“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” – Zig Ziglar
When I was growing up, I was a very competitive dude, particularly in sports. When it came to sports, for me, winning was everything. Basically, I was an asshole. Many of my friends and foes called me by a different name. What’s the name they used? Oh yeah, a cunt. It’s OK, it was the truth and they often called me that to my face.
Here’s a story, from high school, that helps confirm my then status.
In the basement of our school, down near the gym, there was a ping pong table. And, during lunch and breaks, students would play. The rule was simple: the winner stays on the table, until someone beats them, and then they take over. So, a very good player could play for quite a while.
One day, me and my pals sauntered down and watched as a girl named Dana beat all comers. Then, at the insistence of my mates, it was my turn to challenge her. She crushed me. My buddies, of course, knowing how competitive I was, absolutely shamed me that day and for many weeks after.
So, what did I do?
I did what any red-blooded, super competitive dude would do. I bought my own racket and a ping pong table. I was determined to win.
Ping pong tables fold in the middle where the net is so that, when folded, the other side of the table is upright. It allows a single player to hit the ball, over the net, against the other side of the table and it pretty much guarantees that the ball will be returned. So, I set up the folded table in my parents’ basement and, every chance I got, would go down and pound balls against the returning wall.
Over and over. Harder and faster. Learning how to put overspin on both a forehand and backhand. Learning how to smash and return a smash. Repetition after repetition – for hours and days on end.
I would soon get to challenge Dana again. And, with my buddies watching, I would demolish her and would become not only the ping pong champion of my school, but also the best high school player in the county.
The moral of this true story isn’t to confirm that I was an asshole. The moral of the story is highlighting the importance of repetition.
There’s an old Latin saying, “repetito est mater studiorum” which means repetition is the mother of learning.
When it comes to instilling new ways of working, turns out repetition really is the mother of learning.
Implementing a new planning approach like Flowcasting in retail benefits greatly from repetition. You’re essentially teaching the planners and the wider organization (including suppliers) how to think differently about integrated demand and supply planning, so the more often people are exposed to the idea, the better.
I recently read a great book about change called The Human Element. In it they outline one of the most important strategies for instilling change is to “Acclimate the Idea” through repetition and repeated exposure (i.e., give people time to think and internalize the idea/change)
In a recent implementation of Flowcasting, the idea of repetition was leveraged extensively to help people make the change journey, including:
- An ongoing education program which started with a cascade from the CEO and delivered repeated educational sessions to help people internalize the change in thinking and underlying principles of the new process
- Process prototypes where the Buying Teams (Merch and Supply Chain) would execute a day in the life scenario, with company-specific data for every major planning scenario – like product life cycle, promotions planning, seasonal planning, etc.
- A supplier education & training program to teach suppliers and the Buying Teams the new approach to collaboration
- Training sessions to demonstrate how people would execute the new ways of working
- Coaching sessions and ongoing coaching with job aides to help people transition from the old to the new
What do all these activities do?
They constantly repeat and demonstrate to people the underlying change and principles of the new process. As an example, in each of the process prototypes, the Buying Teams could see what was meant by a valid simulation of reality, what the supplier would see in their supplier schedules, why postponing creating a purchase order for promotional volume was better for everyone, plus many other learnings. Repetition, with real scenarios, helped them instill new thinking and helped acclimate the ideas.
Getting good at anything (Flowcasting or ping pong) requires learning. And learning needs repetition.
After all, she really is the mother of learning.