Training Industry Magazine - Fall 2022 - 41

exact
campaign. The audience
is hit with messages in nearly every
aspect of their lives, which helps them
remember that they want french fries
on the way home.
This is pretty similar to a popular
argument in L&D: Learning is never
a " one-and-done " ordeal. While most
L&D professionals will never win the
battle of getting their learners in the
classroom repeatedly for the same
content, they can offer up some
omnichannel learning. Maybe the first
hit is an instructor-led training (ILT),
but the second? Why not a designed
email with tips or reminders? A onepage
reminder that can be printed
and hung up? An eLearning module
that lets people advance through
levels of difficulty? A dedicated
intranet page? There's no need to pull
people into a classroom for several
hours to reinforce their learning. Let's
surround them with the content in a
continuous way that makes it easy for
them to retain the information.
ACT
To dive into how media gets you to act
on their information, think about candy.
Let's say Kit Kats. It's not uncommon to
see a Kit Kat advertisement while you're
pumping gas. A friendly voice on the
pump's video screen lets you know it's
two for $1 and it's only 20 feet away,
inside the station. Easy to act upon, right?
That same ad would not be as effective
if you were sitting at home watching TV.
No one would care that Gas Station X
had two for $1 Kit Kats, much less hop in
the car to go get them.
Another thing to
remember from the media world is that
all their content works to put people
through the sales funnel. What's a
sales funnel? It's a marketing tool to
target content that gets people to know
their brand exists (top of the funnel),
gradually shepherding them into the
customer status (bottom of the funnel).
Using the Kit Kat example above, by
the time you see that gas station ad
or the center aisle display, you know
what a Kit Kat is. You've probably had
one before, you know they're tasty and
you're going to buy one right now.
What's the " learning funnel " in L&D?
How easy is it for learners to act upon
their education? Is the expectation that
people sit through six hours of lecture,
where their heads are crammed full of
information, then magically be able to
flawlessly perform when they show up
to their first shift on Monday? Hopefully
no, but realistically, this happens all the
time. Instead, how can L&D folks be
good guides down learning pathways?
Knowing there's a " real world " out
there where these may or may not
get shot down in flames, there's a
few quick wins to try. Mimic media by
slowing down the pace of education
and extending it, letting learners have
more time to digest the information they
need. Instead of offering one eighthour
day, why not two four-hour days?
Give learners
takeaways after they
leave class or complete the eLearning.
Provide supporting microlearning so if
learners are foggy on one small piece
of the information, they can get the
TRAINING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE - FALL 2022 I WWW.TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM/MAGAZINE
info they need.
Think of ways that you can help your
learners down that learning
funnel
from the top-most " I have no idea
where I am, " all the way down to " I've
got this! "
IT'S NOT WHAT YOU
SAY, IT'S HOW
YOU SAY IT
Once again, developing learning with
a media mindset doesn't really have
anything to do with pretty pictures. It's
all in how you present your information
to make the audience want to interact
with it, to use it. This doesn't mean
toss out what your learners need to
know, or that all learning should be
snarky jokes that are Instagram-ready.
It means thinking through what's
important to your learners, finding a
way to wrap them up in your message
and making it easy for them to do what
you want them to do.
After all, isn't that why we're here?
Juston
Espinoza
is a wandering
creative trained in visual effects and
motion graphics. Juston now works as
a senior transformation and innovation
specialist in HR at Spectrum Health,
incorporating design and creativity to
enhance his team's work and drive
higher levels of learner engagement.
Email Juston.
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