The 3 steps to clarity
To gain clarity in your mind, it helps to:
- Understand which specific problem you will be solving for your learner
- Map out what you need to communicate to help your learner solve that problem.
- Make sure that a problem is not too big to discuss in a single Modlette
You can gain clarity on each of these 3 points before you start to write just by some “quiet time thinking”.
Step 1: Pinpoint the transformation
It doesn’t matter what type of training you write; it should always help your learner to transform herself or himself. You help your learner solve a problem and reach a happy place where they feel inspired, healthier, more productive, more confident, or more knowledgeable.
In an earlier Modletter we discussed 4 idea categories:
- Aims or goals that can help your ideal learner achieve
- Problems that you can help solve and fears that you can help take away
- Questions that you’ll answer
- Resources that inspire and help learners improve their lives.
These 4 categories are useful to come up with more ideas. But for each of these categories, there’s a transformation that takes place if your learner follows the advice you share in your training Modlette.
Transformation example:
Let’s look at an example of the transformation that Vickie wants to make to help her ideal learner, Karl, achieve:
- Vickie wants to design a Modlette to help Karl tell the story behind the numbers so he can engage his audience (an aim).
In this case, the problem that Vickie helps solve is that Karl is boring his audience with financial numbers (yawn)
And the happy place is a much better situation where Karl is engaging his audience by telling the story behind the numbers.
2. Vickie also wants to help Karl solve the problem of confusing his audience with too many numbers on slides.
The problem here is that the slides are confusing with lots of numbers and the audience doesn’t understand his message. The happy destination is simple slides with a clear message that his audience can grasp easily.
3. Vickie wants to answer the question whether Prezi or PowerPoint is better for financial presentations.
In this case the problem Vickie solves is that Karl is worried about using the wrong tools. And the happy destination is that Karl feels more confident that he can use PowerPoint in an engaging way.
4. Vickie also wants to write a training with 3 PowerPoint templates for financial presentations (a resource).
The problem is that she helps solve is that it takes Karl ages to create his slides, and he feels uncertain whether his slides look good enough.
The templates help Karl create slides much faster, and he feels much more confident that his slides look good.
So, no matter which category an idea belongs to, there’s always this transformation: You help your ideal learner improve their life.
Understanding which transformation your Modlette will provide is essential if you wish to communicate with clarity. The transformation is the reason why your learner chose to take your Modlette, and it’s also the reason why they want to follow the advice you share in your Modlette.
If you’re unsure about the transformation, ask yourself: Why does this matter to my learner? How does it improve their life? How exactly does it make them feel happier, more productive, more confident, more inspired, or better in a certain way?
Next week: I’ll write about Step 2, mapping the journey