Thursday's Magic Trick

This is a modified version of the magic trick I did during my November 5, 1998 Placeware presentation about Interactive Training across the Internet. Try it. You'll impress your friends and family.

It's Magic!

Here's a list of 10 corporate training topics.

0. Organizational Transformation
1. Stress Management
2. Project Management
3. Creativity
4. Decision-Making
5. Delegation
6. Professional Ethics
7. Leadership Skills
8. Listening Skills
9. Change Management

To perform a magic trick with this list, these are the instructions you should give your innocent spectator:

I want to test your knowledge of one of these topics. Let's choose a topic completely at random. To do this, grab a piece of paper and a pencil and follow these instructions:

1. Write down the last two digits of your year of birth.

Example: John, your spectator, was born on November 6, 1928. So he writes down 28.

2. Reverse the digits in this number and write the resulting four-digit number.

Example: John reverses 28 and writes 82.

3. Find the difference between the two numbers by subtracting the smaller number from the bigger one.

Example: John subtracts 28 from 82 and gets 54.

4. Add the digits in the answer. Repeat this process until you end up with a single-digit number.

Example: John adds the two digits (5+4) and gets 9.

5. Look up the training topic listed at this number.

Example: John finds Change Management as the topic at number 9.

If your spectator follows the instructions, she will always end up with a 0 or a 9. So the corresponding topics will be Organizational Transformation or Change Management (which are the same thing for our purposes).

The rest is pure patter. Here's one suggested script:

Please think about this training topic. Visualize details of this topic.

Let me try to read your mind. The topic you selected is a complex one. It is associated with chaos, anxiety, and resistance. It is a process that makes people worry about what will happen to them. People miss the safety and security of status quo. They are skeptical and resistive.

I see you working as a team facilitator, reassuring the group. You explain to them that the only constant thing in the organization is change. You make the team members feel that change is good. You do this by pointing out the benefits of planned change and explaining how this type of change does not have to disrupt people's lives. Inspired by your message, the team is ready to embrace the change.

I don't know exactly what topic you chose, but these vibrations and images seem to go with your topic.

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