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Kirkpatrick Evaluation Summit: Effectively Demonstrating the Value of Learning's Contribution to the Bottom Line
December 08, 2008
Those of us as individuals, training departments, and corporate universities who do not quickly find the means of first creating value and then demonstrating our value to the business will be putting themselves in career jeopardy. (From Training's 2009 Preview)
By Jim Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.
In 1959, Don Kirkpatrick wrote his original four articles that soon after came to be known as the Kirkpatrick Four Levels of Evaluation. This model is now the global standard in the industry. What isn't widely known, however, is that in that article 50-plus years ago, Don wrote the words "Training managers had better learn to evaluate their programs in relation to the needs of the business before the day of reckoning arrives."
Well, we believe that for many learning professionals, the day of reckoning is here. The Second Annual Kirkpatrick Evaluation Summit—hosted by my father, Don, and I—is dedicating two days of intensive and interactive material to preparing you for the time when you are asked, or proactively choose, to effectively demonstrate the value of your (learning's) contribution to the bottom line.
Checkmark Training vs. Business Partnership
Why after 50 years have we not figured out how to do this? Most often, we are our own worst enemy. We keep following what we call the "Checkmark Training Model," where there is the strong belief that activity translates into value. The number of courses, participants, certificates, and modifications to our training programs somehow will earn us esteem in the eyes of our business partners. While this may have been true at one time, it is no longer.
I recently was conducting a workshop for a group of approximately 20 training leaders from a large oil company. We were exploring the degree to which they believed they had been putting what we call the Business Partnership Model to life (Note: the Business Partnership Model—the means by which we close the gap between training and the business—is the antithesis of Checkmark Training). This group apparently was spending too much time patting itself on the back as one of their members stood up in the back and in a booming voice said, "Listen to me for a moment. You guys are too quick to congratulate yourselves! You talk about all your 'needs assessments' and being 'strategic business partners.' I have worked for this company for 21 years. For 20 of those years, I was a manager in the field in a variety of divisions. It was only last year that I was assigned to my new role in training. Not once during those 20 years did any of you or your training colleagues ever come to me and ask, 'What can we do to help support your business?'"
Those of us as individuals, training departments, and corporate universities who do not quickly find the means of first creating value and then demonstrating our value to the business will be putting themselves in career jeopardy. Why the harsh words? Because we and others have tried to get this urgent message across, but so far many have not heeded it. To help get this message out, we are in the midst of writing a book to be published by AMACOM in 2009 entitled, "Training on Trial: The Urgent Need to Meet the Needs of the Business."
A colleague of mine at a major auto manufacturer recently told me, "Jim, there is something I want you to pass along to all who will listen. Just because our senior business leaders are not directly asking for us to demonstrate our value doesn't mean they don't care. For when budget time comes and there are cuts to be made, we are the first group they look to. Despite the fact that they say they believe in training and 'people are our biggest assets,' their actions show they believe training is a cost center and not a true strategic partner."
Becoming a True Strategic Partner
So much for the bad news. The good news is that there are tried-and-true methods you can relatively easily employ that will move you from the dangerous position of checkmark training organization to true strategic partner. And the most effective way to do that is through the Four Levels of Evaluation. Recent Kirkpatrick work has evolved from the rather narrow focus of evaluating training courses and programs to driving entire learning functions to not only deliver true, targeted value to the business, but to gather and present a chain of compelling evidence to your corporate jury. And what does this evidence lead to? The fact that training and learning is not guilty of being merely a cost center. To the contrary, learning functions that follow our business partnership model actually become and are seen as true strategic business partners.
The Kirkpatrick Evaluation Summit will bring to you specific, practical methods by which to achieve this. As we do in all of our work, we invite leading practitioners in the field who have employed these methods to share their successes and tips with you. We also will provide you with the opportunity and guidance to apply the material to the training challenges you face in your organization. Specifically, the two days will include:
a) foundational principles of four-level evaluation
b) how to make a business case for learning to your key business partners
c) how to use a library of evaluation tools to evaluate any course or program
d) how to begin with the end in mind so you are just as equipped to address Kirkpatrick Levels 3 and 4
(behavior and results) as you are Levels 1 and 2 (reaction and learning)
e) how to actively involve your business partners to ensure learning transfers to on-the-job-behaviors
f) how to offer compelling evidence to your business partners as to the value learning brings to the bottom line.
Jim Kirkpatrick, Ph.D., is the vice president of global training and consulting for SMR USA, and presents workshops for and provides consulting to Fortune 500 companies around the world, primarily in the field of evaluation. He was the director of First Indiana Bank's corporate university prior to joining SMR USA Consulting Group in early 2007. He has co-written three books with his father, Don Kirkpatrick, the developer of the Four Levels of Evaluation and currently is working on a new book, "Training on Trial," through AMACOM. If you cannot attend the Kirkpatrick summit, visit www.smr-usa.com for details on other opportunities. Contact Jim Kirkpatrick at jim.kirkpatrick@smr-usa.com.
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