new words or data. It takes an extraordinary amount of glucose to learn and
remember new things. It’s exhausting and
the brain discards a good deal of shallow
memory if it’s not repeatedly reinforced
over time. If you’re spewing a lot of
data or new ideas without anchoring the
memories more heavily in the brain, the
memories won’t get much further than
the exit door of the meeting room. You
can anchor information with phonological memory and semantic memory.
Phonological memory. That’s a big
word for how words sound and are associated with other words. Speakers should
use rhyming words; alliteration, which is
two or more words beginning with the
same sound; e.g., “learnable lesson” or “if
you live with love, you learn to love,” or
“good to great.” Acronyms can be cheesy,
but they work, too:
words into a memory. Stories that have
positive and negative emotional content
and teach a lesson are anchored very
deeply in the brain, and can begin the
process of changing the brain. When the
brain is in an emotional state, it is primed
for learning and creating thicker memory
trails. When you tell a story for the sake
of making people laugh or cry and then
fail to drive home some learning, you’ve
missed an enormous opportunity. The
point of the story is to prime the brain
to accept the lesson and remember it for
later use. It’s always flattering when an
audience member meets you again a few
months later and says he remembers your
great story, and the point that was connected to it.
by illustrating the points via your story;
then give the specific deeds to carry out
in the next week that are related to your
story. Spoon-feed the audience what
you want them to do a bit more when
they’re tired. For an audience member,
there is nothing like feeling like “I can
do that, too” and then getting a suggestion from you, the credible source, on
how to do it. The lazy brain wants to be
fed the answers.
2 “GOOD MEMORIES ARE
LIKE GATHERING ROSES IN
THE WINTER.”
Anonymous said that and couldn’t be
more accurate. Creating memories for
your audience is a really good goal if you
want to be asked back. Here’s how the
brain handles memories. Which avenue
do you use the most when you speak?
Shallow memory. Memory trails
are created in the
brain when you
try to mem-
orize
• BRAIN=Build Retention And
Intelligence Now
• TEAM=Together Everyone
Achieves More
Retention increases when you add
active verbs to inanimate ideas. Get
people to think about doing what
you’re talking about. Instead of saying,
“Kindness is important in the work-
place,” use the active verb to strengthen
the idea: “Do kind things and people
almost always return the favor.”
3 CONTENT VS. CONTEXT.
The brain learns better through context
than content. When I say Paris, the
content P-A-R-I-S goes into your left
brain, and jumps to the right brain
where a picture is formed. It would be
the rare person who sees each letter or
word as I speak.
What comes to mind when you hear
“Paris”? The Eiffel Tower? Romance?
Wine? Notre Dame? It depends on your
experience with the concept. But what
if I want you to think about the Paris
landmark Champ d’Elysees? If I haven’t
been clear in expressing the specific
context or I’ve relied on the assumption that you would get what I mean by
inference, then the speech falls flat. It’s
like flashing a cartoon on a screen and
letting your audience read it on their
own. You get a smattering of laughter as people read it and understand it
at their own pace. But, when you read
it to them, the audience gets it all at
once and the laughter is simultaneous
and more explosive. That’s how you
want your audience to come upon your
concepts—together and powerfully.
Individual contexts most likely will
change once people leave the room, but
it’s immensely powerful when everyone
