This is a fact of branding. Smell is the greatest driver of sensory memory. Music is the element that sets mood. I have friends who pretend that music is an inert blank slate. You set some words to some music and there you go. The words are what matters, they say. They are, respectfully speaking, wrong. The particulars of the music have everything to do with two important issues: how well you remember the lyrics (mnemonic), and how you feel about the words (emotional). The first is famously illustrated by the fact that playing the following G, E, C in…

Music is, by definition, the creation and resolution of dissonance. Composers understand this intuitively. The problem is that dissonance is different to different people and at different times. At the most basic level, dissonance is the clashing of overtones as notes are played together, that causes the ear to hear the sound as something that needs to be resolved. Too much clashing, and the listener will find it unmusical. Not enough and he or she will find it bland. Simple, right? Well, no. People become immune to dissonance. So, what you thought was perfectly tasty when you were six becomes…

Spent some good quality time with our friends Jerry and Karen Denny over the weekend. They are a breath of fresh air! Jerry is an expert on a few things. And one of those things is meetings. He is currently a traveling Bible teacher, but in his past life he was a product manager and trainer for a large technology company. So, he has a lot of practical insight. Here are a few things we gleaned from our conversations:1. A meeting needs a purpose. If your meeting has no purpose, you can't know whether you accomplished anything. You can't know…