How can you inspire your workers with educational videos and training? It’s simple, be like Disney.
No, we don’t mean being a hero, princess, and animation powerhouse. If anything, that would make your employees more stressed! Instead, we mean that you need to be telling a story that your employees want to listen to. Using stories to create engagement is more critical than ever.
You see, nearly 42% of the U.S. workforce has been working full time from home as of June 2020. That’s almost ⅔ of the currently employed economy, according to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom! In short, if your employee can choose to work from home, then they probably will.
What Makes a Good Educational Video?
With so many employees working remotely, you as an employer need to work extra hard to break through the noise surrounding them. Yes, you can trust that they’ll do their jobs (they’re professionals after all), but a little extra help from you can never go wrong.
That’s why we propose using a 3-act structure in your training videos. (That’s also why we talk about using the 3-act structure in our recent piece for Training Industry)
Take a look at this training video we made for NetApp. After watching it, read the next section for a breakdown of how we made a health PSA into a structured, entertaining story.
H2)Using The 3-Act Structure in How-To Educational Videos
Have you heard of the 3-act structure before? Chances are, you have, just… probably under a different name. You might’ve heard the 3-act structure called “The Hero’s Journey” or “Freytag’s Pyramid.” Still, to stave off any confusion, we’ll break down the 3-act structure as we define it here for you.
- Act 1: the main character is introduced along with their goals and motivations.
- Act 2: a life-changing event happens, and the main character experiences highs and lows as they meet the antagonist and begin rising to the challenge ahead of them.
- Act 3: act 3 is usually a redemption arc. The main character has finally transformed into who they need to conquer any challenge in front of them.
So, how does the 3-act structure relate to our educational video production “Office Turtle Transformation?” and can the 3-act structure tell us how to create training videos?
Let’s start at the top.
Act1: The Introduction
In this specific training video, you are the hero in this journey. The video opens with a tour guide facing the viewer and a group of children. So, the tour guide can talk directly to the audience member watching NetApp’s training video.
Speaking as educational video producers, we love this positioning, and we use it all the time because there is no better hero in a story than the viewer. Hollywood makes similar moves all the time. Have you ever noticed that supporting characters are always a little more fleshed out than the main character?
That’s because, above all, your main character needs to be relatable or to elicit empathy.
So, in the Office Turtle Transformation educational video, we start act one with you, the hero, learning about the world you’ve just been transported into.
Act 2: The Life-Changing Event
At the start of Act 2 in this video, we learn that sedentary work habits create “office turtles” out of workers who don’t walk around, stretch, or exercise. We also learn that going through a “turtle transformation” is causing health problems and possibly premature death.
If that knowledge isn’t life-changing, we don’t know what is.
Act 3: The Transformation
This last step gets a little tricky. Because the Office Turtle Transformation is an educational marketing/training video, it’s impossible to animate every new viewer transforming “Office Turtle” back to an office worker. (That would be cool, though, right?)
After placing the viewer physically into the video, the next best thing is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the training that NetApp is offering.
So, in the video, “Office Turtles” are shown exercising, sweating, and learning to be healthy office workers once again. With any luck, viewers will see the wisdom of what they’ve done and follow suit!
One Last Tip to Make the Best Training Videos for Employees
The last reason why the Office Turtle Transformation worked was all down to its light-hearted and, at times, funny tone. If you have ever told a joke that fell flat, you understand how important it is to use humor and story to make important points.
Remember, “fun” is “memorable,” and “memorable” is better than “safe.” In short, you have to inject a little life into your training to hold your employees’ attention.
As an innocuous and unimportant comedy writer, and Rip Media Contributor, Andy Glickman once said, “Funny be good.”
Fun, Story-Driven Educational Videos Are The Best Way To Train Employees
So, to sum up, when you’re making educational videos, follow the 3-act structure and make them fun. Creating videos that your employees want to watch is one of the first steps toward a healthy and happy workplace.
So, what are you waiting for? Start making life-changing educational videos for your employees today (and, if you need help with your educational video production, don’t be afraid to give us a call).