Because I design workplace trainings for a living, I am wildly impatient with mandatory courses that I have to take. I expect more from them than they usually deliver–and to be clear, I know that I am part of the problem. We all are: each one of us has written content that misses the mark.
I wanted to look more closely at how many well-intentioned trainings fail, and what I found wasn’t what I was expecting. It wasn’t as linear as, Hmm, that content didn’t align to learning objective #4–usually by the time that list of learning objectives reappeared at the end of the course, that bullet point list felt like a numbing act of mercy in that Thank God it’s over! way. Yes, we covered that, and that, and that, OK, need to not be late to my next meeting …
… and I’m clearing the cache, already on to my next to do list for the afternoon.
It’s not that the content wasn’t en pointe, it’s that I don’t care. Did that training speak to a behavior that needed to change? No, not really. I don’t have any motivation to change.
How we fail our audience
Does that feel familiar to you? Leaving a course feeling bored and unmotivated? What’s behind that?
Too often, the course ends, the learner clicks X to close their browser window, and has absolutely no momentum to actually implement the change they had just spend 20 minutes learning about?
Why do so many learners take courses, score well enough in the knowledge checks to pass, and do nothing to act on what they’ve just learned.
It would be easy to say, well, each adult is responsible for their own inertia, but if the adult learner is not applying what they learn from one of our courses, perhaps we are part of the problem.
What’s behind it?
Why is the learner not making a change?
I think it’s fear.
Fear of consequences.
What if, in their real-life duties, the consequences of poor decision making are more severe than in a slick, 20 minute corporate course? What can we as writers do to move the conversation about consequences forward?
As writers, usually we don’t have visibility into the unique company culture where our learners sit, and we don’t have the ability to immediately affect that culture. Right?
No, we don’t.
Or … do we?
Yes, we can
What we can do, course by course, is move the conversation about consequences forward.
What we can do is create engaging scenarios that invite learners to make difficult, multilayered choices, and guide them through failing. Learning science backs up that learning by negative example is far more “sticky” than trainings that steer clear of difficult emotions, trainings that lack the emotional resonance of “Oh … I made a mistake. Now what?” We can write to that. There is a lot of power in the teachable moment done well.
What we can do is make mistakes OK.
elearning courses are a safe space to explore being wrong. Let’s invite learners into well-crafted, engaging spaces, and do that. Take the time to guide your learners through the complexities of their options, and how their discernment directly relates to their work. Tether their takeaways from your scenarios to their daily work so by the end of their course experience, they clearly see why your content was important, and why it impacts their work.
As learners gain more confidence to apply the why, to make that behavioral change, their performance metrics will improve. Our training will have met its mark. Success that looks like this:
- VIA created a training experience for a major sports retailer that resulted in 145% increased engagement and interaction in their vendor portal. Metrics like this make a difference—and you can help learners make behavioral changes just like this. Write your teachable moments well.
- One of our IT clients reported that their compliance office received a record number of inquiries this year, and attributed that the 2017 Standards of Business Conduct course that we created for them. This successful course was safe space to explore the grey areas and questions around compliance, and how those questions impact their job role. This safe space led to tangible results.
To borrow from the medical terminology, we can help learners move from watchful waiting, past fear, into watchful doing.
And we will, in time, have a part in affecting the culture around consequences.
There will always be consequences. Let’s do our part of help our learners better face them.
