Lately, leadership development, what it entails, and, more importantly, how we can tie the improvement/growth in the leader to the growth in their business has been all-consuming. My last blog post was about how organizations can build sustainable, affordable, and effective ecosystems in this space. Even more critical to the conversation is how we can tie the leader's growth to business outcomes (both top-line and bottom-line) such that we can calculate an ROI for every leadership Development initiative.
Since this is a topic of daily discussion for us, I talked to my co-founder at Rejuvi, Regina Hepp, about frameworks we can use to bring this innovation of Modern Leadership to life, and she mentioned the "Kirkpatrick Model" for evaluating training programs.
I was not familiar with this model and dove right in. For those unaware of Donald Kirkpatrick (1924-2014), he was an academic best known for his work in training and development. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Georgia. He authored several books, including "Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels" and "Implementing the Four Levels: A Practical Guide for Effective Evaluation of Training Programs."
His most significant contribution, however, was a framework to evaluate the efficacy of training programs. This model has been widely used for evaluating training programs by organizations worldwide since its introduction in the 1950s. The framework laid out a model that measures four levels of achievement:
Reaction - How participants react to a training program.
Learning - The extent to which participants have acquired new knowledge and skills.
Behavior - The extent to which participants apply what they learned.
Results - The training program's impact on business outcomes.
Studies have consistently found that organizations using the Kirkpatrick Model to evaluate their training programs are likelier to report positive outcomes. A study published in the Journal of European Industrial Training found that organizations using the Kirkpatrick Model to evaluate their training programs reported higher levels of participant satisfaction, improved job performance, and increased productivity than organizations that did not use the model. Another study published in the International Journal of Training and Development found that the Kirkpatrick Model effectively identified areas for improvement in training programs. The study found that organizations that used the model were better able to identify areas where training was ineffective and make changes to improve the program.
However, all the empirical evidence I have reviewed shows the efficacy of the Kirkpatrick Model till Level 2; it is somewhat hazy at Level 3 and utterly absent at Level 4! The glaring gap is that the model does not have an internal mechanism to tie the long-term impact of training programs on business outcomes. So, while the Kirkpatrick Model provides a valuable framework for evaluating training programs, it is insufficient to measure the complex and multifaceted impact of those training on business outcomes.
The good news is that this gap is being addressed by combining deep Leadership Development expertise with Consumer Insights and robust Analytics creating a new genre of Leadership Development tied to Business Impact Analytics. A pathway has been laid where organizations can connect Leadership Development intervention initiatives to top-line and bottom-line business outcomes. We at The Rejuvi Venture Inc have innovated the implementation of Leadership Development with a distinct Evidence-Based Practice mindset and application of robust implementation science principles such that all organizations can measure the ROI of their Leadership Development Initiatives.
In effect, all organizations will have the empirical evidence to show the efficacy of Level 4 of the Donald Kirkpatrick Model!
Reach out to chat if you want to learn more!