Instead of forcing everyone to sit down and watch a training video, inspire them to make their own!

• Using the examples as a guide, inspire your team to create some hilariously bad compliance training videos 

• Use the prompts below or create your own! The cringiest, funniest, or plain worst training video that still contains a valid training message wins! 

• Have a big premiere and have all of the participants show off their best worst creations! 

• Get as many members of the office involved as possible! Bonus points if you can get members of leadership involved.

Here are some examples of some creatively cringy, terrible, no-good training videos! 

Share these examples to get the creative juices flowing! Give people a sense of what elements of terrible training videos that they should try to parody.

• The first two videos: "How to avoid your Compliance training", and "Millennials in the Workplace Training Video", give a good sense of the tone of a parody! 
• The next two: "Workplace Bullying Prevention Made Simple Course" and "How to Prevent Workplace Violence: Identifying the Warning Signs" give a sense of the elements of a compliance training video that are actually boring. Stock footage over deadpan narration could be a fun format to parody.
  
• The last example, "Training Video Parody" highlights some of the stereotypes in workplace training videos. Consider using some of the techniques highlighted here!

Here are a few prompts that you can use to start the creative process! Feel free to come up with some of your own, or let your team come up with completely original ideas! 

• Go Phish Scam
  • Make a video about how to avoid phishing scams (scams in which a scammer sends you something that looks like an official document in order to get your password, financial information, etc.)
  • Instead of just having the scam appear on your computer, have someone play the scam artist pretending to be your boss! Have them do their best impression of the CEO and request that the employee authorize a wire transfer to an unknown “client.”
• Workplace Safety Training 
  • Make a video of an experienced employee showing a new employee all of the safety precautions in your place of work. Explain in detail why these precautions are necessary and what they accomplish.
  • Have the “new employee” be an impossibly clumsy character who cannot seem to accomplish the most minor task without tripping, slipping, or otherwise hurting themselves or others. 
  • As each new instance of safety precautions are introduced, the “new employee” gets more and more injured, essentially begging to be fired, while the “Experienced employee” insists on explaining everything.
• The Work-Yard Bully
  • Show examples of workplace harassment and cast one character as the “bully”. However, instead of showing them as an adult workplace bully, have them act like a childish schoolyard bully.
  • Have the bully continue to act as a child and respond to every attempt at discipline as a child would. “Nuh-uh” / “Whatever, my dad works at Nintendo.” / *plugging ears* “na na na na na.” / “No, you” / etc.
    
• Stock Footage Nightmare
  • Start with a regular explanation of ethical misconduct in the workplace, narrated over stock footage. 
  • As the video goes on, the stock footage becomes less and less relevant to what the narrator is saying.
  • Have the narrator slowly move off topic until the video ends up being about something else entirely.
• The Overactor
  • In a typical compliance video, there’s always one actor who’s trying too hard. It’s your turn to be that actor! Set up a standard situation in which someone either suffers bullying, harassment, or some other form of misconduct.
  • Have most of your actors respond in a bland, boring speech discussing why this form of misconduct is inappropriate and puts the organization at risk. 
  • Then have one person treat this like it’s a major Shakespearean tragedy. Have them treat the bullied/harassed person as if they’ve been struck by a bullet.
• I Need YOU To Speak Up
  • Spread awareness of the reporting methods by having someone dress up like Uncle Sam and tell the members of your workplace that you need them to speak up. 
  • Play the Uncle Sam character as ridiculously as possible. Have them become manic, insane, or even depressingly lonely (“Why won’t anyone talk to me?!?”).
  • Show your reporting hotline somewhere on the screen.

Here are some simple advice to keep the game exciting! 

• Keep the videos short! Anything more than 5 minutes will probably take too much time and effort from your team. Low effort means high engagement! As long as everyone is having fun, that's what matters most.
• Help out! Consider yourself the executive producer of all of these videos. Give people advice on how to make it better, worse, or more relevant!
• "Yes, and!" Don't turn down ideas, just redirect them! Instead of shooting down ideas, see if there's a place that it can grow. 
  
• Encourage the creatives. Is there anyone in the office that you know has a creative side to them? Consider making them team leaders and have them helm the efforts.

It's time! Once all the submissions are in, sit everyone down and have a proper movie premiere! Get some popcorn ready and enjoy the show!

• Encourage people to get into it! If you want, roll out a red carpet and have everyone dress their best!
• It's time for the Academy to vote! Create a ballot with each of the submissions and have everyone vote for their favorite!
• Present awards! Present the winner with some kind of prize or trophy. (P.S. this is also your opportunity to explain the actual training message hidden in the cringe!)