“People like it when you repeat things.”

That’s a funny phrase, isn’t it? But it’s funny because it’s true.

You don’t often think about people liking repetition, because we think of repetition as boring and tedious. After reading that phrase that challenged my intuition, I realized that it’s right in many circumstances. Particularly in communication.

I might rephrase it to say that people appreciate repetition, though. And they appreciate the repetition of ideas, not necessarily strict repetition of a message again and again.

When you put your message forth several times, using different words and phrases, talking about the idea behind it from different angles, abstracting it in different ways, and using different mediums, it works. So the people who want to get your message, who want to understand your idea, appreciate all that effort.

Want to take it to the next level? Take that repetition and turn it into a two-way conversation. A conversation that continues in many iterations over time. Not only does that add to the power of repetition, but the learning becomes bi-directional and magnifies immensely.

Photo credit: Charles Collier