“This training was completely different from what I had expected,” someone told me recently at the end of a game-based ethics training I had just facilitated for 50 senior leaders at UNESCO. “It wasn’t boring at all!” she added with surprise.

Let’s be honest: for many people, ethics training is about as popular as a visit to the dentist. Participants often perceive it as uninspiring, unmemorable or irrelevant to their work. This is the finding of the recent Gallup study 4 Hard Truths About Ethics and Compliance (E&C) Training.

Fewer than one in four employees rate such training as excellent. Gallup also found that the training rated as anything but excellent—more than three-quarters of it—showed little to no benefit. Many E&C practitioners are aware of the problem.

A survey by software company NAVEX survey asked E&C practitioners to identify the reasons why compliance training programmes were failing. Respondents point most frequently to learner fatigue and training not being seen as relevant or useful.

The tedium is in the medium

How can we make it better? Not long ago, I heard a respected senior compliance leader say, “We don’t call it ethics training anymore. We call it leadership training.” Is a name change the solution? Some companies try to gin up their training by adding humour, animation or high production value videos.

I have seen compliance training featuring wizards, crystal balls and zombies. On their own, however, these efforts are cosmetic gimmicks that fail to address underlying problems: all too often, training is intimidating, passive, isolating and tedious.

Fortunately, we can draw on a rich body of research on effective learning design. Based on this research, I recommend four basic design principles that will make ethics training more effective. In short: make learning strength-based, experiential, social and playful.

1. Focus on strengths

This is the most decisive change you can make. A lot of training focuses on instructing participants about prohibited behaviours and outlines disciplinary consequences. This type of “forbidden-behaviour training” sends the message to participants that they are viewed as potential delinquents.

As a result, it provokes a defensive response in many participants. It is the quickest way to turn off interest. An oft-cited study by Dobbin and Kalev supports this view. We also know from research on self-affirmation theory that people shrink back or react defensively to training that threatens their need to feel morally and socially adequate.

Positive outcomes are produced instead by training that treats trainees as people with ethical capabilities and that provides them with useful skills and tools to competently respond to situations where ethical values are at risk. It is simple: people respond positively to training that strengthens their capacity to produce desired outcomes. Treat learners as allies in the ethics cause.

2. Make learning experiential

Too often, ethics training is based on the transfer of pre-scripted knowledge from the instructor, or the learning module, to the trainee; the learner remains in a largely passive posture, expected to take in information by listening or watching.

Experiential learning puts the learner into an active role. It integrates reflection with hands-on doing. This can be achieved by posing lifelike problem scenarios where ethical values are at risk.

The task for learners is to devise strategies for addressing the situation effectively, by identifying the issues at stake, actions to take, and resources to draw on. By creatively constructing problem solving strategies, learners acquire skills, build self-efficacy, and shape their identity as resourceful ethical problem solvers.

3. Make learning social

Social interaction plays a fundamental role in learning. Peers can learn from each other through observation, imitation, and modelling. Many unique learning benefits result from collaborative problem solving with others. Participants can experience that it is possible to have a civil conversation about ethics with colleagues. They realise that they can turn to others for support in moments of need.

Participants can develop social-emotional skills, including the ability to take the perspective of others, cooperate, and demonstrate respect towards others. Social learning allows for the accumulation of social capital in the form of mutual trust and collective efficacy.

Also, in-person interaction is still important. While most ethics training is delivered digitally, employees like it the least. They rate their experience with in-person and blended e-learning programs much more favourably.

4. Make learning playful

The learning experience can be improved significantly by structuring ethics training as a game-like activity. Playful learning is effective because it provides a more immersive experience, engaging learners’ senses holistically.

As players, we reflect, we observe and listen, we interact socially, we speak, we feel, we experiment and take action. As a result, playful learning supports not only important cognitive skills, but also social-emotional and creative skills.

Studies have found various benefits of playful learning, including deeper understanding of concepts, more accurate and sustained recall of knowledge gained, and better transfer of skills to novel problems.

Neurological research has found that a playful frame of mind is associated with changes in hormones that reduce stress and anxiety while promoting positive mood, calmness, motivation, interest, and focus. When we shift into a playful state of mind, we are more open and receptive to new information.

Now go slay dragons…

Sitting in front of a screen, alone, watching online modules and clicking through multiple choice questions does not accomplish very much. Employees find learning meaningful if it strengthens their capacity to produce desired outcomes, engages them actively, and involves playful collaboration with others.

If you are looking for ethics training that has a positive impact on behaviour and culture, follow this blueprint to deliver ethics training your colleagues will appreciate. And don’t be fooled. Engaging training does not have to be expensive.

Anybody can produce engaging training using resources they already have. What it takes is intention and focus on a few proven principles of learning design.

Carsten Tams is founder & CEO of Emagence LLC and author of Emagence’s The Ethics Kit: Find Your Path, a game-based learning solution.