Are you agile?

Becoming an agile company means first and foremost rethinking the way we operate so that it is refocused on our customers, both internal and external. Externally, to produce maximum value for the customers who make the company money. Internally, to ensure that the company’s employees are in the best position to deliver this value.

It also means setting up a system that is conducive to change, a benevolent environment, a culture of experimentation and tolerance of failure.

Read Séverin Legras‘ article (in French). 

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How can you memorize what you learned much faster thanks to a “Memory Palace”?

One of my favorite hobbies since I was a kid has been to learn languages. I love it! In average, I have studied a new language each year for the past 20+ years. Each time, the goal is to reach a very minimum CEFR level of A2 or even B1 – i.e. the basic level needed to have the beginning of a conversation – so that I can enjoy interacting with people and discover their cultures when I travel around the world. 

All of us can learn languages and even many languages. However, it requires a lot of self-discipline, dedication and even hard work to memorize the hundreds or thousands of words of vocabulary.

Well, this doesn’t sound like good news… however there are some powerful techniques that can make the whole process much faster and much more fun! What if you could replace the effort of memorizing by a bit of creativity, imagination

The good news is that there is a memorizing technique that does precisely this and that can boost results in an impressive way: The “Memory Palace”. 

You might have already heard about it or even practiced it. 

  

So, what is a “Memory Palace”? 

According to Benny from Fluent in 3 Months:

“A Memory Palace is an imaginary construct in your mind that’s based on a real location. If you can see your bedroom in your mind, then you can build a Memory Palace.

Within your Memory Palace, “stations” are locations like a bedroom or sitting room and the space between them is called a “journey”. As you build your Memory Palace, you will leave words and phrases at these stations and then pick them up later on when you take a journey through your palace.

Please don’t rob yourself of this powerful language learning device by saying you’re not a visual person. In whatever way feels natural, just think about where your bedroom is in relation to your kitchen. Consider how you would move from the bedroom to the kitchen. Take note of the doors, hallways and rooms along the way.”

I don’t think that you absolutely have to base your Memory Palace on a real location, but if it helps you, why not. As for me, the most important is that you can easily visualize and “evolve” in it. 

Is this a new method? 

Actually, it dates back to the ancient Romans and Greeks. 

The method of loci (loci being Latin for “places”) is a strategy of memory enhancement which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, or mind palace technique. This method is a mnemonic device adopted in ancient Roman and Greek rhetorical treatises. Many memory contest champions report using this technique to recall faces, digits, and lists of words.

Source: adapted from The method of loci

 

Why does it become even more relevant now?

Each learner needs to build their own “Palace”. For some, it might be easier than for others. Indeed, I have seen that some people need much more time to “build” it. 

However, now, you can help your learners by building such Palace for them, in the Metaverse. You choose a virtual world and create the Palace. Then, they can move around that Palace and get inspired and maybe even build their own! 

Once this is done, learners can project themselves again in the environnement and the associations between the words, vocabulary and the locations in the palace will drastically increase the retention rate.

       

Do you use the Memory Palace or do you have any other ways of remembering a lot of vocabulary?

Please comment below!

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Are you a B1 learner too?

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, abbreviated in English as CEFR or CEF or CEFRL, is a guideline used to describe achievements of learners of foreign languages across Europe and, increasingly, in other countries.

The CEFR is also intended to make it easier for educational institutions and employers to evaluate the language qualifications of candidates to education admission or employment. Its main aim is to provide a method of learning, teaching and assessing that applies to all languages in Europe.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages 

Note: As an avid language learner, I like the A2 or rather B1 levels as they offer a great compromise between the time invested to learn a language and the level of fluency. In short, you can reach the B1 level relatively fast while being able to converse very comfortably in that language. It’s a great example on how to use the Pareto principle for langage learning! 🙂

  

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Agile, Lean, SCRUM?

If you have spent a bit of time with IT developers or project managers, you might have heard of “Agile”, “SCRUM”, “Lean”. These are key concepts and, in our experience, a must for any young and fast-growing company.

Here is an introduction that might interest you: https://www.mitchlacey.com/intro-to-agile/scrum/the-sprint-cycle

 

Here is also an overview of Agile software development principles:
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development)

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development is based on twelve principles:

  1. Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  2. Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.
  3. Deliver working software frequently (weeks rather than months)
  4. Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
  5. Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
  6. Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
  7. Working software is the primary measure of progress
  8. Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
  9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
  10. Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
  11. Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams
  12. Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly

 

Enjoy the reading!

 

 

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