Consistency Cuts Through Clutter

I was talking with my buddy Eliot at church. He’s a middle school principal who used to coach basketball a long time ago. We were talking about how one maintains order among the chaos.

Consistency.

With thousands of people screaming at once, and the band playing, and buzzers and horns and distractions, it might seem impossible that the kids running up and down the floor could respond to his voice, and his alone.

Consistency.

So often we chase the clever in our communications – the witty turn of phrase or the line that will forever touch a heart. But you can’t always assume that your message is the only one in the pipeline at a given time. Television shows have to stand out quickly or become lost before they are found. The competition for eyes and ears provide ample temptation to turn away, whether it is other offerings or other media entirely.

I used to have an old clock radio when I was in junior high. And I do mean old. It was pre-transistor, and would take anywhere from 45-60 seconds to warm up to music after the “ping.” The “ping” was the sound of the gear mechanism ratcheting past the rod which was set at the time I wanted to get up. It was fairly loud, and after a couple of weeks I could wake to the “ping” and finish my morning trip to the bathroom before the song faded in.

Consistency.

Of course, there was a downside. It just so happens that “ping” sounds exactly like a three-ring notebook binder being sprung open. Which meant that in several of my classes, I was prone to an involuntary twitch anytime one of my classmates pulled out a new sheet of loose-leaf paper.

When the players are scrambling on the court amid all the noise, it’s not a fear of the coach that hones their senses. It is the product of consistent messages over time. Eliot told me he worked hard at making sure he said the same things the very same way – which means shouting at practice, by the way. If you’re not screaming to be heard in practice the way you’ll need to during the 4th quarter, how will your kids know it is you?

Consistency is not the mindless programming of a message through repetition. It is not rote memorization. It is not brainwashing. Neither is is boredom. Consistency is the way you brand yourself. It is the way you live up to expectations. It’s about providing a stable baseline so your real advantages and virtues get noticed. Consistency is not the message – it is the way you deliver messages over time – in an unmistakable way – such that your voice sticks out from the din.

Ping.

[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, communication, messaging[/tags]