I love little simple techniques than are practical, increase understanding and stick in your mind.

I wrote about one of these in a book review I did on The Power of Positive Deviance by Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin and Monique Sternin. In the book they gave the advice of working with groups; “Let silence speak”. They brought this concept to life by then saying “Pause for twenty seconds after asking a question. That’s long enough to sing happy birthday!”

Practical, simple, actionable and certainly memorable.

I saw another example today in an article in one of Melbourne’s newspapers, The Age.

The story was all about how the actions of a group of quick-thinking shoppers saved the life of a young shop assistant. At about 8:30 last night she collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. It was only through their actions, by getting a defibrillator and performed CPR on her until the ambulance arrived, that she is alive today.
Now, that’s an interesting story in itself, but the bit that I took away and will stay with me is what came next:

Intensive care paramedic Craig Hazelwood said…even if a person did not have first aid training, performing chest compressions on an unconscious person who was not breathing to the beat of the Bee Gees song Stayin’ Alive was the best thing to do.

“We really encourage people to just have a go,” Mr Hazelwood said.
“We really need people in the public to do exactly what we saw tonight…Get in there to the beat of Stayin’ Alive and we’ll see a lot more people stay alive.”

As you read this, just try it. Hum along and mime undertaking chest compression. It makes perfect sense!
Memorable, practical and, for one young lady from Melbourne, life saving.