I grew up in an era when teaching was done through old-fashioned rote and exams. That’s why I found joy in using videos in my training. I know it’s pretty common now, but I also discovered a few things as I did this on different demographics.

I give workshops to the department heads and their supervisors in the two factories I used to lead as Plant Manager. To avoid monotonous lectures, I would run a two- to three-minute clip from a movie and ask the participants what they learned from the clip.

My perception is that the heads were more insightful and observant than the supervisors. Specifically, the heads were able to discern the moral or principles of the story within the clip, whereas the supervisors tended to re-tell the story itself (“this character did this and said that”) without digging what the story wanted to convey.

Was it because the heads were better educated? Had higher IQs? Were more articulate? I don’t want to judge without empirical data. But the gap in mental reflection got me to reconsider how I would use videos as learning tools.

Lessons:

1. Choose videos that tell stories than lectures. For example, when I gave a workshop about empathy, I used a short clip from Inside Out (see photo) rather than a talking head from Youtube. People tend to be more engaged when they see how something is done rather than process abstract concepts.

2. Don’t give the generic instruction “I’m going to show you a video. Then you share what you have just learned.” That’s vague. For certain people, how would they know what to look for, let alone learn? Instead, try “I’m going to show you a video. Observe what the characters did and said. Then tell us what you have seen and heard, and what lessons you have picked up from there.”

3. Don’t trust the participants’ memory. I made the mistake of letting them just watch the video without taking notes. The result was either vague feedback or worse, blank stares. Unless they have perfect recall, provide pen and paper. Ask them to jot down their observations and insights as they streamed into their consciousness.

4. Better, have slides ready that show the key words and body language you want to highlight from the video.

Going back to the Inside Out clip to teach empathy, instead of saying, “Do you recall what Sadness said to Bing Bong that made him feel better?”, flash a brief transcript such as what Sadness told Bing Bong, “I’m sorry they took your rocket. They took something that you loved. It’s gone… forever.”

When you read the words with the same pathos, the impact will be deeper. Then ask them to comment on what Sadness was doing.

Also, flash screenshots that show Sadness sitting next to Bing Bong (mirroring). Don’t miss that subtle gesture of her putting her hand gently on his leg.