Sims Learning Connections

I’ve been thinking about the compression of prior learning into efficient memory for later recall.

I’ve been a user and proponent of tagging (e.g. de.icou.us) and mindmaps for some time to assist recall. More recently I’m coming around to seeing how stories (business narrative) have this power.

Now, without throwing anything away from these, I’m reaching for even greater “compression.” I’d like to think that this desire is because there is so much more to remember, rather than from my degrading-with-age memory abilities.

Other language-based recall methods such as mnemonics and catch-phrases achieve this desire. Although, I’m no fan of first-letter mnemonics because of my distaste for “cutesy” — I still remember and depend on some of the classics like “SMART Objectives” (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound). I suppose they do have their place.

I am currently reading The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander. In addition to many memorable stories, they also make use of catch-phrases as chapter titles to facilitate recalling the particular technique covered within the chapter. For example: “Giving an A”, “Being the Board”, “Telling the WE Story,” etc. As the authors intended, I’m finding the titles help me recall the technique, thus increasing the likelihood that I’ll actually be able to put it into practice.

An even greater compression occurs in visual totems and icons — requiring no words at all. As I think about this, the proverb a picture is worth a thousand words takes on new meaning for me.

Although I’m visually oriented person (oops, redundant), I’m aware that I have underutilized this modality professionally; depending instead too much on just the written and spoken word. To change this, one small step I took a few weeks ago on one of my projects is to use the following visual “icons” to symbolize the project goals. I’m finding the images deeply fixed in my mind and available for quicker recall than any text in a project charter document could ever be.

Note to self: Further explore the many wonderful resources listed in Jay Cross’s Internet Time Commons | visual page.

Photo credits: Alek von Felkerzam (totem), Marja Flick-Buijs (Euros), Henry Teeuwen (stopwatch), and Darren Hester (smiley)