What we can learn from Seth Godin

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog entry today http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ (yes…he is a marketing guru and no he is neither an education psychologist nor does he have a PhD in Education, at least as far as I know).  Seth is a best selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. So what does this have to do with Security Awareness training or any training for that matter? For any corporate training to be adopted by an entire organization you need to understand how to market it effectively.

A sentence that Seth put in his blog today really resonated with me. It is as follows:

If you're having trouble persuading people to buy what you sell, perhaps you should sell something else. Failing that, perhaps you could talk about what you sell in a different way.

This can be applied directly to your security awareness training. Let’s give it a try:

If you're having trouble persuading people to take security awareness training, perhaps it is time to try something else. Failing that, perhaps you could talk about the training in a different way.

Security awareness training is an essential part of an organization’s yearly training regime and if you are facing resistance from end-users in taking the training then perhaps it is time to try some fresh content, videos or even games to make it more enjoyable. If you are currently conducting your awareness training via an instructor-led model, perhaps it is time to look at e-learning or even just add in some video or gaming type exercises into your existing structure.