Five Tricks for Remembering Names

How can you avoid the panic that can come from forgetting someone’s name almost as soon as you’re introduced? The fact is, names just aren’t a priority for our brains, which evolved to remember critical details that affect survival, like the face of an enemy or the location of nutritious food. 

For the past couple of years I’ve been working with James Jorasch and Chris Harwood, who compete each year in the US Memory Championships. As they train for the competition this time around, I thought it would be helpful to share some of their tips on how to remember names. 

1) Don’t psych yourself out.

Most people tend to believe that they have a bad memory for names. If you walk into a new situation convinced that you won’t remember names, the extra stress will ensure that you probably won’t. Instead, go in believing that the room contains at least a couple of people whose names you can and will remember. 

2) Slow down and take it easy.

Part of the reason names escape us is because there’s usually a lot of activity going on around us while we’re meeting new people. Loud parties, conferences and restaurants don’t make it easier to remember a blur of names during introductions. Take a moment during introductions to make sure you get a person’s name right. Repeat the names while making eye contact with each person. 

3) Ask questions.

Ask a question about the person’s first or last name. Where are they from? Is there a story behind their name? If the name is difficult to pronounce, repeat it slowly and let the person correct you until you get it right. This will help you remember it, but it also serves the purpose of ensuring that someone knows you care enough to get it right. As business becomes more global, this is critically important. 

4) Use a person’s name.

During conversation, use the person’s name as often as is comfortable. They will appreciate the attention and saying it out loud will help to solidify the name in your mind, which will make it easier to put a name with a face later. 

5) Create an image.

Try to create an image associated with a person’s name. Sometimes it’s simple, like when you meet a Bill Baker and you imagine him in a chef hat holding a tray of chocolate cupcakes with dollar bills folded into the icing. Other times, you need to be creative to find a way to associate an image with a name. No matter how challenging a name may seem, you can break it down into phonetic syllables and create images that get close enough for your brain to remember the association. 

For example, say you meet a Rahul Banerjee at a conference. The name Rahul can be translated to the image of “raw wool” freshly sheared from a sheep in your memory. Banerjee can be pictured as a banner with a picture of a “G” or a jeep on it. These images seem weird--but the stranger they are the more your brain will remember them due to the novelty. Remember, these images exist in your mind only and don’t need to be revealed to anyone. They are there only for your benefit.

by

Rita J. King

Confirmed: Google Removes “Not Selected” From Webmaster Tools

Google has confirmed the reports of the removal of the “not selected” filter within Google Webmaster Tool’s Index Status report.

Google’s John Mueller said it was removed because it “was causing more confusion than actually helping webmasters with their sites.”

That may be true, but many webmasters found the data useful. In fact, there were times when John from Google said himself that “not selected” data can be useful in some situations.

Here is the comment from Google’s John Mueller, a Webmaster Trends Analysts in Google Zurich.

Yep, this was removed on purpose since it was causing more confusion than actually helping webmasters with their sites.

Previously, the “not selected” would mean either:

• It redirects to another page
• It has a rel=”canonical” to another page
• Our algorithms have detected that its contents are substantially similar to another URL and picked the other URL to represent the content.

This news come shortly after many reports of Google Webmaster Tools having issues with reporting the number of links pointing to a site.

by Barry Schwartz

Learning from Your Mistakes

In my experience, doctors who sustain long and rewarding careers have certain distinguishing characteristics. Among them is the freedom to make mistakes. That means facing something we’re all afraid of … the F word. Failure.

Many people think that failure is something to be avoided at all costs. There is good news and bad news to report on that. The good news is that failure can be avoided – by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. The bad news is that to achieve anything, you must accept risk, which brings with it the possibility for disappointment and failure.

If you have never experienced failure, you have never pushed the envelope or stretched hard enough and long enough to reach your maximum potential. You can never steal second base if you keep both feet on first. You will never experience the exhilaration of discovery without enduring the pain of an experimental dead-end.

In very few endeavors of life is the risk of failure more immediate or more clearly defined than in heart surgery. Four or more times each day, I’d completely stop a patient’s heart for one or two hours; perform some type of surgical intervention, and attempt to restart the heart. In each case, there was a moment of tension while I waited to see if the heart would start beating. Were all my decisions correct? Are all sutures accurately placed? Did I operate rapidly enough? In 99% of the cases, the heart started pumping; the tension was relieved; we moved on. It was this potential for failure that kept us ever vigilant. I can barely remember all the thousands of successful cardiac surgeries I performed over 30 years. But the 1% that were less-than successful, are burned into my memory. That’s where most of my lessons were learned.

Winston Churchill defined success as “going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Failure may be an event in your life, but it is not who you are.

Failure is an opportunity to learn. We may learn that our present strategy won’t work; we may learn that our goal was not worthy; we may learn that we quit too soon. Failure will teach you, if you let it.

by

 Delos Cosgrove

Who's Creative?

B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l." My colleague Reece still sings that to herself when she writes that word. When she was in 2nd grade, her teacher divided the kids into groups, mixing together students with different reading abilities. Each group's task was to learn how to spell all the words on a ten-word list for the weekly spelling test. Reece was skeptical—such long words plus she had to work with kids who couldn't even read! But it turned out well. Pretty soon all the kids contributed various ways to learn spelling—drawing pictures, noticing letter patterns, even singing the words. The latter method, Reece remembers, was suggested by one of the kids in the lowest reading group. Their group aced the spelling test every week for months, and the other kids became interested in learning their strategies.

This might be called an example of mini-c creativity, defined in this issue by Ronald A. Beghetto and James C. Kaufman (p. 10) as interpretive creativity, or having a new insight into how to solve a small problem. No doubt this kind of creativity was inspired by the teacher's Pro-C, or expert-level, creativity. She knew—through insight, training, and experience—how to create the conditions that make learning stick with kids. "There were aha moments going on in that classroom all the time," Reese remembers.

Recently while participating in the interviews of the candidates for ASCD's OYEA (Outstanding Young Educator) award, I heard about other wide-ranging instances of creative teaching and learning:

• A preschool teacher in rural Montana told of her Superheroes of Kindness project, in which all the 4-year-olds dress in their favorite hero regalia and go out in the community to do "intentional kind deeds." The project, which went viral when 8,000 people tuned in to her blog, teaches kids "creative thoughtfulness."
• An art teacher in Maryland created video tutorials illustrating various photographic techniques, thereby encouraging students to tap into their original ideas and "invent their own design companies." His students' 100 percent pass rate on advanced placement exams and their multiple awards at exhibits are a cause of pride.
• A teacher of twice-exceptional students in California spoke of getting middle school kids with school phobia interested in becoming scientists by sharing her scientific knowledge of worms and cockroaches. Now, previously nonparticipating students regularly make presentations about their genetics and robotics projects.
• A physics teacher in Iowa challenges his students to think up interesting problems they want to solve even though he often has to wait 10 minutes before anyone volunteers one. He spells out his "golden rules for learning": "Kids want to do challenging work; they want you to tell them if it is bad or good; and they want to have some choice in what to learn the next day."

All of these examples corroborate the primary message of this issue on "Creativity Now!"—namely that creativity intermingled with academic learning is a powerful mix. "Teachers who understand that creativity combines both originality and task appropriateness," Beghetto and Kaufman write, "are in a better position to integrate student creativity into the everyday curriculum in ways that complement, rather than compete with, academic learning."

In fact, as authors Robert Root-Bernstein and Michele Root-Bernstein (p. 16) tell us, skills usually associated with creativity—such as visual imagination, handcrafting skills, and musical perception—all play prominent roles in scientific thinking. "There are real and measurable consequences to integrating arts and crafts education with science and mathematics education," they write.

There is another message in this mix of articles about creative learning: Schools cannot afford to leave creativity on the back burner. Researcher Kyung Hee Kim, as cited by Yong Zhao (p. 57), reports that creativity scores on the internationally administered Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking have inched downward worldwide even as children have been exposed to more knowledge and enriched environments. Causes for "the creativity crisis" are merely speculative, although hours of passive media engagement and school environments that consider rigor and creativity at odds are both suspect.¹ 

In countries around the world, creativity development has become a priority, yet the United States seems to be making a U-turn, as Yong Zhao calls it, toward more standardization and rote learning. Meanwhile, the demand for creative and entrepreneurial talents has increased. "Creativity is no longer a choice for a select few; it has become an essential quality for all," Zhao writes.

The good news, as many of our authors and OYEA candidates can testify, is that where there is a student, there is creativity. A robust human quality, creativity thrives in environments that support personal interest, involvement, enjoyment, and engagement with challenging tasks. In other words, creativity is alive and well, but it does need to be valued and encouraged—now!

by Marge Scherer

source: http://www.ascd.org/

Management may not be everyone's style: Here is how a bad boss is born

New York Times Feb 4, 2013, 01.31AM IST

If you asked all your friends, your family and - I regret to say - your co-workers to talk about their jobs, I think you'd conclude that there is no shortage of bad bosses in this world. Studies have shown that poor managers can cause good employees to leave and, ultimately, can seriously reduce productivity in a workplace.

You can point to any number of reasons for this situation: insufficient training, poor communication, etc. But I say a bad boss is born each time someone goes into management without knowing whether he or she is truly suited to the role. When people are offered a managerial job, they may become intoxicated by the idea of more power and a bigger salary. Refusing such an offer can seem out of the question.

"It's hard to stop and think rationally when you're being offered a promotion," said a former client, whom I'll call Phil. "You're flattered. Your boss is telling you it's a great opportunity, not to mention that it's really good for the team and will help him a lot. Are you really going to tell him you that you're not sure if you want it, or that you'll need some help learning to manage the team and the new responsibilities? I don't think so."

Phil, a sales star for a sizable Midwestern manufacturer thought it better to charge ahead and accept his promotion as head of sales for a newly formed territory, rather than to politely decline, even temporarily, or to ask his boss for more time to consider it. The risk was too great that his boss would think that he wasn't prepared for the job or, worse, that he didn't want more responsibility.

Move ahead a year. Phil's effort at leading the territory proved to be a nightmare. The interpersonal dynamics, the 24/7 monitoring and a near coup in the department made him realize that he disliked managing people and had no talent for it. Maybe if his company had given him more than eight hours of management training, or had coached him through his first three to six months, he would have developed an affinity for the role. Instead, both he and the team floundered.

Many newly minted leaders rarely stop to think about the enormous time commitment and learning curve as they transition from successful individual contributor to manager of a group of diverse people. They often fail to consider the demands of an expanding work schedule; the complexities of hiring, training, supervising and firing workers; or the needs to develop a vision and a tactical strategy, to create budgets or to be accountable for others' productivity.

The lesson is this: When offered a management position, talk to your future boss, to the person you'd be replacing, to team members and to anyone else who can tell you what the job entails. Assess your strengths and limitations by scrutinizing your performance reviews and asking your boss, mentors and trusted colleagues for feedback.

Reflect on your motivations, then ask yourself these questions: Do I enjoy working with people, helping them to grow and to become successful? Do I handle uncertainty well, and do I mind making decisions without knowing the entire picture? Do I communicate well, in good times and bad? Do I have the time to take this on? If your answers are yes, then you could well have the makings of a good boss.

On the other hand, do you need for everyone to like you? Want immediate and constant reinforcement? Feel nervous about having legal and financial responsibilities for others? Balk at the idea of evaluating or firing someone? Then it's possible that you're just not cut out to be a boss.

Before deciding, find out what kind of leadership training the company offers, especially if you are new to management. Will you receive training at this level and for this job? How about mentoring support along the way?

If you decide to take the plunge, accept that being a great manager, or even a good one, is a learned skill. Like many talented professionals, whether NBA players or opera divas, you will become successful by honing the right skills with huge amounts of practice.

Remember, you don't have to say yes. Depending on your field and your company, there are ways besides management to further your career. One thing is certain: the more you are perceived as really good at what you do, the more options you'll have to carve out the path you want - whether in management or not.

The #1 Career Mistake Capable People Make

I recently reviewed a resume for a colleague who was trying to define a clearer career strategy. She has terrific experience. And yet, as I looked through it I could see the problem she was concerned about: she had done so many good things in so many different fields it was hard to know what was distinctive about her.

As we talked it became clear the resume was only the symptom of a deeper issue. In an attempt to be useful and adaptable she has said yes to too many good projects and opportunities. She has ended up feeling overworked and underutilized. It is easy to see how people end up in her situation:

Step 1: Capable people are driven to achieve.

Step 2: Other people see they are capable and give them assignments.

Step 3: Capable people gain a reputation as "go to" people. They become "good old [insert name] who is always there when you need him." There is lots right with this, unless or until...

Step 4: Capable people end up doing lots of projects well but are distracted from what would otherwise be their highest point of contribution which I define as the intersection of talent, passion and market (see more on this in the Harvard Business Review article The Disciplined Pursuit of Less). Then, both the company and the employee lose out.

When this happens, some of the responsibility lies with out-of-touch managers who are too busy or distracted to notice the very best use of their people. But some of the responsibility lies with us. Perhaps we need to be more deliberate and discerning in navigating our own careers.

In the conversation above, we spent some time to identify my colleague's Highest Point of Contribution and develop a plan of action for a more focused career strategy.

We followed a simple process similar to one I write about here: If You Don’t Design Your Career, Someone Else Will. My friend is not alone. Indeed, in coaching and teaching managers and executives around the world it strikes me that failure to be conscientious about this represents the #1 mistake, in frequency, I see capable people make in their careers.

Using a camping metaphor, capable people often add additional poles of the same height to their career tent. We end up with 10, 20 or 30 poles of the same height, somehow hoping the tent will go higher. I don't just mean higher on the career ladder either. I mean higher in terms of our ability to contribute.

The slightly painful truth is, at any one time there is only one piece of real estate we can "own" in another person’s mind. People can't think of us as a project manager, professor, attorney, insurance agent, editor and entrepreneur all at exactly the same time. They may all be true about us but people can only think of us as one thing first. At any one time there is only one phrase that can follow our name. Might we be better served by asking, at least occasionally, whether the various projects we have add up to a longer pole?

I saw this illustrated some time ago in one of the more distinctive resumes I have seen. It belonged to a Stanford Law School Professor [there it is: the single phrase that follows his name, the longest pole in his career tent]. His resume was clean and concise. For each entry there was one impressive title/role/school and a succinct description of what he had achieved. Each sentence seemed to say more than ten typical bullet points in many resumes I have seen. When he was at university he had been the student body president, under "teaching" he was teacher of the year and so on.

Being able to do many things is important in many jobs today. Broad understanding also is amust. But developing greater discernment about what is distinctive about us can be a great advantage. Instead of simply doing more things we need to find, at every phase in our careers, our highest point of contribution.

by

Greg McKeown

Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum

How to Optimize Every Decision in Your Life and Accomplish Nothing

Even the greatest minds fear missing out. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman who assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, contributed substantial advances to quantum mechanics and particle physics, discovered the cause of the Challenger Shuttle disaster and popularized science as a witty and successful author, faced this fear when confronted with a menu.

How many different dishes should he order from a menu before settling upon a favorite? Feynman used probability theory to solve the problem. Below is the formula he developed with Ralph Leighton

The number of dishes to try = √2(Meals remaining at restaurant+1) - 1

Fear of missing out is a paralyzing force. It even drives geniuses to mathematics for consolation. Having calculated the number of dishes to try, Feynman could rest, his mind at ease knowing that in all likelihood, he was eating the best plate on the menu.

With the panoply of options before us as founders, investors, managers and employees, the fear of missing out on key meetings, conferences, marketing initiatives, employment candidates, investment opportunities is rampant. There is always one more meeting to attend, one more person to meet, one more option to consider.

Within that last meeting, we seek assurance and validation that the choice we have made is the right one. But the byproduct of the relentless pursuit of the "best" can be debilitation.FOMO diffuses attention, sapping the focus which is often so necessary to success.

Feynman quelled his fears with probability. Most of us won't approach problems with the same rigor. But all of us are seeking the same peace of mind.

We want the freedom of trusting our decisions and intuition. I think it comes down to accepting that, as is written on Facebook's walls, done is better than perfect. It's more important to keep moving forward with a good decision than to slowly optimize for the best decision every time.

I don't need a menu, thanks. I'll have the spaghetti and meatballs.

by

Tomasz Tunguz

Venture Capitalist