The Business Of Memory: Fast-Track Your Career with Supercharged Brainpower - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

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.

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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...