Partial profile · Book Profile — full narrative profile planned
Kirkpatrick_s Four Levels of Training Evaluation
An updated, practical guide to the New World Kirkpatrick Model that shows learning professionals how to plan, execute, and evaluate training so it drives measurable on-the-job behavior and organizational results.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Training and development is in crisis: budgets get cut first because training is too often treated as an event that ends in the classroom rather than a business intervention that changes performance and delivers results. In this comprehensive update to Don Kirkpatrick's classic four levels, Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick present the New World Kirkpatrick Model, which keeps the timeless simplicity of Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results but adds critical modern elements—required drivers, leading indicators, return on expectations, and business partnership. The book teaches practitioners to plan backwards from Level 4 Results, build a bridge across the 'great divide' between learning and on-the-job behavior, and reallocate resources from over-measuring Levels 1 and 2 toward the far more valuable Level 3 support and accountability. Packed with data-collection tools, Blended Evaluation® methods, guidance for e-learning, informal, mobile, and social learning, and five real-world case studies, it equips training professionals to become strategic business partners who create and demonstrate value—and secure their seat at the executive table.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A training or learning-and-development professional who wants to prove that their work matters and secure a lasting, valued role in their organization.
- The problem
- Training is treated as a nice-to-have event whose value cannot be demonstrated, leaving budgets and jobs vulnerable to cuts and outsourcing. The professional feels intimidated by evaluation, unappreciated, and anxious about being blindsided or replaced despite working hard.
- The plan
- Start by identifying the organization's true Level 4 result and the leading indicators the program should influence.
- Partner with business stakeholders to define return on expectations and critical on-the-job behaviors.
- Design and build required drivers—support and accountability systems—to reinforce, monitor, encourage, and reward critical behaviors.
- Design the training and blended evaluation tools together, planning what happens before, during, and after training.
- Execute, monitor performance and leading indicators, and adjust to keep the program on track.
- The payoff
- The professional earns a seat at the table with executives as a strategic business partner. · Training demonstrably improves job performance and contributes to key organizational results. · Resources are focused on high-impact programs, and value is credibly shown through a chain of evidence.
Related profiles we’ve built
- Beyond telling aint training fieldbook methods, activities, and tools for effective workplace learning →
- e-Learning and the Science of Instruction Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning →
- Online Teaching at Its Best Merging Instructional Design with Teaching and Learning Research →
- The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning How to Turn Training and Development into Business Results →
- The Systematic Design of Instruction →