Make training enjoyable & memorable

The oldest religious book Bible was written in 1588, Bhagavad Gita in 1492, and Quran was in A.D. 568 - There is one thing that is common among these books, and many of the oldest books - They were written in a form of stories!?

?Scientists are discovering that chemicals like cortisol, dopamine, and oxytocin are released in the brain when we're told a story - So the point I am trying to make is STORIES works.?

?A new brain imaging study from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of California shows that the hippocampus is the brain's storyteller, connecting separate, distant events into a single narrative.

It resonates, stimulates our brain, and provides long-lasting memories and experiences.??

?While working at @Marvell, I was tasked with training our end users for OneDrive and OneNote. Coincidently, during the same time, I was doing research on storytelling and learning more about the oldest texted books which were written in form of stories, and how can I take the advantage of this form of information sharing and provide a better experience to my audience.?

?The last thing I wanted was to bored my audience with some technical jargon and leave them exhausted with the feeling that IT wants us to learn one more tool.?

?So, I decided to give it a shot and try to get a little bit creative. I asked myself what if I design the entire training in the form of a story, which has numerous characters, situations, actions, plots, etc. Sounds interesting - Isn’t it??

?First, as any story goes, I developed the main character and named it Marvin (inspired by Marvell’s name)

Second, instead of explaining various features of OneDrive/OneNote, I created a situation where each specific feature of these applications could be used. For instance, “Marvin needs to share a file with a colleague Sandra” so instead of sending a file as an email attachment, Marvin uses the file-sharing feature of OneDrive.?

?Another example, Marvin has worked really hard to prepare a report and by mistakes, he deletes the files. As OneDrive has its own “Recycle bin” and offers 30 days of default retention, Marvin was able to recover files quickly, and there was no need to call IT for support.?

?Third, another long-term strategy behind developing character specific to Marvell was, that we were planning to roll out an Enterprise collaboration tool (Slack, Teams) and wanted to develop BOT/Virtual Assistance with a familiar name users can interact with - And it worked!?

?Users were so pleased with the format of the training and were able to connect in various scenarios they can use different features of OneDrive/OneNote.?

?The biggest disconnect I see between end-users & IT enablers; is we tend to forget that our end-user’s primary job is different from gaining expertise on any application. Applications help them to get their job done. So, the more end user-friendly we make our offering, the more love & support we are going to get from our customers.?

?Here are some of the feedbacks I received for training:?

• ?Liked how the training was structured from an employee's perspective
• The way it was explained like relating to real-time work
• Diagrams and step-by-step examples were provided
• All stuff is easy to understand and can be used in daily routine
• It is helpful to see a demonstration of how to use it, as well as an explanation of the presentation material
• Well-organized training

?I want to give credit where it’s due and would like to thank my managers @Eric Shaw & @Steve Nichols for putting trust in me and allowing me to take the unconventional route and letting me experiment with my ideas.??

I’d love to find out about your STORY!?

Cheers,?

Satish