What does this book have to do with learning? It doesn't look like an 'educational' book.
BONUS
SURPRISE AT END OF THIS POST!!
Well more and more I'm coming to the conclusion that marketing and education are not all that different. Really, they're not! Education and marketing both aim to communicate information so that it is remembered. OK, education embeds itself in scientific and psychological terminology to explain how people learn. Marketing does the same. For now let's leave the education vs marketing debate for a future post.
Now, you may recall that in earlier posts I spoke of the importance of the Unexpected. Too often learning is, frankly, quite boring. You attend a workshop, read a book or complete an online program and at the end of it there has been nothing that made you stop, raise your eyebrows and take in a short, sharp breath. I got comments from people asking for more ideas on how to build the UNEXPECTED into learning. Well, let's start here. A business book (not a 'learning' book) called , POW! Right Between the Eyes! by Andy Nulman.
Andy has been described as "The Prince of Pow!" and "Mister Surprise", he sees profit in Surprise. The book is full of great examples of the success of Surprise. 217 pages full of them! Borrowing from Andy's
blog, here is his credo of Surprise:
"Risks? Take!
Rules? Break!
Then…watch the ground shake!
To most, Surprise is the innocent, innocuous stuff of unexpected birthday parties, peek-a-boo games and Crackerjack boxes.
To Andy Nulman, Surprise is a powerful secret weapon of modern marketing, an extremely potent tool that can help you sell anything—your product, your service, even yourself."
Remember, we don't remember boring things! So, the way I see it ....
Surprise = Unexpected = Recall = Learning
Read this book, Andy provides some great examples and ways to build Surprise into your business (learning). I could list them all here, explain them to you and off you could go, but then the book would be less surprising, so I won't. The book is easily available through
Amazon, in book stores in the US (not Australia). BUT for one lucky reader here is the
BONUS Surprise.
I opened my Amazon delivery, looked inside the box and saw not one POW but TWO!!! I Surprised myself and accidentally ordered 2 copies!! So as a BONUS to readers, the first person who comments on this post gets a free book! (make sure you email me your details!)
Over the next couple of months I'll throw in some Surprise examples for learning, a mix of visual, verbal and just plain different. Things I've done and things I've seen. If you have examples let me know and I'll add them to the list.
