Put the learner to work
“There are a couple more principles,” I said.
“This next principle is an interesting one, and it’s one I have to remind myself of all the time: Rely on the reader’s imagination.”
“What does that mean?” asked Jerry.
I explained how readers – learners in our case – have a lifetime of experience to draw on. As authors we need only give the briefest of descriptions and let the learner fill in the rest of the picture from their own imagination.
“Hmmm,” said Jerry. “Now that I think about it, all you said about Dr. Couth is her name and that she’s a weekly newspaper columnist. I have a picture of what she looks like, but…”
“But it may not be the same as mine,” I said. “And that’s okay. Unless it’s critical that the learner has a certain precise image, like an electrical wiring diagram, just give them a few clues and leave the rest to their imagination. It saves you hundreds of unnecessary words!”
I went on. “The next principle is to get in character and stay there.”
In the old days, I told Jerry, novelists used to write things like “Dear reader, …” Nowadays that’s a strict no-no. Readers should see the action through the eyes of the characters. This isn’t to say you can’t choose from various points of view such as first person, third person, or omniscient (all knowing). But once you start telling the story, keep telling it from whatever character’s viewpoint you choose. Don’t be trapped into stepping out of role and writing from author directly to reader.
“This leads right into the next principle, show, don’t tell,” I said, “but I need to say one more thing about story line first.”
“You’re doing it again,” said Jerry.
“How many characters did I use in the sexual harassment course, Jerry?”
“Let me think,” he said. “Nine. No, ten. Nine letter-writers and Dr. Couth.”
“Close, but not quite. Actually there were eleven – I brought the reader in as a character, too, to ‘help’ Dr. Couth compose her letters. That’s a lot of characters, but I wanted each letter to come from a different person so we could represent a variety of jobs and locations in the company. Each letter-writer had a cameo appearance in a way.”
“How many characters do you think you’ll need for the compliance course?” said Jerry.
“I haven’t thought about it yet,” I said. Then I explained the minimalist approach in general: don’t use any more characters – or words, for that matter – than are necessary.
The almighty POV (Point of View)
I showed Jerry how you go from the storyline and main character to figuring out point of view. Who will be telling the story? In the sexual harassment course I intentionally chose a third person point of view: Dr. Couth’s. That enabled me to keep the content somewhat impersonal.
“But for the compliance course,” I said, “I think I’ll make it first person to show the personal struggle a bit more vividly. I may tell the story from my point of view as an employee who recognizes he made a mistake. Fictional, of course. That way when I describe my internal struggle before deciding to fess up to the Compliance Officer, it’ll convey a bit more of the human drama.”
“You’re not answering my question,” said Jerry. “So how do you decide how many characters to use?”
More discussion. I showed Jerry how the point of view that you’ve chosen to use dictates how the learner will get information:
- First person: The learner should get information solely from what the main character thinks, knows, and can observe directly.
- Third person: You can generally be a little “looser” on where the learner gets information, especially if you choose third person omniscient, meaning all knowing. “You can get in anybody’s head with omniscient,” I said. “But you need to be careful lest you’re reading everyone’s thoughts. That takes a lot of the fun out of the story.”
- Then, depending on how tightly you restrict yourself to what the main character can observe, you may need additional characters for additional sources of input. Going back to To Kill a Mockingbird, the story is told from the daughter’s point of view and we only know what she sees and hears as a child caught up in adults’ drama. But other characters were certainly needed in order to make the story.
I suggested to Jerry that when he reads a book or watches a movie, to think about why the author brought each character onto the stage. What purpose does each one serve? Could the story have been told with any of the characters absent?
Then I said, “Let’s look at one final principle: Show, don’t tell.”
Use the story to pull the learner in
I told Jerry that I put a lot of credence in this principle. Describe what the reader would see rather than tell her outright what’s going on. Here’s an example on describing anger:
- He got mad.
- His eyes and cheeks bulged as he spat his retort.
The first sentence tells us the emotion; the second one helps us see it. “Which one is more fun to read?” I asked.
Jerry held up two fingers. “Right,” I said. “There’s one more thing, Jerry, and I learned this on my own, not from fiction.”
I told him my discovery that stories or scenarios – we’ll use “stories” to mean both – can make learning more efficient, especially e-Learning. Why? Because unlike presentation-style delivery where all the content must be delivered before you ask questions about it, with stories you can deliver much of the content in the feedback.
“Ah,” said Jerry, “so that’s why the sexual harassment course seemed more like a story. You delivered most of the content in the answers to the questions. So the learner felt like they were interacting in a story, and the content was almost consequential. Clever.” (See Sidebar 2 for an example of this feedback -- note that the content of this Sidebar does not relate to Harold’s question in Sidebar 1, but to a question within the course itself.)
a. No. Since the situation made Harold uncomfortable enough to go to HR, his supervisor cannot ignore the situation.
b. Yes. She should answer questions objectively and avoid any form of retaliation against Harold for raising the issue.
c. No, of course not. His supervisor must not retaliate against Harold for filing his complaint.
“Yeah,” I said, “And I think by using these principles of fiction to exploit the learner’s natural curiosity, told from the viewpoint of interesting characters, you can hold their interest, deliver more content in less space, and make it more memorable, all at the same time.”
Jerry said, “Mike, I also remember the course was an easy read. You used a combination of audio and text, but it seemed crisp in both look and pace.”
A matter of style
I told Jerry that as I was learning how to construct fiction, I also picked up some tips on writing style. As with conflict and suspense, these things keep the reader moving forward.
“Like commas,” I said. “Commas slow the reader’s forward progress. So do long words and sentences. I look for ways to cut words and commas and to keep sentences short. I look for multi-syllable words and see if I can use shorter ones.”
“I learned one more thing,” I said. “Dialogue. In fiction, dialogue is not everyday speech. There’s a whole art to writing good dialogue, more than we have time to go into here. Suffice it to say, you use dialogue to heighten tension, reveal competing agendas, stuff like that. And of course, reveal character.”
Back to the compliance course
Then Jerry said, “So how do you think you’ll approach the compliance course, Mike?”
“Well, like I said before, I think I’ll pose as an employee who discovers they called a customer before we had their permission. I’ll struggle with the pros and cons of self-reporting the incident on our compliance hotline. Then I’ll bump into our Compliance Officer and in the course of our conversation I’ll test the waters to assure myself that the advertised features of our disclosure program are really adhered to.” (Editor’s Note: Compliance in this case has to do with U.S. privacy laws that apply to Mike’s highly-regulated industry.)
“Like anonymity, you mean?”
“Yes. Anonymity. Non-retribution. Confidentiality. And fair treatment. The idea will be to show learners that we understand the dilemmas they face and value their being honest. In the long run, that’s what will keep the company prospering. We’re not perfect, and we need any incidents or suggestions surfaced right away so we can deal with them.”
“Yeah,” said Jerry. “If I saw that modeled in a fellow employee I trust, I’d be more likely to follow suit if it happened to me. Do you think your course will lead to more self-reports?”
“The course and other communications Compliance is planning on doing. That is an objective, so I’ll evaluate it over time.”
Epilog
Three months later I asked the Compliance Officer for statistics on the hotline. “We’re getting a noticeable increase,” Dave said. “Many reports are not issues that need to go to our compliance board, but they show increased awareness of following procedures precisely. I like that employees view us as value added and not out to get them. The training conveyed that tone, and that’s being confirmed by those who contact us.”
“That’s great!” Jerry said when I relayed the results to him. “I tried these principles in my customer service course and learners’ satisfaction ratings are really up there.”
“So you’ll give a testimonial in my workshop for the department?” I asked.
