› ‹
  • 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.

More...

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.

More...

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.

More...

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.

More...

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.

More...

Predictive Evaluation

The hidden costs of custom training design and how to control them

Custom training can give an organization a precise answer to a real performance problem. It can reflect internal systems, customer expectations, compliance requirements, and the language employees use every day. That relevance often improves engagement and makes learning easier to apply.

Yet the visible project budget rarely captures the full investment. Discovery meetings, stakeholder revisions, content maintenance, technology decisions, pilot testing, manager support, and evaluation can expand the cost long after a vendor delivers the course. The hidden costs of custom training design become especially significant when the program is built without a clear business measure.

A disciplined learning strategy controls those expenses before development begins. It connects design choices to workforce needs, adoption conditions, and expected business results instead of treating custom content as an isolated production project.

Where the budget quietly expands

The first source of cost is unclear scope. Subject-matter experts may disagree about essential content, leaders may request additional scenarios, and compliance teams may add requirements late in development. Every unresolved decision creates rework in storyboards, scripts, media, assessments, and facilitator materials.

Customization also consumes internal time. Managers, legal reviewers, technical specialists, and high-performing employees may contribute hours that never appear on the invoice. Their participation is valuable, but it should be scheduled, bounded, and assigned to decisions that genuinely require their expertise.

Why rework is more expensive than planning

A rushed discovery phase often leads designers to build the wrong solution efficiently. A knowledge problem may receive a course when employees actually need a simpler workflow, better tools, coaching, or clearer accountability. Redesigning the intervention after launch costs more than diagnosing the performance gap at the beginning.

A useful design brief should define the audience, business problem, desired behavior, delivery environment, constraints, and evidence of success. It should also identify what the program will not cover. That boundary protects the project from becoming a general-purpose curriculum with an uncontrolled feature list.

Cost drivers worth tracking

Not every custom element produces equal value. Interactive simulations, animation, branching scenarios, multiple languages, live facilitation, and system integrations can improve learning transfer, but each adds design, testing, accessibility, and maintenance requirements. Select them because they support a measurable performance need.

Cost driver Why it grows Control method
Stakeholder review Too many reviewers or unclear approval rights Name one decision owner and set review windows
Custom media Filming, animation, and editing require specialist work Use media only where practice or clarity improves
Technology integration Platforms may need configuration, testing, and support Confirm technical requirements before storyboarding
Content maintenance Policies, products, and systems change Build modular assets with an update schedule
Global delivery Translation and cultural adaptation add cycles Prioritize markets and design for localization early
Impact measurement Weak baselines make results difficult to prove Define success metrics before launch

Build for reuse and maintenance

Modular design can reduce the long-term cost of learning content. Short learning bursts, reusable examples, adaptable assessments, and separated media files make it easier to update one component without rebuilding an entire course. A content inventory also reveals which assets can support onboarding, manager development, or refresher training.

Maintenance ownership should be agreed upon during development. Assign responsibility for policy checks, platform updates, accessibility reviews, and retirement decisions. Without that ownership, outdated training remains active, creates confusion, and eventually demands an expensive emergency rebuild.

Measure adoption before claiming value

Completion rates are easy to report, but they do not show whether employees used the capability in their work. A stronger evaluation approach tracks adoption, behavior change, operational indicators, and financial impact where appropriate. Predictive Evaluation can help organizations forecast these measures before investing heavily, then compare expectations with results after deployment.

This approach also improves design decisions. If a proposed program cannot identify a plausible path from learning activity to business outcome, leaders can reduce its scope, add workplace support, or reconsider the intervention. For broader guidance on connecting learning with organizational priorities, explore enterprise learning strategy as part of the planning process.

Control decisions with a value test

A practical governance model prevents enthusiasm from turning every request into a production requirement. For each proposed feature, estimate its contribution to the target behavior, its development and maintenance cost, and the risk of excluding it. A simple value test creates a transparent basis for accepting, simplifying, postponing, or rejecting additions.

Leadership development deserves particular care because distributed teams may need different practice environments, manager reinforcement, and channels for continued support. This perspective is explored in distributed leadership development, where delivery design is connected to the realities of modern work.

Useful controls include:

  • Define the performance outcome before selecting the learning format.
  • Limit formal reviews to people with a clear decision or risk-management role.
  • Prototype one representative module before approving full production.
  • Budget for adoption support, measurement, localization, and maintenance.
  • Review post-launch data and retire content that no longer changes behavior.

Custom training becomes financially sound when every design choice has a reason beyond preference. Establish the business case, set decision boundaries, and measure adoption from the start. Connect with Dave Basarab Consulting to build a learning solution that improves capability while keeping its total cost visible and controlled.

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.

More...