Guest post by Daniel Strauss

Many people expect increasing memory loss as they age, but this memory loss can be reduced or stalled with some simple memorization techniques, physical exercise, and a reduction of stress. In fact, impaired memory has more to do with chemicals that are released in the brain when an individual suffers from chronic stress. But, you can reduce the obstacles and increase your memory capacity with the seventy-five tips and resources listed below. In fact, you can go from amnesic to elephantic within a few short weeks.

Some of the tips you may already know, but we’ve repeated them because they may have slipped your mind. Other tips are from recent news stories that contained information you may not have heard. The links will take you to those news items and to other resources that you can use to increase your capacity to remember anything you deem important.

Be in the Moment

1. You can’t remember something if you’ve never learned it, so focus on learning.
2. You don’t need to enroll in a college to learn – you can learn something from educational television programs, from online courses, from books, or from other individuals.
3. It only takes about eight seconds to process data through your hippocampus into the appropriate memory center, so it doesn’t take long to absorb information.
4. You need to pay attention to your environment so that you can encode this information into your brain.
5. To learn how to stay in the moment, don’t focus on the past or worry about the future while you’re learning.
6. Don’t multitask, as you create a “brain drain” when you focus on more than one activity.

Read all 75 tips!

Would you get a tattoo of your employer’s brand logo in exchange for a 15% pay raise?

That’s what Rapid Realty of NYC has offered its employees and 40 employees have taken advantage of the offer.

I find the idea fascinating.  Most people want a pay raise, but how far are you willing to go in order to secure 15% more per paycheck?  Are you willing to sacrifice part of your skin?  Would you rather give your employer more hours in the office or a few inches of ink?

Skinvertising is not a new concept.  GoldenPalace.com was one of the first brands to take advantage of skin realty by advertising on the back of boxer Bernard Hopkins.  Think of how many people advertise brands via tattoos for free.  Have you ever seen a Nike tattoo?  A sports team logo?  A Superman tattoo?  A car brand?  Harley Davidson?

The difference is that those individuals are brand advocates without receiving a paycheck.  They don’t have a financial investment in the company, and yet they still choose to promote the brand visually every day.

What I find particularly interesting about this concept is the potential impact on employee retention/loyalty.  Would you choose to stay with an employer longer due to the mental (and visual) commitment you made by permanently branding yourself?

What about the Human Resources perspective?  I’ve always believed that when I’m wearing my company’s logo on my shirt, I am representing the whole organization and should be on my best behavior.  If you have a visible tattoo of your employer’s logo, then you are representing that company’s brand 24 hours a day.  Can you be on your best behavior 2 hours a day?  What about employees that you terminate?  Do you want them to visually represent your brand for the rest of your life?

There are so many questions to ask and consequences to consider regarding this idea, but what do you think?

Is this creative thinking or a terrible idea?

New Webcast offered through HCI.org.

Title:  Creating a Thought-Based Organization: A 3-Phase Approach to Developing Problem Solvers & Efficient Thinkers

Description:  If you’re not developing your employees’ ability to apply critical thinking skills, then you’re missing a huge opportunity. Improved critical thinking skills lead to more effective problem-solving, well-reasoned decisions, improved strategic thinking, and better planning and implementation in your organization.

Some argue critical thinking is a skill some are born with, and others lack. We’ll show that critical thinking is definitely a skill to be developed – one that reaps huge benefits when applied to specific organizational challenges.

Join Scott Dannemiller, Senior Consultant and Facilitator of Executive Development Associates, as he discuss the importance that critical thinking will play in the next 3-5 years, the link between critical thinking and performance, and the positive impact that can be achieved by implementing a 3-phase, action learning approach to teaching applied critical thinking skills within your organization.

Participants Will Learn:

• An understanding of the role critical thinking will play in business and organizational life over the next 3-5 years
• A proven model for teaching applied critical thinking
• How to measure thinking ability by assessing a person’s “RED-iness”
• The possible return on investment when a 3-phase approach to applied critical thinking training is implemented in an organization.
• One technique for applying critical thinking when identifying the root cause of a business problem

Who Should Participate:

• HR Execs, Directors, Managers and Personnel
• Training and OD Managers
• Operations Directors
• Anyone responsible for solving business problems

When:  Thursday, May 02 2013 3:00pm EDT

Click here to register.

Presenter:

Scott Dannemiller
Senior Consultant & Facilitator
Executive Development Associates

Scott Dannemiller is Senior Consultant and Facilitator with Executive Development Associates. He has been working in the training and organizational development field since 1994 as a facilitator, coach, manager, and business owner. Scott’s passion is working with intact work teams to improve group effectiveness, whether it is teaching new techniques to improve interpersonal dynamics, or using process tools to improve critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. He has been an owner of Cornerstone Learning and Development; a technical facilitator for Spirent Communications; a manager for distance learning for MCI WorldCom; a training consultant for Mapco, Inc.; and a volunteer missionary and instructor, PC (USA), in Guatemala.

What is the toughest interview question you’ve ever answered?

When I worked as a recruiter, the one question people seemed to struggle with the most was “Tell me about a time when you made a mistake.  What happened?  How did you handle the situation?”

Time and time again, candidates would say “I can’t think of a mistake I’ve made.”  UGH!  Unless you are a robot (or Sheldon Cooper) then I highly doubt that you’ve NEVER made a mistake.  That’s just ridiculous.

Some candidates think this question is a trap.  It isn’t.  We aren’t looking to judge you based on the mistake you made, we want to know what happened afterward.  How did you realize the mistake occurred?  What was your thought process?  Did you take responsibility?  How did you ensure that you wouldn’t make the same mistake in the future?

This question helps us understand the way you think.

How would Thomas Edison answer that question?  He was quoted as saying “I have not failed.  I have found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”   If he answered that question, he would spend time telling the recruiter what he learned along the way and how it helped him innovate in his next invention.

Do you remember learning basic math skills in grade school?  Even when you correctly identified the answer, the teacher would reduce your score if you didn’t “show your work.”  The teacher wanted to make sure that you took all of the appropriate steps to get to the right answer.

That’s what a recruiter is looking for here too.  We aren’t as concerned about you coming to the “right answer” as we are about you “showing your work.”  Talk us through your thought process and give us insight into your critical thinking ability.  In fact, this is your opportunity to let your critical thinking skills shine!

Do:

• Give the recruiter a brief overview of the situation including key influencing factors.
• Explain how you identified the mistake.
• Walk the recruiter through your thought process.  What happened next?  Who did you inform about the mistake?  How did you investigate the situation?
• Focus on the solution.  Spend more time telling the recruiter about the resolution of the problem than the mistake itself.
• Talk about how you reflected on the error.  How did the mistake make you a better person/employee?  Did you innovate and find a way to ensure no other employee would make the same mistake?

What is the one skill that your employees must have in order to be successful?

A recent article in TechVibes said the #1 skill for employees in a start-up company is the ability to think.  The article is really great, but I would argue that the ability to think is a universally important skill regardless of the size, maturity, or culture of an organization.  Thinking skills (whether they be in the form of critical thinking, creative thinking, quick thinking, strategic thinking, etc) are a necessary component for success in any role.

That doesn’t mean that having a good attitude, taking initiative, showing leadership, or communication skills aren’t also important, but if you think about it, how impactful can any of those skills be if the foundation isn’t strong critical thinking?

For example, you can show great leadership skills, but without critical and strategic thinking, how confident can you be that you’re leading people in the right direction?  The same thing goes with taking initiative.  Have you ever worked with someone who was highly internally motivated but just never seemed to understand where to devote his/her time?  It’s extremely frustrating.  While you want to praise them for working without being asked, that doesn’t mean that the work they completed was productive.

Thinking is the backbone to successful implementation of so many soft skills.

So, I ask you, can you think of a more universally important employee skill than the ability to think?

Any time you hear that something has been cursed or jinxed, your critical thinking antenna should pop up.  As March Madness kicks off this week, I have been reminded of the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse a few times already.  Have you heard of this phenomenon?

Some individuals believe that appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated (something that should be considered an achievement) is actually a curse and the team or player will soon experience bad luck.  As you’re reading this, the critical thinker in you is likely very skeptical.  But what happens

January 31, 1955: Skier Jill Kinmont suffered a near-fatal crash at Alta, Utah the same week that she appeared on the cover, and was left paralyzed from the chest down.when you look at the history of individuals/teams who have appeared on the cover?  Here are a few notable examples (all from Wikipedia):

• May 28, 1956 - Indy 500 Winner Bob Sweikert was featured on the cover. Less than three weeks later he died in a sprint car crash.
• July 30, 1984: Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert appeared on the cover with an interview with the headline “The Man of Steel.” Lambert would miss most of the 1984 season with a turf toe injury and subsequently retired.
• January 13, 1997: Mark Brunell of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Kerry Collins of the Carolina Panthers appeared on the cover as their respective teams advance to the AFC and NFC Championship Games. Both teams lost.
• September 11, 2000: Painted in gold, gymnast Ivan Ivankov was on the cover of the Olympic preview issue with the caption, “The World’s Best Gymnast.” He won no medals in Sydney, finishing an unlucky fourth in the all-around contest.
• In April 2010, the “Core Four” of the New York Yankees (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada) appeared on the cover, and within one week, all but Jeter suffered injuries. However, Jeter went on to have the worst offensive season of his career.
• December 14, 2011: The Denver Broncos (specifically Tim Tebow) appear on the cover after a six game win streak. They would go on to lose the next three games of the regular season and ultimately the playoffs.

These are just a few ironic or extreme examples.  The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx page on Wikipedia shows dozens of other examples.

But what’s really happening here?

Is it possible that those who believe the curse are employing confirmation bias to validate their beliefs?  For example, while the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx Wikipedia page lists the March 2nd, 2009 cover with Tiger Woods and links that to revelations of infidelity in November 2009, it fails to mention the 24 other times he has appeared on the cover of the magazine.  And what about Michael Jordan’s 50 appearances on the cover?  Was he immune to the curse?

Another answer to the curse phenomenon could be simple regression toward the mean.  When someone appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated it generally means they are performing extremely well.  If you’re at the “top of your game” or on a winning streak, then it is only inevitable that you falter at some point.  When you’re #1 there’s only one direction you can go, and that’s down.

So, what do you think is happening here?

How do you accurately evaluate claims of a curse or jinx?  

How do you avoid critical thinking traps like confirmation bias?

P.S.  If you do believe in the curse, I wouldn’t take the Kansas Jayhawks, Indiana Hoosiers, Gonzaga Bulldogs, or Syracuse Orange to win the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament because all 4  appear on regional covers of Sports Illustrated this week.

Photo Credit:  Sports Illustrated (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com)

The American Management Association just released their 2012 Critical Skills Survey which surveyed over 700 managers and executives regarding the importance of the 4 C’s (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity) in the workplace.

The results were clear.  Not only are the 4 C’s increasingly important, but the respondents said they are assessing candidates for these skills during the selection process and evaluating their employees progress with regard to these skills in performance appraisals.

Specifically:

• Over 70% of managers reported that Critical Thinking skills have been identified as key priorities in employee development and succession planning for the next 3 years.
• 68% of managers reported that their employees’ critical thinking skills are measured on annual performance reviews.
• 69% of organizations surveyed assess candidates’ critical thinking skills during the selection/hiring process.
• 70% of respondents said that as the economy improves, critical thinking will be the most important skill to helping the organization grow.

And yet, while employers have clearly stated the importance of critical thinking skills both now and in the future, there is a serious skills gap in the workforce.

 ”The AMA 2012 Critical Skills Survey shows that managers and executives believe it is easier to develop these skills in students and recent graduates (59.1%) than it is to develop them in experienced workers (27.1%), suggesting that students and recent graduates may be more open to new ideas, versus experienced workers with established work patterns and habits.”

As an ominous winter storm approaches the East coast today, disaster preparedness and strategic thinking are on my mind.

Are you prepared for the worst case scenario?  On a scale of 1-10, how ready are you for a natural disaster, home fire, disruption of technology, or even a car breakdown?

Preparing for a disaster requires foresight and an evaluation of assumptions that are key to strategic thinking.  Often, disaster plans fall short because we’ve made poor, unchecked assumptions about exactly what the worst case scenario might entail.  How do you plan for an ambiguous, hypothetical, future scenario?

As an example, one year for my birthday my father gave me a big tote box full of “survival” supplies in to keep in my car in case of emergencies.  He included the kinds of things you expect like jumper cables, flares, Fix-a-Flat for the tires, matches, a flashlight, etc.  But I was baffled by some of the other items he included such as Gatorade, beef jerkey, candles, kitty litter, sneakers, and a back-up battery for my phone.  As I  immediately started snacking on the beef jerkey, he explained that you never know how long you could be stranded if your car breaks down in a remote area.  How far will you have to walk?  How cold will it be?  What if you have no cell phone battery?  You have to be prepared for the worst case scenario.  I laughed and thought “How long could you possibly get stranded?”  The very next day there was a report of a family that went looking for a Christmas tree, drifted into a snow bank, and were stranded in their vehicle for 4 days.  I bet they wished they had some beef jerkey and Gatorade.  In 2011 a woman was stranded in her car for 7 weeks before being rescued.  How many days worth of food/water do you have in your car?

How often do you think about and plan for the worst case scenario?

• When you stay at a hotel, do you look at the emergency evacuation floor plan?  Would you remember how to get to the stairwell if the hall was filled with smoke and you couldn’t see more than 2 feet in front of you as you crawl on your hands and knees?
• If there was a fire on the main floor of your house, how would you get to safety from either the basement or upper floor?
• If there was a financial collapse and credit/debit cards stopped working, how much cash do you have on hand right now?
• Do you have non-perishable items that could sustain you if you were without power for over a week?  And, do you have a non-electric can opener (I just realized that I don’t)?
• How much gas do you have in your car right now?  How far could that take you?  What if gas stations had an outage?
• How many days/weeks of medicine do you have on hand right now?
• If cell phone towers were knocked out, how would you contact someone for help?
• If the water system was tainted, how many gallons of water do you have in your home right now?

As an exercise in strategic thinking, pick out one potential disaster scenario such as an extreme weather event or technological failure, and think through what the worst case scenario would look like.

What do you need to do to prepare? 

To remain a successful company, both your product lines and marketing style must evolve to meet the changing needs of your customer base.  Sometimes, though, when creative thinking and critical thinking combine, that evolution requires you to reverse the entire thought process behind your brand.

The American Girl Doll is a fantastic example of a brand staying current with trends, understanding the difference between generations, and being willing to take huge risks.

If you were a child of the 80′s, then you might remember your American Girl doll wearing a bonnet and colonial attire whose character (as told by an accompanying book) was facing the challenges of life in the 1700′s or 1800′s including war, poverty, and racism.  Those days are long gone.  While you will still find these historical dolls in the American Girl store, they are tucked away in a corner as an homage to the past.

Around 2001, American Girl saw a change in the market.  Gen Y made up the new customer base, and they weren’t satisfied with a once-a-year refresh on the American Girl doll.  Gen Y grew up on personalization.  While most dolls were offered in 3 varieties (blonde, brunette, and African American), Gen Y children wanted more.  If the avatars they created during video games could be customized with hair color, style, eye color, glasses, freckles, braces, and birth marks, then why couldn’t their dolls also have the same customization?

This is when American Girl got creative.  They could have just offered more hair styles and eye color options and mirrored the rest of the marketplace offering $20-35 dolls.  They didn’t.  Walk into any American Girl doll store today and you will be amazed at the ways you can personalize your doll (and how much money you could spend to do so).  Trust me, it will blow your mind.

• Do you have a hearing aid?  Your doll can visit the Doll Hospital and get a hearing aid too (along with a Certificate of Good Health, hospital bracelet, hospital gown, and a  Get Well card).
• Do you want your outfit to match your doll?  For about $80, you and your doll can look like twins for the day!
• Do you play the Baby Grand Piano?  For $150, your doll can too!
• Do you play Lacrosse?  For $38, your doll can too!
  
• Are you in a wheel chair or mending a broken bone?  For $30-38, your doll can too.
• What kind of horse do you ride?  A paint horse, a chestnut horse, or a Palomino?  For $48-75, your doll can have one too!
• Do you like to go camping?  Your doll can sleep under the stars in a tent for only $75, but don’t forget Fido’s camping accessories.  For $20, you can make sure your doll’s dog has his leash, dog food, bowl, and chew toys for the trip too.
• Do you have food allergies?  For $28, your doll can too!

And if all of this customization wasn’t enough to amaze you, then you have to check out the American Girl doll store experience.  At the store, you can have matching t-shirts printed for you and your doll.  Your doll can visit the salon for a new hair do or facial.  That’s right, for an extra $12 your doll can get the full spa experience with a salon cape, face mask, cucumber stickers for her eyes, flip flips (wouldn’t want to smudge that fresh pedicure), and nail decals.

At some stores you can also dine with your doll in the American Girl cafe or visit the Photo Studio to have a picture taken with your doll which will be turned into a magazine cover.

As you can see, when American Girl saw the shift in the needs of the marketplace, they didn’t make small changes to appease customers.  They completely reversed their product line from historical dolls that children could not relate to on a day-to-day basis, to a completely personalized experience where children can create a mini-me.  They challenged the assumptions made by the entire doll industry.  How much could a child possibly want to customize a doll?  How much will a parent pay for those customizations?  How much time does a customer want to spend in a store?

In each case, they took a risk and challenged the status quo.  They asked tough questions, challenged assumptions, and got creative when defining the customer experience.  The success of the brand can be seen through it’s rising sales compared to the slump experienced by Barbie in recent years.

 Can you think of any other brands who have completely revolutionized their product line to meet the changes in the market?

Photo credit to terren in Virginia and Americangirl.com

What are Thinking Styles and why do they matter?

Find out in this webinar hosted by The Brandon Hall Group.

The 21st Century Mindset:
Unlock Critical Thinking to
Unleash Organizational Performance

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

We all use a variety of thinking styles in our daily lives, but we tend to favor some but rarely use others—and that hurts our ability to make good decisions. Knowing your preferred style will help you approach problems and decisions with the right mindset so you can be more successful.

Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and Dr. Judy Chartrand, as they offer you a unique opportunity not only to learn more about critical thinking and what it means for organizations, but to learn about your own thinking styles. My Thinking Styles™ from TalentLens helps you find the right balance between, so you can make the best choices, in life and at work.

Between now and January 29th, Pearson is giving BHG members access to a complimentary administration of My Thinking Styles and a personalized Development Report. Then on January 29th at 1:00 EST, Dr. Judy Chartrand will give a brief overview of the Seven Powerful Thinking Styles and she’ll help you interpret your results. Your report will unlock a unique combination that will help you be more successful with your decisions, relationships, projects, and every aspect of your life – so don’t miss out!

Discover how developing critical thinking can help:

• Create a holistic onboarding experience, for new employees as well as those who are changing positions and taking on leadership roles
• Connect your HR, Learning, and Leadership functions to collaborate together and deliver an engaging and enriching employee experience
• Shrink employee time to autonomy and increasing ongoing learning
• The continuation of learning – leadership training and development

Click here to Register!