Whenever there’s an issue hindering the business operation or any kind of problem in a workplace, the most likely reason is failure to properly communicate and effectively collaborate. On the other hand, almost every successful company that is thriving and increasing its productivity is able to do so thanks to good communication within the organisation.
So, obviously, clear and effective communication is one of the most significant factors leading to success in the business environment. Nevertheless, accomplishing a satisfactory level of communication efficiency, both internally and externally, can be quite challenging. In the modern work environment, people are usually very busy and deal with packed schedules, meaning that they don’t have time or patience to listen to lengthy and extensive presentations or delve into the mountains of text that often comprise the reports that end up on their tables.
Still, there is often a need to convey a huge amount of essential information. So, you may face the challenge of delivering this information, without omitting any vital points and, at the same time, avoid overwhelming the listener.
These types of situations are frequent in the contemporary business environment and learning how to manage them and express your message clearly and concisely can often mean the difference between success and failure. For example, it’s not rare that you work for months on a developing certain project or solving a particular problem and only have 10 or 20 minutes to present your report to executives or clients.
This is why the ability to efficiently communicate is an essential business skill. Learning how to properly structure your message will help you get it across clearly and quickly. One of the best ways to make sure that the information you’re trying to convey is well-organised and concise, but still features a logical and compelling narrative, is to implement the Minto Pyramid Principle.
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What is the Minto Pyramid Principle?
The Minto Pyramid principle is an effective tool used to quickly and clearly communicate complex issues. The Pyramid Principle was first developed back in the 70s by Barbara Minto
, a former employee at the McKinsey consulting firm, which is why this technique is sometimes referred to as McKinsey’s Pyramid Principle. Minto summed up her thinking and explained the framework for writing and presenting ideas in her book “The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving.”
According to Minto, our mind is wired in a way that sorts all the information into separate pyramidal groupings. Her principle employs this same logic, allowing you to express your thinking in a better and more accessible manner. When structured this way, the ideas will easily click with the audience and maintain their interest.
The main purpose of the Barbara Minto Pyramid Principle is to gain your audience’s attention and keep the listeners engaged. This is done by focusing on the main actionable points and backing them up with detailed arguments and underlying data. Using this technique allows you to cut right to the chase and prevent situations where your audience’s patience is wearing thin.
The message is conveyed by getting straight to the point using an engaging story that is easy to understand and remember. After the initial thesis is introduced, allowing you to captivate the attention, the Minto Pyramid Principle is employed to structure your arguments and elaborate on key points.
This means that each piece of available information is subsequently broken down into specific details, explaining the key issue in a clear and structured way. Starting with the answer and communicating the summary point, allows the time for the listener to absorb the takeaway message and easily understand the supporting arguments that come later.
For some people, the Pyramid Principle may seem counterintuitive, as it reverses the usual flow of information, where the main point is only expressed after all the supporting arguments have been explained. However, when communicating more complex messages, this typical structure will likely result in losing the audience’s attention, before even getting to the key issue.
How Does the Minto Pyramid Principle Work?
The Pyramid Principle method is comprised of three levels and it’s implemented by going through these three levels, from top to bottom. At the top of the pyramid is a concise and clear key message.
Below are the sorted supporting arguments, while the underlying data behind those arguments is at the bottom. Below is a more detailed look at each of the three levels and an explanation of how to work through them.
Lead with an Answer
The most efficient way to start communicating the message is to lead off with an answer, instead of an argument, as the answer is what the audience cares about the most.
The answer, or the key point, should represent the core message you’re trying to convey and needs to be concise and to the point.
It should cover the setting or the situation in which the key problem arises, an explanation of the factors causing the conflict or the opportunity, the question that extends from the issue at hand, and the recommendation on the best potential solution. So, basically, the first level of the pyramid should follow the classic story structure: Situation-Complication-Resolution.
Starting from the top provides several advantages in your effort to communicate with an audience. Firstly, it maximises the available time to convey your message. As the audience is likely to be busy and short on time, if you don’t get straight to the point, they may start to lose patience. So, to make the most of the opportunity, the recommendation or the most important point of your message should come first.
Also, your audience, at least in the business environment, will involve clients or executives who are mostly concerned with the big picture and are not particularly interested in nuanced details. By leading off with an answer, you will fit into the mental model of your audience and provide them with an opportunity to quickly and easily process your recommendation.
Provide Summarised Supporting Arguments
After laying out the answer, this key point should be followed by rationale in the form of supporting arguments.
Arguments should be grouped, sorted, and summarised in a logical sequence as that will make both them and the key point more effective and memorable.
As Barbara Minot explains in her breakdown of the Pyramid Principle, the ideas should always be laid out in a form of a pyramid below a single thought. This means that each of the arguments you present should have its own mini-pyramid structure, featuring the answer, supporting arguments, and data.
To keep the whole concept effective and ensure that the message isn’t too convoluted, A general rule is that every single thought should be backed by three supporting arguments, to keep the whole concept effective and ensure that the message isn’t too convoluted.
If your arguments are left disorganised and unstructured, the audience will likely have trouble making sense of them. And, if they can’t understand the arguments, they’re not likely to accept the key idea of your message.
Therefore, your supporting arguments should be organised into sensible groupings, summarising the points that have the same implications. To further improve the understanding of our arguments, it’s recommended that you sequence them in order that should reflect the logic behind them.
This can be done in a couple of ways. You can sequence the arguments by significance (from the most to least important), chronologically (detailing which step comes first), or structurally (if the arguments are a part of a whole).
Support Key Points and Arguments with Data
For your key points to be taken seriously, they must be credible. The credibility of your core message is best provided by supporting it with evidence, facts, numbers, and results. This makes sure that the arguments in the middle level of the Minto Pyramid Principle, as well as the key communication point, can’t be disputed and validates them with the empirical data.
The bottom of the pyramid is the part where you can allow yourself to be a bit less concise and really go into the details. Chances are that some of the audience won’t even get to that part, but it’s still important, as the validation of your core message and is necessary for the proposed recommendation solution to be accepted and acted on.
In some cases, if the audience understands the issue well enough or if the arguments provide enough evidence to support the key point on their own, you can skip this part and still communicate a clear and effective message.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Minto Pyramid Principle
The Barbara Minto Pyramid Principle as a method of communicating your message has plenty of advantages, but also a couple of drawbacks.
Advantages
- Allows you to get straight to the point and capture the audience’s attention
- Provides flexibility, as even if you don’t get to go through the entire reasoning, you’ll still get all the key arguments across
- Can be used as a diagnostic (problem solving
) technique to validate and check all your ideas and arguments and ensure that they are complete, logical, and don’t overlap - The entire process is easy to follow and logical
Disadvantages
- Creating a Minto Pyramid based on complex data sets can be time-consuming, and requires a lot of discipline and working through trial-and-error
- Faulty data at the bottom of the pyramid may result in perfectly logical, but incorrect conclusions