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

Why competency models fail without a strong measurement strategy

A competency model can look authoritative while doing little to improve performance. Organizations may define the behaviors, skills, and knowledge associated with success, then place the framework in a talent platform and assume it will guide hiring, development, promotion, and workforce planning.

The problem is rarely the language of the model alone. Failure usually begins when leaders cannot explain how competencies will be observed, measured, reinforced, and connected to business outcomes. Without that measurement discipline, a competency framework becomes a static catalogue rather than an operating system for capability building.

A strong measurement strategy turns broad expectations into evidence. It clarifies whether employees are adopting new behaviors, whether managers are reinforcing them, and whether improved capability is influencing productivity, quality, customer experience, risk, or revenue.

A model is not the same as a performance system

Competencies describe what effective performance looks like. They do not automatically show whether people possess those capabilities or use them consistently in real work. A statement such as “demonstrates strategic thinking” may sound useful, yet it remains difficult to assess unless the organization defines observable actions and reliable evidence.

The gap widens when competency models are created by a small group of subject-matter experts and then distributed without operational guidance. Employees may interpret the framework differently across departments, while managers may rely on personal impressions during reviews. The result is inconsistent assessment, limited trust, and little connection between learning activity and job performance.

Vague indicators weaken talent decisions

Weak measurement often begins with vague proficiency levels. Labels such as beginner, capable, and advanced can conceal major differences in expectations. If each level lacks behavioral anchors, assessors tend to score confidence, visibility, or familiarity rather than actual capability.

A useful competency architecture defines observable indicators for each role and context. It can combine manager observations, work samples, quality data, simulations, customer feedback, and self-assessment. Multiple evidence sources help distinguish knowledge acquisition from practical application, which is essential when the goal is sustained behavior change.

Measurement must follow the business case

Competency models fail when they measure activity instead of value. Attendance, course completion, assessment scores, and learner satisfaction can indicate participation, but they do not prove that capability improved or that business performance changed. These metrics have a place in a measurement hierarchy, yet they should not be mistaken for impact.

Leaders should begin with the business problem and work backward. If the goal is faster onboarding, measures might include time to proficiency, error rates, and manager-certified readiness. If the goal is stronger leadership, the organization might examine retention, internal mobility, team engagement, and execution of strategic priorities. This logic creates a traceable line from competency to behavior to result.

Measurement layer	What it reveals	Example evidence
Participation	Whether people engaged	Attendance, completion, access
Learning	Whether knowledge or skill increased	Assessments, practice scores, simulations
Adoption	Whether behavior appears at work	Observations, workflow data, manager check-ins
Performance	Whether job results improved	Quality, productivity, cycle time, sales
Business impact	Whether the initiative created value	Retention, revenue, risk reduction, customer outcomes

Adoption is the missing link

Many organizations measure learning immediately after an event and then stop. This captures short-term recall, not durable application. Competencies become meaningful when people use them under normal workload conditions, receive feedback, and encounter reinforcement from leaders and systems.

Short, targeted reinforcement can help bridge that gap. Research and practice around learning bursts show how spaced opportunities to retrieve and apply knowledge can support retention. Measurement should track whether those interventions change workplace behavior over time, rather than simply counting how many messages or modules were delivered.

Adoption measures might include the frequency of a target behavior, the quality of completed work, or the percentage of managers using a new coaching process. These indicators make it possible to identify where a model is understood but not applied.

Predictive evaluation improves investment decisions

Traditional evaluation often reports what happened after a program ended. That information is useful, but decision-makers also need a forecast before substantial resources are committed. Predictive Evaluation provides a structured way to estimate likely adoption, impact, and return on investment, then compare those forecasts with observed results.

This approach encourages leaders to test assumptions early. Are managers willing and able to reinforce the competencies? Do employees have opportunities to practice them? Can existing systems produce credible performance data? Perspectives collected in the Predictive Evaluation book reflect the value of connecting learning decisions with measurable organizational outcomes.

A forecast is not a promise. It is a disciplined hypothesis that can be refined as evidence accumulates. That makes the learning strategy more responsive and helps senior leaders distinguish a promising capability investment from an attractive but unsupported initiative.

Governance keeps the framework useful

Measurement strategies need ownership. Human resources may maintain the competency library, learning teams may design development experiences, and business leaders may own performance results. If responsibilities are unclear, data becomes fragmented and no one is accountable for acting on it.

A governance process should review definitions, evidence quality, assessment consistency, and business relevance at regular intervals. It should also protect the model from unnecessary complexity. A framework with hundreds of competencies and countless ratings may create administrative burden without improving decisions.

Practical steps include:

Define observable behaviors and evidence sources for each critical competency.
Establish baseline performance before launching development initiatives.
Track adoption and business outcomes at agreed intervals, not only course completion.
Use manager calibration sessions to improve scoring consistency.
Forecast expected impact and compare it with results through a repeatable evaluation method.

Capability grows when evidence drives action

A competency model becomes valuable when it helps the organization make better decisions about development, deployment, coaching, and investment. That requires measurement to be designed alongside the framework, not added after implementation.

Organizations that connect competency definitions with observable behavior, adoption data, performance indicators, and business results can see where capability is growing and where support is needed. Dave Basarab Consulting helps enterprises build learning strategies, instructional solutions, leadership programs, and Predictive Evaluation practices that connect employee capability with measurable results. Start by examining your most important competency model and identifying the evidence that would prove it is working.

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.