Brief Moments

     In working with Bridges out of Poverty the use of mental models to aid understanding and spark conversations is a highly useful tool. While the quote from Napoleon "A picture is worth a thousand words" doesn't strike me as a great source of reliable research, ongoing cognitive studies find that to be true.      One only needs to read Presentation Zen or Brain Rules to understand the importance of graphics and charts in aiding understanding.  I continue to be astounded when seeing PowerPoint presentations where the speaker has created slides so inundated with words that the message gets lost. Participants can't really listen to the host and read the words on the screen at the same time and focus becomes lost.     The graphic above comes from Educhoas , a flexible learning community in Australia.  Read more about Dr. Medina's book at Living Brain Rules , a post from last year. The next time you're struggling with a conce...

     Brain Rule #10 from John Medina's eye opening book is: Vision trumps all other senses .  If you've read or visited Presentation Zen the understanding that simplicity is powerful and images translate more to the human mind than verbiage is backed by science.  There's a double meaning there for organizational leaders beyond presentations.      This discussion comes from a couple of different areas.  One is that the classroom presentations I often see from publishers and many professors are dull, overloaded, and essentially incomprehensible.   The other was a quote from a consultant I know who has so many words on his presentations they're unreadable.  "People understand and remember only 20% of what you're saying, so you've got to have it on screen too," he said.  I would expect if that number is accurate, it's because they're too busy trying to read what's on the screen to listen.      T...

     When we look at where the United States stands in terms of student performance , there is one aspect in particular which stands out for me.  We continue to ignore what science tells us about learning, neurology and brain development in favor of one sized fits all models and standardized testing.      Watching the John Travolta film Phenomenon this past weekend I was struck by the truth of one scene in particular where he states to the neurologist " I think you've got this desperate grasp on technology and this grasp on science and you don't have a hand left to grasp what's important... what I'm talking about here is the human spirit.  That's the challenge, that's the spirit, that's the expedition. "  That scriptwriter gem is also not far off from the work by Sir Ken Robinson .       Having previously read summaries , viewed PowerPoints and watched videos discussing Dr. John Medina 's New York T...