I have referred often to the limits of human short-term memory, but on this occasion I wanted to delve a Little deeper to evidence exactly why we forget our commitments.

“The role of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths such as weaknesses become irrelevant”

-       Peter Drucker

Understanding the memory is essential to make, as Drucker says, its weaknesses irrelevant.

Memory… What memory?

The first thing that needs to be clarified is that the brain has different kinds of memory, to simplify we will divide them in two types: “Working Memory” and “Storage Memory”

Working Memory: is the part(s) of the brain that keeps things within reach of our reasoning, it is what we “have in mind”

Storage Memory: is the filing cabinet of our brain, where everything is stored so that we can recall in the long term. The thing is, we cannot function with the information in Storage Memory, it just doesn’t work that way. In order to co-relate or “use” different data, it has to be retrieved from storage and put in Working Memory.

Studies done by Timothy Brady have proven the massive capacity of our Storage Memory, in it is contained virtually all information you have come across in your life.

So… why do I forget things?

The is a wide range of factors, but the most important are:

1. Bad Encoding: Working memory captures the stimuli that we receive and evaluates which one is the focus of attention, then tries to figure out the reason why is should be stored so it can properly encode the information and pass it to Storage Memory. Think of it as a filing process where you add a couple of labels to a file, if you put the wrong labels its impossible to find the file.A good example of this is a study performed by Dr. Cowan, where he presented people with a series of coins and asked them to remember the denomination of the currency; a very large percentage of people remembered right when asked the pertinent information, but when asked, almost no one could recall the year that was minted on the front.In this case, the coins where coded as “denomination 5, Denomination 25… Etc.” and thus there is no information on storage of the minted year.
2. Interference: The process of memory recall is directly related to the code or stimulus that fired the process, if more calls come in at the same time, the mind can wander in search of different memories; this is known as interference and is one of the reasons for the “tip of the tongue” effect, where the memory was already recalled but has not yet been delivered.
3. Interception: Memories are stored all over the brain, and as such its hard for the human body not to react as if it was re-living the event all over again, if it was a traumatic moment the recall will be intercepted by the negative reaction of the body

Why do things slip away?

Have you ever had an important call to make, and after a very busy workday you get home only to remember with anguish that to forgot?

The reason for this is that Storage Memory doesn’t allow us to reason, think of it like a DVD filled with videos on the shelf of your house, its all there but cant actually do anything with it.

You can only “think” (deducting, correlating, task execution, problem solving, pattern recognition, logic, etc.) with the things you can hold in Working Memory, here is where the limitation comes in: according to Dr. Millier, and later corroborated by Dr. Cowan, the maximum capacity of your Working Memory is between 4 and 7 “chunks” of data.

People that seem to remember more are just very adept at encoding, or can memorize large sets of data into a single chunk, for example the digits 584246609978 are biologically impossible to maintain in working memory without losing focus or sending something else over to Storage. However, the phone number +(58) (country code for Venezuela), 424 (cell phone code), 660 (area) 9978 (number) are a lot easier to remember, because in reality its just 4 “chunks” of data.

Working memory maintains information for 10-15 seconds before sending it over to storage, so what you are doing most of the time is just juggling the different stimuli you receive throughout your workday.

So if I ask you to do 7 things, then during 15 seconds I ask you to memorize a 7 number string of digits, you no longer have the biological capacity to maintain your tasks in operation; they are now filed and stored away, and unless you happen to randomly come across the proper stimulus, then recall the proper encoding, you wont remember them.

To beat this limitation you have to do one of two things:

1. Spend years training in advanced mnemotecnic methods and coplex encoding exercises to maximize recall capacity or…
2. Write things down.

Do you have any encoding tricks? What stimuli do you use to recall? I’m eager to hear from you in the comments section or on my twitter @alexmrv.

Photo by  red ice

What is the third wave?

In 1979, futurist Alvin Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock, where he goes into the process of change in social, political and economic structure.

Alvin describes three “waves”, the first one being the Agrarian Revolution (8000 A.C.  Until the 17^th Century), during which we built the social paradigms needed to end our nomadic phase and construct the cities that gave origin to our civilization.

The second wave  was the industrial revolution (1650), changing the way the world was organized by replacing human effort with advanced tools, thus empowering mass production and expansion, the caveat was that it led to a unification of products, media and ideology, all because of the inflexibility of our tools at the time.

According to Toffler, in 1979 we were in the cusp of a third wave, in which the tools become flexible enough to bring about a change in production paradigm oriented towards individuality and self-expression.

The advent of customized products coupled with the recently established Internet would bring about an important change in human society characterized by decentralization, demassification and personalization… all necessary to satisfy the human need to differentiate.

Riding the third wave

It’s no longer important to manufacture 1.000 objects of a single model, but rather 100 objects of 100 different models… examples like the giant success of Dell computers, where each computer is built under user specifications, are key to the definition of any third wave effort.

It’s also crucial to understand that the Internet will impact every medium in every field of every economic sector in the world…without exceptions. A good example is NetFlix, a company that “rents” movies online for the user to watch whenever he wants through video streaming,  this disruptive change devastated Blockbuster, the largest movie rental chain in the U.S., in a single quarter.

The challenge presented by the Internet is the velocity of change: The entire world is exposed to the same information, presenting equal opportunities for any organization.

At any time an equivalent of “Netflix” will appear in your market, with a disruptive innovation so profound that you must be able to adapt with agility and be willing to re-structure your Business Model in less than a quarter.

To summarize, if you want to ride the third wave you need:

• Creativity and flexibility to generate products that promote differentiation and adapt to the users Identity and need of self-expression.
• Productivity to cover needs on a global scale by inserting your product/service/industry on the Internet before somebody else does… and if the competition is already there, you must have the flexibility to adapt quickly.
• Adaptability to change your business model with excellence when the market thus dictates.

The key to success

First you need to change a few paradigms:

• Today’s technology is accessible to almost anyone, and there is an open solution to most problems, trade secrets are no longer the key.
• All providers are just one Google away from potential distributors, controlling the chain of supply is no longer the key.
• Business processes have escalated to a level of speed and complexity that no single person can effectively manage, individual leadership is no longer the key.

If not the recipe, or the kitchen, or the cook… What else is there?

There is the sum of all the parts in a multi-disciplinary team that is motivated, focused and committed; the key to the third wave is the people.

It no longer suffices to have “employees”, because these will not have the level of commitment and motivation necessary to survive in the market.

Another paradigm shift: Variable payments don’t work either. Of course you have to provide a just wage for the work and get the money issue out of the way, but systems based on monetary rewards are still second wave and recent studies have demonstrated that they do more harm than good.

In the third wave you need a team that is intrinsically motivated, driven forward by the primary factors that Positive Psychology and Neuroscience have determined as optimal:

1. Autonomy: If there is something that differentiates us from the rest of life on earth, is our impulse to be free. This motivator has generated enormous acts of nobility and courage that we remember as pivotal points in history.

When a person has the freedom to work with his own rhythms, under his own terms, he will fight to retain that autonomy with all his effort and any means necessary, a company of co-creators with a shared focus will fight to maintain its competitive advantage and self-sustainability with much more energy than a group of obedient subordinates.

2. Mastery: Another primary impulse is to be masters of our craft, the samurai dedicated their lives to be supreme in the use of the sword, Zen monks are focused beyond measure in the search of enlightenment, Greek masters searched for the secrets of nature with passion and constancy…none of them had as a final objective a new pair of Calvin Klein shoes.

By empowering your team to achieve mastery in many disciplines, the result will not only be a more capable team, but also a more motivated one.

3. Purpose: What is the point of all this effort? If for the organization, company or even family, the goal is collecting good dividends at years end, the objective of the members will be equivalent in measure: Getting a good paycheck. The result is that everyone pushes on their independent directions and there will be no cohesion of efforts.

One of the biggest tragedies of our modern world is that we have lost our sense of purpose; few people today set long term goals or life objectives. The top level of Maxwell’s Pyramid of human motivation is self-realization, if there is nothing to achieve then this point is impossible to reach.

The organization must have a common end that transcends the financial, and must help its members to find their own objectives, giving a sense of purpose that provide cohesion of efforts with the determination of the Samurai Warrior, the focus of the Zen Monk and the passion of the Greek Master.

Once the organization creates a context of work that allows a team to have autonomy, mastery and purpose; leadership is there to facilitate the work, putting itself at the service of the Team to maximize its production capacity and guide efforts towards common goals, staying the course without limiting flexibility.

It’s a juggling act between structure and innovation… a difficult to achieve balance that if found will surely enable you to ride the third wave.

I invite you watch the following videos:

This is a TED talk by Dan Pink, acclaimed business author, on intrinsic motivation (20 min):

The second is a Tech Talk at the 2010 Google IO (which I had the good fortune to attend), by Brian W. Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman, about the new role of the leader: Facilitating the work of the team. (60 minutes)

Foto por: https://tigscollaborate.wikispaces.com/fc_ubiquitous

There are some very wonderful things about a bad day. They teach you about the value of true friendship, the importance of honesty, the humility in recognizing what you did wrong… But only if you take your stake in the bad day and claim what responsibilities you had in making it so.

It’s very rare when a bad day happens suddenly and with no build up, most of the time there is a “prequel” a story to tell regarding how things got to this point, and when you look, without justifications and excuses, at your role in this tale, there are always valuable lessons to be learned.

Things come to light and are revealed as they are, nasty situations become resolved (one way or the other) and the road is paved for a new solution.

Maybe bad days have gotten a this negative reputation because we need to avoid recognizing what we did wrong, or we want to prolong the situation as long as we can because we fear reprisals, but I think that if you start truly seeing what happened (and writing it down), you can get some valuable experience and, who knows, maybe even start looking forward to a few bad days.

Stating that I have been responsible my whole life would be a huge lie, I have proven plenty of times my tendency towards laziness and procrastination.

But my life made an important turn for the better, I have taken responsibility for my career and professional development: I’ve assumed the challenge of generating a profitable business at the time of greatest economic uncertainty that my generation has seen, I work on my marriage, and have goals for the long, medium and short term.

In Zen Philosophy there is a term called “satori”, a moment of brilliant inspiration where you can see the illuminated road towards transcendence, “satori” is not a divine gift achieved instantaneously, but something you must strive for and work at with discipline, strength and dedication.

I have not reached personal productivity nirvana, far from it. But my life changed, beating my natural predisposition and personal ideology to achieve a new life through small steps.

Recently, I was reviewing my log the changes i made and have decided to condense them into 12 steps that i want to share, creating the first Irresponsibles Anonymous club.

I don’t think that this is the only path, i don’t event know if it is the right path. I just want to share what I did, hoping it will help others to make the change necessary for a better life.

Each Tuesday, I will publish and article for the next step, you can add this post to your bookmarks as a starting point, as I will add a link as the articles are published.

For now, accumulate energies, think positive thoughts, and buckle your seatbelt…

12 step program for Irresponsibles Anonymous:

1. Hi, my name is Alex and I am Irresponsible
2. The boat is sinking, who cares where it’s headed? Bail water!
3. A day for success
4. It’s easier to man a ship as a team
5. Its 5pm! Who stole my time?
6. Taking control of the Wheel: Discovering your current heading
7. Checking the sails: the power of self-auditing
8. Letting go of the Wheel: learning to weather a storm
9. Small Wins, Small losses: The power of constancy
10. Captains Log: Creating your own story
11. Putting together the most beautiful puzzle in the universe
12. Checking and Remaking your navigation map

Listed on: Dmegs Web Directory
GeekySpeaky: Submit Your Site!
blogcatalog

blogarama.com
Bloggapedia, Blog Directory – Find It!
Blog Directory
EatonWeb Blog Directory
Online Marketing
Blogged
Blog search directory
Advice blogs & blog posts
Blog Listings
Blog Directory
blog directory

Within a couple of days i will begin posting a 12 step program to leave irresponsibility behind forever,

Thanks for visiting,

Alex.