It’s another busy day at work, and you finally find 20 minutes to catch up on emails (and maybe grab some lunch, if you’re lucky). While sifting through the countless messages that have piled up over the past few hours, you notice one that catches your eye: your annual security awareness training (SAT) is due in two weeks.
You roll your eyes as you open the email…“Expected completion time: 1-1.5 hours.” Ugh. Your eyes roll even harder.
“Who the heck has the time for all of that?” you ask yourself as you click on the link. And then you see it, the final straw, the thing that makes you contemplate if quitting is a better option than taking this training—the dreaded wall of text that you’ll have to click through for the next hour to show you’ve completed it. Or maybe you’re lucky enough to get a video of someone explaining security awareness topics with the enthusiasm of Ben Stein (“Bueller? Bueller?”). Regardless of the format, you find yourself thinking, “There has to be a better way!”
We’ve all been there, and if you’re a technical person, these trainings seem like a pointless rehashing of information you already know. If you’re not technical, it can be so “in the weeds” that it seems like they’re speaking a foreign language. But you’re right, there is a better way.
So, How Do You Make SAT Enjoyable?
Just make it fun.
Ok, so that’s an oversimplification. Obviously, you want it to be enjoyable. But how do you create an SAT program that’s fun, while also remaining true to its original purpose of educating learners about security awareness, promoting more secure behaviors, and improving your security posture? Below are a few things to consider:
- Make it engaging: Your SAT program will only be successful if your learners are paying attention. Therefore, you need to take an approach that’s going to draw them in and pass on lessons that’ll stick in their minds. One of the best ways to do this is through storytelling. It’s part of human nature to teach lessons through stories, and we’ve been doing it for centuries. If you think of fairy tales, folklore, and even nursery rhymes, they’re all storytelling methods that are intended to pass lessons on to children in a very approachable way. In fact, Harvard agrees that storytelling is one of the most effective tools for learning because stories are familiar, easy to remember and compartmentalize, and they work for any learner type. By incorporating storytelling into your SAT program, you’ll not only engage your learners more, but they’ll be more likely to remember the information as well.
- Make it relatable: An important part of storytelling is to consider your audience. When using storytelling in an SAT program, it’s important to use stories with people or characters that are easy for your audience to relate to. If you’re a small business, yet use an SAT program meant for an enterprise company with strict guidelines and processes, your learners are going to feel lost or that the lesson isn’t meant for them. Instead, meet them where they are. Telling relatable stories where learners can put themselves in the shoes of the characters helps them better contextualize the risks they could personally face and understand how to mitigate them.
- Make it accessible: In the case of an SAT program, your target audience isn’t necessarily your most technical users who are already well-versed in cybersecurity best practices. Instead, you’ll have a wide audience that ranges from moderately technical to a complete novice when it comes to technology. The language and topics you use should be accessible to this audience. The acronym KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) rings true here. After all, the easiest way to lose your audience’s attention is by using industry-specific buzzwords that the outside world isn't familiar with.
- Make it consumable: It’s important to remember, your learners aren’t necessarily taking part in your SAT program because they want to. They’re doing it because they’re required to. They might be annoyed or frustrated when they first see an assignment come through since they have day jobs that this is taking time away from. So, instead of making it even more painful with a long-winded training that a TikTok-era attention span can’t handle, make it consumable. And, while it may seem like a good option to do one long, annual training, consider that once a year will also be the frequency at which your learners will think about security awareness. A better approach is to have shorter, more consumable lessons that your learners take on a regular cadence (think monthly), so that it’s less painful for your learners and keeps security awareness top of mind.
The Huntress Approach: Animated Storytelling That Hits Home
We built Huntress Managed SAT based on three guiding principles: admins love it, learners love it, and hackers hate it. One of the best ways to make “admins love it” and “hackers hate it” is to build content that “learners love” so that they’re 1) not complaining to the admins about having to take the training, and 2) actually participating, learning, and developing behavioral changes that protect them from hackers.
The goal of creating content that learners will not only enjoy, but actually learn from, is what led to the story-based episodes Huntress Managed SAT is known for today. As mentioned earlier, storytelling is unique in its ability to pass on information to the audience in a way they’re familiar with, helping them better contextualize and compartmentalize the information in their minds. Simply put, that makes the information more memorable. This is what makes storytelling one of the most effective mechanisms for learning, and the reason we chose to use it. SAT programs are a waste of time if learners don’t retain the information and put it into practice.
However, there’s a variety of different media through which stories can be told (i.e., books, podcasts, in-person, video, etc.), and when it comes to security awareness training, the medium used should be one that can address all learner types (auditory, visual, kinesthetic) in a way that’ll capture their attentions and keep them engaged. This is what brought about animated episodes as our medium of choice. With animated stories, you can reach all three learner types through interesting visuals, narrated episodes, and emotional feelings and connections to the stories (with quiz questions and information cards interspersed to ensure they’re learning).
The choice of animation not only means visually interesting episodes, but it brings along the virtual “universe” of Curriculaville with its cast of characters like DeeDee or Weasley, whose hacker antics bring in humorous and entertaining aspects to the stories. Meanwhile, their potential victims show off their security awareness skills and best practices (or lack thereof) as they face these attacks throughout their daily lives. As learners follow along with the stories, they start to build connections with the characters and can envision themselves in their shoes, helping them contextualize and understand just how real the threats they could potentially face are. But more importantly, these characters teach learners how to identify and protect themselves against these threats in the future.
Animation is also a powerful storytelling tool because it allows you to go beyond the bounds of reality to explore security awareness topics in a far more creative and interesting way, while looking and feeling better and more consistent than a live-action version could. On top of that, animated characters don’t have a salary, can’t get sick, and don’t have a schedule to maintain like paid actors do. That means new episodes can be churned out at a higher rate, and at a lower cost than other methods. And in our case, they're being built by award-winning creators, even one who has recently won an Emmy® Award.
The end result is an SAT program that’s constantly being improved with new episodes that cover relevant topics, all at a price that makes sense for resource-strapped organizations. The best way to see if the animated, story-based episodes from Huntress Managed SAT are right for your organization is to give them a try.
Start your free trial today to see how your learners will love Huntress Managed SAT!
