On this week’s webinar, “Turning the Web page to 2025: Mastering Storytelling in L&D,” Litmos’ Director of Studying, Jon Hill, supplied partaking and related ideas for educational designers and Studying & Growth (L&D) professionals about learn how to apply the core ideas of storytelling to create simpler coaching packages.
The session coated just a few completely different storytelling fundamentals: the three-part construction of storytelling, the significance of utilizing relatable characters, the impression of perspective, and some well-known narrative buildings, together with Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey,” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Man in a Gap” mannequin.
The facility of storytelling in L&D
The webinar targeted particularly on how storytelling can be utilized to reinforce compliance coaching packages. To open the session, Hill launched an viewers ballot to see how attendees who had participated in a compliance coaching course perceived their studying expertise:
- 77% of ballot respondents discovered their final compliance coaching expertise boring
- 13% reported feeling as if their most up-to-date compliance coaching course was efficient
- 8% of the viewers reported discovering their final compliance coaching session partaking
- 2% remembered their compliance coaching being a mix of “boring,” “efficient,” and “partaking”
By adopting the ideas of storytelling, Hill argued, L&D professionals can remodel notoriously dry compliance subjects into extra partaking and memorable studying experiences.
Narrative buildings for educational design
The “Man in a Gap” narrative construction, described by writer Kurt Vonnegut, was mentioned as a mannequin for creating partaking coaching experiences. Right here, the character will get into bother (the “gap”) after which manages to get out of it, ending up in a greater place than earlier than.
The construction of the “Hero’s Journey,” a story sample recognized by scholar Joseph Campbell, additionally aligns effectively with many frequent educational design fashions, in response to Hill. That’s as a result of the best studying experiences put contributors by way of a hero’s journey of kinds, wherein the learner begins with a problem and leads to a greater place than after they started.
Hill defined how these two fashions observe an analogous sample and inspired attendees to find out the construction of their studying narratives. “Should you do nothing else at present however come out of this session desirous about the form of your story and this simplified model of those fashions, you’re going to enhance your studying experiences in your trainees,” he suggested.
Utilizing perspective for higher storytelling
In his in depth dialogue of how perspective is utilized in storytelling, Hill highlighted how utilizing the primary, second, and third individual can create completely different ranges of emotional and contextual reference to studying content material.
- The primary-person perspective can create an immersive studying expertise, inserting learners instantly in a given state of affairs
- The second-person perspective can create a barely extra indifferent however nonetheless partaking expertise
- The third-person perspective supplies an summary of the state of affairs, very like a documentary
Hill pointed the viewers to a worksheet that could possibly be used to additional discover how views can be utilized to make compliance coaching extra partaking. He additionally showcased actual examples of how his staff at Litmos utilized completely different views inside their compliance coaching modules.
Making studying narratives memorable
The “Man within the Gap” and “Hero’s Journey” narrative fashions typically work effectively when the primary character is imperfect. It’s uncommon, Hill argues, to be engaged with a narrative a few flawless character who makes zero errors. Probably the most memorable tales are ones that replicate our personal struggles or challenges. That’s why the best narratives in storytelling are ones that present a flawed character overcoming an impediment.
In studying design, following a personality who isn’t good can foster learner empathy. Plus, the stress created by a personality who makes a nasty or misguided choice, naturally causes the viewers crave a decision. Put merely, learners will root for a relatable character who finds themselves “in a gap.” They’ll be invested within the end result of the story, and can hope for the character to beat the problem at hand. And what’s extra memorable than that?
By adopting storytelling ideas, L&D professionals can remodel their coaching packages into memorable and impactful studying experiences. To see how one can grasp storytelling in 2025, watch the complete webinar session right here.
