In this week’s webinar, “Turning the Page to 2025: Mastering Storytelling in L&D,” Litmos’ Director of Learning, Jon Hill, provided engaging and relevant tips for instructional designers and Learning & Development (L&D) professionals about how to apply the core principles of storytelling to create more effective training programs.
The session covered a few different storytelling basics: the three-part structure of storytelling, the importance of using relatable characters, the impact of perspective, and a few famous narrative structures, including Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey,” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Man in a Hole” model.
The power of storytelling in L&D
The webinar focused specifically on how storytelling can be used to enhance compliance training programs. To open the session, Hill launched an audience poll to see how attendees who had participated in a compliance training course perceived their learning experience:
- 77% of poll respondents found their last compliance training experience boring
- 13% reported feeling as though their most recent compliance training course was effective
- 8% of the audience reported finding their last compliance training session engaging
- 2% remembered their compliance training being a combination of “boring,” “effective,” and “engaging”
By adopting the principles of storytelling, Hill argued, L&D professionals can transform notoriously dry compliance topics into more engaging and memorable learning experiences.
Narrative structures for instructional design
The “Man in a Hole” narrative structure, described by author Kurt Vonnegut, was discussed as a model for creating engaging training experiences. Here, the character gets into trouble (the “hole”) and then manages to get out of it, ending up in a better position than before.
The structure of the “Hero’s Journey,” a narrative pattern identified by scholar Joseph Campbell, also aligns well with many common instructional design models, according to Hill. That’s because the most effective learning experiences put participants through a hero’s journey of sorts, in which the learner starts with a challenge and ends up in a better position than when they began.
Hill explained how these two models follow a similar pattern and encouraged attendees to determine the structure of their learning narratives. “If you do nothing else today but come out of this session thinking about the shape of your story and this simplified version of these models, you’re going to improve your learning experiences for your trainees,” he advised.
Using perspective for better storytelling
In his extensive discussion of how perspective is used in storytelling, Hill highlighted how using the first, second, and third person can create different levels of emotional and contextual connection with learning content.
- The first-person perspective can create an immersive learning experience, placing learners directly in a given scenario
- The second-person perspective can create a slightly more detached but still engaging experience
- The third-person perspective provides an overview of the situation, much like a documentary
Hill pointed the audience to a worksheet that could be used to further explore how perspectives can be used to make compliance training more engaging. He also showcased real examples of how his team at Litmos applied different perspectives within their compliance training modules.
Making learning narratives memorable
The “Man in the Hole” and “Hero’s Journey” narrative models often work well when the main character is imperfect. It’s rare, Hill argues, to be engaged with a story about a flawless character who makes zero mistakes. The most memorable stories are ones that reflect our own struggles or challenges. That’s why the most effective narratives in storytelling are ones that show a flawed character overcoming an obstacle.
In learning design, following a character who isn’t perfect can foster learner empathy. Plus, the tension created by a character who makes a bad or misguided decision, naturally causes the audience crave a resolution. Put simply, learners will root for a relatable character who finds themselves “in a hole.” They’ll be invested in the outcome of the story, and will hope for the character to overcome the challenge at hand. And what’s more memorable than that?
By adopting storytelling principles, L&D professionals can transform their training programs into memorable and impactful learning experiences. To see how you can master storytelling in 2025, watch the full webinar session here.