Whenever I visit learning exhibitions and conferences the topic of engagement appears to consistently pull in the crowds. The holy grail of getting adults to welcome, even embrace a half-day workshop on compliance continues to elude us! While there are many theories and practical applications to increase learner engagement, I come from the school of corporate management that needs results now and have no money to throw at it!

Here then, are a couple of ideas for those of you that need immediate results, requiring no money, no new equipment, just a little bit of thinking time:

Email

Email templates literally take minutes to prepare, sometimes just using bold or colourful text can be just as effective as expensive graphics.

Poster style announcements and teasers are an effective way of engaging your audience particularly if you can build communications around a theme; my current favourite approach is a little more cryptic to build interest and an element of discovery by emailing a teaser message using code, emoticons or picture sentences. If you‘re a dab hand with flash (or know someone who is) try a short animation in a similar vein to the old game show – Catchphrase – here’s a link for those of you who don’t remember: Click here

This works just as well as a puzzle or on-screen reveal without the animation so it doesn’t have to be complicated.

The outcome you’re looking for is to get people talking about your learning and encouraging an element of ‘discovery’ immediately draws people in.

Consider viral

Think about the sort of things that are naturally passed around between work colleagues and friends, they are normally funny, pictures or videos that strike a chord or adopt a theme. It’s remarkably easy to include video clips these days using a mobile phone or YouTube to make a point and they can be really effective. Have a look at this YouTube clip as a quick and effective example:

Combined with the caption:

Still don’t think you need to attend the forklift safety course?

Combine with a call to action:

Sign up now by replying YES to this email.

If you have any good tips you want to share e-mail me.

Next week…

The hidden powers of notice boards & the break-out room!