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 Foster Manager Buy-In for New Learning Programs

A new learning program succeeds when managers treat it as part of the work rather than an interruption to it. Their support influences attendance, practice, coaching, reinforcement, and whether employees apply new skills after the formal training ends.

Manager buy-in is therefore more than approval from a department head. It is active participation from the people who set priorities, protect time, interpret expectations, and connect professional development with daily performance.

Organizations can build that support by involving managers early, defining business value clearly, and giving leaders practical tools for reinforcing learning. A thoughtful approach turns training adoption into a shared operational responsibility.

Start With the Manager’s Business Priorities

Managers are more likely to support a learning initiative when it addresses a problem they already need to solve. Position the program around issues such as inconsistent customer experiences, slow onboarding, quality gaps, leadership succession, compliance exposure, or missed revenue opportunities.

Avoid presenting the program primarily through course titles, seat time, or content topics. Explain what employees should do differently, which performance indicators may improve, and how the change supports team objectives. This gives managers a meaningful reason to allocate time and attention.

Early discovery conversations can reveal practical barriers. Ask managers what prevents current performance, which behaviors matter most, and what evidence would convince them that the program is working. Their answers can shape the learning objectives and increase ownership before launch.

Make the Value Visible Before Launch

A manager-facing business case should be concise and specific. It can include the operational challenge, target audience, expected behavior changes, manager responsibilities, measurement approach, and likely consequences of inaction.

Training outcomes and business outcomes are related but different. A participant may complete a course, pass an assessment, or express confidence without changing workplace behavior. This distinction is explored in training output, and it is essential when explaining value to managers who are accountable for results.

Use language that connects learning to observable work. Instead of promising “better communication,” identify actions such as conducting structured one-to-one meetings, documenting decisions, or resolving escalations using a consistent process.

Involve Leaders in Program Design

Managers do not need to write the curriculum, but they should have a voice in its relevance and usability. Invite representative leaders to review scenarios, identify realistic obstacles, and test whether proposed tools fit the pace of work.

This involvement should happen before materials are finalized. A short pilot, manager advisory group, or design workshop can uncover terminology problems, workflow conflicts, and missing examples. It also creates internal advocates who can explain the program credibly to their peers.

Manager concern	Practical response	Evidence to provide
Time away from work	Use focused modules, learning bursts, and protected practice time	Attendance and completion trends
Relevance to the role	Build scenarios around real decisions and customer situations	Pilot feedback and behavior checks
Unclear expectations	Define the manager’s role before, during, and after training	Manager checklist
Doubts about impact	Establish baseline and follow-up measures	Adoption and performance data
Limited reinforcement capacity	Supply coaching prompts, job aids, and conversation guides	Usage and follow-through rates

Give Managers Simple Reinforcement Tools

Support declines when managers are expected to reinforce learning without guidance. Provide brief conversation prompts, observation checklists, team discussion questions, and examples of how to recognize new behaviors during normal work.

Reinforcement should fit existing management routines. A manager might spend five minutes in a weekly team meeting reviewing one skill, use a one-to-one conversation to discuss application, or include a relevant behavior in a performance check-in.

The best tools reduce preparation time rather than adding another administrative burden. They should tell managers what to notice, what to ask, and what action to take when employees struggle to apply the material.

Measure Adoption as Well as Completion

Completion data can show whether people participated, but it does not explain whether the learning entered the workflow. Track indicators such as practice frequency, manager coaching activity, tool usage, behavior adoption, quality changes, productivity, retention, or customer outcomes.

Share measurement plans with managers before the program begins. When leaders know what will be observed and why, evaluation feels less like an audit and more like a way to improve implementation. Adoption dashboards can help make participation, behavior change, and business impact easier to monitor over time.

Use early signals to intervene quickly. If attendance is high but application is low, the solution may involve manager coaching, workflow changes, clearer expectations, or additional practice rather than another content-heavy course.

Build a Partnership Around Delivery

Learning teams and managers should agree on responsibilities before launch. The learning function may own design, facilitation, communications, and evaluation, while managers protect time, model expectations, create practice opportunities, and discuss progress with employees.

External providers can strengthen this relationship when they understand the organization’s goals and operating environment. A successful vendor partnership depends on shared expectations, clear communication, useful feedback, and an emphasis on business performance rather than course delivery alone.

Use a launch rhythm that keeps the program visible without overwhelming leaders: an initial briefing, reminders before each stage, short progress updates, and a review of early evidence. Recognize managers who support adoption and share examples of teams applying the learning effectively.

Practical Ways to Earn Manager Support

Link every learning objective to a specific workplace behavior or business priority.
Involve respected managers in pilot testing and scenario development.
Protect time for participation, practice, and follow-up coaching.
Give leaders short reinforcement tools that fit existing meetings.
Report adoption and performance signals in language managers can act on.

Manager buy-in grows when leaders can see the relevance, influence the design, and understand exactly how their participation affects results. Begin with a focused business problem, engage managers before launch, and establish measures that show whether learning is becoming everyday performance. Build those practices into your next learning initiative and turn managerial support into sustained capability.

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.