The Business of Memory: How to Maximize Your Brain Power and Fast Track Your Career - Softcover

Felberbaum, Frank; Kranz, Rachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594860416 ISBN 13: 9781594860416

Publisher: Rodale Books, 2005

Synopsis

The first memory program specifically geared to business success--from the expert whose corporate seminars have boosted the careers of tens of thousands of employees and executives.

At no point in history has the ability to synthesize and manage vast amounts of information been so crucial to business success. Yet research shows that within 3 hours to 3 days of learning something new, we'll forget 85 percent of what we've learned. Now, offering the same memory system he has used in his sought-after seminars and workshops, memory expert Frank Felberbaum shows you how to turn all that around. Instead of forgetting 85 percent of the people, facts, and ideas you are exposed to, you'll remember 85 percent--and you'll keep on remembering them as long as they are useful to you.

Through a fun, easy-to-follow, four-step program that utilizes memory games, skills tests, and enjoyable interactive exercises, The Business of Memory will:
o Improve your ability to retain, process, and retrieve information quickly and accurately
o Teach you to harness your powers of observation, concentration, visualization, and association
o Inspire you with new excitement and confidence about your own mental abilities

With this simple program that requires only 10 minutes a day, you can vastly expand the amazing untapped powers of your mind--and set your career on the fast track.

About this title

About the Author

FRANK FELBERBAUM is president of The Felberbaum Consulting Group, Inc., an international company specializing in corporate memory training systems. Formerly founder and director of The Memory Training Institute in Geneva, he has taught his unique memory system at more than 175 major corporations. His work has been featured in numerous publications and two PBS specials. He lives in New York City.

RACHEL KRANZ has coauthored numerous books on science and medicine. She is an award-winning author of young-adult books, of numerous reference works, and of Leaps of Faith, a novel about art, politics, and community. She is currently at work on Healing Hands, a novel about memory and history. Kranz lives in New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1

IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY--IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE

Would you be surprised to learn that you have a photographic memory? Well, you do! The problem is that it lasts only one-tenth of a second--hardly long enough to do you any good.

That's the bad news; now here's the good news. With my Three-Dimensional Memory Training System, you can extend that retention time considerably, vastly expanding the amount of information that stays within your brain. You'll remember more information, more accurately, and for a longer period of time. You'll be able to access the facts you need when you need them. You'll be able to remember anything you want, from a client's name to the amount he spent with your company last year; from the gist of this morning's training seminar to the high points of last year's annual meeting; from the price of your company's stock last fall to the projected earnings of your competitor next spring.

And here's the best part: You'll never again worry about forgetting an important fact, concept, name, or idea. What you want to remember, you will remember. Just imagine how that simple ability to trust yourself will exponentially increase your effectiveness at work.

Lou, for example, was a business development executive at Turner Corporation, a multimillion-dollar, New York City-based firm that builds hospitals, hotels, and office buildings. When he enrolled in my Business of Memory Workshop six years ago, he was already doing well, but he--and his company--thought he could do better.

"It's not that I have a bad memory," Lou told us during the round of greetings on the first day of the workshop. "But there are times when I'm working with a client, and I have the feeling that there's something else I should remember. Some special need they have that would help me clinch the deal. Or, on a personal level, remembering the names of my client's kids. That kind of thing makes a big difference."

Around the room, Lou's colleagues were nodding. They, too, were all successful, but improving their memories might give them that extra boost that makes the difference between a good year and a great year.

Obviously, their employer agreed--that's why I was there. Turner is only one of nearly 200 major corporations where I've taught the secrets of my Three-Dimensional Memory Training System to some 200,000 employees, managers, executives, and small business owners in a wide variety of enterprises. The series of workshops I held at Turner helped Lou and his colleagues recall and apply information about their clients and prospective clients, which in turn made them more effective negotiators. Not only did the Turner staff go into negotiation sessions better prepared, they also impressed their negotiating partners with the care the Turner side had taken to master the issues.

Or consider my experience at Hauppauge Industrial Association (HIA), where I've conducted numerous programs since 1997. This Long Island-based business organization includes more than 1,000 local companies engaged in a wide variety of industries. Under the auspices of former executive director Marcy Tublisky, I offered workshops to HIA members that helped them recall data, remember regulations, assimilate written information, and improve their recall of names and faces. It wasn't only that my workshops helped HIA members remember more facts more quickly and more easily. It was also that developing these new memory resources gave employees an enhanced sense of confidence and power, enabling them to work more efficiently, take more initiative, and exercise more responsibility on the job.

Here's some more good news: My system is easy. It's fun. And it takes very little time. All you need to do is master the basic concepts and practice them. You'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish once you begin.

THREE SIMPLE STEPS TO A BETTER MEMORY

Improving your memory is easier than you think. All it takes is three simple steps.

Step 1. Concentrate and experience an event fully (pay attention). Walk into every important event with your eyes open and your brain on alert. You'll learn to notice key people, facts, and concepts--and noticing is the first step in remembering.

Your mind can operate with all the power of a laser--but you have to focus your brain and bring your mental energy to bear. If you pay attention to the people you meet, the facts you learn, and the words you read, you'll be astounded at how rapidly your concentration grows.

Step 2. Convert the experience to a form that can be stored (visualize). Our mind's eye is more powerful than we imagine, but if you want to take advantage of that power, you have to use it. Once you convert an item into a visual memory, you're far more likely to retain the memory.

Step 3. Connect the experience to other information (associate). We remember information that means something to us--and forget information that doesn't. Connecting new data to facts, feelings, and ideas to which we already feel connected is the key to remembering what we learn.

Scientists estimate that most of us use only 1 percent of our conscious brainpower. Staff at the New York Marriott Marquis soon learned about the awesome results they could achieve when using more of their brainpower. I taught them techniques that enabled them to remember every guest, their likes and dislikes, and their needs and interests so that the staff could go the extra mile to provide a wonderful hotel experience. In response to my training, management came to realize the importance of guest recognition and incorporated some of my approaches into their reservations software. As a result, during the eight years since my workshops, the New York Marriott Marquis has had the highest corporate sales in the entire Marriott system, along with one of the highest occupancy rates and most profitable hotel operations generally. Employees are clearly happier as well, since the New York operation has one of the lowest rates of employee turnover in the chain. Michael J. Stengel, the hotel's general manager, noted that he was able to recall the names and faces of more than 1,000 of his employees thanks to my training.

Another alumnus of the Business of Memory Training Program is Dan Flannery, vice president and area general manager of the exclusive Ritz-Carlton Hotels in New York and Boston. Flannery has taken the use of my system to the next level, training members of the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel arrival team--the door staff, bell staff, concierge, and front desk personnel--to recognize every guest and recall specific information about them in order to create an immediate feeling of welcome at check-in. We linked this training to the Ritz-Carlton's "20 Basics of Hospitality" and "Three Steps of Service," to reinforce their unique approach to their guests.

My hotel clients were primarily interested in remembering people. My student Theresa, on the other hand, was seeking a more integrated approach to memory in which she could pull together diverse facts and figures from many areas to boost her business effectiveness. Theresa worked at a Boston- based investment corporation, where my memory techniques helped her win a key promotion. While attending a weekly planning meeting, she brought to mind the details of a competitor's successful strategy to move into the international market--a "memory moment" that led to her spearheading the team responsible for proposing her company's new global department. She's now head of that department--and all because she could remember details precisely when she needed them.

Following my four-step program will not only enable you to remember more, it will also:

Vastly increase your overall efficiency. Like Theresa, you'll be able to bring up the facts, figures, and concepts that apply to a situation at exactly the right time. How often have you remembered necessary information an hour, a day, or even a few weeks after you might have used it? Well, say goodbye to those days--now the information you seek will always be at your fingertips.

Improve your communication skills. When you know how the brain and memory work, you know how to present information in the way that's most compelling for your audience. A few years ago, I went on a four-city tour sponsored by Restaurant Business magazine to teach some of the largest restaurant group owners in the country about menu design. What does a memory performance expert know about appetizers? Not much--but I do know how the human brain likes its information served up. A menu is no different from a business memo: Both present information in a way that's designed to stick in the reader's memory. The clearer the communication, the more crab cakes you're going to sell!

My techniques helped the restaurateurs organize information in clear categories so that customers could easily identify the types of food available. What had once been a confusing "appetizers" section was now broken down into hot hors d'oeuvres, cold hors d'oeuvres, soups, and salads, each described in appetizing language that modeled for the customers how they might remember the meal after they had finished it. Within weeks, the owners noticed increased sales of items that had never moved before--and all because my menu design helped customers grasp and retain the choices that were available. You can apply these skills to your own creation of memos, oral presentations, and written reports.

Enable you to argue more convincingly. Bryan was a television executive who'd been trying--and failing--to convince his boss to give him a raise. Using my system, he put together a bulletproof presentation that drew on key incidents over the previous two years, helping his superior recall just how many times Bryan's skills had made a crucial difference in programming decisions. Instead of a general set of arguments, Bryan came armed with a specific list of contributions he'd made, including the names of programs, dates they'd aired, costs they'd incurred, and ratings they'd won. Bryan's boss was impressed with both his past performance and his seemingly unlimited ability to talk about their company's recent history in vivid detail. She boosted his pay by an astonishing 30 percent--and Bryan went on to use his new powers of presentation as she expanded his contact with clients and producers.

Allow you to take full advantage of all your years of experience. What is experience, if not memory? When a lawyer with 20 years of experience looks at a tricky corporate tax problem, she sees something very different than does the associate sitting next to her. The veteran is able to apply her experience with all the other tax problems she's seen--but only if she can remember them. Increase your access to the events of the past, and your experience counts for more. Remember more about what you've learned, and your problem-solving skills skyrocket.

Position you to become a key player in your organization. When I started giving these workshops nearly 30 years ago, I'd mention "job security," and my students would nod respectfully. Now, when I say those words, it's not unusual for executives of all ages to burst out laughing. "These days, job security is only as strong as last quarter's balance sheet," one of my clients commented recently. The words were all the more striking because he was a highly placed executive at an apparently profitable company--yet clearly, he was worried about keeping his position. He felt considerably less worried, though, after taking my workshop.

"As long as I can remember so much about what my department is doing and bring it to bear at the right moment, I'm in good shape," he told me. "In fact, sometimes I'm the only one who remembers how a meeting proceeded or what a new client asked for--which pretty much makes me indispensable!"

MASTERING THE THREE BASIC MENTAL FUNCTIONS

One of my goals when I teach a workshop is to demystify the process of memory. I've noticed that many people consider memory a mysterious, almost magical operation, something that "happens" to you. If you're lucky, many people assume, you are blessed with a good memory. If you're unlucky, you've got a bad one. Either way, what you remember is what happens to "stick" to you. A good memory is simply more "sticky" than a bad one.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Memory is not a passive experience but rather an active process, something you consciously choose to do. People with good memories are simply more active than those with poor memories. They apply more concentration and attention to each new experience. They visualize the information they're given, making it real, concrete, and meaningful to themselves. Moreover, they associate the information they learn with other information that they already know, multiplying exponentially their chances of retrieving it. They take a positive, proactive stance toward their memories--and as a result, they remember more.

Of course, with my system, they--and you--could recall still more. Once you've taken hold of your memory's reins, so to speak, you can learn some helpful techniques for steering the wagon. But the first step is to review and become familiar with the three basic mental functions on which memory relies.

1. Paying attention. How can you remember something if you never even noticed it in the first place? How can you keep something in your memory if you didn't observe it closely when you had the chance? The first key to remembering is to pay attention to that which you seek to remember. In chapter 4, I'll show you what it means to actively observe, concentrate, and pay attention, along with exercises and practices that will help you understand and master this skill.

2. Visualizing. Did you know that the portion of the brain devoted to visual information is at least twice as large as each of the portions concerned with the other four senses? We take in information in all sorts of ways, but we remember it through our mind's eye. In chapter 5, I'll teach you how to convert a wide range of information into visual images so distinct and vivid that you'll never forget them.

3. Associating. One key way to retrieve new information is to connect it to old information. Then, when you want to pull out the new data, all you have to do is call upon the old. For example, if you're trying to remember someone's name, you'll have a far easier time recalling it if you remember that your cousin has the same name. You have myriad associations with your cousin but only a few with your new acquaintance. Once you link them, however, you enhance the new name with old memories. As a result, you'll be far more likely to recall it at will. In chapter 6, I'll teach you ways to do this as well as give you techniques for associating the visual images you created in chapter 5. The combination of visualization and association is unimaginably powerful.

THE FOUR ZONES OF INFORMATION

Once you've mastered the three basic mental operations that produce memory, it's time to apply them. In business, there are four zones of information in which you tend to operate.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594860416
• ISBN 13: 9781594860416
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320