Your Chief Virtual Learning Architect

Learning to Performance

Read More
Custom Design & Delivery

Read More
Predictive Evaluation

Read More
Enterprise Learning Strategy

Read More

› ‹

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.

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 Training Needs Analysis Misses the Real Problem

Training needs analysis is meant to reveal what employees must learn to perform better. Yet many organizations begin with a preferred solution—an online course, workshop, or leadership program—and use the analysis to justify it. That approach can produce polished learning content while leaving the business issue untouched.

The real difficulty is often less visible than a knowledge gap. Performance may be constrained by unclear priorities, poor systems, weak management practices, insufficient resources, or incentives that reward the wrong behavior. When these conditions are mistaken for a training need, even excellent instruction will have limited effect.

A more useful approach connects employee capability with workflow, leadership behavior, operational data, and business outcomes. It treats learning as one possible intervention within a larger performance system rather than an automatic answer to every organizational problem.

Start With The Business Result

A credible analysis begins by defining the business result that needs to change. That result might involve faster customer response, fewer safety incidents, stronger sales conversion, improved retention, or more consistent quality. Vague goals such as “increase awareness” make it difficult to identify the behaviors that matter.

Once the desired result is clear, analysts can work backward. Which actions influence it? Who performs those actions? What conditions support or obstruct them? This sequence shifts attention from course topics to measurable performance and creates a stronger foundation for enterprise learning strategy.

Separate Skill Gaps From System Barriers

Employees may appear unable to perform because they lack knowledge, but observation often reveals a different cause. A complicated approval process, outdated software, conflicting instructions, or limited decision authority can create the same symptoms as insufficient capability.

Interviews should therefore include employees, supervisors, process owners, and customers where relevant. Performance data, workflow observations, quality records, and help-desk trends can test whether the issue is instructional. If people know what to do but cannot do it reliably, training alone is unlikely to solve the problem.

Diagnose The Full Performance Environment

A thorough training needs analysis examines several factors before recommending a learning intervention. These include current skill, role clarity, tools, feedback, incentives, manager support, workload, and opportunities to practice. The aim is to identify the specific combination of conditions shaping behavior.

Diagnostic question	Possible finding	Appropriate response
Do employees know the expected behavior?	Instructions are unclear	Clarify standards and communication
Can employees perform the behavior?	Practice or skill is missing	Provide targeted training
Do systems allow the behavior?	Tools or workflows create friction	Redesign the process or technology
Do managers reinforce the behavior?	Coaching is inconsistent	Develop manager routines and support
Is the behavior rewarded?	Incentives favor old habits	Align measures and recognition

This broader diagnosis also improves custom instructional design. When training is genuinely required, designers can focus on the decisions, practice activities, and job aids that address the verified gap. Custom e-learning design becomes more effective when it reflects real work rather than generic content.

Treat Employee Feedback As Evidence

Employee opinions are valuable, but stated preferences do not always identify the root cause. A request for “more training” may mean that workers lack confidence, receive contradictory guidance, or feel exposed when processes change. A request for shorter courses may signal workload pressure rather than a preference for microlearning.

Use feedback alongside behavioral evidence. Ask employees to describe recent examples, demonstrate the task, explain where errors occur, and identify what happens when they seek help. This produces richer data than a survey asking whether people want additional training.

Test Manager Readiness Early

Managers influence whether learning is applied after a program ends. They allocate time, observe performance, reinforce standards, and decide which priorities receive attention. If they are unaware of the reason for a program or cannot support practice, adoption will remain weak.

Manager involvement should be diagnosed before development begins. Do leaders understand the desired behavior? Can they coach it? Are their performance measures aligned with it? Practical guidance on manager buy-in helps organizations treat supervisors as part of the learning environment instead of passive recipients of course announcements.

Build A Decision Before Building A Course

The output of the analysis should be a performance diagnosis with a clear intervention decision. That decision may involve training, but it could also require process redesign, manager coaching, improved documentation, technology changes, staffing adjustments, or a combined solution.

A useful decision record connects the business problem to observable behaviors, barriers, intervention choices, and success measures. It should also identify what will be monitored after implementation so leaders can distinguish participation from real adoption and impact.

Recommendations For A More Accurate Diagnosis

Use the following practices to reduce false training diagnoses:

Define the business outcome and baseline before discussing course format.
Observe work directly instead of relying solely on self-reported skill gaps.
Compare high-performing and struggling employees to identify environmental differences.
Include managers and process owners in interviews and intervention decisions.
Measure behavior change, operational impact, and return on investment after delivery.

Predictive Evaluation can strengthen this final step by forecasting likely adoption and business impact before substantial resources are committed. It gives learning teams a way to connect evaluation with decisions rather than treating measurement as a report produced after the program is complete.

When organizations investigate the whole performance system, training becomes more focused and credible. Employees receive support that matches their actual needs, managers understand their role, and leaders can see how learning contributes to business results. Begin your next analysis with the performance problem, test every likely cause, and invest in training only where it can make a measurable difference.

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.