Abstract:

In the world of data abundance, one of the most critical yet underdeveloped skills in data analytics education is the ability to meaningfully reduce information. While traditional instruction emphasizes data acquisition and model complexity, students often struggle with identifying what to exclude. This paper introduces a rapid, experiential learning activity grounded in Peter Drucker’s insight that “when information is no longer scarce, believe me, you very soon learn that less is more, and that more is most definitely less.”

The five-minute LEGO-based classroom activity was implemented in an introductory course on the principles of Drucker’s Management as a Liberal Art (MLA), with participants from finance and information technology backgrounds (n = 16 MBA students). The LEGO-based “Less is More” activity simulates the cognitive transition from abundance to constraint. Students first construct freely with abundant resources, then are required to remove half of their materials before redefining a single clear function. This forced subtraction shifts attention from accumulation to intentional design, mirroring key challenges in analytics such as variable selection, overfitting, and dashboard overload. The activity is framed within MLA, emphasizing judgment, clarity of purpose, and responsible decision-making under complex conditions.

To evaluate the activity's effectiveness, reflections were collected following the exercise. Students were prompted to describe their decision-making process, the trade-off encountered, and the insights gained under conditions of constraint. Responses were summarized to identify students’ understanding of judgment, reduction, and purposeful design. Findings indicated three outcomes. First, students demonstrated increased awareness of the importance of constraints in decision-making, which change according to prioritization. Second, students expressed trade-offs they had to make between complexity and usability, linking their experience to real-world applications. Third, the class activity enhanced the transition from exploratory to purpose-driven action.

Framed in the MLA principles, the study highlights the central role of judgment, intention, and human-centered reasoning in the MBA education. The study contributes to a scalable intervention model that integrates experiential exercise with conceptual learning, demonstrating how minimal, embodied learning interventions can bridge technical concepts and managerial thinking, fostering human-centered data literacy in graduate education.

Keywords:

Data analytics, Education, experiential learning, LEGO pedagogy, Drucker, self-management, Management as a Liberal Art, data reduction, overfitting.