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fundamentals

26 TD | April 2015

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

Y ou’ve been given the assignment to design critical safety training, sched- uled to launch next month. Your subject matter expert (SME) on the project sends you an 88-slide PowerPoint deck recently approved by the

steering committee and your legal department. As you flip through the slides— past one recapping the company’s core values and mission, and two more filled with steering committee biographies—you read this:

“This training was designed to increase the understanding and the ability of Level III safety auditors to adhere to ACME’s standard operating procedures for objectively and efficiently assessing departmental compliance to four key excel- lence criteria.”

Transforming Technical Content BY TRINA RIMMER

Rewriting technical content is more than just revising words on paper— you must have actual conversations with stakeholders first.

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Did you get that? Well, neither will your audience. In fact, they’ll prob- ably be wondering, “How does any of this enhance safety?” And the truth is, it doesn’t.

It’s your job to reshape this material into something clear and compelling, something that will improve learn- ers’ performance back on the job. But between negotiating with SMEs and balancing learner needs with proj- ect constraints, even the most gifted designer can struggle with rewriting content. And once you’ve slid down the slippery slope of “I don’t have time (or permission) to rewrite this,” you’ll find yourself in the all-too-familiar position of merely dressing up raw content instead of transforming it to enable learning.

Although simply refining those 88 PowerPoint slides is much easier than trying to convince an entire steering committee and your legal depart- ment to let you rewrite their carefully chosen words, it’s also a shortsighted solution. By skipping necessary re- writes, you’re passing over the chance to have a meaningful conversation with learners about their safety, and you’re certainly not having the con- versations you should be having with your SMEs about making their content more effective.

Get your SMEs (and learners) onboard SMEs often are aware that their con- tent isn’t very interesting or easy to understand. But resist the urge to join them in saying “There’s no way to make this more exciting.” The key isn’t to focus on limitations, but to set the stage for exploring possibilities. Setting that stage requires a genuine interest in sharing the content in a way that engages learners.

Speaking of learners, if you haven’t already, get to know them. Find out

what they think of the proposed train- ing. This also gives you a chance to collect relevant stories from them, so you can make recommendations for rewriting the material (or creating fresh content) that honors their needs and experiences.

Armed with this knowledge of your audience, take the time to read and re-read the source material. Which parts are strong and which parts need to be reworked? Which parts are irrel- evant? Make notes as you go along.

Then, schedule some time to meet with your SMEs. Ask them to validate your interpretation of their content. They may be surprised to find that their message isn’t clear. Stay solutions- focused in those moments and discuss ways to rewrite the material to avoid disconnects for learners. To give them a better sense of what you can do with the material, rewrite a page or two.

Guidelines for rewriting content Once you have support from your SMEs and a clear idea of learners’ needs, now what? Here are some guidelines for rewriting technical content. Speak to the individual. When you’re rewriting your SME’s content, imagine yourself in a one-on-one conversa- tion with a learner, paraphrasing the key message of each page. Start with that language. You can always refine it later.

Also, don’t address your audi- ence in the collective sense. Use you and your rather than we, us, and our. For example, instead of writing “Af- ter completing this training, learners will be able to…” write “Imagine your- self being able to…” Active phrasing prompts learners to visualize them- selves performing the desired action. Make it compelling. We’re all adults here, so I’ll be blunt: No one cares about seeing the company values, the

mission statement, or your four pillars of customer service excellence in the training materials. People care about themselves. What’s in it for them?

Compelling writing taps into a learner’s emotions, connecting ideas to actions. Learning shouldn’t be about what you want to tell them; it should be about what they need to know and do, and why. Your writing should convey this in a conversational yet precise tone.

Never forget that you’re in the business of peddling actionable ideas to adults with their own ideas. Avoid patronizing language, corporate jar- gon, or sales-speak. It will alienate your learners just when you need them to engage.

Here’s one quick tip for making your e-learning more compelling: In- stead of writing “Click the next button to continue,” try “See what happens next.” Constantly telling learners how to navigate can be insulting. (Besides, if you have to tell people where to click, you likely have a bigger problem with your user interface design.) Keep it simple and succinct. Never use big words when small words will do. For example, instead of writing “Demonstrate to the customer how to fully utilize the merchandise re- turn request form,” try “Show the customer how to fill out the mer- chandise return request form.”

Keep sentences short, too. Wordy sentences lack focus, a problem made worse when the sentence is a demand, or choked with words such as “ex- cellence” and “quality.” Which would you rather read: “Adhere to ACME’s pillars of customer service excel- lence to guide your behaviors in every customer interaction,” or “To our cus- tomers, you’re the face of ACME’s brand. In this next example…”? Don’t riddle each slide with bullets. Instead of a lengthy list of statistics,

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pull out the most important facts and support them with an eye-catching graphic. Infographics are much better at conveying information than a bul- leted list.

Sites such as Pinterest and Dribbble show tons of creative ways that graphic design professionals visual- ize data. Searching stock photography websites for “data visualization” or for graphics on the topic you’re working with also can offer inspiration. Practice makes you better. Some of us are born with a gift for words, and the rest of us struggle to write well. No matter which camp you’re in, there’s always room for improve-

ment. Make a daily appointment with yourself to write, even if only for a few minutes. Read the words aloud after you’ve written them. Hearing them spoken may help you simplify your phrasing and eliminate redundancy.

Revising your writing also can help you eliminate anything superfluous, which makes the content more suc- cinct and valuable. And because two pairs of eyes are better than one, al- ways ask a peer to be your editor.

Finally, if you want to be a better writer, be a better reader. Seek out similar work products from other in- structional designers to see how they reshape their content.

Creating common ground No matter how challenging the con- tent is, you and your SMEs share a common desire to do good work that matters. Transformation of content is the name of the game; it’s the whole point of instructional design. So don’t be afraid to tackle dry or technical content with your SMEs. Using these tips, you can capitalize on your shared goals to build better partnerships and, ultimately, better learning solutions.

Trina Rimmer is a community manager at Articulate. She has been designing, developing, and delivering learning and performance solu- tions for more than 14 years; [email protected].

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