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Storytelling as a catalyst for learning

cdesormeaux
Jul 17
1 min read

scrabble words spelling "people remember stories"

I was listening to Alright, Now What?, the Canadian Women's Foundation podcast, the other day. They were interviewing Hailey Hechtman, executive director of Unsinkable, a Canadian organization built entirely around sharing stories to support mental health.


Something she said stuck with me. Again. The thing I've spent years researching and still relearn every time I hear a story done well.


Here's what I see a lot in learning design, and I've been guilty of it myself. We're great at handing people the information, the steps, the resource list. We build the course. We build the learning resource.


Then we wonder why no one completes it, or applies what they learned where it actually matters: in the real world.


We need to give people a reason to act. That reason is emotion.


A story does something an entire course of information or a fact sheet never can. It makes someone go, "oh, that's me," or "that happens?" It creates emotion. That moment of recognition isn't a nice-to-have. It's the door. Without it, nothing behind the door matters.


Then comes the exploring. Where am I in this? Then naming it. What is this, actually? Then, the learning and finding the resources. Where do I go? And only then, action.


Skip the first step and the rest has nowhere to land.


Before you design your next learning course or resource, ask what feeling needs to happen first for anyone to take action. See if it makes a difference!


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