Assembling your own Endgame

Die Hard Learners....!

The key in everything we do as #L&Ders, is to empower our learners to change the way they approach their learning and model the behaviours ourselves. 

Passive engagement is truly one of the hardest pieces of the L&D puzzle to solve and often trainers slip into a passive delivery method of starting the session, delivering the content and ending the session with the usual thank you mail which disappears off into the unread regions of a person’s inbox. 

The path to engagement is not easy and you have to challenge yourself as much as, if not more than, you challenge the learners.

So if you’ve asked yourself recently:

In this post I share some of my thinking on what I keep in mind setting out to win the day and be the hero in my own L&D story. You may already have them in your list but maybe not in the colorful way an action movie influenced L&Der might:

1. It's not about you it's about them except when it's about you... Wait. What? A twist straight out of the gate? Well kinda... Of course the main focus of everything we do is about our audience but if you don't think of yourself as part of the story you're already on your way to losing. You need to understand the audience and see things from their perspective. In my case I've often walked the floor during a webinar hosted by someone else and have seen people with headsets half on, the screen-share on one screen while working on tasks on the second. Is that their fault? Maybe. But this is where it is about you! Are you aware of this happening? Or do you think that it's different when you lead a session? Come on now, be honest... There, the truth feels good doesn't it? So how can you use this to your advantage? I personally have fun with it, at the start of a webinar I usually reference what I and everyone know is bound to happen, I mention my spies placed around the globe to report back and tell me when someone gave in to temptation and lost focus and I also reference the things I have open on my second screen to keep me awake during the session. Shh... can you hear that? What's that noise? Is that the sound of attention being turned to your webinar? It could be, but we all know it's not permanent so let's move on...
   
   
   
2. If you're reading from a slide, you're reading to yourself... So you've got them (for now), you managed to level the field and show you understand both sides of the accord and then you begin reading your slides... Every. Single. Word. Of. Every. Single. Slide... What happened to you? We thought you were different... But you are different! Right? You've read these slides a million times when reviewing the content before release, in fact you could probably do a TED talk on the topic, yep that's right...  And here's your chance to show an understanding, to keep people's attention on what you're saying and how you're saying it. I mean personally my inner monologue bores me to sleep at the best of times what makes you think it'll be different once you externalise it? Remember we are not just conduits for transfer of information we are in a position to rally and rouse our team by modelling the change/behaviour we want to see. So remember, be the show, don't tell! And if it's something that needs to be read... save them! and yourself by making the reading available!
   
3. Rewatchability (my rules, my made up words) is important...What’s the top grossing movie of all time? Did you say Avengers Endgame? Of course you did. But what tipped the scale for Marvel’s conclusion to an epic story arc? How’d they get butts in seats for repeat viewings? Rewatchability. Easter eggs, resolutions to plot threads sewn in the infancy of the MCU and possible set ups for the next era, not to mention a re-release with additional content. All of these things have driven wild looking for more content, if I’m honest, I still dismay at those who leave the cinema before the credits end (shame on you!). But everything here is possible in our delivery of content, courses and information in general. You’ve heard the phrase "leave them wanting more," well you kind of need to make them hungry throughout too and the magical little breadcrumbs you scatter throughout are what do it. For complex materials like a system update you could have numerous items to cover, you’re not going to get it all across in two hours (why would you even consider doing that to the poor people?) but you know that you’ve pointed them in the right direction to where the expansive materials are stored; Quick reference cards, walk-through and interactive guides all ripe and ready for consumption. But when did you point them to the material? After the training, when they’ve forgotten or given up on what you said/showed? Before the training, when they have no real reference to when or why they’ll need it? Or during the actual session, when they’re currently trying to take notes, stay engaged or not be distracted by external factors? All of the above should realistically be the answer here. Give them the call to action to take notes of time-codes for later viewing, let them know there’s more to this and if you're talking about it it’s to highlight that fact. In the 3 hours of Endgame, most people can probably remember where their favourite bits happened, I know I repeatedly sought out the clip that resolved a question from Age of Ultron.  Remember this is not just some one and done cash in, this is an interconnected learning universe you’re building and you’re the one to lead... no no! Assemble them.

And remember it never hurts to remind yourself...

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