1. Do Not Expect Sweeping Change
Change is the most difficult thing for people to adapt to. When offering a new solution, especially one as unconventional as incorporating TikTok into your L&D strategy, it takes a long time for someone to become an early adopter. They want to see tried and true; they want to see the idea you’re encouraging in action.
Understand that it is a slow build. Again, people are typically not raising their hands to be early adopters. But they also don’t want to be left behind. Once you find those early adopters and test out the kinks, the decision-makers will be more willing to try little things and adapt to the change you are encouraging.
Here is another truth for you – often, stakeholders may be completely on board with your new idea for something different, but they’re also concerned about their learners and how they may or may not adapt. Leading and consulting with empathy is a great way to show them you acknowledge these concerns.
Someone once told me that when a cruise ship starts to make a turn, you don’t feel that turn right away – it’s a very slow turn. It’s the same thing when you want to introduce something new to your organization. When it comes to learning, you can’t just go from zero to 100 in two seconds flat. It really is a slower build to get everybody on board and comfortable.
2. Lead with the Benefits and Value
Now that your expectations are set with reality, you can develop your L&D strategy. You need to help decision-makers understand the benefit of adding in this new form of learning. We don’t talk enough in L&D about the benefits of what we do. We tend to just push out content from a compliance standpoint as opposed to communicating, “What’s in it for me?” However, if you explain how using this style of video benefits the organization, the learner, the department, and the ROI, it will be a lot easier to gain buy-in. Lead from a place of benefits and value, and you’ll see people who want to jump on board. When they understand how it’ll benefit them, they’ll want to engage more in conversation and dialogue about introducing that new change.
3. You Have to Sell It
I won’t lie; you have to be a salesperson. As consultants, we don’t love to say this, but we’re salespeople. And I don’t just mean selling to get new business; we’re trying to sell a new approach that we believe is in the best interest of our learners.
Pro Tip: Address Their Pain Points
The way that training has been done for so long, for so many organizations, is probably not working, so you need to understand what that key stakeholder is thinking and speak to their pain points and fears. When you explain how your new solution – TikTok principles – addresses that key pain point, you’re showing them that you understand their struggles and have thought of a solution to help address the problem. This is when they begin to feel safe, take down their walls, have more trust in you, and actually want to hear more about the solution. They can then really think about whether that solution is the appropriate one for their problem.
4. You Have to Show Them
It’s time to make some TikTok videos! You can’t just talk about these changes; you’ve got to be about them. Use sample scenarios to show them how this new approach would work. Our advice would be to create a series of fun, TikTok-style videos that tell a cohesive story, addressing one of the major pain points you are trying to solve.
The Ultimate Takeaway
My biggest piece of advice for introducing TikTok-style videos to your L&D strategy is to chip away at change.
Don’t expect grand change. You need to understand who your audience is and how gradual improvements help you achieve your end goal. If your end goal is using TikTok-style videos for L&D, then you need to find small ways of proving the benefit and value. Whether it’s taking those principles and applying them to your next eLearning project or using them as marketing material for your next training program, those little things allow change to be normalized. Eventually, you can get to where you are hoping to: highlight the best of what the old school offers and introduce new school changes that will maximize your results.
