The Lesson vs The Lesson Plan

Why one matters and the other doesn't.

Last week I was at a family carnival at my daughter’s preschool celebrating the acceleration towards the end of the school year: face painting, bounce houses, balloon animals - the event had it all! In fact, it even had a lesson plan.

To ensure the kids stayed hydrated during the warm evening, there were coolers located throughout the area with small, plastic water bottles inside. Upon finishing their water, kids could take the empty plastic bottle to a table and recycle the bottle in exchange for a popsicle.

Pretty solid lesson designed to re-enforce the importance and reward of recycling.

The problem was, they stuck to the lesson plan a little too rigidly.

My daughter asked me if she could have a popsicle from the table. I figured this would be a straightforward request, with one slight wrinkle: we had brought our own reusable water bottles to the event. I told her to go ask for a popsicle and explain that she brought her own reusable water bottle so she didn’t have a plastic one to trade it. After all, this is actually better for the environment than plastic bottles - recycled or not.

They told her no.

So I stepped a bit closer and re-explained the situation thinking I could clear up any confusion.

Still no.

The lesson they were trying to teach was one of sustainability and recycling. In this situation, we had already demonstrated we understood and were applying the lesson.

But we didn’t follow their lesson plan.

To comply with their lesson plan, we could have walked to a cooler, opened a water, poured it on the sidewalk, and then received a popsicle in exchange for our (now empty) plastic water bottle.

This is a perfect example of letting the lesson plan get in the way of the actual lesson.

And it got me to thinking: How often do we do this in marketing?

When we send an email - we expect people to land on our websites by clicking the link in the email. That’s the lesson plan. The lesson, however, is getting people to the site - whether or not they click the link in the email.

When we offer a referral program - we expect people to complete a form, share a link, or bring a friend on a certain day. That’s the lesson plan. The lesson, however, is encouraging word of mouth - even if we can’t measure it.

When we send coupons to our customers - we expect them to redeem the coupon to buy our product and measure redemption rates. That’s the lesson plan. The lesson, however, is getting them to buy our product - regardless of if they ever use the coupon or not.

So step back and think about your work. Are you sticking to your lesson plan too rigidly? What’s the actual lesson?

Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,

Eric