How I remember everyone’s first name
This technique has worked very well for me during interactive sessions when I need audience engagement. If you have a quote or other passage that pops up on your screen, don’t read it. Get someone in the group to read it. Here’s the process:
Ask, “I need a volunteer to read this quote.” Pick the volunteer and say, “Before you start, what’s your name? Joan? Great, thanks. Go ahead, Joan.”
Now, I know the quote that Joan is reading like the back of my hand, so while she’s reading, I’m looking at her and repeating her name over and over in my mind. She gets done with the quote and we’re on our way again.
The next time a quote or passage appears in your content, say, “Joan, can you pick someone to read this next slide?” She picks someone, says their name out loud, and we’re on our way again, repeating the same process.
Not only do I learn someone’s name without me asking (Joan volunteered that information to me) but this exercise also provides some group interaction and even some funny moments now and then. I’ve used this method to learn and remember sometimes up to thirty names in a room in short order. As Dale Carnegie famously said, “A person's name is to that person, the sweetest, most important sound in any language.”