The Kirkpatrick Podcast

As the year winds down, most learning leaders are rushing to wrap up programs and close out projects — but Vanessa Alzate challenges you to do something different: pause and evaluate your department. In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast , Vanessa explores how L&D teams can move beyond program-level evaluation and start auditing their entire department to show measurable impact on culture, re...

What if professional development wasn't just a course you completed, but a community you belonged to? In this episode, Vanessa Alzate, CEO of Kirkpatrick Partners, officially launches the Kirkpatrick Community Collective, a groundbreaking shift from traditional certifications to an integrated membership model that redefines how learning and evaluation thrive in organizations. Vanessa is joined by...

In this episode, Vanessa Kirkpatrick sits down with facilitators Dr. Amy Heaton and Jordan Rawlinson to reflect on the 2025 Kirkpatrick Summit: a bold, hands-on event where learning and performance leaders reimagined how evaluation drives organizational value. They share behind-the-scenes stories of: The high-energy, experimental atmosphere combining hackathons, improv, and design workshops The "a...

"Level 3 evaluation is just too much work." How many times have you heard that? Or maybe even thought it yourself? In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast , I'm breaking down the myth that Level 3 (behavior change) evaluation has to be complicated, overwhelming, or resource-draining. Spoiler alert: it doesn't. I share a recent conversation I had with someone new to instructional design who was...

AI is everywhere in our work right now—from hiring to performance management to evaluation. But what happens when the very tools we're relying on to make decisions are quietly reinforcing bias and producing dirty data ? In this episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, I dive into the growing conversation around AI ethics and accountability, sparked by the recent Workday lawsuit over discriminatory hiri...

Too often, L&D leaders say that Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations are "too hard" to measure. But the truth is, it's not the metrics or the methods holding us back—it's culture. In this episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa Alzate dives deep into the real barrier to higher-level evaluation: organizations that haven't built the culture needed to support it. Drawing on research and lived experien...

Managers are the force multipliers of learning. Yet most are overwhelmed, misaligned, or unprepared to support training. If managers don't model, coach, and reinforce new behaviors, learning stalls. So how do you get them on board? In this episode, Vanessa Alzate dives into why managers make or break training success — and what L&D leaders can do to gain their buy-in. Drawing from Gartner research...

Every organization pays taxes — but are you paying an Ignorance Tax you don't even know exists? In this episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa Alzate uncovers the silent cost organizations pay when they don't evaluate their learning and development initiatives. From wasted instructional design hours to disengaged employees and misaligned strategies, the Ignorance Tax compounds year after year...

What's really "mission critical" in your organization? Spoiler alert—it's not just sales. In this episode, Vanessa Alzate, CEO of Kirkpatrick Partners, challenges one of the most dangerous assumptions in business: that learning and training are expendable when times get tough. Drawing from real-world examples across industries—government, healthcare, military, and corporate—Vanessa makes the case...

What do you do when disruption shakes your organization — restructuring, new tech, shifting leadership — and the stakeholders you've relied on are suddenly gone? In this episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, I (Vanessa Alzate) reflect on lessons from the Training Officers Consortium and my own journey of building community in a new state. Disruption is inevitable, but the way we respond — especially...

More dashboards don't mean more insights. In fact, they might be what's holding your organization back. In this episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast , Vanessa Alzate challenges the way executives and L&D leaders approach data. If you've ever sat in front of a sea of dashboards and still couldn't answer the simple question — "What's actually changed?" — this conversation is for you. Here's what we co...

Budget season is here — and for many L&D professionals, that means stress, scrutiny, and the dreaded question: "What are we really getting from all this training spend?" In this episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa Alzate walks you through three essential questions to ensure your learning budgets are justified, strategic, and defensible. Too often, training programs get funded without criti...

When impact measurement is left to a single department—especially L&D—it's a recipe for failure. In this episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa Alzate shares why evaluation must be a shared responsibility across the organization, how to break down silos, and four actions executives can take to model a culture of evaluation that drives real performance results. You'll learn: Why Level 3 and Le...

We've all been guilty of celebrating the wrong data—hours of training delivered, high NPS scores, without asking if it actually changed anything. In this episode, Vanessa Alzate takes a hard look at how organizations define success, why L&D can't do it alone, and why executive sponsorship is critical to lasting change. You'll hear: The "green smoothie" problem with vanity metrics Why culture chang...

Season 4 kicks off with a candid solo from Vanessa Alzate as she reflects on the last two years since acquiring Kirkpatrick Partners. Hear the behind-the-scenes story of building a company through personal sacrifice, the release of her new book Building a Culture of Evaluation: The New Kirkpatrick Model for Performance and Innovation , and why this isn't just another year—it's the catalyst. From d...

In the season finale of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa brings together three dynamic leaders who are proving every day that learning doesn't matter unless it makes a difference. Join Veronica Soria, Genevieve Nystrom, and Deana Brown, practitioners and champions of the Kirkpatrick Four Levels® (aka the Kirkpatrick Model), as they share how they've built evaluation into the DNA of their organizat...

Vanessa welcomes Dr. Nigel Paine, a global thought leader in organizational learning and author of The Great Reset, to the Kirkpatrick Podcast. Together, they unpack what it truly means to lead in a world of constant disruption. Nigel reflects on the dual forces that shaped his career—technology and adult learning—and why AI is not just a tool but an essential collaborator for the future of work....

In this uniquely personal episode of the Kirkpatrick Podcast, Vanessa shares her reflections after hosting a very special pair of guests: her two young daughters, Giselle and Gianna, for Bring Your Kid to Work Day. What started as a fun, spontaneous activity quickly turned into a powerful conversation about what learning really looks like—free from jargon, metrics, and formality. What her children...

AI is revolutionizing everything—but one thing it won't fix is our unwillingness to hear the truth. In this episode, Vanessa shares a powerful reflection sparked by OpenAI rolling back its "too agreeable" model—and how this parallels the fear many organizations have about evaluating their work. Are we more interested in being reassured than being right? 📌 In this episode: Why some execs fear eval...

In this high-energy episode, Vanessa takes an unexpected turn into the NFL Draft—and lands directly in the heart of organizational performance. What do first-round draft picks and workplace learning have in common? More than you think. 🔍 You'll discover: Why elite athletes and top-performing employees both need systems, not just training How learning solutions should fit the culture and capabilit...

This episode of The Kirkpatrick Podcast takes an unexpected—and powerful—turn into the world of pop culture. Vanessa dives into Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter tour and draws sharp, practical parallels between world-class performance branding and what it takes to build a high-impact learning department. You'll walk away with: ✅ Fresh perspective on how brand reputation shapes learner behavior ✅ How to c...

It's Bring Your Kids to Work Day—and Vanessa brought her most honest coworkers yet: her daughters, Gianna and Giselle! In this heartwarming and hilarious episode, the Kirkpatrick Kids take over the mic to explore what their mom actually does for a living. From peanut butter and jelly training plans to genius microlearning ideas and calling out work-from-home culture, this episode is filled with la...

In today's spicy episode, Vanessa drops a bold truth: the real issue behind training failures is often the performance environment, not the training itself. With her birthday month in full swing, Vanessa shares why so many training programs set up for failure and how to ensure the right systems and environments are in place for true success. Key topics covered: What constitutes a performance envir...

In today's episode, Vanessa takes a deep dive into how to assess whether your vendor is truly delivering the Kirkpatrick Model's four levels of evaluation. With so many tools claiming to help you automate the process, it's important to understand what's really being measured and whether the solution aligns with the updated Kirkpatrick methodology. Key topics covered: How to identify when a vendor...

In today's episode, Vanessa dives deep into the importance of designing learning experiences that drive actual performance, not just knowledge acquisition. Drawing from her background in corporate training and instructional design, she introduces the new Performance Designer Certification by Kirkpatrick Partners. This program emphasizes integrating evaluation throughout the design process, ensurin...