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

Overcoming Resistance to New Training Initiatives at Work

Overcoming resistance to new training initiatives in the workplace requires more than publishing a course catalogue and setting completion deadlines. Employees may be concerned about workload, uncertain about the purpose of a program, or skeptical that training will change anything in their daily roles.

Resistance is often useful feedback. It can reveal unclear communication, weak manager support, poor timing, irrelevant content, or previous experiences with ineffective learning programs. When leaders treat those concerns as data rather than defiance, they can build stronger employee engagement and higher adoption.

A practical approach connects learning with business priorities while respecting how people actually work. The most effective programs combine clear purpose, relevant practice, visible leadership, and measurement that demonstrates value.

Find the real source of resistance

Employee pushback rarely has a single cause. Some people lack confidence with the subject matter, while others fear that training exposes a performance gap. Teams may also resist when a new system, process, or compliance requirement appears to add work without removing existing demands.

Use interviews, pulse surveys, focus groups, and manager conversations to identify these barriers before designing the intervention. Segment the findings by role, location, tenure, and workflow so the learning strategy addresses specific concerns instead of assuming that every employee needs the same response.

Connect learning to daily work

People are more likely to support training when they can see how it will help them serve customers, reduce rework, make decisions, or advance professionally. Explain the business reason in plain language, then translate it into concrete benefits for each audience.

Instructional design should mirror the environments where skills will be used. Scenarios, job aids, simulations, coaching, and short learning bursts can make capability development feel practical rather than theoretical. When employees apply a skill quickly and see a positive result, skepticism often declines.

Build trust before launch

Trust grows when leaders acknowledge the disruption involved in adopting a new way of working. Communicate what is changing, why the change matters, how much time training will require, and what support will be available afterward. Avoid exaggerated promises that may damage credibility.

Managers have an especially important role. Equip them with talking points, discussion guides, observation checklists, and time to reinforce the desired behaviors. Employees often judge the seriousness of a training initiative by whether their direct manager makes space for practice and follows up on progress.

Resistance pattern	Likely concern	Practical response
Low attendance	Training competes with urgent work	Protect time and schedule sessions around operational realities
Passive participation	Content feels irrelevant	Use role-specific examples and authentic business scenarios
Negative comments	Employees distrust the initiative	Explain the rationale and address previous program failures
Weak transfer	Skills are not reinforced	Add coaching, job aids, peer practice, and manager follow-up
Uneven adoption	Some groups lack access or confidence	Provide flexible formats, targeted support, and local champions

Involve employees in the solution

Participation creates ownership. Invite representative employees to review scenarios, test digital modules, identify workflow obstacles, and suggest language that fits the organization. This input improves relevance while giving influential team members a constructive role in the change.

Pilot the program with a small, diverse group before a full rollout. Look for confusion, excessive length, technical problems, and points where learners cannot connect the content to their responsibilities. Publicly acting on pilot feedback signals that the initiative is being shaped with employees, not imposed on them.

Measure adoption and business impact

Completion rates are easy to report, but they do not prove that people changed their behavior or that the organization gained value. A useful evaluation plan tracks leading indicators such as participation, confidence, practice, manager reinforcement, and early application.

It should also connect learning to operational outcomes, including productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, safety, sales performance, or employee retention. A predictive evaluation approach can help organizations forecast likely adoption and return before investing heavily, then compare those expectations with results after implementation.

Sustain behavior after training

A single event cannot carry a transformation. Reinforcement should begin before the formal learning experience and continue through reminders, coaching conversations, peer communities, refresher activities, and performance support embedded in the workflow.

Review adoption data regularly and respond to weak points quickly. If employees understand the content but do not use it, examine incentives, tools, manager behavior, and process design rather than automatically assigning more training. Sustainable capability depends on the wider work environment.

Actions that improve training adoption

State the business purpose and employee benefit in every launch communication.
Give managers practical tools and protected time for reinforcement.
Use role-specific scenarios, short practice activities, and accessible job aids.
Pilot the initiative with representative employees and act on their feedback.
Measure behavior change and business outcomes alongside attendance and completion.

Resistance becomes manageable when it is treated as a design and leadership issue rather than a character flaw. Organizations that listen carefully, involve employees, support managers, and measure meaningful outcomes can turn hesitation into participation and learning into measurable performance.

Dave Basarab Consulting can help align enterprise learning strategy, custom instructional design, leadership development, training delivery, and Predictive Evaluation with the results your organization needs. Explore the available consulting services to build a training initiative employees can use, support, and sustain.

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.