Developing a Razor Sharp Memory (Part 4) 

By Daniel Theyagu 

 In the last part we learned the Numerical Pegging system up to the first 10 pegs. If you want to go beyond the first 10, all you need to do is to replace the number with a word or thing that looks like the number, sounds like the number or associated with the number.  For instance, my numerical peg for 11 is SOCCER (11 Players in the team).  Number 12 peg would be CLOCK (think this is obvious) and Number 13 is FRIDAY (considered as unlucky).  It is best that you should create your own as that way you will find it easier to use the peg to remember information since you’ve personalized the numerical peg. 

 

The disadvantage that you might have with this system is that after some time, it would be difficult to find a word association with the number.  You may create a numerical peg perhaps up to the first 20 numbers.  After which it would become increasingly challenging.  This is when you might consider using the Alphanumerical System.

 

The Alphanumerical System

This system involves the replacing the number with a letter from the alphabet that represents the number either by its pronunciation, shape of number or some form of association.  For instance;

Number 0 is represented by the following:  s, z, ce, se  (this sounds like zero)

Number 1 is  either T or D (both got one line coming down)

Number 2 is N (looks like a two from the side)

Number 3 is M (looks like a 3 from the side)

Number 4 is R (there are four small R in the number 4 if you observe carefully)

Number 5 is L (the top part of 5 looks like L)

Number 6 is represented by: J (upturn six), soft G (as in girl) CH, SH

Number 7 is represented by: hard G (as in garbage), K (there are two 7 in K) and C (sounds like K as in the name Katherine and Catherine)

Number 8 is F (cursive writing of    f  looks like an 8), v (as v sometimes replaces f)

Number 9 is P or B (looks like an upturn nine if observed from another perspective)

 

Now that you’ve got the letters to represent the numbers note that the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) by themselves have got no meaning.  Further consonants such as (q, w, x, h, y) also have no meaning by themselves.  These letters are used as fillers to help create a word that will represent the number.

 

For instance, the number 15 can be represented by 1 (T or D) and 5 (L).  What you need to do is come up with a word that has got these two letters in them.  Something like TAIL.  There are two vowels in TAIL and these have no meaning.  Therefore T and L represent the number 15.

 

Number 16 can be replaced with the word TOUCH – T is 1 and CH represent 6. 

Number 17 is DECK – D is 1 and K is 7 (in this case the C is silent thus does not represent anything)

Number 18 is DOVE – D is 1 and V represents 8.

Number 19 is TUBE (can you figure this one out)

Number 20 is NOSE

 

With this system you can continue creating your own peg and using that to remember information as was shown to you in the last part.

 

In your business and personal life this system can be used to remember many things with a bit of imagination and creativity.  Let’s say that you have a friend call Mary and her phone number is 95404848.  How can you remember this?

 

I will use what I’ve shared with you in the previous parts and create a journey in my head that will allow me to recall Mary’s number easily.  This is how to do it. 

 

Every time I think of Mary I visualize (remember the visual association technique) her carrying a bunch of Blue roses and I tell to myself that “Blue Rose Are Very Few”.  If you look at the phrase, you will notice that you could replace some of the words that represent the number of her phone.  Namely:

Blue – B (9) – L (5) – U & E (no meaning since they are vowels)

Rose – R (4) – O (no meaning –vowel) SE (0)

Are – A (vowel) R (4) – E (vowel)

Very – V (8) – E (vowel)- R (4)

Few – F (8) – E (vowel) – W (no meaning)

If you look at it carefully you have 95404848! And that’s how you do it.

 

This method requires confidence and patience.  As mentioned in the first part, developing a razor sharp memory is not going to occur overnight.  You need conscientious practice and consistency to achieve this.  The important thing is not to over do it such that you lose interest in working out your memory. 

 

Keep your objective small.  Perhaps for a start you could take out the phone numbers of the 10 most favourite people you know and see whether you could link them in the manner I demonstrated above.  Once you can do this, add another 10 to the list and so forth.  After all, if you have time to work out your physical self, make some time to work out the grey matter in your head.

 

This conclude the series on Developing a Razor Sharp Memory

 

Developing a Razor Sharp Memory (Part 3) 

By Daniel Theyagu

In part II, I showed how to remember a series of items in a linear sequential manner.  However there may be occasions when you may have to recall information in a random order.

 

If you want to be able to recall information in a random order you need to use a system called the Numerical Pegging System.

 

The Numerical Pegging SystemLet’s say that you want to remember a list of Food stuff rich in Vitamin A: 

1.         Egg 2.         Milk3.         Green vegetables4.         Banana5.         Pumpkin6.         Sweet Potato7.         Carrot8.         Tomato9.         Papaya10.       Liver  

If you use the Creative sentence system (covered in Part I), you must find a long enough sentence to remember the above items. Further, if I were to ask you what the number 5 item is, you might have a problem giving an instance answer. 

This is where the Numerical Pegging system becomes useful. This system is quite simple to formulate. All you have to do is to replace the number with something, which looks like the number, sounds like the number or associated with the number. The reason why you have to do this is because; your right brain doesn’t understand the concept of numbers or letters.  So by replacing the numbers with something which looks likes, sounds like or associates with the number, you are allowing your right brain to recognize the number and help you remember the word. 

This system is very much like hanging your laundry out to dry.

 

Imagine that you’ve just done your laundry and are hanging them out to dry on the bamboo stick.  In order to ensure that the clothes do not fly away in the wind, you will put pegs on the cloth.  The purpose of the peg is to keep the clothes in place.  Likewise, the numerical pegging system works in a similar fashion. 

 

Just imagine that you have ten different pegs each with a number written on it and or a shape, which is associated with the number. And you are hanging the ten items given above.Let us now create the Numerical Peg to help us remember the words given above.1          -  SUN (sounds like one)2          -  SHOE (one-two buckle my shoes)3          -   TREE (sounds like three)4          -   DOOR (three-four shut the door)5          -   FINGER  (sounds like five)6          -   STICK (five-six pick up stick)7          -   HEAVEN ( sounds like)8          -   SPIDER (looks like eight and has got eight legs)9          -  FLAG POLE (a flag fluttering in the wind looks like a nine)10        -   HEN (as in: nine-ten a big fat hen) 

If you want to remember the items rich in vitamin A as shown earlier this is how you do it. You just have to imagine: 1 is a SUN and visualizes the sun is shaped like an EGG.  

Number 2 is SHOE and imagine that you poured some MILK into your shoe and drank it as you had no glass (I know it sounds disgusting, but you won’t forget what number 2 is now will you?)  

Number 3 is TREE and you look at the tree which was growing GREEN VEGETABLES. See yourself picking these vegetables from the tree. 

Number 4 is DOOR and you open the door and a great piece of BANANA fell on you.  

Number 5 is FINGER and imagine you digging your fingers into a huge PUMPKIN. 

Number 6 is STICK and you were using a stick to dig out the SWEET POTATO from the ground.  

Number 7 is HEAVEN and in heaven you saw a lot of CARROT. Make it big carrots so that you won’t forget it.  

Number 8 is SPIDER  and see a spider building a web inside a TOMATO.  

Number 9 is a FLAGPOLE and see a huge PAPAYAS on top of the flagpole.  

Number 10 is HEN and see the hen running away from a cleaver which sounds like a LIVER.

Now stop reading this article and see whether you can remember the 10 food items rich in vitamin A.

 

If you were able to do it, Congratulations! If you had difficulty recalling any particular item, this could be because your mental connection for that item was not strong enough to hold the information.  It’s like you pegged your clothes loosely and a strong wind blew it away.  What you need to do is make a stronger connection.

 

This technique is useful especially when you have to recall things at random.  All you’ve got to do is to link the word you want to remember to the number peg.  It is not necessary that you need to follow what I’ve given above.  You could use other words to represent the numbers as long as you are able to associate the word with the number.

 

In the office environment you will find this technique useful to remember information that you receive randomly and which you have to arrange in a structure manner.  The important thing is to ensure that your peg is powerful enough to allow you to make an effective mental link so that you could recall the information at ease.  Go ahead and try using this technique.  You might try with your shopping list, or your ‘To-Do’ list.  It is only when you make a concerted effort to unleash the true potential of your brain power that you can develop a razor sharp memory.

 

This part only covers the numerical pegs for the first 10 numbers.  If you want to remember beyond 10 items you need to add on new pegs.  However, finding words that can ideally replace the number might become more tedious as you go beyond 10.  This is when you need a variation of the numerical pegging system called the alphanumerical pegging system.  I will show you this in the next part of the Developing a Razor Sharp Memory.

 

IS YOURS A TEACHING ORGANIZATION? 

By:  Daniel Theyagu 

We’ve heard about Learning Organization and the fact that Organizations that fail to learn are the ones that will eventually disappear.  However, creating a Learning Organization is only part of the greater equation of organizational survivability quotient.  The question that you need to ask is whether you have a teachable organization.

 

In order for people to learn they need to be self-directed to the learning process.  However they still need someone to guide and coach them to become effective in what they are doing.  Consider this example.  Peter was appointed as a supervisor in a manufacturing company.  He was well qualified and had all the know-how’s of his work.  Peter’s immediate superior was John who has been with the company for more than 10 years. John has got an effective practical work experience in his line of work.

 

On the first day of work John tells Peter of all the procedural rules that has to be adhered to.  He also tells Peter on his responsibilities and that’s that.  John then left Peter to his job and did no further coaching.  A workman, approached Peter on a certain issue and Peter using his initiative told the workman what to do.  However it turned out that the instruction that Peter gave the workman was not the supposed way of doing things and this led to a minor disaster.  When an inquiry was made on this matter, John reports to his boss stating that Peter is incompetent. 

 

This situation also reflects the incompetence of John for failing to teach Peter effectively on what to do.  Too often new recruits in organizations are thrown at the deep end of the pool and expected to learn on their own.  This is one of the reasons why some organization faces a severe attrition rate of new staff as some feel that although they have the motivation and drive to learn they have no one to teach them properly.

 

One of the true qualities of a leader is to create a teaching culture within his/her organization.  This means that everyone in the organization should be empowered to help others to do their job better.  If one staff goes for training, when he/she returns there must be some form of avenue for that staff to teach others of the training that he/she has received.  Only when there is such a transfer of knowledge through teaching can learning occurs. 

 

To create a teachable organization there are a few pointers you need to remember:

 

1.  When you teach you learn

Compared to teaching learning is the easy part.  However, learning in an unstructured and haphazard manner does not quite make the cut.  Whatever your position is in your organization you have to take the initiative to teach others in your organization.  It is only through the process of teaching that you can internalize for yourself what you’ve learnt. 

 

 

 

2.  Knowledge is for sharing

Nothing is gained by keeping knowledge to yourself.  Too often people fail to realize that it takes two hands to clap.  This is parable to the fact that if you know something that your team mate does not, then the whole team fails.  Only when you share the knowledge that you have can you begin to synergize with other people in your organization and through this synergy it would be possible to synthesis with other people’s knowledge and come up with new ideas, innovation and solutions to problems. 

 

3.  Teaching starts from the top

Unlike learning, teaching starts from the top of the organizational hierarchy.  If you are a leader you have to initiate the process of teaching your staff of your expectations and what you want from them.  Remember that the people who work for you are looking up to you for guidance and directions.  It is easy to tell them to use their initiative or that you’ve empowered them to learn.  Providing a learning environment is only part of the process of creating a perpetual learning culture.  There must be avenues and ways where by all people in your organization have access to someone who could teach them and they must be empowered to teach others as well.

 

4.  Develop good communication skills to teach effectively

People in the organization who have the ability to help others learn should be trained in their communication skills so that they could teach others effectively.  Sometime people are fearful of their inability to articulate what they want to say.  Good communication skills allow a person to share his/her knowledge in a manner that could be understood. 

When you create a teaching culture, you will notice a positive environment whereby everyone feels alive and energize.  There will be a constant sharing of information across all domains which will boost the productivity of the organization.  Teaching then becomes an integral process which will in turn motivate people to learn other new things so that they can then impart this knowledge to others.  Thus a cycle of teaching and learning is created.

BECOMING A GOOD DECISION MAKER 

By Daniel Theyagu 

Inevitably, one of your job requirements might expect you to make decisions for your organization.  When you rise up your career ladder you will find that you will be increasingly tasked to make decisions.  Becoming a good decision maker will make you an asset to your organization.

 

Some of the decisions that you have to make may have a deep impact on your career as well as the lives of other people working with you.  For instance, your company is suffering a financial crisis and the management team that you head has identified various causes for this crisis.  To arrest this financial crisis you have been proposed with a solution that includes terminating thirty percent of your existing staff strength.  Since you are the key decision maker you have the unenviable task of selecting those staff that you have to let go.  How are you going to make that decision? 

 

We sometimes pray that we do not find ourselves in such a dilemma.  However, when tough situations arises only those who can make tough decisions will survive.  So here are a few pointers on how you can become a good decision maker in your organization.

 

1.  Understand the root cause of the situation

In order to make good decisions, it is important that you have a clear understanding of the root cause of the situation.  The decision you make must be based on facts that you have and these facts must be verified and authenticated so that you are certain that the decision you are about to make is a rational and reasoned one.  Remember the acronym CARF which means have you ‘considered all relevant factors’. 

 

2.   Do not succumb to office politics

Making a good decision entails that you are not motivated by people in your office who may want you to make a decision which might be in their favour.  It is quite common that when people start working together there will be a tendency to form little clicks.  Each click will then begin to have its own sub-culture and its own unique way of doing things in the office.  As a decision maker it is your duty to ensure that you remain apolitical and base your judgement on your effective understanding of the situation. 

 

3.  Don’t be drawn into the ‘Groupthink’ mentality

‘Groupthink’ mentality is one whereby all the members of a group or team feel that they are invincible and whatever decision and action they take and make will not fail.  Such a ‘groupthink’ situation comes about when the organization has been relatively successful in all their endeavours for a long while and there is an overall sense of well being and that ‘everything is going to be fine’ kind of attitude.  Organization that falls prey to this kind of ‘groupthink’ mentality will find it difficult to make harsh decisions when the need arises and prefer to take a wait and see approach until things become worse. 

 

You will notice the effect of ‘groupthink’ mentality when you are having meetings or group discussions and everyone seems to agree with everyone else.  There is no dissention and no resistance to the proposal put forward by anyone in the group.  Remember that there is no such thing as a best laid plan.  Any decision that you make will have with it certain inherent flaws.  The important thing is to objectively identify these flaws and if possible to either try to eliminate or at least minimize their effects.   This can only be achieve if you are not drawn into a state of ‘decision making invincibility’ in that you feel that you and your team can make no wrong decision.

 

4.  Successful Decision are those that can be translated into Action

Decision making is still relatively easier than the ability to translate the decision into action.  To be an excellent decision maker you must also be the kind of person who takes action.  Once you’ve made the decision you must give yourself a timeline for the implementation of the decision.  You also have to engage in a review process to see how the decision has improved the situation.

 

5.  Viewing failure as feedback for further refinement

There will be times when the decision that you’ve made does not quite turn out the way you want it.  There is no guaranteed success formula in decision making.  When you made a decision that failed what makes you an effective individual is your ability to assess the damage and review the situation to see how you could refine the decision again and put it into action.  This certainly is not going to be an easy road.  You will face obstacles and perhaps it might be a decision of tremendous magnitude that you have no second chance.  However, take heed that if you’ve done your homework and have paid attention to the other pointers above, you most likely might not suffer a massive catastrophe.  You may falter and perhaps sustain a few ‘executive bruises’ that will give you valuable feedback on how you could refine your decision.