If you read the previous blog post, then you may remember that while you are communicating your message, whether to one person, a group, or during a presentation, there are four things that need to happen in your audience’s mind: they need to understand, agree, care, and remember. If that happens, you are in the right track to being effective. But there are still a couple of things more that need to happen for your message to achieve the highest level of effectiveness. These need to happen once your communication is finished.
If you did your homework during your preparation then you thought about your intention. What do you want your audience to do, think, or feel? If they do it, think it, or feel it, or put simply when they act on your message, you have reached a high level of effectiveness. Well done! But that is not the highest level yet! Can you guess what else could make your message more effective? When they repeat your message. Can you imagine? Without further effort from your part now your message is being spread by others. That is the highest level of effectiveness in communication one could ever reach. Your message has now wings of its own.
One of the highlights of being a communicator is when someone approaches you one year after you delivered your message and they say “I still remember what you said one year ago. Now when I found myself in this situation I think about what you said and act accordingly. I’ve also told my friends to do the same”. When that happens, that will be the proof that you have achieved the highest level of effectiveness as a communicator. Think about this next time you are preparing to communicate: how can you make your message Repeated?
Make an impact,
Pablo
Originally published in 2012.