Imagine if we remembered everything we read or heard. Or just
20 percent more of it. We’d all be geniuses. That is, of course, if we’re disciplined
about our reading and listening habits in the first place.
Leonardo da Vinci knew that memory was central to genius. His
prolific memory was amplified by a profound curiosity, too, as well as a belief
in systems thinking. After all, how else does one rank polymathically among history’s
greatest painters, sculptors, inventors, engineers, architects, writers and
more?
Not only did Leonardo want to learn and experience
everything, he wanted to retain that knowledge, too. For him, memory was a developable
tool fueling an enormous intellectual and creative appetite.
Doris Kearns Goodwin reminds us in her book “Leadership in Turbulent
Times” (2018) that Lincoln understood the enormous power and value of memory,
too. Just as Joe DiMaggio hated it when baseball fans said he made the game
look easy, Lincoln bridled when friends treated his prodigious memory as a gift
or innate quality that came to him naturally.
According to Kearns Goodwin, Lincoln said that “I am slow to
learn … and slow to forget what I have learned.” That’s because he worked hard
at developing memory, seeing it akin to a muscle needing exercise. Kearns
Goodwin describes “the arduous process by which he engraved things into his memory”
using the words of Lincoln’s stepmother. “When he came upon a passage that
struck him, he would write it down on boards and keep it there until he did get
paper,” Lincoln’s stepmom said, “and then he would rewrite it.” The use of
writing, repetition, mnemonic devices and color associations are four of many
proven memory-development techniques.
Memory is an essential component of learning and teaching,
which themselves are inextricably bound to leadership excellence. It’s like
most everything we need to do to develop ourselves as leaders, however. It’s
hard work.
Image courtesy of Psychology Today.