When I first joined Training magazine in 2007, my publisher gave me a stack of magazines to read and strongly suggested I familiarize myself with Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Evaluation. Coming from a licensing publication, I had no idea what she was talking about.
But the first magazine I opened had an article that referenced those levels. And so did the next one. I quickly learned about Don Kirkpatrick, a.k.a, the Father of the Four Levels of Evaluation, who, in November 1959, revolutionized the way the impact of training programs is measured. Don Kirkpatrick had figured how to take training to the next level—and the level after that and the one after that.
The Kirkpatrick Four Levels of Evaluation had been part of the Training Top 125 application when I joined Training. At that time, the application was scored quantitatively only. After researching Don’s work, I added qualitative scoring to the application, asking applicants to provide Level 3 and 4 results to prove the effectiveness of their training.
Sadly, Don Kirkpatrick passed away May 9, 2014, at the age of 90 after authoring eight books in training evaluation and Human Resource management topics; presenting worldwide for more than 50 years; and receiving numerous awards, including the ASTD Lifetime Achievement Award, ASTD Legend in Training and Development, ASTD Gordon M. Bliss Award, and Training magazine HRD Hall of Fame membership.
But his legacy lives on as his work is carried on by his son, Jim, and daughter-in-law, Wendy, through their company, Kirkpatrick Partners. In a May 21, 2014, blog post that was an open letter to his dad, Jim wrote: “Thanks for selflessly passing the torch for the Four Levels to Wendy and me. We will do our best to be the spark that turns others into bright lights. Thanks for teaching me how to laugh with people, and how to show them that heart and the human spirit are more meaningful than any metric.”
Responses to a blog post by Kirkpatrick Partners posted May 12, 2014, included the following:
“I have been applying Dr. Kirkpatrick’s wisdom for 20-plus years; I think of Dr. Kirkpatrick as an industry mentor and, therefore, a personal mentor. Dr. Kirkpatrick’s involvement in the performance improvement community and in other communities closer to home is a source of inspiration. He will be missed.”—Esther Bergman, Benchmark Performance
“The world will sorely miss someone so dedicated to the profession and ensuring that we are measuring at all four levels. His humor and his singing of the Packers or Wisconsin song all made him more human to the rest of us. Thanks for continuing his work, and may you all be blessed with his memories and legacy.”
—Howard Prager
Don’s legacy continues in the 2015 Training Top 125 application, which was revised this year to place an even stronger emphasis on Level 3 and Level 4 results. Visit http://trainingmag.com/learn-more-about-training-top-125 to download the application. I look forward to seeing how you are taking training to the next level.
