A is the BCA

Success! This year's WorldChanger scholarship winners are returning to their jobs better equipped to change our world. It was a truly a remarkable group that came together at Wizard Academy.

One memorable moment occurred during the Paulo Freire session as I was explaining how:

1. Working memory is short-term and electrical, but
2. Procedural memory is long-term and chemical

when Melissa Blevins, a registered nurse, added a remarkable new finding to the Academy's body of knowledge.

“Roy, you said chemical memory is the product of salience times repetition.”

“Correct. The higher the salience (relevance, impact) the less repetition is required.”

“Have you heard they recently discovered the bio-chemical adhesive that creates these chemical memories?”

My ears perked up like a Chihuahua.

“No, I've not heard.”

“Adrenaline.”

Adrenaline! Of course!

“And the adrenaline doesn't care whether its trigger is positive or negative, it works both ways. Thoughts are more likely to enter long-term memory when adrenaline is present, regardless of whether that adrenaline was triggered by anger, joy or fear.”

Recently I wrote a Monday Morning Memo explaining that an ad which makes a customer angry is still better than an ad that fails to reach their emotions. I always knew this was true. But now I know why.

The adrenaline of emotion is the key to teaching, training, and branding. Involuntary, automatic recall can't be created without it.

Give people joy when you can. Make them curious if possible. But the only thing worse than ads which anger the public are ads that bore them blind.

Thank you, Melissa.

Roy H. Williams

Adrenaline is the Bio-Chemical Adhesive