Most learning leaders think they're asking the right question.

"Did it work?"

It sounds accountable. Efficient. Executive-ready. But this single question may be the very thing preventing your organization from improving performance.

Binary questions create binary answers. Yes or no. Pass or fail. Keep it or cut it.

But performance doesn't behave like a light switch. It behaves like a system.

When we reduce evaluation to a verdict, we lose the most valuable insight: why something succeeded, where it broke down, and what conditions made the difference. Without that insight, leaders don't actually make better decisions. They just make faster ones.

In this episode, we challenge the default evaluation mindset and explore how shifting from "Did it work?" to more strategic questions transforms L&D from a reporting function into a performance consultancy.

We examine:

• Why binary thinking creates false clarity

• How verdict-driven evaluation shuts down improvement

• What executives actually need from evaluation data

• How the Kirkpatrick Model was designed to surface insight, not just ROI

• Why guidance matters more than judgment

If your evaluation efforts end in a score, a dashboard, or a single ROI number, you may be providing closure—but not clarity.

And when stakes are high, leaders don't need closure. They need guidance.

• Stop delivering verdicts. Start delivering insight. Replace yes/no answers with analysis of what changed and why.

• Evaluate systems, not events. Performance unfolds over time and depends on support structures.

• Frame the Levels as questions, not checkboxes. Each level surfaces a different leadership decision.

• Expose performance breakdowns. Show where conditions supported or hindered success.

• Shift from learning reporter to performance advisor. Provide recommendations, not just results.

• Use evaluation iteratively. Let insights inform future design, investment, and execution decisions.

Listen now and discover how better questions lead to better performance decisions—and stronger organizational results.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

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Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

#KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #PerformanceImprovement #TrainingEvaluation #CultureOfEvaluation #KirkpatrickModel

Most organizations believe they evaluate training. In reality, they document it—after it's already too late to matter.

One of the biggest misconceptions we see is the belief that evaluation happens after training. Post-program surveys, completion reports, and dashboards are treated as proof of value. But by the time those data points appear, the most important decisions have already been made: goals were defined (or not), success was loosely interpreted, metrics were chosen without context, and environmental constraints were ignored.

When evaluation enters the process too late, it loses its power to influence performance. It can describe what happened—but it can't change what happens next.

True evaluation is not validation. It's sense-making. It's the discipline that forces clarity about what success actually looks like in real work, what behaviors must change, what systems will enable or block that change, and what leaders must do differently to support it. Without that clarity upfront, training becomes the default solution—even when the real issue is time, leadership behavior, broken systems, or unrealistic expectations.

In this episode, we challenge the industry's obsession with retrospective evaluation and make the case for moving evaluation to the beginning of the process—and wrapping it around the entire design and delivery lifecycle. We explore why activity metrics quietly erode credibility, how learning teams end up paying an "ignorance tax" for problems they didn't create, and why evaluation is the only lever learning functions truly own that can protect—and expand—their influence.

Takeaways:

• Stop treating evaluation as proof; start using it as a decision tool.

• Define success in observable behaviors and business metrics before design begins.

• Identify environmental constraints early—or accept that performance won't change.

• Document recommendations on record to avoid being blamed for systemic failures.

• Use evaluation to influence leadership behavior, not just learner experience.

If evaluation feels disconnected from performance in your organization, it's likely because it's entering the conversation far too late.

🎧 Listen to the full episode and subscribe to the Kirkpatrick Podcast to continue rethinking how learning influences results.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

#KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #PerformanceImprovement #TrainingEvaluation #CultureOfEvaluation #KirkpatrickModel

For decades, many organizations have believed they were "doing Kirkpatrick." In reality, they were completing forms.

In this episode, we challenge one of the most persistent misconceptions in learning and performance: that the Kirkpatrick Model is a linear, post-training evaluation checklist. That version of the model may be familiar, but it was never the intent. And more importantly, it limits the impact learning can have on real performance.

The Kirkpatrick Model was designed to help organizations understand what is changing, what is not, and why. It was meant to guide inquiry, conversation, and decision-making—not validate activity after the fact. Yet over time, in the name of scalability and efficiency, the model was oversimplified. Levels became boxes. Questions became surveys. Evaluation became something we completed, not something we used.

When that happens, learning teams shift from improving performance to defending programs. We measure satisfaction instead of capability. We report outputs instead of outcomes. And we miss the very insights that would allow us to design better solutions in the first place.

In this episode, we explore what the Kirkpatrick Model was never meant to be—and how reclaiming its original intent can fundamentally change how we approach learning, leadership, and performance.

Takeaways:

• Stop treating evaluation as a post-event requirement and start using it as a performance diagnostic.

• Replace standardized tools with intentional questions tied to real business decisions.

• Shift from validating effort to understanding behavior, environment, and results.

• Recognize that discomfort in evaluation often signals where the most valuable insights live.

• Use the Kirkpatrick Model as a tool for influence, not just reporting.

If you've ever felt constrained by how the Kirkpatrick Model is typically taught, this conversation will feel both clarifying and freeing.

🎧 Listen now and subscribe to the Kirkpatrick Podcast for deeper conversations on evaluation, leadership, and organizational performance.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

#KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #PerformanceImprovement #TrainingEvaluation #CultureOfEvaluation #KirkpatrickModel

Pressure doesn't create failure. It reveals it.

In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast, we explore a leadership truth many organizations avoid: when performance breaks down under pressure, the root cause is almost never motivation or intent—it's preparation, practice, and the absence of meaningful evaluation.

Our conversation with Ray Resendez, Senior VP of Government Solutions at ELB Learning and a former Army officer, forces a reckoning with how leaders are developed—both in high-stakes environments and in modern organizations. From combat decision-making to business leadership, the throughline is clear: when leaders haven't practiced the behaviors required under pressure, instincts fail and emotions take over.

We talk candidly about why most leadership training doesn't translate into performance, how organizations confuse activity with readiness, and why data—not gut instinct—is the missing link in leadership decision-making. We also challenge the assumption that learning automatically equals capability, especially in an era where AI and tools can mask skill gaps rather than close them.

This episode matters because organizations today are operating in constant pressure—market volatility, talent shortages, remote work, and rapid change. Leaders are expected to perform flawlessly, yet few are evaluated on the behaviors that actually drive results.

Takeaways:

• Stop assuming leaders will "figure it out" under pressure—unpracticed behaviors collapse when stakes are high.

• Training without rehearsal and feedback does not create readiness.

• Emotions and ego are the biggest performance risks when decisions aren't grounded in data.

• Behavior (Level 3) is the most overlooked—and most powerful—leading indicator of results.

• Performance dashboards should guide conversations, not punish people.

• Evaluation is not about proving success; it's about preventing failure.

If you're responsible for developing leaders, improving performance, or making decisions that impact others, this conversation reframes what readiness really means.

🎧 Listen to the full episode and subscribe to The Kirkpatrick Podcast for grounded, performance-focused leadership conversations.

Pressure doesn't create failure. It reveals it.

In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast, we explore a leadership truth many organizations avoid: when performance breaks down under pressure, the root cause is almost never motivation or intent—it's preparation, practice, and the absence of meaningful evaluation.

Our conversation with Ray Resendez, Senior VP of Government Solutions at ELB Learning and a former Army officer, forces a reckoning with how leaders are developed—both in high-stakes environments and in modern organizations. From combat decision-making to business leadership, the throughline is clear: when leaders haven't practiced the behaviors required under pressure, instincts fail and emotions take over.

We talk candidly about why most leadership training doesn't translate into performance, how organizations confuse activity with readiness, and why data—not gut instinct—is the missing link in leadership decision-making. We also challenge the assumption that learning automatically equals capability, especially in an era where AI and tools can mask skill gaps rather than close them.

This episode matters because organizations today are operating in constant pressure—market volatility, talent shortages, remote work, and rapid change. Leaders are expected to perform flawlessly, yet few are evaluated on the behaviors that actually drive results.

Takeaways:

• Stop assuming leaders will "figure it out" under pressure—unpracticed behaviors collapse when stakes are high.

• Training without rehearsal and feedback does not create readiness.

• Emotions and ego are the biggest performance risks when decisions aren't grounded in data.

• Behavior (Level 3) is the most overlooked—and most powerful—leading indicator of results.

• Performance dashboards should guide conversations, not punish people.

• Evaluation is not about proving success; it's about preventing failure.

If you're responsible for developing leaders, improving performance, or making decisions that impact others, this conversation reframes what readiness really means.

🎧 Listen to the full episode and subscribe to The Kirkpatrick Podcast for grounded, performance-focused leadership conversations.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

#KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #PerformanceImprovement #TrainingEvaluation #CultureOfEvaluation #KirkpatrickModel

Financial ROI has long been the gold standard of proving learning impact—but what if the most meaningful results can't be captured in a spreadsheet?

In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa Alzate and Dr. Amy Heaton explore how to move beyond traditional ROI calculations to measure what truly matters: the human, behavioral, and cultural outcomes that shape real performance.

Most ROI frameworks rely on self-reported productivity gains or financial return. But as they explain, the true impact of learning lives in stories, not just statistics. Through an integrated return model, the Kirkpatrick approach combines qualitative and quantitative research—surveys, interviews, focus groups, and behavioral observations—to uncover the full picture of learning effectiveness.

From the boardroom to the battlefield, not every success can—or should—be measured in dollars. For organizations like the military, healthcare, and government, success means readiness, safety, and human outcomes. When you blend data with dialogue, you find truth in both numbers and narratives.

You'll learn:

• Why ROI alone gives an incomplete view of learning impact.

• How to combine quantitative data with qualitative insight.

• What "triangulating truth" looks like in evaluation.

• Why behavior, culture, and performance tell a fuller story.

• How to apply this mindset in your own evaluation strategy.

🎯 Key Takeaway: ROI shows return. Evaluation shows reality.

Listen now to learn how to measure what really matters—and prove your impact in the language both people and performance understand.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

#KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #PerformanceImprovement #TrainingEvaluation #CultureOfEvaluation #KirkpatrickModel

Most organizations can tell you exactly how many people attended training, how many completed it, and how satisfied they felt afterward. What they can't tell you—at least not with confidence—is whether any of it actually changed performance.

And that's not a data problem. It's a leadership problem.

In this episode, I challenge one of the most deeply embedded habits in learning and development: measuring what's convenient instead of what's useful. Attendance, completions, and engagement metrics feel objective. They're easy to collect, easy to defend, and easy to explain in a single slide. Over time, they've become the default—not because they answer meaningful business questions, but because they make us feel safe.

The danger isn't that we measure activity. It's that we stop there.

Activity metrics tell us what happened, not whether it mattered. They can inform design decisions and identify friction in the learning experience—but they can't tell leaders whether people can perform under real conditions, whether work became easier or harder, or whether systems and policies are actually enabling success.

When pressure increases—tight timelines, rising risk, slipping performance—leaders don't want reassurance. They want insight. They want to know where performance is breaking down and what to do next. And activity data simply isn't built to answer those questions.

In this conversation, I unpack why our reliance on convenience metrics is eroding trust in evaluation—and how the Kirkpatrick Model was never meant to validate activity, but to guide better decisions.

Takeaways:

• Stop reporting data that comforts you but confuses leaders

• Treat Level 1 and 2 data as design inputs—not proof of success

• Ask whether interventions made work easier or harder

• Use evaluation to test assumptions, not confirm habits

• Shift from volume of data to clarity of insight

🎧 Listen to the full episode to rethink how evidence should actually support performance—and why this shift matters now more than ever. Subscribe to the Kirkpatrick Podcast to continue the conversation.

👉 Join the Kirkpatrick Collective to connect with leaders shaping the future of evaluation.

Explore the Kirkpatrick Collective at https://www.kirkpatrickcollective.com/

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

Welcome to Season 5 of The Kirkpatrick Podcast! In this episode, Vanessa Alzate opens 2026 with a bold truth: We're not suffering from a lack of data—we're suffering from a lack of sense-making.

We've never had more dashboards, analytics, and reports than we do today. Yet many organizations are less confident than ever about what's really driving performance. Vanessa unpacks why more measurement doesn't automatically equal better performance, and what learning leaders must do differently this year.

From personal missteps to organizational breakthroughs, Vanessa reveals how the Kirkpatrick team used reflection, tough data questions, and real conversations with customers to chart a new direction. This episode challenges listeners to move beyond vanity metrics and rediscover the true purpose of evaluation: to learn what's working, what's not, and why.

Key Takeaways:

• We're not missing data—we're missing meaning.

• Most metrics track activity, not performance impact.

• Data without context creates paralysis, not clarity.

• Sense-making requires reflection, conversation, and courage.

• Evaluation is a learning tool, not just a reporting function.

• 2026 will disrupt L&D—and that's a good thing.

🎧 Listen now, subscribe to the Kirkpatrick Podcast, and join the movement redefining learning measurement.

👉 Join the Kirkpatrick Collective to connect with leaders shaping the future of evaluation.

Explore the Kirkpatrick Collective at https://www.kirkpatrickcollective.com/

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

Some leadership years don't look successful on LinkedIn.

They don't come with celebratory posts, impressive metrics, or obvious wins. But those are often the years that matter most.

In this reflective, end-of-season episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa Alzate shares why 2025 was intentionally a catalyst year for Kirkpatrick Partners — a year focused on preparation, alignment, and invisible leadership work that set the stage for what comes next.

Rather than chasing visible success, 2025 was about slowing down, challenging legacy thinking, and reexamining what learning and evaluation must become in a rapidly changing business landscape. Vanessa candidly reflects on leadership uncertainty, imposter syndrome, and the pressure leaders feel to perform confidence even when clarity is still forming.

This episode also explores why L&D can no longer operate in isolation. As organizations face continued disruption, learning must evolve beyond training programs and into a framework for enterprise decision-making, culture, and performance. The Kirkpatrick Model, long known as the standard for evaluating training effectiveness, is being reimagined as a broader operating lens — one that supports how organizations actually make decisions.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why some leadership years are meant to prepare, not perform

• How "invisible work" creates long-term transformation

• The danger of measuring leadership success only by visible wins

• Why L&D strategy must move beyond training alone

• How catalyst years set the stage for disruption

As Season 4 comes to a close, Vanessa also shares why Disrupt is the word for 2026 — not as chaos, but as intentional redesign. This conversation is for leaders who feel the tension between what looks successful and what actually builds sustainable impact.

🎧 Listen now, subscribe to the Kirkpatrick Podcast, and join us as we step into 2026 with clarity, courage, and conviction.

Explore the Kirkpatrick Collective at https://www.kirkpatrickcollective.com/

Join the movement. Redefine learning.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

What does it really look like to buy a legacy brand, reinvent it, and lead it boldly into the future—without being born into the name?

In this deeply honest episode, I (Vanessa) hand the hosting mic over to Dr. Amy Heaton and open up about the real story behind stepping into the Kirkpatrick legacy—imposter syndrome, missteps, reinvention, and the evolution of who we are becoming as Kirkpatrick Partners.

We go behind the scenes of what it means to honor a globally trusted evaluation model while innovating it for a rapidly changing world. From leadership philosophy to enterprise technology, you'll hear how our team thinks about belonging, authenticity, performance, and the next chapter of the Kirkpatrick Model.

This conversation also reveals the vision behind our expanding ecosystem: Trevato, Kaddie, Knowly, and KirkpatrickAI, and how each tool connects to our shift beyond L&D into enterprise performance intelligence.

Along the way, you'll hear truths about leadership, community-building, women in business, doing more with fewer resources, and designing learning that actually works.

What You'll Learn:

• Why imposter syndrome shows up even for successful CEOs—and how to lead through it.

• The challenges and responsibilities of stewarding a legacy brand like Kirkpatrick Partners.

• How the future of evaluation goes far beyond Levels 1–4 and into enterprise-wide decision-making.

• The leadership behaviors that build trust, belonging, and a high-performing culture.

• Why simplifying tools, processes, and learning experiences matters more than "bells and whistles."

• How Trevato, Kaddie, Knowly, and KirkpatrickAI will work together to transform evaluation and performance.

If you want more conversations like this—on leadership, performance, evaluation, and the future of L&D—make sure you're subscribed.

Explore the Kirkpatrick Collective at https://www.kirkpatrickcollective.com/

Join the movement. Redefine learning.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

As the year winds down, most learning leaders are rushing to wrap up programs and close out projects — but Vanessa Alzate challenges you to do something different: pause and evaluate your department.

In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa explores how L&D teams can move beyond program-level evaluation and start auditing their entire department to show measurable impact on culture, retention, and organizational performance.

Too often, we measure courses instead of influence. We report completions instead of stories. But the real value of learning isn't in attendance—it's in transformation.

Vanessa shares how to connect the dots between L&D initiatives and business results, uncover the stories that prove your department's worth, and position learning as a strategic driver of performance and engagement.

You'll Learn:

• Why auditing your L&D department matters more than evaluating individual programs.

• How to define "value" in business terms leaders care about.

• Ways to connect learning outcomes to retention and culture metrics.

• How to balance data with stories that demonstrate real impact.

• The year-end steps every L&D team should take to prove their worth.

🎯 Key Takeaway: Your leaders don't just want to know what you taught—they want to know what changed because of you.

Listen now to learn how to make your department's impact visible, measurable, and undeniable.

👉 Subscribe to The Kirkpatrick Podcast and explore more on how to measure what matters in learning and performance.

Learn more about the Kirkpatrick Model

Watch the Show on YouTube!

Submit your Questions/Stories: Do you have a question you would like us to answer on the Kirkpatrick Podcast? Have a story about how the Kirkpatrick Podcast or other Kirkpatrick events/programs have positively impacted your career? We would love to hear from you! Follow this link to submit your questions and/or stories, and we may just share them on the next episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast.

#KirkpatrickPodcast #LearningImpact #CultureOfEvaluation #OrganizationalPerformance #KirkpatrickModel