Managers prove smarter than most

That was the headline on a page 3 article in today’s Melbourne Age, and as we’re here to run the Australian Memory Championshipover the next two days, it is timely as it again shows that Memory is a great skill with massive value.

The article, which was also published in the Sydney Morning Heraldyesterday, under the more controversial headline ‘It’s true: your boss is smarter than you’, said:

According to research from the University of NSW, managing other people at work triggers structural changes in the brain, protecting its memory and learning centre well into old age.

Researchers have identified a link between managerial experience in a person’s working life and the integrity and larger size of an individual’s hippocampus – the area of the brain responsible for learning and memory – at the age of 80.

So as many have said ‘use it or lose it’, and that is why the development of Memory skills, Speed Reading, Mind Mapping andDeliberate Creative Thinking have been such an important part of what Mindwerx International has been doing for the last thirteen years.

But is it only managers and people in ‘thinking is required’ jobs that can develop their smarts? As one blog comment to the Sydney Morning Herald webpage (see link below) said:

No, it’s just that non-management people work in such mind-numbing roles that managers only appear to be smarter.  ..Spud Murphy | Planet Earth – September 08, 2011, 10:31AM 

Our view of course is absolutely not – anyone can learn thinking skills, such as enhanced memory.  All that is needed is commitment, discipline and lots of practice, which is what we’ll see at the Australian Memory Championship on 10-11 September 2011.

In her Press release Jennifer told the media:

People ask me ‘what’s the point of remembering the order of a shuffled pack of playing cards?’

It has exactly the same relevance as an Olympic athlete running around a 400 metre track.  While they are really just going around in circles, they are testing their own endurance against others, and setting new heights of human achievement for others to aspire to.  That is exactly what Memory Champions do, when they memorize 52 cards in under 30 seconds”.

Memory is a function of the brain most take for granted and few bother to appreciate what an incredible, vital tool memory really is.

So here we are in Melbourne making final preparations for the next two days.  If you want to know more about the Australian Memory Championship read our Press Release and have a look at the Online Videos explaining each of the ten events.

Read the Sydney Morning Herald blog page: http://www.smh.com.au/executive-style/management/its-true-your-boss-is-smarter-than-you-20110908-1jyje.html#ixzz1XPxEwaV8