From the course: Jeff Weiner on Leading like a CEO

Effectively communicating: Repetition

From the course: Jeff Weiner on Leading like a CEO

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Effectively communicating: Repetition

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- Last, certainly not least is repetition. And to repeat myself and to remind everyone, I learned many, many years ago from a guy named David Gergen. He was a White House Communications Director to both a Republican and Democratic administrations, which tells you how incredibly valued he was. He literally wrote the book on how to communicate in that kind of context and about his experiences in the White House. And it was under Reagan to some extent, where he was able to practice some of the things that he had learned through prior administrations and prior work. And regardless of what you think of Reagan politics, one thing a lot of historians would agree on is he's one of the modern era's best presidential communicators, in terms of getting the narrative across to an entire country, and helping to change hearts and change minds. And one of the things David Gergen concluded was you need to repeat yourself over and over again, if you're going to get a message across to big audiences. You need to repeat yourself so often that you get sick of hearing yourself say it. And only then will people begin to internalize it. Think about that. Think about that. You have to repeat a message so often you get sick of hearing it. You're like again? I got to say again, again, again, again? That's when people are beginning to hear you. Why is that the case? Why do you have to repeat yourself so often? I mean intuitively, you're repeating yourself, you're kind of bored of hearing yourself say it again. You're just projecting onto others that they're going to be bored too. Why would they not necessarily be bored? Why is it so important for you to repeat yourself? People see the world through their own lens right? You're speaking, you're saying something repeatedly. You kind of get sick of hearing yourself say it. What's that audience member doing while you're speaking? Daydreaming, on their phone, thinking about what they're going to have for dinner that night. I mean, right? Everyone's got tons of stuff going on. That's why you have to repeat yourself over and over and over again. That's why you can't necessarily rely on yourself as a gauge of is this boring, am I being too repetitious? That's the power of repetition.

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