You'd think I'd be good at remembering names. Being a trainer it's a big part of my job after all. But at a meeting this week I was reminded how terrible I am at it. Whenever I am introduced to someone and they are about to say their name, a tape plays in my head that screams out “Don't forget their bloody name”. And does so at such a volume that it drowns out them saying what their name is.
On the plus side I do have a method that enables me to learn the names of a whole training room of delegates as they introduce themselves. Even this can backfire though. On our cookery-themed management course my co-trainer asks delegates to introduce themselves by saying what food or dish best represents them. This makes it very easy to associate faces to food and so to their name. And hard to disassociate them. One person will always be known to me as Kirsty Custard.
On the plus side I do have a method that enables me to learn the names of a whole training room of delegates as they introduce themselves. Even this can backfire though. On our cookery-themed management course my co-trainer asks delegates to introduce themselves by saying what food or dish best represents them. This makes it very easy to associate faces to food and so to their name. And hard to disassociate them. One person will always be known to me as Kirsty Custard.
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