I don’t envy trainers who have to capture and keep students’ attention every day. I do regular presentations in front of business school students and am forever experimenting with ways to keep the number of sleepy heads to a minimum without pandering or making a complete fool of myself.

Anyone using People won’t have to worry about sustaining audience attention. Only individuals suffering from narcolepsy will fall asleep during this video. It is pretty. In fact, it has the visual surface and soundtrack of a network television commercial. A mere four minutes long, it holds a viewer’s attention without requiring much of the brain. But this commercial-on-steroids has a bit of a soul too.

People doesn’t fit neatly into a single training topic. Diversity is probably closest, but most diversity training explains why diversity is important and how people can cope with it. People has more to do with the core values and conditions of an organization.

It makes a simple “argument”: People are different in a multitude of ways, but everyone has a need to be valued and respected. It clothes this argument in a montage of people and quotes. The images show many individuals who differ in a multitude of visually noticeable ways such as gender, age, race, and nationality. The video also manages to work in pretty pictures from around the world ranging from Venice, Italy, to the Namib Desert in southern Africa.

Soul is expressed in quotes that reinforce the theme of diversity. Fittingly, they are from individuals as diverse as Bob Hope and Marcel Proust. How often have you seen those two names in the same sentence? The writing of Maya Angelou makes several appearances, and she is given the honor of delivering the punch line: “…people will never forget how you made them feel.” The video asserts that everyone wants to feel that they are valued and respected, but it leaves to inference any conclusions about how people can be made to feel both in an organization. Maybe that’s where the conversation should begin after viewing?

The genesis of the video isn’t a media company’s development plan; it’s the conviction and passion of an individual. The video’s producer, Stephanie Glidden, says she “carried those… lines from Maya Angelou around with me for six years and was then recently inspired by the outpouring of humanity and generosity of the world in times of tragedy and wondered why we drop all of our prejudices and judgments during these times and can't bring it back to the workplace?... It's time we moved from 'tolerance' to another level.”

Although his company’s website categorizes People as a meeting opener, a venerable video genre, Homer Hewitt of Learncom begs to differ, and I agree with him. Meeting openers tend to be programs with a self-contained message that you show and don’t necessarily discuss. People best belongs in the category of discussion opener. You wouldn’t dare just show it and then start in on the monthly sales figures or a project progress report.

And that’s where things can get sticky. As most working adults know, being valued and respected is far from assured in many organizations. Every smart organization should have a conversation about respect and the worth of each individual on a regular basis, but it had better be a real one. Otherwise, you’ll just encourage cynicism.

The program includes one copy of a book on effective people skills (124 pages), 20 pages of participant materials, and a sample training design.

Recommendation
People is visually arresting and easy to watch. You could try to pass it off simply as an affirmation that your organization places a high value on respect and individual self-worth. I don’t recommend that you try that, however, because this pretty package invites the viewer to set the ideal against the reality. Whatever the result, the conversation is worth having, but you need to be prepared to have it.

Product Ratings People Holds user interest      Diversity      Production quality      Value of Content      Value for the money      Overall rating