Hi all,

Been reading a lot of the articles and finding some good stuff. I’ve been ill all weekend with laryngitis so no field work but lots of thinking time, so I thought I’d write some of my own stuff and share to see what you thought.

I call this one the “Networking game” and is good as an opener, and doubles up as a legitimate memory tool.

One of my biggest weaknesses is remembering peoples names. I don’t know what it is but my mind insists on completely skimming over remembering the name, which is embarrassing when trying to introduce said person to my group of friends or when I put their number into my phone where I have to carefully go, “and so how do you spell that?” with their response of “L.I.S.A”… so busted!! I really want to get this flaw fixed so here’s what I‘ve come up with…..

Next time I’m out I’m going to run this:

Me: “Hi guys, can you help me out with something?”

At this point I’m waiting for a reply which I think can either be

Them: “OK” – at which you continue

Or, Them: “Sure / Yes” – if one of them says “yes” I figure you could put in a tease of some sort such as, “wow, we just met! You don’t even know what I need help with. I might want…” – something cocky funny here? **

Me: “I’ve come back from a networking course this afternoon. And in order to be a successful networker it’s really important to remember people’s names. So we’ve been asked to talk to a random group, only for a few minutes, asking for their first names and see if we can remember them by the end of the night”

Hopefully the above statement puts in a false time constraint and also adds DHV by demonstrating a desire to be successful.

Me: “So the best way to do this is through visual association. So if someone’s name is Michael and he is wearing a hat, I’d have Michael Jackson in my mind with the classic hand on the hat pose”. – I’m thinking there should be a better example and using some NLP anchoring here. **

You then proceed to interview the set asking each ones first names and using a bit of neg theory if need be to associate that person’s name, so Monica for example I’d associate with Friends the show and make reference to that squeaky voice when she gets excited. (not sure that’s a good example on reflection as it doesn’t add visual association) **

Hopefully at this point you get the set interested and you can then escalate the game to asking the guys to try by opening up another set with you, demonstrating a further social value with the next group.

Somewhere you can add in some interesting facts or opinions, such as “we only remember some one if they demonstrate power or are useful to us” or “did you know the human memory can only remember 20 names at one time. Shall we have a challenge who can remember the most?”.

So that’s my invented game. I’d really appreciate some feedback and where I’ve put ** some alternative examples you guys could come up with would be good.

Look forward to the replies .

Nookie