Information is the death of emotion
What do SunShower Learning courses have in common with Christopher McQuarrie’s famous films, including Mission Impossible and Jack Reacher? Well, when McQuarrie says, “Information is the death of emotion,” we know what he’s talking about. In interviews, McQuarrie often explains how he wants his audience to feel something and to connect emotionally with the story. So, he’s always looking for ways to show rather than tell, to let the audience learn through feeling. After all, that’s the purpose of storytelling – not to dump information, but to bring people into the story and take them on an emotional journey.

This reminds me of when I started researching eLearning courses many years ago. Most of the courses I looked at were just PowerPoint slide after slide, each filled with bullet points and walls of text. My eyes blurred, and I tuned out. I couldn’t believe that this was the state of modern eLearning. As a filmmaker, my impulse was similar to McQuarrie’s even though I only had a tiny fraction of his hundred-million-dollar budgets. My goal for my DEI training videos was for the learner to feel the emotional impact of a stereotype or microaggression, to empathize with the characters and to feel empowered and supported with tools to speak up and change the situation and their workplace for the better.

People will never forget how you made them feel
This reminds me of a beautiful quote from Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Whether you’re a filmmaker, a team leader or an individual contributor, we all can make a difference in those critical moments when someone says something – or when we say something – that negatively affects a colleague.

Accomplish your mission with SunShower Learning
The Ouch! That Stereotype Hurts and Disarming Microaggressions courses depict the experience of being on the receiving end of stereotypes. They also teach skills you can use to speak up. Defeating Unconscious Bias conveys what it feels like to be denied a promotion or a project because of someone else’s bias. In all of our courses, we tap into the carrier wave of emotion to teach skills for speaking up in respectful, non-shaming ways to interrupt and/or disarm the situation. This is why I’m proud of the courses in our library. I hope you will explore using them in your training curriculum. Hundreds of thousands of employees have learned how to speak up with Ouch! and the other SunShower Learning courses. Take our training for a test drive and accomplish your mission of driving meaningful change.