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The Kirkpatrick Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Kirkpatrick Partners
Welcome to the Kirkpatrick podcast, where we bridge traditions and trends in learning and performance evaluation. Whether you're a seasoned learning professional or just starting out, join us as we dive into the Kirkpatrick Model like never before. Through stories and insights, we're fusing time-honored methods with cutting-edge innovations to help you navigate the ever-evolving world of learning and performance evaluation. Subscribe now to stay up-to-date with our weekly episodes and gain practical strategies to enhance your training programs. Don't miss out—be part of the learning revolution!
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- Today6 min
The System Kirkpatrick Was Always Building Toward
What happens when seven episodes on training evaluation come together into one system? In the finale of our seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model, we bring problems, behavior, transfer, validity, and culture together into a single, continuous process — evaluation designed in from the start, not measured after the fact. We introduce Enterprise Performance Intelligence: the idea of evaluation becoming the nervous system of the modern enterprise, powered by four mechanisms — a shared language across every level of the organization, initiatives that begin with results in mind, feedback loops that run continuously rather than only at the end, and leaders who co-own outcomes instead of simply sponsoring them. We also make the case that technology's role here is to support human judgment, not replace it — the best systems make people more effective, not obsolete. Takeaways: what it actually means to be "Powered by Kirkpatrick"; the four mechanisms that turn evaluation into an operating system instead of a report; why the goal is a continuous loop, not a one-time event; where AI and dashboards fit into evaluation — and where they don't; and one question to ask about how your own organization could operate differently. This episode continues a series on the Kirkpatrick Model — a good week to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation ahead of Vanessa's live Book Club discussion September 24. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now 👉 Join the Book Club Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 <a class= "underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-cu
- 1 weeks ago6 min
The Fear Behind Every Evaluation Gap
Most organizations don't avoid evaluation because they don't understand it. They avoid it because they're afraid of what it might reveal. In the sixth episode of our seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model, we make the case that building a culture of evaluation isn't primarily a measurement problem — it's a mindset problem, and an ownership problem, that most organizations have never actually solved. We walk through what separates organizations that treat evaluation as a compliance checkbox from those that use it to learn and improve, why evaluation has to be owned by leaders, managers, and employees — not just L&D — and why so many organizations are quietly working from different definitions of the same word. We also introduce a five-stage map for the journey, from Off the Map to Powered by Kirkpatrick, so you can locate exactly where your organization stands today. Takeaways: why evaluation avoidance is fear-driven rather than indifference-driven; the mindset shift from "did it work" to "how do we make it work better"; why evaluation ownership has to extend beyond L&D to leaders, managers, and employees; how a shared language — the Kirkpatrick Model's four levels — breaks down data silos between HR, operations, and finance; the five-stage evaluation maturity map; and one reflection question to locate your own organization on it. This episode continues a seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model — a good week to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation ahead of Vanessa's live Book Club discussion this fall. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now 👉 Join the Book Club Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 <a class= "underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href= "https://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/kirkpatrick-learning-and-performance-center-of-excellence/" target=
- 2 weeks ago7 min
Building an Evidence Case for Your Training Program
Would you trust a verdict built on a single witness? In the fifth episode of her series on the Kirkpatrick Model, Vanessa Milara Alzate tackles validity — whether an evaluation actually measures what it claims to — and why relying on one data source, usually a survey, quietly misleads more organizations than any other evaluation mistake. Using a retail customer service program that scored 98% satisfaction while complaints and returns never moved, Vanessa breaks down the four most common validity threats and introduces triangulation: strengthening a finding by pulling from multiple data sources, methods, perspectives, and time frames. She walks through all four types — data, methodological, stakeholder, and temporal triangulation — and shows how they map directly onto the Kirkpatrick Model's four levels to build what she calls blended evaluation. Takeaways: why activity (satisfaction, completion, attendance) is not the same as impact; the four most common validity threats; the four types of triangulation and how to use them together; a financial services case study that turned a stalled leadership program into credible, trusted results; and one reflection question to pressure-test your own evaluation data. This episode continues a seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model — a good week to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation ahead of Vanessa's live Book Club discussion this fall. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now 👉 Join the Book Club Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 Learn more <strong
- 3 weeks ago6 min
Transfer Doesn't Happen by Accident. It Happens by Design.
Why do people leave training energized to change, and then slide right back into old habits within weeks? In the fourth episode of her seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model, Vanessa Milara Alzate tackles transfer — the bridge between Level 2, learning, and Level 3, behavior, and the point where most training investment quietly succeeds or fails. Drawing on research from The Insitute for Transfer Effectiveness, Vanessa breaks down twelve specific levers that determine whether learning actually gets applied on the job, grouped into four areas: the trainee, the training design, the organization, and the manager. Her core argument: transfer doesn't happen by accident. It has to be designed into the system, lever by lever, or training ends up blamed for a failure the environment never let it avoid. Takeaways: why transfer is the make-or-break moment between learning and performance; the twelve levers and the four areas they live in; why a single 15-minute conversation between a manager and a participant before training measurably increases transfer; a real example of transfer engineered into a sales training rollout; and one reflection question to diagnose exactly where transfer is breaking down in your own programs. This episode continues a seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model — a good week to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation ahead of Vanessa's live Book Club discussion this fall. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now 👉 Join the Book Club Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 Learn more
- 4 weeks ago9 min
The Brain Doesn't Erase Old Behavior — It Competes With It
Why does training so often produce people who understood the material but still didn't change what they do? In the third episode of her seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model, Vanessa Milara Alzate turns to the brain science behind Level 3, behavior, and argues that behavior change has never been a learning problem — it's a habit problem. Drawing on cognitive science, neuroscience, and behavioral science, Vanessa explains why the brain can't simply unlearn an old behavior — it can only build a new neural pathway strong enough to compete with the old one, a process called neuroplasticity. She walks through the roles dopamine, mirror neurons, and loss aversion play in whether a new behavior sticks, and introduces the intention-action gap: the space between wanting to change and actually doing it, usually caused by friction rather than a lack of willpower. Takeaways: why behavior change is a habit problem, not a knowledge problem; what neuroplasticity means for how L&D should design initiatives; the formula practice plus reinforcement equals habit; why emotional engagement and social modeling matter as much as content; and one reflection question to run on any behavior you're trying to help people adopt. This episode continues a seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model — a good week to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation ahead of Vanessa's live Book Club discussion this fall. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now 👉 Join the Book Club Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 Learn more <h3 data-section-id="63uv46" data-start="118" data-end="1
- Aug 17, 20267 min
The Training Trap
Why does "we need training" show up as the answer to almost every organizational problem — even when the real issue is a broken process, an unclear policy, or a leadership decision nobody wants to name? In the second episode of her seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model, Vanessa Milara Alzate names what she calls the training trap: the reflex to reach for the most familiar solution instead of diagnosing what's actually broken. Using the Greek myth of Sisyphus and a real-world CRM rollout that failed for reasons no training could fix, Vanessa walks through the five whys — a simple root-cause tool that gets past the obvious answer to the actual one — and introduces the performance environment: the systems, resources, culture, and support that determine whether any solution, training included, has a chance to work. Takeaways: why the most familiar solution isn't always the right one, how to run the five whys on a real problem, what the performance environment is and why it has to be assessed before you design anything, the questions to ask before recommending training, and why triangulating stakeholder interviews, surveys, and existing data beats guessing every time. This episode continues a seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model — and it's a good week to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation and get ready for Vanessa's live Book Club discussion this fall. Learn more at kirkpatrickpartners.com. Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now 👉 Join the Book Club Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet becaus
- Aug 10, 202612 min
The Money for Training Is Leaving and Nobody's Watching It Go
How much does an organization spend on training every year — and how much of that spend actually changes performance? In the first episode of a new series walking through the full Kirkpatrick Model, Vanessa Milara Alzate makes the financial case for evaluation: the real cost of turnover, under-training, and the mistakes that happen when people are technically trained but nothing changes on the job. She traces the model back to its origins in the 1950s with Dr. Don Kirkpatrick, through its evolution under Dr. Jim Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kayser Kirkpatrick, to where it stands today — not a training checklist, but a system for connecting effort to results across any initiative, not just training. Takeaways: why most organizations measure learning instead of performance, the real financial cost of turnover and under-training, the origin of the four levels — reaction, learning, behavior, results — why level three is where the real work happens, and the one question every leader should ask before reaching for training as the fix. This episode kicks off a seven-part series on the Kirkpatrick Model — and back-to-school season is a good excuse to pick up Building a Culture of Evaluation and join Vanessa's live Book Club discussion this fall. Learn more at kirkpatrickpartners.com. Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides
- Aug 4, 202642 min
Stop Funding Coaching You Can't Prove Works
Coaching is having a moment — the market has grown more than 60% since 2019, and a third of Fortune 500 companies are now paying for executive coaching. But when most leaders are asked whether their coaching program is actually working, the confidence disappears fast. In this episode, Vanessa Milara Alzate sits down with Jordan Rawlinson, Learning and Performance Manager at Kirkpatrick Partners and author of the coaching chapter in Building a Culture of Evaluation: The New Kirkpatrick Model for Performance and Innovation, to make the case that coaching is measurable — it just requires a different lens than training. Jordan explains why the coach-coachee relationship, known as the working alliance, predicts coaching success more than any technique or model. They dig into why Level 1 Reaction, usually treated as the least important level in training, may be the most foundational level in coaching. And they talk candidly about why coaching should never be mandatory, what has to be true in a culture before coaching can take root, and how to move coaching from a nice-to-have perk to a funded, evaluated strategy. Takeaways: what the working alliance is and why it predicts outcomes, how to build measurement into a self-directed process, why voluntold coaching backfires, and where to start if you want to evaluate your own coaching program. Learn more and get the book at kirkpatrickpartners.com Enterprise Performance Intelligence (EPI) Maturity Assessment Think your organization is measuring impact? Most aren't. The EPI Maturity Assessment helps you quickly identify where you stand—and what's needed to better connect learning to performance and results. 👉 Take the assessment and get clarity on your next step. Building a Culture of Evaluation Order the book behind the Culture of Evaluation framework and updated Kirkpatrick Model. The book comes with a Companion Guide to help support you on the journey. 👉 Order the book now Kirkpatrick Learning and Performance Center of Excellence Certification builds capability. Accreditation builds systems. The Kirkpatrick Certified Organization accreditation recognizes organizations that have embedded the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® into how they actually operate — through governance, SOPs, feedback loops, and cross-functional accountability. If your evaluation capability would disappear when a key person leaves, this is the credential designed to fix that. Founding Organization status is now open — first year of annual maintenance waived for inaugural cohort members. 👉 Learn more and apply Not ready to apply yet because you need to build the systems? Grab the SOPs. We're building a library of Kirkpatrick-standard SOPs — governance frameworks, evaluation procedures for all four levels, planning templates, and implementation guides — so you can build your infrastructure before you apply. 👉 Learn more <h3 data-section-
About The Kirkpatrick Podcast
Welcome to the Kirkpatrick podcast, where we bridge traditions and trends in learning and performance evaluation. Whether you're a seasoned learning professional or just starting out, join us as we dive into the Kirkpatrick Model like never before. Through stories and insights, we're fusing time-honored methods with cutting-edge innovations to help you navigate the ever-evolving world of learning and performance evaluation. Subscribe now to stay up-to-date with our weekly episodes and gain practical strategies to enhance your training programs. Don't miss out—be part of the learning revolution!
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