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Want to
learn how to remember names? Take a lesson from the Memory
Grandmasters. Those grandmasters gathered last month in
Manhattan at the
eighth annual U.S. Memory Championship. The contest has
five events including memorizing 99 names and faces in 15
minutes.
How do
they do it?
It’s all image
association. The trick is to associate the name with
something distinctive about the person’s face. For example,
if Jim has a giant nose, imagine that the man’s nose is a
jungle gym.
The Memory Book by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas,
details this process further.
Anyone can do it: It just takes focus
We find
that anyone can learn to remember names if they just make it
a priority. Three things are key.
-
Listen
carefully to names when you first hear them.
-
Take
special care to remember names in your “life
communities.”
-
Find a
system that works for you.
Be alert
to the Name when you hear it
Any book
that you read on remembering names will tell you the same
thing about why most people are terrible at remembering
names: They never listen to a person’s name in the first
place.
One
attorney that we know said that his ability to remember a
person’s name increased dramatically simply by listening
carefully and then repeating the name back. “Oh hi Sandra,”
he’d say. “My name is Fred.
If you
don’t hear the name, simply ask the person to repeat it.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t get your name. Could you repeat it?”
This
simple trick will enable you to remember names in most
situations.
Know the
names in your “Life Communities”
Most
people get into trouble when they forget names of people
that they should know. For example, everyone should know
the names of all their neighbors and their co-workers. And
many of us have other life communities: church, Cub Scouts
etc.
For these
groups, take 30 minutes and sit down with the directory
and quiz yourself. One executive we know regularly takes
out his office directory and looks at the photographs and
quizzes himself on the names. That way, he is never
embarrassed when one of his co-workers calls him by name and
he can’t respond in kind.
Use a
System for Remembering Lots of Names Quickly
For
remembering large numbers of people’s names quickly, you will
need a system. We’ve already mentioned the image
association system used by Harry Lorayne and the memory
grandmasters.
A less
complicated system is simply to make a game of it and test
yourself. It works like this. As you go to a party of
strangers, work the room gradually, introducing yourself and
learning the names of the people in one conversation cluster
at a time.
In the
first cluster, you meet Fred, Jane and Izzy. You make a
point of really hearing their names and using them. Before
you leave the cluster, quiz yourself. Go to another cluster
and repeat. But before going to a third cluster, quiz
yourself on all names.
With a
little practice, you’ll be remembering names like a pro.
At
Speechworks we help our clients learn how to communicate in
a way that connects and persuades. If you’re interested in
becoming a great communicator give us a call at 404-266-0888
or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net |
