As for solutions, well, we are after all educators and training professionals, so education should start at home. It’s an uphill battle, but it’s possible to gain ground in the right direction.

You are absolutely correct and so in line with published works from performance and management consultants who espouse that successful businesses and leaders need to focus on brand not commoditization of solutions, focus on the why first and let the what and how follow, etc.

I’m watching along to see what ideas pop up. This ship has gone so far off course, I think it is going to take quite a storm or superior navigation to get us all back on course. We are too often at the mercy of the paying customer and our internal sales goals to right the course by ourselves. (I do like the idea of the webinar – or maybe a webinar series – to get the change started or at least pronounce our desired intentions.)

Thanks for starting the discussion!

Things one learns to do as a writer — putting yourself in the reader’s shoes, finding and telling the story, coming up with a theme or compelling lead – all require creativity. The best writers take an imaginative leap into their readers’ heads, the better to engage them. No, not just “engage” – sometimes charm, seduce, intrigue, or just downright grab them by the collar & pull them into the story. (Okay, so I’m talking copywriters, PR writers, journalists here, maybe not tech writers…)

Even in multimedia projects, where sound, visuals, & animation engage interest & convey content as much as words do, I find that writers still “get it” in a way that those in other professional disciplines do not.

When it comes to their readers, the best writers know how to hook ‘em and keep ‘em hooked. Insert “learners” for “readers” and the same approach applies.

This was a marketed contrast to when I first started in the business over twenty-five years ago. At that time, interactive video was the rage, and communicating the subject matter also involved telling a story of sorts. We hired former copywiters and video journalists to produce our learning materials because they knew how to conduct an interview and then convey the material in a way that their audience needed to consume it. Eventually we went as far as to bring Sony Interactive in to train them on basic ISD skills, but for the most part these communication professionals already understood what they needed to do to provide good learning content.

My point, if not clear already, is that the content is critical. The writing must convey the objectives, not distract from them because of poor execution. There must be continuity across the course, not just a bunch of slides developed in isolation to address specific objectives instead of the course as a whole. And, quality control is vital to the success of your product. That a course ever goes out with poor grammar or bad visuals affects everyone in our industry, especially the learners.