On this week’s webinar, “Turning the Page to 2025: Mastering Storytelling in L&D,” Litmos’ Director of Studying, Jon Hill, supplied partaking and related suggestions for educational designers and Studying & Growth (L&D) professionals about apply the core rules of storytelling to create simpler coaching applications.

The session lined a couple of 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 constructions, 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 training applications. 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 rules of storytelling, Hill argued, L&D professionals can remodel notoriously dry compliance matters into extra partaking and memorable studying experiences.

Narrative constructions for educational design

The “Man in a Hole” narrative structure, described by writer Kurt Vonnegut, was mentioned as a mannequin for creating partaking coaching experiences. Right here, the character will get into hassle (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 nicely with many widespread educational design fashions, in response to Hill. That’s as a result of the simplest studying experiences put individuals by a hero’s journey of types, during which the learner begins with a problem and leads to a greater place than after they started.

Hill defined how these two fashions comply with the same sample and inspired attendees to find out the construction of their studying narratives. “If you happen to do nothing else at this time however come out of this session eager about the form of your story and this simplified model of those fashions, you’re going to enhance your studying experiences to your trainees,” he suggested.

Utilizing perspective for higher storytelling

In his intensive dialogue of how perspective is utilized in storytelling, Hill highlighted how utilizing the primary, second, and third particular person can create completely different ranges of emotional and contextual reference to studying content material.

• The primary-person perspective can create an immersive studying expertise, putting 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 gives an summary of the scenario, very similar to a documentary

Hill pointed the viewers to a worksheet that might be used to additional discover how views can be utilized to make compliance coaching extra partaking. He additionally showcased actual examples of how his group 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 usually work nicely when the principle character is imperfect. It’s uncommon, Hill argues, to be engaged with a narrative a couple of flawless character who makes zero errors. Essentially the most memorable tales are ones that mirror our personal struggles or challenges. That’s why the simplest narratives in storytelling are ones that present a flawed character overcoming an impediment.

In studying design, following a personality who isn’t excellent can foster learner empathy. Plus, the strain created by a personality who makes a nasty or misguided determination, 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 rules, L&D professionals can remodel their coaching applications into memorable and impactful studying experiences. To see how one can grasp storytelling in 2025, watch the full webinar session here.