VNTHOMAS

The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving by Barbara Minto

Minto is the originator of the MECE principle pronounced "ME-see", a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets that are mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE).

MECE underlies her Minto Pyramid Principle,[3] which suggests that people's ideas should be communicated in a pyramid format in which summary points are derived from a constituent and supporting sub-points:

Grouping together low-level facts they see as similar
Drawing insight from having seen the similarity
Forming a new grouping of related insights, etc.

Minto argues that one "can’t derive an idea from a grouping unless the ideas in the grouping are logically the same, and in a logical order

You can very easily communÏcate to a reader the ideas arranged in a pyramidal form by simply starting at the top and moving down each leg of the pyïamid. The statement of the major ideas causes the reader to question the writer's basis for making the point, and the next level down in the pyramid answers that question. You thèn continue the question/answer dialogue until yûu have communicated all the idεas to the reader.

PART ONE - LOGIC IN WRITING

The mind automatically sorts information into distinctive pyramidal groupings in order to comprehend it.
Any grouping of ideas is easier to comprehend if it arrives presorted into its pyramid.
This suggests that every written document should be deliberately structured to form a pyramid of ideas.

The Magical Number Seven There is a limit to the number of ideas you can comprehend at any one time. It is hard to remember all items in the list:

GRAPES, MILK, POTATOES, EGGS, CARROTS, ORANGES, BUTTER, APPLES, SOUR CREAM. However, it is easier to remember, if it is ordered like a group and now a person needs to remember 3 groups of 3 -4 items per group.

Controlling the sequence in which you present your ideas is the single most important act necessary to clear writing. The clearest sequence is always to give the summarizing idea before you give the individual ideas being summarized.

The clearest written documents will be those that consistently present their inforn1ation from the top down, in a pyramidal structure, even though the original thinking will have been done from the bottom up.

Ideas in writing should always form a pyramid under a single thought

Grouping of sentences into a paragraph that brings or reasons out an idea
Grouping paragraphs into a section that brings out a key idea/key line
Grouping of sections to bring out the main theme (a memo).

They must obey three rules:

1. Ideas at any level in the pyramid must always be summaries of the ideas grouped below them.

2. Ideas in each grouping must always be the same kind of idea.

3. Ideas in each grouping must always be logically ordered.

Essentially it says that there are only four possible logical ways in which to order a set of ideas:

Deductively (major premise, minor premise, conclusion)
Chronologically (first, second, third)
Structurally (Boston, New York, Washington)
Comparatively (first most important, second most important, etc.)

If it was formed by reasoning deductively, the ideas go in argument order;
if by working out cause-and-effect relationships, in time order;
if by commenting on an existing structure, the order dictated by the structure; and
if by categorizing, order of importance.

Sìnce these four activities- reasoning deductively, working out cause-and-effect relationships, dividing a whole into its parts, and categorizing are the only analytical activities the mind can perform, these are the only orders it can impose.

Consequently, you cannot hope just to sit down and start arranging your ideas into a pyramid. You have to discover them first. But the pyramid dictates a set of substructures that can serve to speed the discovery process. These are:

The vertical relationship between points and subpoints
The horizontal relationship within a set of subpoints
The narrative flow of the introduction.

What you put into each box in the pyramid structure is an idea. I define an idea as a statement that raises a question in the reader's mind because you are telling him something he does not know. (primary purpose in communicating / thinking will always be to tell people what they don’t know). You as the writer are now obliged to answer that question horizontally on the line below. In your answer, however, you will still be telling the reader things he does not know. So you will raise further questions that must again be answered on the line below. You will continue to write, raising and answering questions, until you reach a point at which you judge the reader will have no more logical questions.

In deciding what to say on the line below;v, not only must the points you include answer the question raised by the point above, they must also answer it logically That is, they must present a clear inductive or deductive argument, one or the other, but not both at once. These are the only two types of logical relationships possible in a grouping.

Since this history will be in the form of a narrative of events, it should follow the classic narrative pattern of development. That is, it should begin by establishing for the reader the time and place of a Situation. In that situation, something will have occurred (known as the Complication) that caused hirn to raise (or would cause him to raise) the Question to which your document will give him the Answer.

The existence of these three substructures-i.e., the vertical question/answer dialogue, the horizontal deductive or inductive logic, and the narrative introductory flow-helps you discover the ideas you need to build a pyramid. Knowing the vertical relationship, you can determine the kind of message the ideas grouped below must convey (i.e., they must answer the question).

THE TOP-DOWN APPROACH

I. Draw a box. This represents the box at the top of your pyramid. Write down in it the subject you are discussing if you know it. If not, move on to step two.

2. Decide the Question. Visualize your reader. To whom are you writing, and what question do you want to have answered in his mind about the Subject when you have finished writing? State the Question, if you know it, or go on to step four.

3. Write down the Answer; if you know it, or note that you can answer it.

4. Identify the Situation.

5. Develop complication

6. Recheck the QnA

Following are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions from beginning users of the pyramid.

1. Always try top-down first.

2. Use the Situatiol1 as the starting point for thinking through the introduction.

3. Don't omit to think through the introduction.

4. Always put historical chronology in the introduction

The body can contain only ideas (i.e., state1nents that raise a question in the reader's mind because they present hints with new thinking) and ideas can relate to each other only logically. This means that you can talk about events only if you are spelling out cause-and-effect relationships since these had to be discovered through analysis.

5. Limit the introduction to what the reader will agree is true.

6. Given a choice, use induction rather than a deduction to formulate the argument on the Key Line level.

You want to build on the reader's interest in the subject by telling him a story about it. Every good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That is, it establishes a situation, introduces a complication, and offers a resolution. The resolution will always be your major point since you always write either to resolve a problen1 or to answer a question already in the reader's 1nind. Psychologically speaking, of course, this approach enables you to tell him things with which you know he will agree, prior to your telling him things with which he may disagree. Easy reading of agreeable points is apt to render him more receptive

to your ideas than confused plodding through a morass of detaiL

You can work out the ideas from the bottom up by following a 3-step process.

l. List all the points you think you want to make.

2. Work out the relationships between them.

3. Draw conclusions.

Why that order?

The situation-con1plication-solution form of the introduction is essential. Hoverer, the order of the parts can be varied to reflect the tone you want to establish in the document. Following is a basic structure rewritten in four different orders.

Order of SCR can be altered if needed

Standard- Situation-complication-solution

Direct - solution-situation-complication

Concerned - complication-situation-solution.

Aggressive - question-situation-complication

Remember that the Key Line points should be expressed as ideas.

How Long a Story?

How long should an introduction be? How long should a man's legs be? (Long enough to reach the ground.) The introduction should be long enough to ensure that you and the reader are "standing in the same place" before you take him by the hand and lead him through your reasoning.

To emphasize the theory behind writing good introductions:

1.. Introductions are meant to remind rather than to inform. This means that nothing should be included that would have to be proved to the reader for him to accept the statement of your points·-i.e., no exhibits.

2. The introduction should always contain the three elements of a story. These are the Situation, the Complication, and the Solution. The first three elements need not always be placed in classic narrative order, but they do always need to be included, and they should be woven into story form.

3. The length of the introduction depends on the needs of the reader and the demands of the subject.

SOME COMMON PATTERNS

note that you generally tend to ·write to answer only one of four questions.

I. What should we do7

2. How should we/will we/did we do it?

3. Should we do it?

4. Why did it happen?

But let me explain the four patterns I have seen repeated most often in business:

J. Giving direction (What should we do? or How should we do it?)

2. Seeking approval to spend money (Should we do it?)

3. Explaining "How to" (How should we do it?)

4. Choosing among alternatives (What should we do?)

When ask to present alternative 3 options, you state the major reason you selected C and the major reason you dropped both A and B. In some cases, there is no clear alternate option, list each option that prefers alternate objectives (e.g. Option A is good, for steady sales, option b good for quick profits, option c good for labor peace)

Deduction presents a line of reasoning that leads to a "therefore" conclusion, and the point above is a summary of that line of reasoning, resting heavily on the final point. Induction defines a group of facts or ideas to be the same kind of thing, and then makes a statement (or inference) about that sameness. The deductive points derive from each other; the inductive points do not.

The inductive method is easier for the reader. The deductive method is saying/asking why. But the inductive method is saying ‘how’.

Problen1 analysis is always deductive. you will have a set of findings and conclusions to support what is going wrong, and another set to support what is causing it. The only rules to bear in mind in chaining deductive argun1ents are that (a) you cannot have more than four points in a deductive argument, and (b) you cannot chain together more than two "therefore" points.

Inductive reasoning is much more difficult to do well than is deductive reasoning since it is a more creative activity. In inductive reasoning, the mind notices that several different things (ideas, events, facts) are similar in some way, bring them together in a group, and comment on the significance of their similarity.

two major skills one must develop to think creatively in the inductive form:

>Defining the ideas in the grouping

>Identifying the misfits among them.

The key technique is to find one word that describes the kind of idea in your grouping. This word will always be a plural noun (a) because any "kind of" thing will always be a noun, and (b) because you will always have n1ore than one of the "kind of" ideas in your grouping.

Inductive arguments group similar ideas.

In deductive groupings, of course, finding the logical order is no problem, since it is the order imposed by the structure of the argument. In inductive groupings, however, you have a choice of how to order. Thus, you need to know how to make the choice, and how to judge that you have n1ade the right choice.

The mind can perform only three analytical activities of this nature

1. It can determine the causes of an effect.

2. It can divide a whole into its parts

3. It can classify like-things together.

Time order would seem to be the simplest order of all to understand, for it is certainly the most pervasively used as the basis for a grouping of ideas. Actually, I recommend limiting your groupings to no more than four or five points.

( For example, to note that of the Ten commandments are "sins against Cod" and some are Sins against man" communicates an insight

missed by simply displaying a standard list of the Ten.)

With any grouping of inductive ideas that you are reviewing for sense, always begin by running your eye quickly down the list. Do you find an order (time, structure, degree)? If not, can you identify the source of the grouping and thus impose one (process, structure, class)? If you have a long list, can you see similarities that allow you to make sub-groupings, and in1pose an order on those? Once you know a grouping of ideas is valid and complete, you are in a position to draw a logical inference from it.

One of the major values of formally summarizing a grouping is that it inevitably stimulates further thinking. Because once you have derived an insight, you are free intellectually to carry it forward in one of two ways:

> By commenting further on it (deduction)

> By finding others like it (induction)

Creating a Structure

When you divide a whole into its parts-whether it be a physical whole or a conceptual

one-you 1nust 1nake sure that the pieces you produce cHe:

Mutually exclusive of each other
Collectively exhaustive in terms of the whole.

Mutually exclusive means that what goes on in the Tire Division is not duplicated in Housewares, and what goes on in Sports Equipment is distinct from both. In other words, no overlaps. Collectively exhaustive means that what goes on in all three divisions is everything that goes on in the Akron Tire and Rubber company. In other words, nothing is left out.

There are basically three ways to divide the activities of an organization-by the activities themselves, by the location in which the activities take place or by sets of activities directed to a particular product, market, or equipment.

If you divide to emphasize the activities, they reflect a process and thus go in time order.
If you divide to emphasize location, they go in structural order, reflecting the realities of geography
If you divide to emphasize activities relating to a single product/market, you have classified, and thus the ideas go in degree order; by whatever measure you decide is relevant for ranking (e.g., sales, volume, investment size).

The great majority of ideas in business writing are statements of actions ~i.c., statements described by such plural nouns as steps, recommendations, objectives, or changes.

Exhibit 30 shows examples of typically vague wordings, each translated into an end-product statement of what the author actually meant.

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LOGIC IN PROBLEM-SOLVING

Problem-oriented documents generally spring front a desire to answer a variation on one of the three most common questions, depending on what is known in advance by the reader:

I! What should we do? (if the solution is not known)

I! Should we do it? (if a solution has been suggested)

I! How should we do it? I How will you do it? (if the solution is known and accepted).

Problem analysis generally proceeds in a standard way:

from Chapter 6, imposing Logical Order; that there are only three possible ways to structure anything: divide, trace cause and effect, or classify. You use one or more of these techniques in developing a diagnostic framework to get at the likely causes of a problem.

In deciding what to put on individual text slides, you will want to keep these guidelines in mind:

1. Present and support one idea at a time.

2. Use statements, not captions.

Sales outlook VS Sales outlook is favorable.

The latter form leaves no room for the audience to make a wrong assumption about the essence of the point you are making.

:3. Keep the text brief

Try to put no more than about 6 lines or roughly 30 words on a single slide.

4. Use simple words and numbers.

$4.9 million is easier to grasp than £4,876,987

5. Make the type-size readable. The number 32 is a dependable guideline here.

6. Design the slides to be interesting to look at.

7. Use "build" slides to heighten interest.