Business impact is an elusive goal for Learning & Development, but it needn’t be. In this episode, as part of a series on achieving measurable impact, Bonnie Beresford unpacks what we should mean by business impact and how we make it attainable as well as planned and measurable.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Learning must be aligned with business goals.
Effectively measuring learning effectiveness based on business impact drives change and increases profitability.
Without measurement you cannot improve the learning.
100% attendance means nothing when it comes to achieving business goals.
Ask the client what a good result would look like for them, then work with them to come up with the measurement. This conversation will also highlight what must be included in the training.
To measure, use the cause precedes the effect model.
You will always have some people that have been trained and some that have not, so you compare their performances
Start by addressing the critical failures of the organisation or company.

BEST MOMENTS
' Measurement drives alignment. '
'What gets measured, gets done.'
'You don´t need a statistician to get started. '

VALUABLE RESOURCES
The Learning And Development Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-learning-development-podcast/id1466927523
L&D Master Class Series: https://360learning.com/blog/l-and-d-masterclass-home/

Bonnie Beresford Bio
Bonnie is a human capital strategist and performance consultant, researching, designing, analysing and evaluating human performance improvement initiatives that are aligned with real business needs that are focused on improving measurable business outcomes. Bonnie is also the creator of the Measurement Map(R) to illustrate the causal chain of evidence between human capital interventions and measurable business outcomes.

You can follow and connect with Bonnie via:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bberesfordphd/
Website: https://www.gpstrategies.com

ABOUT THE HOST

David James
David has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.
As well as being the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning, David is a prominent writer and speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D.

CONTACT METHOD
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/davidinlearning/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjameslinkedin/
L&D Collective: https://360learning.com/the-l-and-d-collective/
Blog: https://360learning.com/blog/
L&D Master Class Series: https://360learning.com/blog/l-and-d-masterclass-home/

Annahid Dashtgard, "Fire and Silence: A Roadmap for BIPOC Leaders" (Dundurn Press, 2026)

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