I have seen hundreds of situations in the last 36 months where a training group had a training experience they said they wanted to consider for implementation.

• Around 25% did not evaluate the program at all.

• Around 25% evaluated the program by skimming it.

• Around 20% evaluated the program by asking a few friends to skim it.

• Around 20% evaluated the program by putting in a small group and asking the participants if they liked it.

• Finally, around 10% evaluated the program by putting a group through it and measuring the effectiveness.

As a bit of a post script, when re-engaging training professionals a year later, there seem to be a significant correlation between those who didn't pilot well and those that did not have a job. Those most afraid of bothering people with a pilot became those most vulnerable.