TL:DR – ID should be motivational, clear, and personal.

Love them or hate them, political slogans are some of the most carefully crafted pieces of communication on the planet. They’re short. They’re sticky. And when done well, they move people to action.

As Instructional Designers, we can take a cue from the messaging strategies behind some of the most memorable slogans.

Politics aside, two of these slogans focused on the audience.

• “Change We Can Believe In” (Obama)
• “Make America Great Again” (Trump)

One focused on the candidate.

• “I’m With Her” (Clinton)

“Change We Can Believe In” invites you into a movement of possibility. Inclusive. And with five words, Obama fans knew what they were getting and how it affected them.

“Make America Great Again” speaks to a patriotic pride in the country’s past and hope for the future. Four words gave Trump supporters a way to summarize what they wanted.

On the contrary, “I’m With Her” puts the spotlight on… her. No change. No greatness. Just her.

Even if you agreed with the message, that last one felt like a missed opportunity to inspire or involve the listener. It’s a classic example of a message that centers the creator instead of the consumer.

We make the same mistake in training when we focus too much on our content, our expertise, or our tools, instead of the learner’s needs, goals, and challenges.

Great learning experiences answer the unspoken question every learner is asking:

“What’s in it for me?”

Let’s design learning like a good slogan:

👉 Make it motivational. Let your learner know what’s in it for them. Let them know what *they* get out of it.

👉 Make it clear. Clarity beats creativity.

👉 Make it personal. Create training that matters to, and is centered on, your learners.

Because learning is only great when the learner believes it matters to them.

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We may not be able to get you elected, but we can help you create training that engages your audience, encourages change, and gets you the results that you want.

Click here for training you can believe in and to make your training great again! 😉

#InstructionalDesign #LXD #LearningAndDevelopment #IDDepartment #MessagingMatters #LearnerCenteredDesign

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