The Power of Repetition

Yesterday I told a story about innovation during Sprout ChallengerDay. It wasn’t a new story. Normally I try to come up with a few new stories for each presentation. But this time I relied on an old anecdote I thought was appropriate for the occasion.

The story I told is a story I blogged about before on this blog and a perfect example of how big companies THINK they work and how they actually work in reality. Check it out if you want to know what I talked about:

http://bomega.com/2007/06/09/big-companies-vs-small-companies-on-innovation/

After my presentation I was talking with another speaker about his performance. He said:

‘I should really update that one part of my presentation because I have been using it for a while now and I’m afraid people know about it”

I told him not to worry about it.

Everybody knows the power of repetition and it also works for presentations. If you tell a good story that some people already know they won’t be disappointed! They will be proud that they already heard and and glad that they can hear it again. Its similar to the situation of a few guys standing around where one tells a joke. One of the guys listening will say ‘Oh I know this one, this is great’ and he will be grinning as the joke is told, enjoying the fact that he knows where it is going, and feeling smug about it.

In fact, he will be the one most likely to laugh the hardest.

So, don’t be afraid of repeating yourself. Often people didn’t really take in the information you presented the first time you presented it to them. I have one more example to illustrate my point: Yesterday I told a story about innovation during Sprout ChallengerDay. It wasn’t a new story. Normally I try to come up with a few new stories for each presentation. But this time I relied on an old anecdote I thought was appropriate for the occasion.

The story I told is a story I blogged about before on this blog and a perfect example of how big companies THINK they work and how they actually work in reality.

After my presentation I was talking with another speaker about his performance. He said ‘I should really update this part of my presentation because I have been using it for a while now and I’m afraid people know about it’. I told him not to worry about it.

Everybody knows the power of repetition and it also works for presentations. If you tell a good story that some people already know they won’t be disappointed! They will be proud that they already heard and and glad that they can hear it again. Its similar to the situation of a few guys standing around where one tells a joke. One of the guys listening will say ‘Oh I know this one, this is great’ and he will be grinning as the joke is told enjoying the fact that he knows where it is going and feeling smug because he knows how it will end. In fact, he will be the one most likely to laugh the hardest.

So, as I have said before, don’t be afraid of repeating yourself!

If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thank you for visiting and I am looking forward to hearing your comments!

Want to ask me a personal question? Contact me at boris@bomega.com

 Subscribe to my Feed!