Do you remember the movie “The Silence of the Lambs”? If so, which character do you remember most? Could it be Clarice Starling or Dr. Hannibal Lecter? If so, you are in good company. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins won Academy Awards for their portrayals of these two key characters. You probably wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Jodie Foster’s character has the most screen time in the movie.
What might surprise you is that Hopkins only had about sixteen minutes of screen time in the nearly two-hour movie. He set a record for the shortest role ever to receive the best actor award. Yet, his character dominates our memories of the movie.
How could Anthony Hopkins leave such a memorable impression in just sixteen minutes? It’s simple, our brains often confuse intensity or novelty with prominence. We tend to over emphasize things that catch our attention.
So how does that translate outside of our movie-going experience? Often it translates to where and how we focus our attention.
I remember once hearing about a major, systemic problem at one organization. Everyone had their own story about how this particular problem created havoc for the organization and its customers. After some digging, we were able to trace every person’s story to the same, single incident that occurred several years prior. It wasn’t a systemic problem after all. It turned out to be an anomaly that was burned into the collective psyche of the organization.
We can learn two critical lessons from Hannibal Lecter’s influence on our memories. First, don’t trust your memory or even the collective memory of the organization. Before committing to solving a major problem, make sure that the problem actually exists in the way that everyone recalls it. Second, make every interaction, whether with employees or customers, count. It only took sixteen minutes (13% of the entire movie) for Hannibal Lecter to etch himself into our minds as the greatest villain of all time (according to the American Film Institute). Just think what one bad interaction can do for your or your company’s reputation.
Incidentally, did the title of this entry seem a bit off? Don’t you remember him saying, “Hello Clarice”? That’s another problem with our memories. Sometimes our brain alters our memories based on what it expected rather than what actually occurred. Since most of us tend to greet people with “Hello” rather than “Good evening”, our brains tend to modify the memory. That’s why sometimes your memory of what was said during a meeting, might not match what others recall. It could be that you are remembering what you intended to say. Or, perhaps everyone else is remembering what they expected to hear. That’s why it is so important to follow up and recap meetings and conversations.
Our brains aren’t optimized to reflect reality. They are optimized to keep us alive. That often means that they alter our memories to create emphasis. Forty-thousand years ago that was probably good for a hunter and gatherer trying to navigate life on the savanna. For people trying to navigate organizational life in the 21st century, it sometimes creates problems.
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Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com.
