Five Essential Questions Performance System™

Diagnose First. Measure What Matters.

Training Isn't Always the Answer. And Learning Isn't the Same as Performance.

Organizations invest significant time and money in training and workforce initiatives. Yet many still struggle to determine whether people perform differently on the job and whether those changes produce meaningful business results.

The Five Essential Questions Performance System™ provides a practical process for diagnosing what is preventing performance, determining what needs to change, improving transfer to the workplace, and measuring the results that matter.

The Five Essential Questions Performance System: Diagnose, Align, Transfer, Measure Register for the Five EQ Performance System™
The Performance Problem

Training Isn't Always the Answer. And Learning Isn't the Same as Performance.

When performance falls short, training is often one of the first solutions considered.

But what if employees already know what to do?

The real problem may be unclear expectations, broken processes, inadequate tools, competing priorities, misaligned incentives, weak manager reinforcement, or other workplace conditions that training cannot fix.

And even when training is the right solution, another challenge remains: Did the learning actually show up in the work?

Completion, satisfaction, and knowledge scores provide useful information. But they don't tell us whether:

  • People changed what they do.
  • Workplace performance improved.
  • The organization achieved meaningful results.

The Five Essential Questions Performance System™ connects these pieces into one practical process.

Better performance starts with asking better questions.

The Four Sessions

Four Sessions. Practical Tools. Immediate Application.

Each session builds on the one before it. Participants apply the Five EQ Performance System™ to real performance challenges and leave with practical tools they can use immediately.

Session 1 — Diagnose

Diagnose First, Train Second™

Stop training problems that training cannot solve.

Learn how to identify what is preventing expected performance and distinguish between problems that require training and those caused by processes, expectations, resources, incentives, management practices, or other workplace conditions.

You will leave able to: Diagnose a performance problem and make an evidence-based decision about whether training is the right solution.

Session 2 — Align

The Five Essential Questions™

Define what needs to change—and how you will know whether it did.

Use the Five Essential Questions to connect expected workplace behaviors with outcomes, meaningful metrics, and evaluation from the beginning—not after training has already been delivered.

You will leave able to: Build a clear line from the behavior that needs to change to the evidence that will demonstrate whether the initiative produced results.

Session 3 — Transfer

Training Transfer & Motivated Learner Rejection

Learning does not automatically become workplace performance.

Explore why employees may learn what to do but still not apply it on the job—and how manager reinforcement, incentives, competing priorities, processes, and other workplace conditions can support or prevent transfer.

You will leave able to: Identify the conditions that help or hinder the translation of learning into workplace performance and plan how to address them.

Session 4 — Measure

Measure What Matters

Move beyond training activity to evidence of performance and results.

Connect behavior change to workplace performance, operational measures, and business impact. When appropriate, extend the analysis to financial impact and ROI.

You will leave able to: Build credible evidence showing what changed, what difference it made, and what the organization should do next.

Who Should Attend?

For Professionals Responsible for Performance and Results

Designed for professionals responsible for improving workforce performance and demonstrating results—including L&D, talent development, HR, instructional design, performance consulting, workforce development, and operational leaders.

If you're being asked to improve performance, demonstrate transfer, or show business impact, this program is designed for you.

Register

Ready to Move From Training Activity to Performance Results?

Four live online sessions designed for practical application.

  • Practical tools and job aids
  • Application to real organizational challenges
  • Five EQ Performance System™ Certificate
October 6, 13, 20 & 27, 2026
11:00 AM–1:30 PM Eastern
ISPI Members $590
Non-ISPI Members $695
Register Now

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