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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

Why Spaced Practice Beats Cramming In Corporate Learning

A full-day workshop can create energy, useful discussion and a reassuring sense of progress. Yet when employees return to their normal workload, much of what they heard may fade quickly. Cramming delivers exposure, but exposure alone rarely produces reliable workplace performance.

Spaced practice takes a different approach. It distributes learning across shorter sessions, revisits important ideas at planned intervals and gives people repeated opportunities to apply new skills. This strengthens memory while making learning easier to connect with real tasks, team conversations and business priorities.

For Australian organisations operating across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and regional locations, the approach is especially practical. Distributed learning can accommodate hybrid teams, shift work, operational peaks and the travel demands of dispersed workforces without treating training as a single event.

Why Cramming Fades Quickly

Cramming overloads working memory. Participants may remember terminology or procedures immediately after a workshop, but recall declines when there is no opportunity to retrieve and use the information. A packed agenda can also encourage passive note-taking rather than deliberate practice.

This matters when training involves complex capabilities such as leadership, customer service, safety, compliance or digital transformation. Employees need to make decisions under pressure, adapt to different situations and explain their reasoning. Those capabilities develop through repeated application, feedback and reflection.

A short burst before an assessment or product launch may still have a place. It can introduce a new process or meet an urgent regulatory need. However, it should be treated as the first stage of a learning journey, not evidence that capability has been embedded.

How Spacing Strengthens Retention

Spaced learning uses the testing effect and the spacing effect. Asking people to recall an idea after a delay strengthens memory more effectively than asking them to review the same material repeatedly in one sitting. Each retrieval attempt makes future recall more accessible.

The interval does not need to be long. A learning burst on Monday, a short scenario on Thursday and a manager-led discussion the following week can create useful reinforcement. Later sessions can increase the difficulty, requiring employees to choose, adapt or coach rather than simply repeat.

Australian workplaces can build this rhythm around existing habits. A team in Melbourne might discuss a customer scenario during a weekly huddle, while a mining operation in Western Australia could use mobile activities between shifts. The method should fit the work rather than forcing every employee into an identical classroom schedule.

Turning Learning Into Workplace Behaviour

Retention improves when practice resembles the conditions in which people will perform. Role plays, branching scenarios, job aids, peer coaching and short problem-solving tasks allow employees to rehearse decisions before consequences are real. Managers then reinforce the same behaviours through regular conversations and observation.

For leadership development, spacing can turn a workshop on feedback into a series of manageable experiments. A participant might prepare for a difficult conversation, try a feedback model with a team member, record what happened and revisit the experience with a coach. Each cycle links learning to a specific workplace outcome.

Learning teams should also measure adoption, not just attendance or satisfaction. Dave Basarab’s Predictive Evaluation book provides a useful perspective on forecasting whether training will be used, create impact and contribute to return on investment. That focus helps organisations decide which reinforcement activities deserve ongoing support.

Designing A Sustainable Practice Rhythm

A strong programme begins with the capability and business result that matter. Designers can then identify the critical behaviours, break them into smaller practices and schedule reinforcement at points when employees are likely to need it. This avoids sending generic reminders that have little connection to daily work.

A practical rhythm might include a focused launch session, two short digital activities, a manager check-in, a realistic application task and a later performance review. For a national organisation, the same structure can be adapted for local contexts, including Queensland public-sector teams, New South Wales sales groups or FIFO employees with limited connectivity.

Useful design recommendations include:

  • Keep each practice focused on one behaviour or decision.
  • Use retrieval questions instead of relying on repeated reading.
  • Connect scenarios to Australian customers, regulations and work settings.
  • Give managers simple prompts for coaching and reinforcement.
  • Schedule practice around operational demands and shift patterns.
  • Track behaviour change and business indicators alongside completion.
  • Refresh examples when systems, products or priorities change.

Spaced practice also supports equity. Employees who need more time to process information receive additional opportunities without being singled out, while experienced staff can work through more demanding scenarios. This is valuable in diverse workforces where learning preferences, roles and access to technology vary.

Comparing Learning Approaches

The most effective choice depends on urgency, complexity and the behaviour an organisation needs to change. Cramming may be appropriate for a narrow, immediate requirement, while spacing is generally stronger when capability must endure and transfer to the job.

Learning approach Best suited to Likely strength Common limitation
Single intensive workshop Immediate orientation or urgent updates Fast exposure and shared discussion Weak long-term recall without reinforcement
Self-paced reference material Basic information and policy access Flexible and easy to revisit Limited accountability and application
Spaced practice Skill development and behaviour change Stronger retention and workplace transfer Requires planning and manager involvement
Coaching with workplace tasks Leadership and complex performance Personalised feedback and real context Quality depends on coach capability
Blended learning journey Enterprise-wide capability programmes Combines scale, practice and support Needs coordinated design and measurement

Effective implementation also depends on leadership sponsorship. Dave Basarab’s professional story reflects the value of connecting learning design with organisational performance rather than treating training as an isolated event. When leaders reinforce the same priorities, spaced practice becomes part of how work gets done.

For a practical starting point, choose one important behaviour, create three brief retrieval or application activities and place them across a fortnight. Ask managers to discuss the behaviour in existing meetings, observe its use and record a meaningful performance signal. That simple rhythm gives employees repeated practice and gives the business evidence that learning is moving from memory into action.

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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