Remember Who?
Memory is a wonderful thing. You can remember the most intricate details from your 3rd grade classroom but not what you had for lunch.
There are some very good reasons why we have difficulty with things such as remembering names or numbers right after we first hear them. We have two basic types of memory, working memory, which leaks information–that we wish it wouldn’t–about as well as the Trump White House, and long-term memory which, when it’s working as it should, has near infinite capacity for a level of detail that sometimes rivals 4K HD quality video.
The interesting thing about working or short term memory, as it’s often called, is that it operates in two primary modes, auditory and visual. When it’s auditory we associate the memory with sounds or words. When it’s visual we associate it with images.
The two can work together in long term memory but in our short term memory the two can often end up in competition with each other. That’s why when someone tells you their name for the first time you instantly forget it after looking at them straight in the eyes for 30 seconds. When you then transfer the visual memory of their face to your long term memory you end up in the all too familiar predicament of seeing someone at a later date and instantly recognizing them but with no recollection of their name!
We’ve all heard numerous tricks for remembering names, such as repeating the persons name after they say it, but for most of us the process is still derailed by the distraction of the visual memories we are busy creating.
The challenge is to tie the auditory to the visual in a way that links both to your long term memory. Hold that thought for a minute while we link all of this to presenting.
It’s Only Words
The very same principle of weaving together auditory and visual short term memory applies to memorizing a speech or a presentation you are about to give. The problem most people have is that they practice their presentation by endlessly reading a script or note cards and trying to link them to the slides in a presentation deck. It would seem that this would do a good job of linking auditory and visual, right? Wrong! The biggest mistake is to use just auditory memory to remember a presentation.
Here’s what actually happens. You practice till you’re bleary eyed in your office, hotel room, or at home. It’s all done in surroundings that are comfortable and at least somewhat familiar. Then you get up on a stage you’ve never seen, or one that has no connection to the surroundings that you practiced in, and wham you seem to have forgotten everything. Then your fight or flight kicks in and your counting the seconds to get off of the stage.
The reason is that you are trying to use auditory clues in what is inherently a threatening physical environment. The reason people either regret into a shell of run off stage is because they are responding in a physical way to a physical threat.
But there’s a sure fire way to prepare for a presentation that will make it incredibly effective for you to not only remember your presentation without the aid of cue cards or notes but also to defuse the physical threat and make it a much more spontaneous and natural experience for you and your audience. Here’s how it works.
First off there’s nothing wrong with practicing, but it’s how you connect the content of your presentation to a set of visual and spacial cues that is key. So, I’m going to suggest you do two things. Depending on how comfortable you already are you may need to do one or both. If you’re not at all comfortable with the venue then both are required. If you’re familiar with the venue, then only the second is necessary. But try both and see how each one helps. After 30 years of public speaking I still use both of these as my safety nets. They’ve become second nature to me. Once you try them I’ll bet you end up doing the same.
By the way, I’ve seen very polished and powerful CEOs fall apart because they didn’t do these two things. You’ll find many of these embarrassing episodes on YouTube, but one of my favorites is of Holywood Director Michael Bay who walks off stage when the font type on the teleprompter somehow isn’t what he expected.
While I’m sure Micheal must have done a dry run on stage, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that he simply read the words off of the autocue monitor. Here’s what he should have done.
Picture This
I want you to first picture a physical place that you are very familiar with. It may be your house or your neighborhood, or even your office at work. Now think briefly about walking through the rooms, or hallways, or streets as you pas by familiar landmarks. Easy enough, right? After all you could probably walk that path blindfolded. Exactly! Now take your presentation and break it out into its components; the intro, main points, humorous anecdotes, stories, the apex, and its conclusion. Got it?
Here comes the fun part. As you start going through the presentation I want you to associate each piece of it with a very specific physical location in the familiar venue you’ve chosen. Let’s use your house as an example. The intro starts in your bedroom. Then you walk to your kitchen where you make the first major point. This progresses throughout your house in a natural and familiar pattern so that each component of your presentation gets linked to a room, a piece of furniture, your pet cat, whatever it is that you are naturally and intimately familiar with.
Do you see what’s happening? You are now creating visual links to auditory patterns that connect your long term memory with your working memory. Do this a few times and you will have no problem remembering the presentation as you walk through your house.
But wait, you’re not giving the presentation in your house! No, but I’ll bet you could easily describe your home’s layout no matter where you are in the world. So, why not use that visual as the mental crib sheet for your presentation?
But I’m not done yet. I promised two methods, so here’s the second, and it’s the one most people totally discount.
Once you’ve done everything I just described I want you to take your walkabout and transfer it to the venue you’re presenting at. This is simple. Get on stage and walk through your visual narrative. That simple exercise will now connect your long term memory to the working memory of an otherwise unfamiliar place. While you won’t necessarily feel any different as a result of having done that, but your brain is now connecting two very different emotional and physical spaces, the comfort of the familiar and the discomfort of the unfamiliar, into one cohesive and non threatening narrative. It’s no longer just in your head, you’ve now made it part of the space you will present in.
This is why I always insist on being able to access the room, theater, or hall I’m presenting in far enough in advance that I have a clear mental image of myself in the space. It sounds fuzzy but I can assure you it is a critical part of coming off as natural, authentic, and at ease.
I can hear you now. “To much work, It’s just a presentation!” you’re saying. Hey, I didn’t say it would be easy, just that it would be incredibly effective.
But take heart, running off the stage is always an option! And if it’s “just a presentation” that won’t matter much, will it? Ask Michael Bay.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.