As the leader of an international organization, Sarah would often find herself in a mess due to her memory.
Names of people, places, and projects were all forgotten the minute they were told to her.

She also had a challenging time understanding abstract concepts.
This would mean her direct reports would always need to show her in real life or clear diagrams instead of just telling her.
There was often confusion, miscommunication, and hurt feelings.

When I first suggested the weak thinking skill and the solution to improve it, Sarah was skeptical. It seemed so far-fetched.
Yet, Sarah trusted the process and today her memory is helping her instead of gettnig in the way

While you are doing any task, you (without even realizing it!) are using your 28 thinking skills.

When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task will be a challenge.

The struggle that Sarag had, came from a weak thinking skill of labeling.
​

Since Sarah lacked the thinking skill of labeling, whenever someone would tell her their name or try to explain something to her, instead of the information going into a set, organized place in her brain, it was like the information was getting dumped in a pile of mush.

There was no way for her brain to find the information in the mess.

Labeling is about calling names, places, items, concepts, ideas etch by their right name.

We need labels to communicate and to organize the information in our brain.

By improving her thinking skill of labeling, her brain could now organize the information and then when she needed it, it would be a lot easier to pull out.

To start off improving labeling, we removed all vague words from her vocabulary.
No this, that, there, instead we use correct labels.
I would literally interrupt Sarah if she used a vague word.
If you can, find yourself a partner to do this with you, it will probably be your fastest way to improve labeling.

I also told Sarah to walk around for 5 minutes a day and label items around her correctly. This simply gets the gears in your brain turning and thinking about the labels around you.

You can also do this with a partner and see who can label more items in a 30-second time frame.

Once you feel good about labeling items, start focusing on the details.
For instance, instead of "tree," note "a tall oak tree with golden leaves changing colors."

Another exercise you can do daily is have someone give you a description and you have to say the label of what it is. “ A tool used to tighten screws” (screwdriver).
Remember, it’s not about trying to think of the coolest items/descriptions.
It’s about giving the item the right label so you improve your thinking skill of labeling, so don’t use hand motions;)