How Do We Maximize Impact?

Level 6 is an evaluation that simply measures your climate and tells you which environmental factors are most affecting the impact of your training. In my introduction, I referred to these important factors as the critical pillars of your bridge. I called them critical because without these strong and sturdy support structures, everything you built up to now, including all the solid linkages you created with your Levels 1–5, will crumble and disappear right under your feet. In order to build these pillars right and make your bridge strong enough to support your travelers (trainees), you must understand and anticipate the climate factors that can shake your bridge and threaten their journey. That is, what are the environmental factors (things that are happening in the employee’s immediate work environment) that are either supporting or sabotaging the impact of training back on the job? Once you know which climate factors are causing your training to succeed or fail, you as the architect can then design and construct a stronger, more effective bridge. This fortified bridge will then keep employees safe as they traverse the treacherous path from training to business results, and help them avoid the many pitfalls that all too often cause training to fail.