By Andrew Woods

As a professional speaker and trainer, I never stop learning from other presenters—how they inspire, how they build rapport and trust, and how they deliver the goods in the process.

Interestingly, while charisma, focus and energy are all calling cards of most memorable presentations, the common thread is more stylistic—the use of repetition, parallelism and the Rule of Three.

Herein, repetition is a primary message carrier, parallelism provides balance and clarity, and the Rule of Three pushes us to distill and simplify to ensure retention. The latter is a useful technique for grouping information as a trinity and is prevalent throughout some of history’s most enduring phrases: from Julius Caesar’s ‘Veni, vidi, vici’ to the Olympic motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ to ‘Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.

The Wisdom of Dr. Seuss
From an early age we are introduced to repetition. Who can forget Dr Seuss? Green Eggs and Ham is a brilliant example of repetition and its impact on retention:

“I do not like them in a box. I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there. I do not like them ANYWHERE!”

As anyone who has ever picked up an instrument knows, ‘practice, practice, practice’ really IS everything. ‘Location, location, location’ is impossible NOT to hear when looking for a home—as is sitting down in front of the television for longer than half an hour without seeing the same ads at least twice.

How effective is repetition? Steve Jobs was famous for it. “As you know, we’ve got the iPod, best music player in the world. We’ve got the iPod Nanos, brand new models, colors are back. We’ve got the amazing new iPod Shuffle.” In short, repetition sells.

You Can Say That Again?
The simple reason is that this is how our brain works, how we filter messages and how particular messages stick.  This, of course, has been well understood by marketers of stripe and management at every level for decades now.  While we might have grown more cynical an audience, there is no denying repetition connects with the hardwiring of the human brain—and is arguably essential to ongoing learning and effective communications in the workplace.

With multiple means of communication at our fingertips, the key to effective communications still lies within the content itself—and how it is presented.  The ‘trick’ for leaders lies in applying this truth into the organizational narrative without triggering the cynic’s ‘we’ve heard this before’ reaction. It is one thing to strive for a strong, engaged culture. It is another to develop the language that reflects and projects that culture.

Given the level of information saturation, turning that key requires a twist—something to cut through the chatter, rings true and connects with your audience.  Whether that is an audience of one for a reading of Dr. Seuss, or a far broader organizational structure spread across cities and continents, repetition can both buoy and serve as an anchor for effective communications.

Why Repetition Matters to Leaders
Bob Parker, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers quoted Lao-Tzu when asked about repetition in presentation skills: “When the student is ready, the teacher will come.”

“One can hear a message multiple times, but if they are not ready to hear it because of distraction, the message is not received,” says Parker. “We often have to hear a message in a number of different contexts in order for it to resonate with us. A speaker’s job is to provide multiple examples and even repeat the same message until we are ready to receive it.”

Although most speeches and presentations are planned a great presenter can use repetition in an ad hoc way. American civil rights champion Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963 delivered one of the last century’s most famous speeches. “I have a dream”—four words that have resonated since—were not even in the original script.

History Need Not Repeat: Great Leaders Do
When looking at the great orators of the past century, repetition, parallelism and the Rule of Three have been keystones of leaders of countries and industry alike. Sir Winston Churchill was considered a master in this arena and his WWII speech is held as the highest example of such techniques:

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight in the air, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

However, HR is not seeking words of war, rather those which inspire, engage and, ultimately, affect positive communications throughout the workplace.  While obviously there is a difference between an orator addressing a nation and the daily discourse within an organization, there exists untold potential for more effective communication.

We might just have to repeat ourselves.

Andrew Woods, MBA is a professional speaker, speaking coach, trainer and author of BOOM! Engaging and inspiring employees across cultures. Andrew.woods@lexxon.ca