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 Focus Groups Strengthen Training Before Launch

Training content can look polished in a slide deck and still miss the needs of the people expected to use it. A focus group gives learning teams an early view of how employees interpret the language, examples, activities and performance expectations in a proposed programme.

Used well, this qualitative research method helps validate training content before launch. It reveals confusing instructions, unrealistic scenarios and gaps between what subject-matter experts intend to teach and what employees need to do on the job.

For Australian organisations, the review group may include employees from Sydney headquarters, Melbourne offices, Brisbane operations or a regional and remote workforce. Different locations, roles and workplace conditions can affect how learners respond to the same material.

Focus groups work best as part of a wider learning measurement approach. Alongside surveys, pilot results and operational data, they can help connect content decisions with adoption, capability and business outcomes.

Define What the Session Must Validate

Begin with a short list of decisions the group needs to inform. You might test whether a compliance scenario feels realistic, whether a leadership model suits frontline managers or whether a learning burst can communicate one behaviour in ten minutes.

Keep the purpose narrower than “review the course”. Ask participants to assess specific elements: relevance, clarity, credibility, accessibility, emotional response and likely workplace application. Dave Basarab’s client examples show how learning work can be considered in relation to organisational needs rather than treated as an isolated content exercise.

Prepare a discussion guide that moves from spontaneous reactions to focused probes. Show a small amount of material at a time, then ask what participants think it means, what they would do next and what might prevent them from applying it.

Build a Useful Validation Group

Recruit people who resemble the eventual audience, rather than selecting only confident volunteers or senior employees. Include differences in tenure, role, digital confidence, location and prior exposure to the subject. An Australian programme may need perspectives from a Perth site, a Sydney office and employees working remotely across regional New South Wales.

A group of six to eight participants is usually large enough to generate varied views while remaining manageable. Run separate sessions when hierarchy, language, union representation or cultural dynamics could prevent open discussion. Avoid placing a direct manager in the same group as their team members.

Useful selection checks include:

Current role, work location and level of responsibility
Experience with the process or behaviour being taught
Access to the technology used for delivery
Previous training exposure and confidence with learning formats

Before inviting participants, confirm:

The session length, confidentiality expectations and recording arrangements
Whether examples reflect Australian policies, terminology and workplace practice
How participant feedback will influence content decisions
Which accessibility or language needs should be addressed

Facilitate for Evidence, Not Approval

A skilled moderator keeps the conversation centred on observable reactions. Instead of asking whether participants “like” a module, ask them to explain a difficult concept in their own words or identify the action they would take in a realistic situation.

Show unfinished content where possible. A rough scenario or draft activity encourages useful criticism, while a highly polished course can make people reluctant to challenge it. The moderator should also distinguish between personal preference and a genuine barrier to performance.

Pay attention to silence, hesitation and disagreement. A participant who says an example is “fine” may still be unable to describe how it applies during a busy shift. In Australia, this can be especially important when content designed for corporate offices is intended for healthcare, construction, mining or hospitality teams with very different operating conditions.

Analyse Feedback and Predict Workplace Impact

After the session, code comments into themes such as comprehension, relevance, credibility, transfer and access. Record the exact content element connected to each observation. “The course is too long” is less useful than “the third scenario repeats the same decision and could be removed”.

Separate critical changes from optional preferences. A misunderstanding of a safety instruction, inaccessible interaction or inaccurate industrial example requires action before launch. A preference for different colours may be logged without driving a redesign.

This evidence can support Predictive Evaluation by linking anticipated learner responses with adoption and performance measures. The Dave Basarab Consulting approach can help organisations consider how learning activity will be connected to measurable business results, rather than relying on completion figures alone.

Useful follow-up measures may include manager observations, task accuracy, customer outcomes, time to proficiency and use of new processes. Establish a baseline before launch so later results can be interpreted with greater confidence.

Convert Findings Into Launch Decisions

Create a decision log that records the finding, supporting evidence, owner, action and reason for accepting or rejecting a change. This prevents the loudest opinion from dominating and makes the approval process transparent to subject-matter experts and sponsors.

Run a short second review after major revisions. It does not need to repeat the entire focus group; a targeted check can confirm that a confusing activity, Australian case study or assessment instruction now works as intended. For a distributed workforce, test the final experience on the devices and connection types employees actually use.

The following comparison can help determine the right validation method for each question:

Method	Best for	Main strength	Common limitation
Focus group	Reactions, language and perceived relevance	Rich discussion and unexpected insights	Small sample size
One-to-one interview	Sensitive or role-specific feedback	Greater depth and candour	Slower to conduct
Prototype pilot	Usability and task performance	Observes behaviour in context	Requires a workable draft
Survey	Broad preference patterns	Efficient across large populations	Limited explanation
Knowledge or skills check	Learning outcomes	Produces measurable evidence	May miss workplace barriers

Use focus groups to improve the content, then use pilots and operational measures to test whether the improved learning experience changes behaviour. The immediate next step is to write five validation questions and recruit six representative employees for a structured review session.

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.