Barbara Minto’s ‘Pyramid Principle’ is a great tool to bring clarity, impact and consistency to your corporate communications—from your most routine business email all the way to your most strategic corporate storytelling.
The pyramid principle has been a cornerstone of organizing information and arguments at McKinsey & ... [+]
The Pyramid Principle was first formalized in 1973 by Barbara Minto, the first woman to make partner at McKinsey & Co. Her seminal book, The Pyramid Principle, became an international best-seller and is still used to train every new recruit at McKinsey—the book has established itself as a “Bible” for many management consultants.
The Pyramid Principle—subtitled “Logic in Writing & Thinking,” has broad implications beyond Communications, as it can be used for all types of complex problem-solving.
Today, we focus on how to use the Pyramid Principle to build a solid “Message House” for Corporate Communications.
First, the Pyramid Principle brings clarity to any message by using a logical problem-solving framework, represented visually in the form of a pyramid. For example, any PowerPoint presentation can easily be re-mapped into a hierarchical framework of key messages, flowing downwards from your SOCO (Single Overriding Communications Objective), which sits at the top of the pyramid.
Below your SOCO at the apex, lay out the next level of your pyramid by placing the next 3 key messages on a horizontal line, like the branches of a family tree. From there, moving down the branches of your pyramid, you may choose to split each of your 3 branches into 2 or 3 sub-branches, if you need to add granularity to your messaging or, better yet, to add supporting examples (always remember: powerful examples are what makes your storytelling memorable).
Using the Pyramid Principle to restructure your messages into a simple visual framework—a Message House—brings more clarity to your overall communication. In turn, clearer communication generates more impact.
How so? Well, one measure of impact is audience responsiveness & appropriation. For example, when using a Message House say to frame a ‘corporate narrative’ that all employees should know and use across an organization, the pyramid-based approach allows each employee to better retain & recite the Group narrative, while also giving each employee the freedom to choose supporting examples in their own areas of expertise. The Pyramid Principle’s visual framework makes the key messages easier to remember, and therefore easier to repurpose in a different context, for a different audience.
The pyramid-based Message House not only works for internal stakeholders such as employees, it’s also equally effective when working with external stakeholders. The modular design of a Message House allows you to reorganize or flesh out sub-branches for the needs of a specific audience (customers, investors, regulators, etc.), while staying true to higher-level, overarching messages.
Finally, beyond clarity and impact, a third important benefit of the pyramid-based approach to messaging is consistency.
In today’s overcrowded media space, the future belongs to companies that know how to “stay on message,” speaking in a single voice to all audiences. Consistency of messaging is the key to credibility (particularly in an era of corporate green-washing regarding Sustainability targets). Inconsistent messaging usually backfires, creating a PR disaster. A simple, clear and visual Message House, based on the Pyramid Principle, is the perfect toolkit to ensure that all corporate spokespeople stay on message—from factory worker to CEO, from PR officer to Investor Relations officer.
PS: The article you just read was created using the pyramid below. There are many mind-mapping apps you can download to create your own pyramid-based Message Houses (e.g. MindManager, MindView, XMind, SimpleMind, Coggle, MindMaster.io to name just a few).
This is the pyramid on which the article "Use the Pyramid Principle" was based. An even more ... [+]
