I grew up in a time when “fun” and “learning” were seen as opposites.
If training was engaging 🧐, it must not be rigorous. If people enjoyed it, they probably weren’t learning anything valuable. Fun was suspicious, like you were wasting time instead of doing serious work.
I found the opposite to be true. When I made training fun, I got more engagement. And I have the data to prove it.
That’s exactly what happened when my VP said “AI is going to be important for us” in late 2023.
My Mother’s Philosophy
My mom was a single parent raising six kids. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of chores. Cleaning, yard work, the whole deal.
She had this philosophy: “You have to do it anyway, so you might as well do it with a smile 😁on your face.”
She’d tell us riddles and jokes while we cleaned. We’d dance to music while doing yard work. She made the work itself more bearable by making it less cognitively draining.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was teaching me something critical: affect isn’t separate from effectiveness. It’s a lever for it.
When you’re laughing or moving or engaged, you have more mental bandwidth for the actual task. The fun isn’t distracting from the work—it’s making the work easier to sustain.
Adults Are Just Kids Grown Up
I spent years in corporate training. 80 hours in a classroom with 25 people at a time, teaching customer service, technical systems, process discipline, and compliance.
Corporations try to make us feel like we have to be these staid, serious people who never laugh and never relax. It’s a veneer.
Underneath, adults are just kids grown up. We respond to the same things: novelty, play, social connection, and acknowledgment.
When I brought fun into my training, people showed up differently. They engaged more. They retained more. And critically, they looked forward to it.
What “Fun” Actually Looks Like
I spent years in corporate training. 80 hours in a classroom with 25 people at a time, teaching customer service, technical systems, process discipline, and compliance.
I’m not talking about icebreakers for the sake of icebreakers or games that have nothing to do with learning. I’m talking about strategic design that happens to be enjoyable.
Example: Whiteboards ✏️📋
Example: Music During Practice 🎶
Example: Cybersecurity Challenge🛡️
I used dry-erase hand-held whiteboards during practice exercises. Everyone would work through a scenario, write their answer on the board, and hold it up on the count of three.
This solved multiple problems:
- Silent responses meant the know-it-firsts couldn’t dominate and ruin learning for everyone else
- Simultaneous processing meant everyone had to think, not just listen to the first person who shouted an answer
- Equal voice meant introverts and people still building confidence got the same visibility
- Immediate feedback meant I could see where the whole group was struggling
It looked like fun. It was fun. But it was also elite instructional design.
People got validation even if they answered last, because I could say “Yes, that’s right” to everyone who had it correct—not just the fastest person in the room.
Example: Music During Practice 🎶
I played music during individual or small group practice time. People could work at their own pace while I circulated and checked in.
The music told them something about me. We’d talk about songs. It created a moment of connection that wasn’t forced or scripted.
And critically, it gave them more bandwidth for learning. They weren’t sitting in silence, trying to shovel information into their brains while getting more and more anxious. They were relaxed, engaged, working at their own speed.
Example: Cybersecurity Challenge🛡️
This was a voluntary, multi-month learning program I built. Thirty curriculum items. Gamification, themed phases dropping every 1-3 weeks. Asynchronous bingo, downloadable resources, all tied to cybersecurity awareness.
Completely voluntary. No mandate. No requirement.
Results:
- People looked forward to it
- 60%+ of staff participated in at least one activity
- 44% completed all thirty items (up from 34% the previous year)
Those numbers are not average. Most voluntary L&D programs struggle to get 10-20% participation.
I hit 60%+ because the program was both valuable and engaging. The fun wasn’t the goal—it was the vehicle for sustained attention and motivation.
The Proof
Fun isn’t frivolous when it extends cognitive load capacity.
Fun isn’t a distraction when it gives people the mental space to actually absorb complex information.
Fun isn’t a waste of time when it results in measurable adoption, completion rates, and cultural enthusiasm for learning.
I didn’t achieve those numbers by accident. I achieved them because I understood that engagement is a strategy.
The fun serves the learning. And when you get that right, people don’t just complete training—they look forward to it.
The Takeaway
Fun and rigor aren’t opposites. They work together.
Fun in the service of learning goals is strategic instructional design.
When people enjoy training, they engage more deeply, retain more effectively, and actually look forward to learning. That’s not a nice-to-have. That’s how you achieve results like 60% voluntary participation.
The fun serves the learning.
And when you get that right, training becomes something people want to do – not something they have to do.
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