Want to be a 10x better communicator than 95% of people?

Use McKinsey's 3-step Pyramid Principle:

McKinsey is the most powerful consulting firm on earth.

• $10B in revenue
• 30,000+ employees
• 90+ years of history

This is their 3-step process for structured communication:
1/ Start with the answer first

It's natural to build up to a conclusion after presenting the facts.

Instead, give the answer first.

This allows your listener to quickly process your recommendation.

"What should we do?" → "You should do X."

You'll be more persuasive.
2/ Group and summarise your supporting arguments

Your ideas should form a pyramid under your answer.

Your ideas at one level must be a summary of the ideas below.

For each supporting argument, break down into a group of 3.

Three is the magic number– memorable and persuasive.
3/ Logically order your supporting ideas

You want to make sure your ideas belong together.

1. Time order - follow if there is a sequence of events
2. Structural order - break a single thought into its parts
3. Degree order - present your ideas from most to least important
Key take-aways of the Pyramid Principle:

1. Start with the answer first
2. Group and summarise your supporting arguments
3. Logically order your supporting ideas

Use it in written and verbal communication to persuade others.
Follow me @thealexbanks for more threads to help you in business and life.

If you liked this thread, you'll love the newsletter.

Subscribe here:
https://t.co/vlGCY549bQ
I write threads each week, here's another I think you'll enjoy:
https://t.co/nsgeZptbn7
Help others learn and quote tweet this thread:
https://t.co/KBkNMHovqy

More from Alex Banks

Hard skills get you in.

But soft skills get you far.

10 threads that will accelerate your career:

1/ Who: @RomeenSheth

What: Enter through the side door

Tweet:


2/ Who: @slizagna

What: Resume


3/ Who: @heykahn

What: Soft skill


4/ Who: @SahilBloom

What: Nail the
10 threads that will teach you more about business than any business degree:

1/ Who: @naval

What: Principles to wealth creation

Tweet:


2/ Who: @sweatystartup

What: Actions to wealth creation

Tweet:


3/ Who: @RomeenSheth

What: Early career


4/ Who: @heykahn

What: Career

More from All

You May Also Like

1/ Here’s a list of conversational frameworks I’ve picked up that have been helpful.

Please add your own.

2/ The Magic Question: "What would need to be true for you


3/ On evaluating where someone’s head is at regarding a topic they are being wishy-washy about or delaying.

“Gun to the head—what would you decide now?”

“Fast forward 6 months after your sabbatical--how would you decide: what criteria is most important to you?”

4/ Other Q’s re: decisions:

“Putting aside a list of pros/cons, what’s the *one* reason you’re doing this?” “Why is that the most important reason?”

“What’s end-game here?”

“What does success look like in a world where you pick that path?”

5/ When listening, after empathizing, and wanting to help them make their own decisions without imposing your world view:

“What would the best version of yourself do”?
So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.


The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.

This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.

The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."

This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.