Okay, so someone mentioned this ‘jeff kirkpatrick’ thing to me a while back. Sounded kinda formal, like something from a textbook, you know? It was about checking if training actually worked. Seemed straightforward enough at first glance.
Getting Started with Kirkpatrick
So, I decided to give it a look. Dug around a bit, found out it’s this four-level model. Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results. Simple names, right? I thought, “Yeah, I can track this.”
- Level 1: Did they like the training? Easy peasy, just ask ’em. Happy sheets, basically.
- Level 2: Did they actually learn something? Okay, maybe a little quiz or a test. Still doable.
This is where I started putting it into practice on a small workshop we ran. Got the feedback forms done for Level 1, folks seemed happy enough. Then, I threw together a quick knowledge check for Level 2. Got some decent scores back. Felt pretty good, like I was really measuring stuff.
Where It Got Messy
Then came Level 3: Behavior. Are they actually doing things differently back on the job? Uh oh. How the heck do you track that without standing over their shoulder all day? I tried talking to their managers. Some were helpful, others just shrugged. “Yeah, maybe? They seem busy.” It got real fuzzy, real fast. You need time, observation, maybe specific projects to see the change. It wasn’t just a form anymore.
And Level 4: Results. The big one. Did the training actually impact the business? Like, sales went up, costs went down, that kind of stuff? Good luck proving our little workshop directly caused that. So many other things are happening! Market changes, new software, someone having a good week… trying to isolate the training’s impact felt like chasing smoke.
We spent ages trying to gather data for Levels 3 and 4. We put together reports, tried to connect dots. Honestly, it felt like we were stretching things just to make the model fit. Management kinda glazed over when we presented the ‘Behavior’ stuff, and for ‘Results’, they basically just wanted to know if the initial ‘Reaction’ was good and if we stayed on budget.
So, yeah. That was my little adventure with the Kirkpatrick model. Started simple, sounded great on paper. But actually doing Levels 3 and 4 in the real, messy world? Way harder than it looks. It takes serious effort, buy-in from everyone, and maybe a bit of magic to truly connect training to bottom-line results without making stuff up. We ended up mostly sticking to Levels 1 and 2 because, well, it was easier and kept people happy.
