Pyramid Principle 101

PYRAMID PRINCIPLE 101

When I joined McKinsey in Hong Kong, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I knew little about management consulting but thought the whole idea was fascinating.

After 3 years on staff and 15 years freelancing to coach and train consultants globally, what were my takeaways?

I got to work on challenging projects with a wonderfully eclectic and smart group, sure.

But the most impactful thing was to learn how to structure my thinking. This helped me to…

  • Clarify complex ideas when solving problems and communicating
  • Communicate stories that resonate from the shop floor to the C-suite
  • Collaborate constructively to shape up my messaging without playing red pen ping pong with stakeholders

I’d love to share the basics with you too.

Watch the free Pyramid Principle 101 Workshop recording — a 30-minute introduction to the structured thinking techniques I learned at McKinsey, and have since taught to leaders at Meta, KPMG, and 7Eleven.

It's a useful refresh for those who know a little about it, and a solid grounding for those who don't.

Davina

P.S. In the world of AI-driven comms, learning to structure your thinking is essential. After all, how do you evaluate what CoPilot has written?

 

Whenever you're ready, here are five other ways I can help you:

 

Elevate, the book – helps leaders set their teams up to set up a new dynamic across their team that will elevate everyone’s skills, helping the team get better, faster decisions.

Engage, the book – helps individual contributors prepare papers and presentations that leaders can approve without reworking.

Engage, the self-paced course  – supports both individuals and leaders prepare more insightful papers and presentations for senior leaders and boards.

Extreme Clarity, the 2-hour workshop – introduces techniques for structuring your messaging.

Board Paper Bootcamp, the 2-week program – helps you clarify and convey complex ideas to senior leaders and boards.

 

WANT TO LISTEN?

  1. Risk Management = Change Management
  2. Richard Medcalf – Making Time for Strategy
  3. Baking Learning & Growth into BAU
  4. Helping Leaders ‘shift testing left' to derisk projects
  5. A Case Study in Digitial Transformation
  6. How to help a senior leader come back from a misstep
  7. How to hit the ground running in a big new role
  8. How to communicate during great change
  9. How to turbo charge your transformation

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ABOUT AUTHOR: DAVINA STANLEY

I love what I do.

I help senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time.

This involves 'nailing' the message that will quickly engage decision makers in the required outcome.

I leverage 25+ years' experience including

  • learning structured thinking techniques at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the mid 1990s before coaching and training their teams globally as a freelancer for a further 15 years
  • being approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009
  • helping CEOs, C-suite leaders and their reports deeply understand their stakeholder needs and communicate accordingly
  • seeing leaders cut the number of times they review major papers by ~30% and teams cut the amount of time they take to prepare major papers by ~20%*
  • watching senior meetings focus on substantive discussions and better decisions rather than trying to clarify the issue

My approach helps anyone who needs to engage senior leaders and Boards.

Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, Woolworths.

Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com

 

(*) Numbers are based on 2023 client benchmarking results.