Businesses Get In The Groove
What’s happening?
Hold on a minute: haven’t we been here before? Trend #1 was Brands as Neo Educators. Isn’t this the same thing?
Not quite. That trend was all about companies empowering their fans, customers, and communities. This one is focused on what happens inside an organization - i.e. the learning, training, and development of their employees.
It may not always be as sexy as positioning your brand as a neo educator, but businesses of shapes and sizes have enormous opportunities to utilize Edutainment 3.0 - and with real ROI.
With more people working from home and higher turnover, companies face a challenge when it comes to making the work environment more engaging and dynamic.
Business leaders are going to have to embrace Edutainment inside their organizations if they want loyal fans as employees.
To do this, they’re going to need to use new tools, media types, and approaches. As software continues to eat the world, more creative and open use of technology means that even the most buttoned-up of corporations will shift towards more colorful and engaging approaches to engaging and educating their people.
How can business leaders use Edutainment to keep their employees engaged? Here are three categories we suggest you look into with questions to keep in mind:
- Welcome: Think - How do you attract and onboard talent? This covers the likes of career fairs festivals, interview processes, and onboarding programs.
- Develop: Think - How do employees learn and develop? Is it in areas very specific to their role, or broader transferable capabilities? We’re talking about everything from internships, to lunch and learn sessions, to leadership development programs, and company-wide academies.
- Engage: Think - How do you ensure your people feel motivated and connected to the work, team, and organization? This could be immersive off-site gatherings or more dynamic ways to get real-time feedback and input from employees.
Trade Shows, Conferences, and Summits
There’s also a fourth area that overlaps this trend and Brands as Neo Educators.
We see enormous opportunities to bring Edutainment 3.0 into trade shows, conferences, and industry summits. Until the pandemic struck in 2020, many of these haven’t changed much in years... or even decades. But as events shifted online, many grafted their existing programming into a digital setting.
Guess what? The results weren’t exactly breathtaking.
As in-person events begin to return and people have a better grasp of creative tools and approaches, we’re excited about what’s possible here.
Scroll down for our suggestions on how to find the groove for your B2B events - whether IRL, URL or blended.
One other thing before we get into it: as with Play to Learn and a couple of the Emerging Trends we explore in the next Act, the line between edutainment and dystopia can be finer than we think... it’s very important for businesses to think intentionally about how they implement Edutainment 3.0.
Why this trend matters
Talent matters, and engaged employees are core to success for organizations of all shapes and sizes.
Edutainment 3.0 can make an impact across departments and experience levels, but there’s particular thing to note: younger team members are already learning through Edutainment 3.0 (even if they don’t realize it).
Speaking of realizations, older people (yes, that includes you if you’re over 35...) have to recognize this. If you don’t embrace this trend and get in the groove, someone else will.
In Action: Businesses Get In the Groove
Key Themes for Edutainment 3.0
Reduce the discovery barrier
There’s still a huge barrier when it comes to people discovering and learning about companies - especially those at the start of their careers. The solution? Offer what we call ‘pre-boarding’ opportunities: educate career explorers about you as a business and industry, and give them the chance to get hands-on with some of your day-to-day. This is also a great path towards you becoming a Neo Educator...
Embrace your inner jester
Our pal Arif Haq talks about the role of the Jester, even in a serious context. When leading a training or learning experience - even on the most technical or sensitive topics - it’s worth finding appropriate spaces for levity, tension, stories, and excitement.
Employee relaxation & thinking like an athlete
Stressed-out employees are less productive. Creating a space for them to unwind and recharge is essential. But making sure it’s not just a place to nap is a novel way to showcase Edutainment. At Wavetable, we think of this as approaching learning as an athlete would their training - a well-designed training regime, with plenty of rest and recovery time. In fact, much of the progress happens during these.
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable
Quirky is the new way to engage. Embrace new tools, media types, and approaches for deploying Edutainment. The hot tech modalities here are AR and VR. Play around, but don’t forget about putting humans first.
In Action: Ones to Watch
Guidelines for Greatness
Surface stories
Stories are incredibly powerful (in case you couldn’t guess based on the number of times we talk about it.) They are a fantastic tool to explain and share ideas. We’ve seen it first hand in many of our client projects. It’s not always just about learning a skill, it’s also about having better conversations and being able to express concepts and challenges to other people in easily understandable ways.
Partner up
A new wave of consultancies and studios are offering companies pathways to better connect with new generations. Curious which ones are worth speaking to? We’re happy to point you in the right direction of a couple we like.
Make people feel smart
No one likes to feel stupid. Typically this happens through badly conceived assessments, mountains of content, too many acronyms, or unintuitive UX. However, people can also feel stupid if they sense they’re being patronized or underestimated. Meet people where they’re at, and design accordingly.
Go EIR
Recruit your own Educator in Residence. It’s like an “Entrepreneur in Residence” but for Edutainment. Not sure where to look? We can help.
Don’t comply
Topics like cyber security and money laundering tend to fall under “compliance”. These don’t feel like a good fit for Edutainment so most people don’t bother trying. But there’s so much potential to turn stiff topics into flexible ones. So take a chance and make compliance fun.
Be well
Make Edutainment just as important as wellness. Multiple scientific studies have proven that health and wellness efforts not only yield higher productivity and engagement in the workplace but will also help reduce turnover. L&D Edutainment programs have the same effect. (source)
Maintain your cred
Take your Edutainment endeavors too far off-topic or off-brand and you’ll risk losing credibility, attention, and perhaps even employees. Be mindful of coloring too far outside the lines.
Leaving it alone
Not taking advantage of or having an L&D role in your company. Don’t leave this to HR alone.
Platform pains
LMS and LXPs have moved on a lot in the last few years, but by their nature, they often add constraints and rigidity. Be mindful of how to best balance scalable learning with more freeform experiences. The same goes for creating conferences and events.
Spark Your Creativity
Ideas to jumpstart your imagination and help you include Edutainment 3.0 in your endeavors.
- What if your company’s next learning initiative was constructed as a TV show, movie, or video game? How would you put it together? What genre is it in? Which character actors are you hiring?
- We believe learning can be a very powerful business strategy - both inside and outside the organization. How could you create a business strategy built around Edutainment 3.0?
- What if every aspect of the corporation went multiplayer? Adobe CPO Scott Belsky thinks it could be a big thing.
