Performance Consulting for L&D Professionals Training Course

Performance Consulting for L&D Professionals is a 1-week training course for L&D business partners and training managers who receive training requests and must turn them into performance solutions, each building a Performance Consulting Case File for one live request. Organisations now expect learning teams to show how their work moves operational results, not how many sessions they ran. Jupiter Prime Training runs this course for people ready to move from order-taking to consulting.

Why Performance Consulting Matters Now

Three forces push learning teams towards performance consulting. Business leaders face tighter budgets and ask what each intervention changes on the floor. Line managers want quick fixes and often request a course when the real cause is a broken process, unclear expectations or missing tools. Executives increasingly read learning results alongside sales, safety and service figures. A learning function that diagnoses well spends less on courses that cannot work and earns a seat in planning conversations; one that only fulfils orders loses credibility. The course rests on Human Performance Technology (HPT), Gilbert's Behaviour Engineering Model (BEM) and the Kirkpatrick four-level model.

Who Gains Most from Performance Consulting

• Those who receive and triage training requests from business units
• Those who partner with department heads on capability and results
• Those who design interventions and decide when a course is the answer
• Those who report learning outcomes to senior leaders
• Those who manage a portfolio of internal clients across functions

A learning team that sends its business partners and its design lead together gains most, because intake, diagnosis and solution choice then follow one shared method.

Performance Consulting Capabilities

Participants leave able to question a request, trace a performance gap to its causes and agree measurable results with a sponsor.

• Conduct a reactive intake conversation that reframes a course request into a performance need — internal client
• Specify desired and actual performance in observable, measurable terms — business sponsor
• Apply cause analysis to separate skill gaps from environmental barriers — solution choice
• Design a blended solution set that pairs learning with non-learning fixes — line managers
• Build a consulting contract with roles, success measures and data sources — sponsor and learning team
• Communicate results in operational language linked to the original need — senior leaders

Key Performance Consulting Terms

• Performance gap — the measured difference between what people should achieve on the job and what they achieve now.
• Order-taking — accepting a training request as stated and delivering a course without checking whether training addresses the cause.
• Behaviour Engineering Model — Gilbert's framework sorting performance factors into environment and individual, covering information, resources, incentives, knowledge, capacity and motives.
• Root-cause analysis — a structured method for tracing a symptom back to the underlying condition that, if changed, removes the problem.
• Consulting contract — a written agreement with a sponsor on the business need, scope, roles, measures and decision points of an intervention.
• Non-training solution — a fix such as job aids, process redesign, feedback systems or tools that closes a gap without instruction.

Performance Consulting Day by Day

Day 1: From Request Taker to Performance Partner

• Human Performance Technology Foundations — Role of Learning Teams
• Order-Taking Versus Consulting Stance — Credibility With Business Units
• Business, Performance, Learning and Work Environment Needs — Need Hierarchy
• Internal Client Mapping — Which Sponsors To Partner With First
• Consultant Role Choices: Expert, Pair of Hands, Collaborator — Engagement Style

Day 2: Diagnosing the Performance Gap

• Reactive Intake Conversation Questions — Reframing a Course Request
• Desired Versus Actual Performance Statements — Measurable Gap Definition
• Operational Data Sources and Job Observation — Evidence of the Gap
• Exemplary Performer Analysis — Defining Achievable Standards
• Gap Sizing and Business Consequence — Priority of Intervention

Day 3: Finding Root Causes

• Gilbert's Behaviour Engineering Model — Environment Versus Individual Factors
• Fishbone and Five Whys Techniques — Tracing Symptoms to Causes
• Mager and Pipe Flowchart — Is It a Skill Deficiency
• Manager and Front-Line Interviews — Validating Cause Hypotheses
• Cause Summary Matrix — Agreeing Causes With the Sponsor

Day 4: Selecting Solutions and Contracting

• Solution Families: Job Aids, Process Redesign, Feedback, Incentives — Fit to Cause
• Blended Solution Set Design — Learning Plus Non-Learning Fixes
• Consulting Contract Elements — Scope, Roles and Success Measures
• Stakeholder Resistance Handling — Saying No to an Unneeded Course
• Kirkpatrick Level 3 and Level 4 Measures — Agreeing Evidence of Results

Day 5: Practising the Performance Consulting Case File

• Role-Played Intake Conversation — Applying Day 2 Questioning
• Live Cause Analysis on a Case — Applying Day 3 Models
• Sponsor Contract Negotiation — Applying Day 4 Contract Elements
• Results Reporting in Operational Language — Senior Leader Briefing
• Performance Consulting Case File — Completed Gap, Causes, Solutions and Measures

Applying Performance Consulting After the Course

• Run a reactive intake conversation on the next course request received and record the reframed performance need.
• Apply the Behaviour Engineering Model with one sponsor to agree causes and a blended solution set before any design starts.

Performance Consulting Questions (FAQ)

What is performance consulting for L&D professionals and why does it matter now?

Performance consulting is the practice of diagnosing why people are not achieving results before choosing a solution. It matters now because leaders judge learning teams by operational change, and many requested courses cannot fix causes such as unclear processes or missing tools.

Which roles gain most from performance consulting for L&D professionals?

L&D business partners and training managers who field requests from departments gain most. Instructional designers who choose interventions and those who report learning results to leaders also benefit, because they share one method for intake, diagnosis and measurement.

How does performance consulting for L&D professionals differ from a training needs analysis course?

Performance consulting starts before training is assumed. A needs analysis course usually maps skills to be taught, whereas performance consulting asks whether training is the answer at all and weighs process, feedback, tools and incentives alongside learning.

What do you bring back from performance consulting for L&D professionals?

You bring back a Performance Consulting Case File built on a live request: a measured gap, an agreed cause summary, a blended solution set and a sponsor contract with success measures. It becomes the template for future intake conversations.

Performance Consulting: The Way Forward

The Performance Consulting Case File first informs whether a requested course goes ahead, is reshaped or is replaced by a non-learning fix. Business partners use it with sponsors, and designers use it to scope work. After its first use, revisit the cause analysis once results data arrives, since early hypotheses about environment and skill often need adjusting in manufacturing and healthcare settings alike.