practical balance when the pivot is strategically important and time-sensitive.

Delivery approach Cost pattern Best use Main risk
Learning bursts and job aids Low production and delivery cost Awareness, reminders, simple process changes Limited depth and practice
Virtual instructor-led learning Moderate cost with scalable reach Skill development across distributed teams Engagement and scheduling issues
In-person workshops Higher travel and facilitation cost Complex practice, leadership, team alignment Slower scale and higher disruption
Blended pathway Variable, often efficient at scale Capability building with reinforcement Requires strong coordination
Coaching and performance support Ongoing people and platform cost Sustained behavior change Benefits may decline without manager involvement

Compare scenarios using the same assumptions: number of learners, hours per learner, completion window, facilitator ratio, content life, and expected proficiency. This makes the investment decision transparent and helps leaders choose a learning strategy based on business risk rather than preference.

Forecast Adoption And Business Value

Learning investment should be tied to adoption and operational outcomes. Define the behaviors that must appear after training and identify the leading indicators that show whether employees are applying them. Examples include tool usage, quality scores, cycle time, customer conversion, compliance accuracy, or manager observation results.

Predictive Evaluation provides a useful framework for estimating training adoption, impact, and return before full implementation. The Predictive Evaluation book can help learning leaders structure assumptions about participation, transfer, business effects, and financial value.

Calculate potential value by connecting improved performance to a financial driver. If a new selling behavior could increase qualified conversions, estimate the value per conversion and apply a realistic adoption rate. If a process change could reduce errors, estimate avoided rework, service recovery, or regulatory exposure.

Test The Estimate Against Business Reality

Review the learning estimate with finance, operations, human resources, technology, and frontline leaders. These stakeholders can challenge population assumptions, identify operational constraints, and confirm whether the expected benefits are plausible.

Run sensitivity tests on the variables with the greatest influence. Examine what happens if adoption is 20 percent lower, the rollout is delayed, or managers can dedicate fewer hours to reinforcement. A program that remains worthwhile under conservative assumptions is more likely to receive durable executive support.

For a single initiative, a structured ROI calculation guide can help connect program costs with measurable benefits. Use the result as part of a broader portfolio decision, since some learning investments protect revenue, reduce risk, or build future capacity without producing immediate returns.

Make The Funding Case Actionable

The final estimate should show what the organization will fund, why the investment is needed, when benefits should appear, and how progress will be measured. Present the learning pathway, cost range, assumptions, dependencies, and decision points in language that business leaders use.

Use these practices to improve the quality of the estimate:

  • Define success in terms of changed performance, not course completion.
  • Segment learners by role, proficiency gap, and business impact.
  • Include employee time, manager reinforcement, and maintenance costs.
  • Compare delivery scenarios using consistent financial and operational assumptions.
  • Set checkpoints for adoption, transfer, business results, and return on investment.

A strategic pivot deserves a learning plan that is proportional to its risk and opportunity. Begin with the capabilities that unlock the strategy, model the full investment required to build them, and establish measurement before funds are committed. Dave Basarab Consulting can help organizations connect enterprise learning strategy, custom development, leadership development, delivery, and Predictive Evaluation to measurable business results.

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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