Anticipate The Next Wave Or You Will Drown

Like most people in 2019, I do enjoy the occasional podcast here and there. I recently came across “The Chernobyl Podcast”, which explains how the HBO hit show written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck, was made (I have to admit, I haven’t watched the show yet) .To really enjoy the podcast, you gotta watch the show first though. Anyway, I still did listen in a bit and was struck when Craig said (warning: spoilers ahead) “I showed the explosion right in the beginning. I also showed that Valery Legasov, the main investigator, committed suicide in the first couple of minutes. People would have googled this right away anyway.”

I really like this approach. Craig knew, people watching the show would pick up their smartphones and research the events while they are watching. This is what we do nowadays. We are ever connected and can quickly find answers to questions. The brilliant piece for me here is that Craig anticipated what viewers would do. 

Take this and apply it to L&D. When was the last time you anticipated what your learners would do? Instead of creating linear training programs, anticipate what your learners really want, and what they would do even if you spoon-feed them content. Two main options come to mind. 

First, look at data that you can leverage to make educated decisions. What content has been used in the past, what keywords are learners searching for, when do they access content, do they use their mobile phones or a desktop, do they like and share content? This information is extremely helpful. As we all know, actions speak louder than words. 

Second, armed with data, host a hackathon or design thinking session in which you identify learner segments and personas. This way, you can better understand what your learners think and feel, see, hear, and do. You want to identify their pain points and understand what drives them. Going through the exercise of creating personas will help you do exactly that. Ideally, you want to create 3-5 learner personas that represent your typical learner. From there, you can anticipate what content will resonate the most with each persona and start building your content. The best part is, you just increased the chances of content actually being consumed because you identified the learners’ needs and personalized the learner journey as much as possible.

L&D professionals have to start anticipating more with the help of data and design thinking in order to stay afloat. Otherwise, we will drown. 

Want to learn more about learner personas, and other cool tactics you can borrow from marketing? Check out my Little Black Book of Marketing and L&D.

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