Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

Read More
Custom Design & Delivery

Read More
Predictive Evaluation

Read More
Enterprise Learning Strategy

Read More

› ‹

1
2
3
4

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 pitch a learning innovation to a risk-averse executive team

A new learning initiative can sound expensive, disruptive and difficult to measure, especially to executives responsible for governance, workforce productivity and financial performance. A persuasive pitch must therefore frame innovation as a controlled business experiment rather than an exciting feature of a learning platform.

Risk-averse leaders usually want evidence before commitment. They need to know what problem the proposal addresses, how adoption will be monitored, what the organisation stands to gain and what will happen if the approach does not work.

The strongest business case connects learning outcomes with operational measures such as reduced errors, faster onboarding, improved customer service, stronger manager capability or lower compliance exposure. It also makes the first step proportionate, with clear boundaries and decision points.

For an Australian organisation, the proposal should reflect local operating conditions. A programme may need to serve hybrid teams in Sydney and Melbourne, regional offices, FIFO workers in Western Australia or employees covered by modern awards and the Fair Work Act. These realities make thoughtful design and measurable implementation essential.

Executive concern	Evidence to present	Low-risk response
Cost	Expected business impact and assumptions	Run a bounded pilot
Disruption	Time required from employees and managers	Use short learning bursts
Adoption	Participation, application and manager follow-up	Track behaviour after training
Compliance	Privacy, accessibility and workplace obligations	Complete a governance review
Strategic fit	Link to current business priorities	Map outcomes to executive targets

Start with the business constraint

Open with a costly or persistent business issue, not the learning format. Explain how capability gaps are affecting sales conversion, safety incidents, project delays, customer complaints or leadership consistency. A concise problem statement gives executives a reason to consider change.

Use baseline evidence wherever possible. For example, if new supervisors in Brisbane and Adelaide take too long to become effective, show time-to-productivity data, quality results and manager feedback. Avoid claiming that training is the answer until the underlying performance problem has been properly diagnosed.

Define the innovation in practical terms

Describe the proposed approach in language that makes operational sense. “A six-week blended capability pathway with manager coaching and mobile learning bursts” is more credible than “a revolutionary digital learning ecosystem”.

Explain what employees will do differently, how much time the experience requires and where it fits into existing systems. Custom instructional design, leadership development and targeted training delivery can be presented as components of a coherent solution rather than separate purchases.

Make the risk visible and manageable

A credible proposal acknowledges risks such as low participation, poor manager support, technology limitations, privacy concerns and competing priorities. Then assign a mitigation for each risk. For example, schedule protected learning time, test the platform with a small group and provide managers with reinforcement tools.

Australian privacy requirements matter when collecting learner analytics, particularly under the Privacy Act 1988. Explain what data will be gathered, why it is needed, who can access it and how long it will be retained. If the initiative affects work practices, include consultation and workplace health and safety considerations.

Replace activity measures with business evidence

Executives are rarely persuaded by enrolment counts, attendance rates or satisfaction scores alone. These measures show delivery, but they do not establish whether capability was adopted or whether performance improved.

Set a measurement chain that moves from participation to application and then to business impact. A useful approach is to forecast expected adoption, define leading indicators and establish the conditions required for results. The adoption dashboards can help make these assumptions visible before the programme is scaled.

Propose a controlled pilot

A pilot reduces perceived exposure while creating a genuine opportunity to learn. Select a representative group, define the duration and specify the success thresholds before launch. Include enough variation to test the design across roles, locations and levels of digital confidence.

For instance, a pilot could include customer-facing employees in Melbourne, team leaders in Sydney and a regional cohort. A short cycle allows the organisation to test learning transfer, manager reinforcement and operational impact without committing every business unit.

Build the financial case

Translate expected benefits into conservative financial language. If the programme aims to reduce rework, estimate the current cost of rework, the percentage reduction required and the time needed to achieve it. If the goal is faster onboarding, calculate the value of earlier independent performance.

State assumptions clearly and include implementation costs, employee time, technology, facilitation and evaluation. A range is often more credible than a single precise forecast. Executives can then see what must be true for the investment to produce an acceptable return.

Present a decision with clear gates

Finish with a specific decision request: approval for a pilot, access to a defined participant group, an agreed evaluation budget and a review date. Give executives three or four slides of evidence rather than a long catalogue of learning features.

After launch, report movement in the business measures that justified the investment. The shift from training output reporting to impact reporting helps maintain executive confidence and supports an evidence-based scale decision.

A strong pitch makes innovation feel governable. Define the business problem, limit the initial exposure, measure adoption and connect capability growth to results. The practical takeaway is simple: ask executives to approve a measurable business test, not an unproven learning idea.

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.