Lights, Action, Learning
By Lenn Millbower, the Learnertainment® Trainer
Keep 'em awake so the learning can take!(tm)

Entertainments that succeed reach their audiences emotionally. Viewers tear up when the hero faces sadness, they cheer when the hero succeeds, and they become anxious when the hero is in danger. In the learning environment, people tear up, cheer, and become anxious as well. Unfortunately, these reactions likely happen in spite of the instruction.

If you reach people intellectually, you may gain consensus. If you reach people emotionally, you likely change behavior. Taping into that well of emotion is fairly easy if you follow the Learnertainment® Principle, Perspectives Deepen Meaning and the corresponding action step, Layer Learning. In this article I hope to show you how.

Concept and Message in Entertainment

Great entertainments have a focused point of view, and that point of view dictates every event in the presentation. For instance, most movies begin with a concept:

• A beast must win true love (Beauty and the Beast)
• An epic western in space (Star Wars)
• The smallest being must save the world (The Lord of the Rings)
  

Determining a movie’s concept is usually a simple matter, the title, as in the case of those listed above, hints at the concept to be presented. Having a clear concept is the first step. Next, Hollywood ties the concept to a message:

• Beauty comes from within (Beauty and the Beast)
• Trust the force within you (Star Wars)
• It’s how you live the times you’re given (The Lord of the Rings)
  

All three of these films were box office gold, and deservedly so. Each had a clear concept and a specific message and then stayed focused on both throughout the entire film. Using these same tools, training programs can create their own box office gold.

Concept and Message in Learning

Most instructional designers, including this author, rely on the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) model for creating training programs. ADDIE is a useful but imperfect tool. The Linear emphasis of ADDIE creates a logical, point-to-point design. The danger in this approach is that sometimes the design wanders so far a field that the last point may not tie to the first.

The ADDIE alignment with training objectives does help direct a design. Training objectives are obviously important, but they exist on a logical level. In contrast, the concept and the message exist more emotively. In Hollywood terms, the objectives tell the learners what the goals of the learning are. What the objectives do not highlight is the context in which the training will be presented (the concept) and the higher purpose the training serves within the context of the learners’ lives (the message).

For instance, in my book Show Biz Training (AMACOM, 2003), I present a case study of asbestos awareness training as A Bess-Tess Story, with Bess being an employee who does everything correctly and her sister Tess doing everything poorly. I then tied the whole training to The Brady Bunch TV show theme song.

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Concept and Meaning in Entertainment

A concept need not be that elaborate. For a financial services training, the concept might be as simple as learning the steps required to file a loan application. During leadership training, the concept may be centered on becoming a more effective leader. Customer service training may focus on the mechanics of assisting the customer.

As in the Hollywood examples listed above, the title of the training is an important element in framing the context of the training. As the A Bess-Tess Story demonstrates, I like to title training programs so as to frame the concept. The program can then communicate it’s intent in advance to the trainees. As such, an effective design process would start with, rather than end with, determining the likely training program title.

With the concept clearly defined, the next step is to determine the underlying message of the training program. The A Bess-Tess Story message was that handling asbestos safely leads to a long life. In the financial services example, the message might be the comfort that comes from financial security. For leadership, the desire to better serve humanity could be the focus. Customer service training’s message may be that creating lasting memories enriches a customer’s life.

Once the trainers understand the underlying message, the training becomes less about a series of required tasks and more about developing skills that will enhance life. The resulting training can be delivered with a passion not possible with a sequential process alone. As with anything in life, knowing and believing in a purpose leads to a laser-like focus that can prevent side issues from dominating a program, both during the design and in the classroom.

Layering Perspectives in Entertainment

The concept and the message provide the underpinnings of a training design, but do not address the sequencing of the learning methods. For that, I layer instruction through as many perspectives as possible. Let me demonstrate through another look at entertainment.

The literary arts, including virtually all the great poems, plays and fictional stories of Western culture, thrive on delivering multiple perspectives. Shakespeare’s Hamlet became a classic in part because it can be perceived in as many different ways as there are actors to portray Hamlet.

Most great literary works allow the reader or viewer to enjoy the story on a surface level while simultaneously, through the use of simile, allegory or metaphor, experience it on an emotive, holistic level.

Hollywood thrives on presenting a perspective, and then surprising the viewer with a change of perspective. Joe Alden Robinson classic, Field of Dreams offers an excellent example. The movie’s hero, Kevin Costner, plows under his Iowa cornfield to build a baseball field to “ease” baseball player Shoeless Joe Jackson’s “pain.” It’s only in the last ten minutes of the film that the viewer discovers the pain to be eased is Kevin Costner’s own at being estranged from his father.

Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind offers another example. The viewer is first led to believe that the film’s hero, played by Russell Crowe makes friends with a college roommate and works as a top secret code breaker for the US government. The film later reveals that neither happened, except in the hero’s mind.

Warning - BIG SPOILER AHEAD!!!

Perhaps Hollywood’s best purveyor of alternate perspectives is M. Night Shyamalan. In his thriller, Signs, the movie-goer is led to believe that the “signs” are crop circles created by aliens as navigation signals. The end of the film reveals that the signs are signals from God meant to reunite the lead character, played by Mel Gibson, with his faith.

It's safe to read again. SPOILERs OVER!!!

These examples allow the viewer to experience the event on multiple, simultaneous perspectives that create deeper, richer, more meaningful film experiences.

Layered Perspectives in Learning

The great artist and scientist, Leonardo da Vinci developed many of his legendary works through a layered learning approach. Da Vinci believed that the key to true learning was to view a subject from as many perspectives as possible. He felt that the first perspective he chose was too biased toward his usual way of seeing things. Instead, he would examine the subject from one perspective, move to another perspective and then to another until, with the advantage of additional perspectives, he learned the subject completely.

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In our own time, Dr. Howard Gardner offered a theory that supports da Vinci’s approach. Gardner theorized that there are different ways to be intelligent. The eight Multiple Intelligences he listed follow:

• Bodily/Kinesthetic – Touching, participating in physical activity
• Interpersonal – Relating, focusing on others
• Intrapersonal – Introspecting, focusing inward
• Linguistic – Articulating, communicating ideas
• Logical/Mathematical – Analyzing, solving problems
• Musical/Rhythmic – Feeling, connecting sounds and rhythms
• Naturalist – Communing, relating to nature
• Visual/Spatial – Seeing, comprehending dimensional relationships
  

Gardner’s theory suggested two implications of his theory for learning:

1. A person's core intelligences need to be engaged in learning – Learning that matches a person's innate intelligences helps that person feel more engaged and competent and enriches the learning experience, making it more fulfilling
2. People need to learn in multiple ways –A multi-dimensional training approach exposes learners to different intelligences and a wide range of learning experiences
   

Here is where ADDIE fails. Although it is excellent at leading a designer through a logical flow, it does so without regard to the simultaneous richness that da Vinci and Gardner championed. The resulting designs are often shallow, white bread, paint-by-the-numbers programs devoid of richness and detail.

Consider the design of a typical diversity class. The instructional methods usually include lecture (linguistic), video (visual/spatial), and statistics (logical/mathematical).

Now consider what that same class would look like if presented through Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences filter. Linguistic, visual/spatial, logical/mathematical and Interpersonal material would still be presented but additional elements might include the sharing and sampling of food from different cultures (bodily/kinesthetic), small group discussions (interpersonal), reading expert opinions about the effects of discrimination (intrapersonal), musical samples from around the world (musical/rhythmic,) and a look at the world’s variety of wildlife and fauna (naturalistic).

This multi-layered approach would give the learners a fully rounded, holistic view of the subject, a greater appreciation of the value of diversity and a greater likelihood of behavioral change.

Lights, Action, Learning

A final word of caution is appropriate. The layered approach should work in concert with ADDIE: not replace it. Once a training event becomes too focused on entertainment it loses its instructional value. Just as a great movie must stay on message, learning events should stay on objective. The "signs" present in a learning program should all lead to one source: higher effectiveness through new skills that enhance the human condition.

Now it's your turn: Take action for effective learning!

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Permission is granted to reprint this article in its entirety without editing AND with proper attribution to Lenn Millbower, BM, MA, The Learnertainment® Trainer and Offbeat Training LLC.

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