Two weeks ago, I talked about why so much training blends in, even when the content itself is solid. This week, I want to give you the actual tool I use to figure out what’s going on with a specific piece of training, fast.
I call it the Look/Feel/Respond audit. It’s three questions. You can run it on any slide, module, or course in under ten minutes, and by the end, you’ll know exactly where to focus.
Question 1: Look. Does this look like it could belong to anyone, or does it look like yours?
This isn’t about whether your branding colors are technically correct. It’s about whether the visual identity of the training feels intentional, or whether it’s the default. Stock templates, default PowerPoint layouts, and generic clip art all signal the same thing to a learner’s brain: I’ve seen this before, and it wasn’t memorable then either.
Ask yourself: if you removed your logo, would someone be able to tell if this training came from your organization specifically? Would they remember it? Would it leave an impact? If the honest answer is no, that’s your first clue.
Question 2: Feel. Does it move, or does it sit there?
Static training reads like a document. Click, read, click, read. There’s no pacing, no rhythm, nothing that tells the learner’s brain when to lean in. Motion doesn’t have to mean flashy animation. It can be as simple as a well-timed reveal, a transition that mirrors the logic of what you’re teaching or pacing that changes speed to match the content’s weight.
Ask yourself: if you watched someone go through this training, would you be able to tell where the important moments are just by watching their screen? Or does it all look the same from start to finish?
Question 3: Respond. Does the learner do something that changes what happens next, or are they just clicking through?
This is usually the biggest gap. Most training asks for compliance, not participation. Click next, click next, click next, done. There’s no decision point, no branch, nothing that requires the learner to think before moving forward.
Ask yourself: could someone complete this training on autopilot? If yes, they will, and they won’t remember it.
Here’s what to do with your answers.
Most training doesn’t fail all three. It usually has one clear weak spot. That’s the good news, because it means you don’t need a full redesign. You need to identify the one dimension that’s dragging everything else down, and fix that.
Once you know which one it is, the next question is how to fix it without adding hours to your week, especially when you’re the only one doing this work and you’ve got fifteen other things on your plate.
That’s exactly what I’m walking through live, hands-on, on October 13-15 inside a three-day bootcamp called LOOK/FEEL/RESPOND. More on that soon. For now, pull up one piece of your own training and run it through these three questions. I think you’ll be surprised at how fast the answer shows up.
Portions of this article were drafted, outlined, or edited with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools. The final content has been thoroughly reviewed, verified, and approved by human editors, who assume full editorial responsibility for its publication.