35

When you want to use “word pictures” to help people remember things

Here’s a great way to help people remember your key messages. I’m going to use the seven drivers of shareholder value as my example:

1. Sales growth.
2. Profit margin.
3. Cost of capital.
4. Investment in working capital (“working capital” being a business’s short-term assets/liabilities that help it run smoothly. It’s like oil in a machine – too much is expensive; too little, and the machine breaks down).
5. Investment in fixed assets.
6. Tax.
7. Competitive advantage period.

So, my question: If I asked you to memorize all seven, such that you could recall them weeks from now, how would you do it?

I guess you’d read the list a few times until it stuck? But that’s boring, takes ages, and won’t stay in your long-term memory. You’d remember some tomorrow, but in a week?

One of my previous jobs involved teaching accountants how to pass their professional exams. This list was one of the many lists they had to remember. And, as you’ve just seen, it’s pretty forgettable – especially in a pressurized exam room. So, instead of learning this list, I asked them to imagine something very different:

1. Think of a sailing boat with three sails: one small, one medium and one huge.
2. Marge Simpson is driving the boat.
3. She’s wearing a red cap with the price tag attached.
4. The boat isn’t in the sea – it’s floating on oil in a container.
5. A baby donkey is attached to the side of this oil container.
6. It’s been attached by some tacks.
7. It has a tennis racket in its mouth.

Here’s how the two lists are linked:

1. Three growing sails = sales growth.
2. Marge Simpson = profit marge-in.
3. The cap with the price tag = cost of CAPital.
4. Oil = working capital.
5. Just as a baby pig is called a piglet, pretend a baby donkey (“ass”) is an asset, fixed to the side = fixed asset.
6. . . . by tacks = tax.
7. You often hear the word “advantage” when watching tennis = competitive advantage period.

You’re much more likely to remember this second list. My students did. And when it mattered: in the exam room. In fact, I met one of them recently for the first time in 10 years. He told me he could still remember it!

As well as being useful, “word pictures” are just more fun than a “word list”, aren’t they? I mean, which do you prefer?

So, when you’ve got a few key messages that people need to recall instantly, consider using a “word picture”. The more unusual the pictures, the more impactful they are (just like the “don’t think of a green hippo” idea).

Your lists don’t need to be as long as my example. For instance, let’s say you only want to remember three techniques from this book – think outside the box (chapter 37), have pit-stop meetings (chapter 7) and use BO to get a “yes” (chapter 18), you might use:

  • A cardboard box with arms and legs (think outside the box).
  • Standing on a Formula One car in the pits (pit-stop meetings).
  • Spraying deodorant under his smelly armpits (BO).

As you can see, these can be pretty memorable.

c35-fig-5002

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset