Looking back over my previous posts, what I’m finding is that I’m sort of repeating myself in a lot of ways. Not necessarily by telling the same anecdotes (although that has happened), but realizing that the stories I share all have the same lessons. This led me to realize that there’s probably just a foundational set of maybe 8 to 10 key points that almost all of my leadership and business approach comes from. This is probably why you see so many books like, “The Seven Secrets to Success!” or whatever, is because other people have done the same analysis.

But I don’t want to talk about the points today. I want to talk about the value (or lack thereof) of repeating them. I have come to the conclusion that there IS value in telling the same stories over and over again.

First of all, it’s like that old joke about giving a speech. “Tell them what you are going to say, say it, then tell them what you said.” It is known in speaker circles that repetition of the message is important.

Secondly, there’s the concept of different people learn and retain in different ways. Some people like to read, others like to listen, others like to watch videos. By conveying the same foundational tenets with different anecdotes, it increases the probability that one of the anecdotes will be relatable or understand by the reader.

Lastly, there’s the “5 to 7” rule in memory retention. The idea is that you, as a consumer of content, have to consume something 5 to 7 times to truly retain it. So I will intentionally push for repetition of the key content that I think is important for you to learn.

As a business leader, remember this when communicating with your team. Figure out what the key tenets of your messaging is, then find ways to communicate those in different mediums, working, anecdotes, all of it.