Today I visit with James Shields, the Creative Director for Twist and Shout Communications, a UK company which creates training video using comedy as the touchstone. You can check out a selection of the company’s offerings on its sight, Tuesday’s with Bernie. I visit with Shields about the creative process his company uses, how comedy can translate across a wide variety of cultures and language to be an effective training tool. The company has found that comedy generates a visceral reaction, a reaction based on feeling rather than intellect. Because of this reaction, employees are more interested and more engaged in compliance training; all of which makes it more effective.
The company believes that both culture and behavioral change is an emotional process, not just ‘training’, and internal communication done properly can change a culture. Whether the subject is as dull as anti-corruption compliance or as fundamental as transformational change in the business, comedy will make employees sit up and take notice. They believe that by focusing on humor, the training will help break down both the individual training against compliance training as well as work to strengthen the overall corporate culture.
But more than simply stand-alone videos, the company seeing compliance training as a process. From the creative side the process includes an integrated story line which will engage employees, third parties and other relevant stakeholders. Shields also believes that putting comedy into context is important – the audience needs to relate to what they are seeing on screen so the environment and characters should feel familiar. That is when the message feels authentic and resonates much more strongly.
Finally Shields and the company have put together an entire training campaign structure. Why don’t you think about your training like you would a movie or other marketing campaign. They lay it out in White Paper entitled, “Engaging the YouTube Generation” which you should definitely check out.