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 Custom Instructional Design Outperforms Off-the-Shelf Courses

Organizations invest in training to change what people know, do, and deliver. Yet a generic course often explains broad concepts without addressing the systems, decisions, workflows, and performance standards that define a specific workplace. Employees may complete the content while business results remain unchanged.

Custom instructional design begins with the organization’s goals and the learner’s actual environment. It connects learning objectives to job responsibilities, adapts examples to relevant situations, and creates practice that resembles the decisions employees make every day. That alignment gives learning a better chance of becoming consistent workplace behavior.

Off-the-shelf content still has a role when the need is common, urgent, and relatively standardized. However, custom learning solutions are usually the stronger choice when capability gaps affect revenue, customer experience, operational risk, leadership effectiveness, or strategic change.

Generic Content Often Misses The Real Problem

A catalog course typically addresses a broad audience. Its scenarios, terminology, pacing, and assessments must work for many organizations, so they may not reflect the priorities or constraints of a particular business. Learners can understand the material yet struggle to apply it when their tools and processes differ from the examples.

Effective needs analysis looks beyond the stated request for “training.” It investigates performance data, manager expectations, workflow obstacles, and the consequences of inconsistent execution. This process distinguishes a knowledge gap from a policy issue, technology problem, incentive conflict, or unclear role definition.

Custom development can then target the real performance challenge. Instead of teaching a general communication model, for example, a program might help account managers prepare difficult renewal conversations using the company’s pricing rules, customer segments, and escalation procedures.

Relevance Increases Attention And Retention

Employees pay closer attention when learning reflects situations they recognize. Familiar language, realistic case studies, and role-specific practice reduce the distance between the classroom and the job. This relevance also makes it easier for learners to remember how and when to use a new skill.

Engagement is more than visual design or short videos. It depends on purposeful interaction, useful feedback, credible facilitators, and a clear connection to daily work. Practical guidance on custom instructional materials shows why content must be designed around employee experience rather than simply assembled from information.

A tailored learning journey can also accommodate different levels of expertise. New employees may need guided practice and foundational explanations, while experienced professionals may benefit from complex scenarios, peer discussion, and decision-based simulations.

Custom Programs Connect Learning To Performance

A high-value learning program defines what successful performance looks like before content is created. Objectives describe observable actions, such as diagnosing a customer issue, coaching a direct report, or applying a quality-control process accurately. Assessments can then test those actions instead of relying solely on recall questions.

That alignment makes it easier for managers to reinforce learning after delivery. They can observe the same behaviors addressed in training, provide targeted coaching, and recognize progress using shared standards. The program becomes part of a performance system rather than an isolated event.

Business need	Generic course risk	Custom design advantage
New technology adoption	Examples do not match the tools	Practice mirrors actual workflows
Leadership capability	Advice feels abstract	Managers rehearse relevant decisions
Compliance and risk reduction	Completion is mistaken for readiness	Assessments test applied judgment
Customer experience improvement	Scenarios lack company context	Role plays reflect real interactions
Strategic transformation	Content is disconnected from priorities	Learning reinforces the change agenda

Adaptability Matters During Change

Business conditions rarely remain static. New systems, reorganizations, market shifts, and updated regulations can make fixed content obsolete. A custom program can be revised as policies change, stakeholder expectations evolve, or performance data reveals a new barrier.

Modular design makes this adaptability more practical. Learning bursts, manager tools, job aids, and targeted refreshers can support a longer adoption journey without forcing employees through an entire course again. This approach is especially useful when capability must develop across distributed teams or over several stages of transformation.

Leadership development illustrates the need for context. Programs often fail when they present inspiring concepts without helping leaders use them amid competing priorities, organizational politics, and real team dynamics. A review of leadership development programs highlights the importance of reinforcement, accountability, and business alignment.

Expert Insight Strengthens Instructional Quality

Subject matter experts provide essential knowledge, but expertise alone does not guarantee effective instruction. Instructional designers translate complex ideas into clear sequences, meaningful practice, accessible explanations, and assessments that reveal capability. The partnership between these roles creates content that is both accurate and teachable.

Specialist perspectives can be especially valuable in leadership, emotional intelligence, change management, and other areas where behavior depends on self-awareness and interpersonal judgment. Incorporating emotional intelligence expertise can help a program move beyond definitions toward reflection, feedback, and observable relationship skills.

A strong design process also includes pilots and feedback loops. Testing content with representative learners exposes confusing instructions, unrealistic scenarios, and unnecessary material before full deployment. The result is a more focused experience with greater credibility among employees and managers.

Measure Adoption And Business Impact

Course completion is an activity measure, not proof of value. Organizations need to know whether employees use the capability, whether managers reinforce it, and whether relevant business indicators improve. This requires measurement to be considered during design rather than added after delivery.

Predictive Evaluation provides a structured way to forecast and measure training adoption, impact, and return on investment. By identifying expected behaviors, enabling conditions, and business metrics in advance, learning leaders can make stronger decisions about investment and improvement.

Custom instructional design supports this measurement because its objectives are tied to a defined performance need. Teams can compare baseline conditions with post-training behavior, examine adoption barriers, and refine the program based on evidence rather than assumptions.

Put Custom Learning To Work

Organizations choosing a tailored approach should:

Define the business outcome and target behaviors before selecting content.
Involve learners, managers, and subject matter experts in the design process.
Use realistic scenarios, practice, feedback, and job aids to support transfer.
Build reinforcement into the learning journey through coaching and follow-up resources.
Measure adoption and business impact with clear leading and lagging indicators.

The right solution may combine custom courses with selected off-the-shelf resources. What matters is making a deliberate choice based on risk, relevance, urgency, audience needs, and the value of improved performance.

When learning must influence behavior and business results, generic content is rarely enough by itself. Partner with Dave Basarab Consulting to design a learning strategy, instructional experience, and evaluation approach that turns employee development into measurable organizational capability.

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.