Every time I sit in an aircraft, the safety demonstrations have never failed to bring about a sense of weariness and boredom in me. I have always made it a point to look around and see what co-passengers are doing and it isnt very different at all. Usually.
Given how important those demonstrations are, both the quality and quantity of our attention we give to this, is quite a travesty! I have often wondered if there was any way in which you could make it more effective.
A few days ago, I came across this video from Virgin America. Take a look.
Some more primary digging lead me to similar attempts by Air New Zealand and Cebu airlines. Although, I thought, Virgin America’s attempt was a cut above the rest. Of course, they would require more videos to add to the variety. Perhaps a touch of different songs to suit different cultures and geographies they are flying to / from. But to me, it is a brilliant idea for a start.
While these could be different aspects that a learning function may be working on, in my mind I club compliance training / safety demonstrations into one genre. They needn’t be be dull and boring affairs. A typical response is captured here. That they are is illustrated in how most of us build them and how it is treated.
Charles Jennings wrote about how broken it really is and a few pointers on how it can be fixed as well. While every organisation seems to be grappling with it, creative, imaginative solutions to the problem remain a far cry, Please do share if you have a few in your arsenal.
Coming back to the Flight safety demonstration of Virgin America, I think it is an attention grabber for sure! It is an imaginative, enterprising start.
At the end of the day, a video lends itself beautifully to ‘passive consumption’. Sit back, relax and enjoy the video, if you like it that is. A higher degree of effectiveness is possible with ‘active participation’. That I believe is something we need to go to work with. Innovative ways of garnering interest need to fuel active participation and ‘performance’