I have known my father Don Kirkpatrick my whole life. He is 85 years old now, and still going strong with the four levels. He is one of the most consistent and predictable people I know. I can count on him to lead an audience with his Green Bay Packer song. I can count on him telling the story of how I saved him from the game warden when he didn’t have his fishing license. And I can count on him introducing his audience to “a new modern marvel – the overhead projector.”
But just when I think I know exactly what he will do and say in a given situation, he surprises me. About a week ago, we were both addressing a large group of participants in Omaha, Nebraska. During his talk, he began talking about Change Management, and detailed very current principles of gaining acceptance during times of change. Again, I had never heard him talk about them before.
I am sure that the same has happened to you – just when you think you know someone, they surprise you and say or do something entirely out of character (at least your understanding about their character).
Here is a fact about the four levels that perhaps you have not considered before:
While Kirkpatrick’s Level 4 is aptly called “results”, results occur and should be dealt with at all four of the levels.
Results come in many different forms. For Level 1, there are results in the form of reactions; Level 2, there are pure learning results; for Level 3, the results take the form of the degree to which participants apply what they learn; Level 4 results are the more typical business and human resource results such as sales numbers, cost savings, and retention of top talent. The basic premise here is that these results should be purposefully gathered, analyzed, and actually used to improve the business partnership process at any point along the learning and performance continuum.
Perhaps the best way to close this article is with a real life example. Following is a best practice from our colleagues at 7-eleven, that detail some of the results and their use at each of the four levels.
7-Eleven Practitioner Practices
Field Consultant Certification Training (FCCT) is one of 7-Eleven’s most important initiatives. The program, which has been running since February 2007, is designed to prepare business consultants to effectively produce results for the organization. In each of the three distinct training phases (Table 1), the company’s focal team members gather for a week at the corporate headquarters in Dallas, TX to learn about leadership skills, the core processes involved in doing their job correctly and efficiently, and the analytical skills necessary to help the business consultants produce tangible results to the bottom line.
As with all graduation programs, the emphasis is that the end truly is the beginning, not only with new ways of going to business but also with the intensive certification process designed to ensure the training business consultants received is applied and verified back on the job.
Results of this program at all four Kirkpatrick Levels are tracked diligently, monitored monthly by senior leadership to ensure the significant cost associated with the program is producing adequate results. |
