7 Ways We Remember Anything

August 10, 2010 UH SBDC recently hosted an event to thank its trainers and educators. Bob Pike of the Bob Pike Group spoke on "Creative Training Techniques". Bob's presentation had a lot of good quality information in it and I learned some great techniques simply from observing Bob. (My favorite being "clap if you can hear me" versus asking the question "can you hear me" but that is another blog.) Bob spoke about training and one section was titled "7 Ways We Remember Anything" which I summarize here. Why? Because I think every business communicator can benefit from keeping this in mind as they create their presentations.

Primacy - We remember best the things we learn first.
Recency - And the corollary to #1, we remember what we hear last.
Linking - Link new content to old information your audience already knows.
Chunking - Put content into 20 minute chunks to keep it easy to follow.
Record to Recall - Encourage listeners to take notes. If they see your message in their own handwriting, they will remember it better. (Another blog coming about whether this applies to upcoming generations. )
Revisit - If you want people to remember, Revisit the topic at least six times. "Revisit" being the key word, he was adamant that repeating is not the same as revisiting information in a different format.
Outstandingness - We remember silly and out of the ordinary. If you want people to store information, make it stand out.

My apologies to Bob if I got any of this wrong. If you ever need a great speaker for a Board retreat or training session, I can highly recommend Bob.