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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

Designing Training That Works Across Australian Teams

Cross-functional teams bring together people who use different language, follow different processes and measure success in different ways. A finance analyst, site supervisor, software engineer and customer service leader may all attend the same session while expecting very different value from it.

The challenges of designing training for cross-functional teams become sharper when learning must support a business priority rather than deliver general information. A programme that feels practical to one group can seem irrelevant, too basic or disconnected to another.

Australian organisations also operate across considerable distances, industries and workplace cultures. A team may include staff in Sydney, a mining operation in Western Australia, a contact centre in Brisbane and remote employees working from home. Effective learning design needs to reflect those realities from the beginning.

Why Shared Training Often Misses the Mark

Each function brings its own vocabulary, assumptions and view of risk. Sales may focus on customer conversion, operations on consistency, technology on system integrity and human resources on workforce capability. When these perspectives are compressed into one course, the content can become so broad that nobody sees a clear connection to daily work.

Hierarchy creates another complication. A senior manager may be comfortable discussing strategy while frontline employees need demonstrations, job aids and time to practise. In an Australian workplace, a direct and practical tone often earns more trust than corporate language. Calling a task “a fair dinkum priority” may resonate more than presenting another abstract capability model.

Training can also fail when its examples ignore the operating environment. A scenario based on a single metropolitan office will not necessarily suit a FIFO workforce, a regional hospital or a distributed team spanning Perth and Melbourne. Shift patterns, award obligations, local safety requirements and limited connectivity may affect participation as much as the course content.

Find the Common Business Need

The strongest starting point is a shared business outcome. Instead of asking what every department should learn, identify what the organisation needs people to do differently across boundaries. This might involve reducing handover errors, improving project delivery, increasing adoption of a new platform or responding more consistently to customers.

Stakeholder interviews should expose both common ground and meaningful variation. Ask leaders, subject matter experts and employees where work breaks down, which decisions are delayed and what evidence would demonstrate improvement. Dave Basarab’s learning design approach places useful emphasis on connecting capability development with workplace performance rather than treating attendance as the result.

A shared outcome does not require identical learning. Core concepts can be consistent, while practice activities reflect each group’s responsibilities. A procurement officer and an engineering lead may learn the same escalation principles, then apply them to different decisions, systems and constraints.

Design Questions Worth Resolving

  • Which business result requires several functions to act differently?
  • Where do teams use conflicting definitions or measures?
  • What must employees practise rather than simply understand?
  • Which examples reflect Australian sites, customers and regulations?
  • What evidence will show that behaviour has transferred to work?

Choose the Right Delivery Model

Delivery decisions should follow the work, not convenience. A single workshop can build shared understanding, but it may be unsuitable for rotating shifts or employees spread across multiple states. A blended pathway might combine a short learning burst, team discussion, scenario practice and manager follow-up.

The table below illustrates how different approaches can serve different cross-functional needs.

Delivery approach Best suited to Main strength Common risk
Shared workshop A common process or business priority Creates a consistent language Examples may feel too generic
Role-based pathways Distinct responsibilities within one initiative Improves relevance and practice Groups can lose sight of the wider goal
Learning bursts Time-poor or distributed teams Fits short attention windows and shifts Limited depth without reinforcement
Facilitated simulations Complex decisions and collaboration Reveals behaviours under pressure Requires careful preparation and skilled facilitation
Manager-led transfer Sustaining new habits at work Links learning to real performance Managers need tools and accountability

Learning technology can support scale, but it should not disguise weak design. A polished learning management system will not solve unclear expectations, poor workflow integration or a lack of manager involvement. In regional and remote Australian settings, downloadable resources and low-bandwidth options may be essential.

Make Practice Reflect Real Work

Cross-functional capability develops when participants must negotiate priorities, interpret incomplete information and make decisions together. Scenarios should therefore include realistic friction: a customer escalation, a safety concern, a delayed supplier, a data-quality issue or a project handover that has gone wrong.

A useful exercise gives each role enough information to make its position understandable. Participants should see why another function is making a particular request, then work towards an outcome that reflects the organisation’s priorities. This is more valuable than asking everyone to repeat the same model or definition.

Elements That Support Transfer

  • Role-specific scenarios connected to shared outcomes
  • Checklists and templates embedded in normal workflows
  • Short manager conversations after formal learning
  • Peer practice across departments and locations
  • Follow-up measures tied to operational performance

Cultural and workforce context also matters. A programme for an organisation working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities should address cultural safety with care and involve appropriate voices in design. Likewise, examples for a construction, health or resources workforce need to reflect the language, schedules and risks people actually encounter.

Measure Adoption and Business Impact

Evaluation should begin before delivery. Define the expected behaviour, the conditions needed for it to occur and the business indicators that may move as a result. Depending on the initiative, evidence could include faster cycle times, fewer rework events, improved customer resolution, stronger compliance or more consistent use of a system.

Predictive Evaluation can help leaders estimate likely adoption and impact before substantial resources are committed. This matters when executives are comparing a learning investment with technology, recruitment or process changes. A practical discussion of learning budget evidence can help connect training decisions with the measures senior stakeholders already understand.

Evaluation should account for factors outside the course. A team may understand a new process but lack authority, time, system access or manager support to use it. Separating learning quality from workplace conditions produces a more accurate picture and avoids blaming training for an organisational barrier.

Keep Learning Connected to Work

The most effective cross-functional programmes create a common direction while respecting different roles. They use shared outcomes, relevant practice and a delivery model that fits real schedules. They also give managers a clear part in reinforcing the new behaviour after the formal experience has ended.

For Australian organisations, practical design means accounting for distance, shift work, state-based requirements, varied workforce cultures and the direct expectations of local teams. A programme that works in a Sydney head office may need different examples, access arrangements and facilitation for a Pilbara site or a regional service centre.

What readers should remember is simple: cross-functional training succeeds when people can see the shared business purpose, practise decisions that resemble their work and find support for applying new skills afterwards.

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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