“Bueller… Bueller… Bueller…”Remember that scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? The boring teacher who is so out-of-touch that he actually sees Ferris’ empty seat but doesn’t realize that Ferris is absent. The students grow increasingly hostile to him (or just sleep and awaken to catch their drool). Is this how the learners in your law firm feel about your learning management system (LMS)? If so, it’s time to breathe new life into it! Turn it into Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society!

And, to keep the movie analogies going: Just because you build/offer an LMS does not mean people will come. (Unless you built it to be as fun as a baseball game in a corn field!)

How can you motivate people to use your LMS to its maximum potential? Make it fun! Incentivize them! Appeal to their competitive spirit! Yes, it may mean a bit more work for you, but you will also probably have more fun. (Case in point: Who would you rather be? The Ferris teacher or Robin Williams.)

Here are a few ways that you can add new life to your LMS and boost learning across your law firm

• Foster friendly competition: I’ve seen law firms create learning teams like fantasy football leagues. Or create a leaderboard with stats on the people who are advancing in their learning paths the farthest/fastest.
• Offer incentives: It may cost you a bit of money, but reward people for hitting certain benchmarks. If you’ve got a theme going (fantasy football, March Madness, etc.), make sure that your incentives match the theme. Of course, you can never go wrong with gift cards. Even $5 gift cards provide incentive to participate.
• Get the marketing team involved: Those marketing people are creative geniuses and their entire raison d’etreis to capture people’s attention and get them engaged. Why not ask for their help?
• Make your LMS a fun destination: In addition to learning content, did you know that you can load all kinds of hot information onto your LMS? YouTube videos, TedTalks and even catering menus from local restaurants! The more your people use the LMS in their daily routine, the less intimidating it is for them. So, when they need to access it for learning, they not only know how, but they’ve already built an association that the LMS is fun.

How have you incentivized people to use your LMS? I’d love to hear ideas. Contact me at Doug@SavvyTraining.com, 303-800-5408.