Learning, but make it scandalous!
Using micro-disruptions to foster creativity and innovation in learning.
Marcel Duchamp placed a porcelain urinal in a museum and changed the course of modern art forever. His work paved the way for movements like Dada and Conceptual Art.
Keith Johnstone encouraged actors to embrace spontaneity and unpredictability on stage by breaking the flow of scripted and rehearsed theater performances. His “status games” went on to revolutionise performance arts. Today, we call it ‘improv theater’.
John Cage’s composition 4’33’’ consists of four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence. By removing the expected element of sound in music, Cage forces the audience to become aware of the ambient sounds, and encourages deeper reflection on the act of listening.
Maria Montessori shook up the education system by breaking its foundational rules. She saw how important autonomy and curiosity are, how much of a role the environment plays in creativity, the impact of social and peer learning, and how powerful hands-on learning is. She placed the student in the driver’s seat.
At their time, these people and their methods were seen as scandalous. Outrageous. Provocative.
Today, we label them as innovative. Bold. Visionary.
And they all had one thing in common: they disrupted.
disruption
/dɪsˈrʌpʃn/
noun
disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process.
radical change to an existing industry or market due to technological innovation.
Learning, but make it scandalous!
I vividly remember the foggy morning of a late July day last year on a Swedish island. Fourteen other participants in KAOSPILOT’s Experience Design Training and I were sited in a circle check-in. LEGO bricks were on the floor, each of us with a little model in our hands, right after our sharing round in pairs. I’ve seen this activity dozens of times. I knew what was happening—until I didn’t.
Five strangers, all dressed in black and wearing masks, entered the room one after the other. Without talking, they started pushing the LEGO brinks around, looking at us and taunting us. Between shy smiles, we looked at Tim, our facilitator, and at each other. That this was a disruption was clear. But we didn’t know how big of an impact it would have on us.
We started thinking about what the new rules of the game could be. All our questions remained unanswered. “I guess they don’t talk to us.” Is this a quest? Is it a game? Are we supposed to do something? Were they allies? Enemies?
We hadn’t reached any conclusion before each one of them started gently lifting us by the arm and silently guiding us out of the room. I was the last one out.
A noise-canceling headset was placed on my ears—a blindfold on my eyes. Hands guided me outdoors, and my arms were put on another person’s shoulders. “A human train, then, we’re going somewhere.”
Just as traffic sounds started playing, I felt a tug forward, and we started moving, slowly, until we stopped. The soundscape of a busy cafe or hallway now replaced the traffic sounds. People were talking and laughing.
Next, gentle hands guided me to a chair I was nudged to sit on.
I was intrigued. But surprise washed over me like a massive wave as someone started singing. No, not someone. Several voices, harmonizing magically with one another, no instruments other than the thumps of their feet and fists in their chests. It was Heavenly Father by Bon Iver and IT WAS MAGICAL!
I wasn’t seated on an island in Sweden anymore. I was experiencing a unique journey through my senses while my body produced an exhilarating cocktail of emotions.
Nothing else was besides that one moment.
Tears started rolling. Mine and others.
After silence fell, soothing words reached us, and we all listened to a beautiful poem:
In our times, we often find ourselves looking at others, losing touch with our own path. We get caught up in the lives of those around us — how they appear, what they're doing, and their thoughts. We dream big for tomorrow, yet often overlook the beauty of today. When you lose a sense, all the others get more intense. When you can’t see, you listen more carefully. When you can’t hear, you’re eager to know at least how it feels. Suddenly, you put all your trust in a warm hand on your shoulder. Moments that force you to stay present. And live right here and right now. The thing is, life IS happening right now, and each moment is precious.
Once the blindfolds came off, we were invited to write down the answer to one question on a piece of paper: “How can I ground myself into the present more often?”
And we all stepped outside where warm apple pie was served on a chilly morning.
This was my first Dark Concert experience, and it will be edged into my brain forever, down to the tiniest details. When I listen back to that song, I feel the same emotions. I can still feel the imprint of the lessons we learned.
No one will ever need to explain why experience design matters to humans because I simply get it.
Disruption shuts down our autopilot.
It breaks routines and throws predictability out the window.
Attention is laser-focused, curiosity peaks, mental models are challenged, and we’re more likely to think creatively. Passive attendance becomes active, as our brains desperately try to understand and make sense of what’s happening.
It’s like being at a concert and just vibing in the back, then suddenly getting pulled on the stage to jam with the band—You’re no longer just part of the crowd; you’re where all eyes are pointed towards.
It’s why, when asked about the most transformative and learning-rich moments of our lives, most of us will describe overcoming an event in which something unexpected, hard, or challenging happened.
What made the Dark Concert experience “scandalous”?
—It was unexpected. No one announced it.
—It was immersive. No one explained it to us.
—It was creative. It introduced new rules to the game.
—It was challenging. It deprived us of our most used sense, seeing, and asked us to trust the process.
—It was emotional. And those emotions had a space to unfold.
—It was relatable. It tapped into a familiar need we all have in this ultra-connected world: the need to pause and anchor ourselves in the moment.
—It wasn’t centered around an expert. Learning wasn’t delivered. It was enabled.
How can we create micro-disruptions in learning?
We’ve been conditioned into “lazy learning” all our lives. We’ve always had teachers in front of the classroom, whether seated on school benches or at office tables.
So much so that if we were not delivered a lecture in a training or workshop setting, many of us would say we hadn't learned anything.
Designing for disruption in this context is not a complicated task. The bar is low.
1—Variety is your wild card
In 2011, Robert A. Bjork and Elizabeth L. Bjork introduced the concept of desirable difficulties. The findings argue that introducing challenges that slightly disrupt the learning processes (such as varying study environments, study formats, or using intermittent feedback) leads to better retention and understanding. These disruptions require learners to adapt, forcing them to engage more deeply with the material.
—Change how the learning space is organised.
—Design hands-on activities and let them create something.
—Provide a finished solution or project and ask participants to work backward to determine how it was created or the steps involved.
—Present key ideas or steps from a process that is out of order and have participants rearrange them into the correct sequence.
2—Play dangerous!
Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory (despite being under some scrutiny in recent years) also suggests that when people encounter something unexpected or contradictory to their existing beliefs or knowledge, they are motivated to resolve this discomfort through deeper thinking and learning.
—Start the learning session in an unexpected, weird, or unusual.
—Provide participants with two case studies that present contradictory conclusions about the same issue. Ask them to analyze the data and share back one unified solution.
—Deliberately introduce an incorrect solution to a problem or question. Ask participants to analyze why it’s wrong and how it contrasts with the correct solution.
—Share different provocative “What if…” future scenarios related to the topic, and invite them to debate around them.
3—Resist the urge to teach
All the teachers I ever had, always knew something, which was really discouraging.—Keith Johnstone
In 1978, Slamecka and Graf ran the generation effect study, which shows that learning outcomes are significantly enhanced when learners generate information themselves (as opposed to passively receiving it).
—Can you let them explain the concepts first?
—Can you ask them to create something with very little context details?
—Can you create ambiguity with one of the activities and invite them to untangle it?
—Can you give them a complex task without much guidance and let them attempt solutions before explaining the proper method?
And if you only ask yourself one question, let it be this one:
How can I make them think for themselves?
4—Experience first
Kolb’s experiential learning model inherently integrates micro-disruptions by continuously confronting participants with new challenges, encouraging them to re-evaluate, adapt, and apply their learning in evolving contexts. These disruptions are crucial to deep learning, which experiential methods aim to achieve.
—Give participants a complex problem to solve but provide restrictions and limitations (limited time, materials or budget).
—Have participants teach each other a new concept but only provide them with partial information. They must figure out the missing elements through discussion and experimentation.
—Provide intentionally vague instructions for a creative task, such as “Build something innovative with these materials.” The ambiguity forces participants to interpret and clarify objectives as they work.
—Have participants create physical models or representations of abstract concepts, like building a structure representing teamwork or leadership.
Three moments of disruption at Ideas in Motion Nonference
On October 7th, we gathered over 100 L&D Shakers in Amsterdam for a one-day Unconference.
As experience designers, we wanted to touch on three core meanings:
—Community
—Wonder
—Creation
We followed a set of five principles:
—Engagement follows emotion—work the emotional arc first
—Embrace messiness, let go of the need to control
—Create SOMETHING!
—Connection first
—Be bold
These are three examples of disruption we purposefully included in the design and the main takeaways to leave with it.
Embodying the four elements [Opening]
We knew that the start of the Conference would set the tone for the rest of the day. We aimed to tap into curiosity and wonder and play at the edges of the unusual and uncomfortable.
We wanted to ultimately challenge all expectations participants might have when they join a conference: Rows full of chairs facing forward and a host taking the spotlight for the “official” welcoming.
Instead, John Puts facilitated an incredible arrival journey through sound, visuals, and movement, embodying the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Embodiment helps people be more present for themselves, each other, and the beautiful day ahead of us by focusing more on the body rather than the mind we usually default to.
We tasted each element and invited their qualities through movement.
🌳 Eath—Being stable, grounding, and present in the moment.
🌊 Water—Staying flexible, accepting, and surrendering to the flow.
🔥 Fire—Taking the lead with clarity and confidence, and standing up for our beliefs.
☁️ Air—Inviting inspiration and possibilities in, and not being stuck by limitations.
We closed by inviting participants to pick an element that they wanted to invite more of into their lives. For some of us, it's probably easier to step into that quality of water and go along and be in flow with life, but we're missing that capacity to fully stand for our beliefs or ideas and show up with clarity and leadership. Or perhaps we're very much up in ideas, possibilities, and visions, but we're never grounding them into our reality.
Lastly, participants imagined how that element could manifest throughout the day ahead, in their posture, voice, and interactions with the others, and reflected on the experience in pairs.
TAKEAWAY #1
Always start from a place of intention.
Doing something for the sake of “ looking cool” will almost always lead to the opposite effect: an experience without substance.
Ask yourself: What is the anchor for this experience? What reflections or insights should it enable?
TAKEAWAY #2
Immerse, don’t explain.
Are you familiar with this communication advice "Tell them what you’re going to tell them—Tell them—Tell them what you just told them.” Scrap that!
Scandalous learning is experienced, not explained. Your goal is immersion. Take inspiration from performance art. Bonus points if you can engage as many senses as possible.
Ask yourself: How can I get them to experience it instead of telling it to them?
Creating artifacts in an ambiguous context
For the afternoon, we aimed to tap into participants’ creativity and capacity to adapt and synthesize through a hands-on creation activity.
In groups of 8-9, they had 45 minutes to complete a mission prompted by a letter they received from the future. Using only the materials they found in a box under the table, they had to discuss and then build an artifact that encapsulated the potential value of Learning & Development in the years leading up to 2025 amid the technological disruption brought by AI and automation.
We broke so many rules with this one:
—Instructions were vague
—We didn’t deliver any content to comfort them
—They had limited resources and short time
—There were no clear expectations of the outcome
—The outcome wasn’t labeled correct or incorrect, and the transfer to real-life situations was left to the participants
And yet, the reflections, ideas, and concepts they came up with wouldn’t have surfaced during a simple conversation prompted by a question. There’s something about rushing through a process of sense-making and creation that pushes our brain into a slightly uncomfortable terrain, where rules can be bent and fresh ideas bubble to the surface.
TAKEAWAY #3
Always add a touch of play.
When you want people to imagine facets of the future, you cannot play by the rules of today’s reality. You can also not solely rely on what the brain thinks. By creating, building, and working with our hands in a fun and playful way, we break free of the mental models engrained by our ‘serious’ working environments; we tap into our creative intuition reserves, thus increasing our chances of landing fresh insights.
TAKEAWAY #5
Use ambiguity to free participants from expectations.
Leaning into ambiguity around the task and the outcome, we invite a range of possibilities into the learning space. Freed from expectations, many of us can unleash our creativity and be a bit more daring with the thoughts we share—a bit more experimental. Granted, not everyone can step into that place easily.
A word of warning: Lack of rules can be unsettling for many of us, and it might have the opposite effect: disengagement or withdrawal. So ensure you scaffold the experience, focus on connection, and create a brave space before jumping into such a “messy task.”
Sound journey and creative expression [Closing]
Finally, two acts were crucial to closing the experience loop before parting ways.
We started with a sound journey facilitated by Mark van der Heijden.
Singing bowls, chimes, gongs, and other instruments help induce alpha and theta brainwave states associated with relaxation, creativity, and deep reflection. These states foster a reflective mental space ideal for synthesizing new insights.
This relaxed mental state allows participants to consolidate what they've absorbed throughout the day, making it easier to connect new insights.
As a transition, we invited everyone to imagine a blank canvas in their mind's eye. On that canvas, they could paint their a-ha moments, insights, and essence of the day in colors and shapes. "What would you create?"
Once participants removed their sleep masks, they found little canvases and colours ready for them to use to bring that vision to life in a drawing.
The act of visualizing and then creating something tangible taps into both cognitive and emotional processing, deepening the connection to the experience. Creative tasks also allow participants to interpret their insights, increasing their ownership and retention of the material.
At the end of the day, participants created an exhibition of their works of art and shared their reflections over a drink, deepening their connection.
They left with a little colorful artifact that encapsulates the emotions and insights of the day, transporting them back to that experience each time they look at the painting.
TAKEAWAY #6:
Close with reflection and sharing to integrate the experience.
Scandalous learning doesn’t impose the expectation of an outcome.
It’s wicked like that.
Participants are invited to take out of it the things that resonate, and inspect with curiosity any resistance they feel. Friction, triggers and resistance are great teachers. But they demand an open mind and our courage to lean into the uncomfortable and listen what it’s trying to tell us.
Closing with space to reflect individually and share in small groups is crucial to integrate the learnings into existing mental schemes.
“I never had such an experience in my Professional career. You guys and ladies set an amazing standard.”—annonymous participants feedback
If you’re a rebel trying to create learning that’s a bit more scandalous, outrageous, provocative, or mischievous, please share in the comments some of the formats you’ve explored, experiments you’ve run, or resources you find helpful.
On a personal note:
Are you reading my letters? I want to hear from you!
I am gathering short testimonials and feedback, so please drop me a comment, a reply to this email, or a personal message and let me know what makes you open my letters, and what makes you come back to them.
💛
And if you need a sparring partner for an experience you are designing, I’d love to help you elevate it with intention, creativity, and a little scandalous fairy dust. Reach out, and let's chat.
Until next time, stay curious.
Anamaria
The urge to immediately apply everything to real-life teaching experiences is VERY STRONG.
Loved this! There's defo some overlap with an article I wrote this week (check it out here if you're interested: https://substack.com/@whybirdwrites - always keen to connect and compare notes with other learning nerds)!