During a quick lunchtime “loop” as we call the walking path around the Charles River in Watertown, I saw that I was coming upon a hopscotch spray-painted on the asphalt. I was expecting 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10… But that’s not what I got, exactly.
As I got closer, instead of the configuration I thought it would be, I discovered something different. Kind of sweet. Unexpected: 1 – 2 – I – L – O – V – E – U.
Because it was unexpected, I’ve told people about it. I even went back and took a picture.
But the point is this:
Because what I saw flew in the face of what I was expecting, it made an impression on me.
When you want your audience of learners to remember something, surprise them. Make it unique, novel, humorous…even wrong. This works for content – make it easy to understand; and it works for the delivery of the content – make it unique. If your content has to be very straight and narrow (now think about it – does it really have to be?), then deliver it in a surprising way. Maybe it’s a comic strip. Or a podcast. Or an electronic scrap book.
This isn’t bullshit – lots of studies and papers and conferences and people talk about all of this as Adult Learning Theory. But you don’t have to know all of that to understand one simple thing: Surprise me and I’ll remember.
