McKinsey’s Pyramid Principle For Clear Communicating

August 23, 2022

When consulting behemoth, McKinsey, teaches structured communication, they teach it using a 3-step framework called the pyramid principle. 

Say someone asks you a question or for advice. To respond, you:

  1. Start with an answer. Be bold, and be ready to support it. It’s more persuasive and it’ll put the audience into listening mode. 

  2. Group and summarize your supporting arguments. You know, like a pyramid. So any idea represents a summary of a group of information supporting it. Ideally, each idea breaks into 3 ideas, with 3 supporting data points. 

  3. Logically order these supporting ideas. Think in terms of understanding and impact to the person across the table from you. 

There’s a reason it works. Write these down somewhere and give it a try.