Brain Traps. Bernd Hufnagl

       PROLOGUE

      Have you ever been reading a book for a while, only to realize that you didn’t have the faintest idea what you had read for the last ten minutes? My guess is that you know exactly what I’m talking about. Or perhaps you have found yourself in the following situation: You’re sitting at the breakfast table reading the newspaper. You read the headline and the first two sentences of an article. Then, all of a sudden, you find yourself in the middle of the next article without knowing how you got there. You continue reading the rest of the newspaper in the same vein, unconsciously scanning and skipping from one article to another. This is referred to as executive reading and for many managers it’s a point of pride that their brain has the capacity to scan innumerable documents and e-mails at an impressive speed. What’s more, they even believe that they are able to fully grasp and retain the main ideas of the articles they have skimmed over. Perhaps it’s possible.

      Another common occurrence, both in the business world and in everyday life, is what is referred to as executive listening. For instance, let’s say a person is carrying