With an increasing time-strained world, learning to communicate effectively makes you distinct.
Most people do not communicate well because the natural way to communicate differs from the most effective way to share ideas. Let’s explore an example below.
Typical Communication Method
You are talking to someone and they say that they feel like they have no time to themselves anymore. They feel like a failure. Pretty vulnerable conversation. Below is how typically we would walk through that situation if we were a professional diagnosing their problem.
I hear you, that it rough. You aren’t the only one feeling this. Studies show people are increasingly stressed out at work with too much to do. There is a time crunch on everyone. Whether it is working, raising a family, networking, developing new skills, side hustling, handling personal finances, and better navigating the globalized world we live in. There is always more to do and it seems like less and less time for ourselves.
What is worse, is that when we lose time for ourselves, we tend to get irritable with those around us. Hurting ourselves and others in the process. Plus, research out of the University of Texas found that when people get stressed for time for themselves, they demonstrate lower levels of life satisfaction, emotional intelligence, interconnectedness with others, happiness, and curiosity.
When people feel strapped for time and emotionally drained – they tend to blame themselves for this lack of balance. I bet why you are labeling yourself a “failure” is because you are being overly critical of yourself. Even though it is external circumstances that are forcing you into this situation, you take full ownership of this and are beating yourself up even more.
In summary, people are more pressed for time, being strapped for time makes people irritable, and people criticize themselves when they are feeling this way.
To prevent these problems, you need to practice self-compassion.
That took a long time to get to the main point. Studies show that people only listen for 8 seconds at a time. You most likely lost your audience along the way.
A Better Approach for Communicating Effectively
Instead, it would be effective to make your recommendation at the top.
“You need to practice more self-compassion”.
They might either agree with you or offer repute. Which you can retort your points.
- People are increasingly time-strained between working, raising a family, networking, developing new skills, side hustling, handling their finances, and overall navigating the globalized world we live in.
- When you don’t practice self-compassion, you become irritated by those around you. You demonstrate lower levels of life satisfaction, emotional intelligence, interconnectedness with others, happiness, and curiosity.
- The effect of this is you label yourself a “failure” which makes all the other problems worse. It is exactly in a moment like this that you need self-compassion to help carry yourself through these tough times.
Regardless of their initial response, they know these supporting arguments all go to your main-point of “practice more self-compassion.” They do not have to guess or work hard to pay attention to what your main point is.
Why Starting with the Recommendation is Better
Stating the recommendation first has three primary benefits
1. The Recommendation is at the Top
Without having to guess where you are going with your arguments, the listener knows exactly what your recommendation is. On top of that, your proposition takes one sentence to say – stopping the possibility that the listener will tune you out.
2. All the points are Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (or MECE)
When looking at the argument for practicing self-compassion, each point is distinct to stand on its own. Together, all three collectively encapsulate the recommendation. Society is more time stressed than ever, so you aren’t alone feeling this way. When people feel strapped for time, their quality of life goes down. People blame themselves for these feelings. Each point can stand on its own, and together they make up the entire recommendation of practicing self-compassion.
3. Saves Time
What if your listener was thinking the same thing before the conversation and agrees with you? You saved time having to get into all of your points and can work on brainstorming solutions. How is that for effective communication?
Minto Pyramid
To put this method of effective communication into practice, it helps to have a framework. Barbara Minto was a consultant at McKinsey when she developed the Minto Pyramid, also known as the Minto Principle. She developed this method to help frame thinking. In her words, she said
“the problem was the thinking, not the language. People were starting to write without working out their thinking in advance. But how does one go about figuring out one’s thinking in advance?”
Barbara Minto
Hence, the reason the pyramid came about.
How to Use the Minto Pyramid for Effective Communication
When you are going to present an argument, what is the key recommendation? To help frame your argument, ask yourself – if the audience only takes one action away from this message, what would that message be? Forcing yourself to one key-takeaway helps encourage the idea of sticking to effective communication.
Once you have your main point, what are your supporting arguments? Remember, they have to be MECE. They all must be different, stand on their own, but when taken together, lead to a complete picture for your recommendation. To help think of MECE, think of grocery shopping. Each item can be group in categories (dairy, meats, veggies, etc.) and when all taken together, they make up your grocery list.
Then, each point has its data supporting it. These are the facts you have researched to support that main argument. For example, “being strapped for time lowers well-being” is the studies that point to lower life satisfaction, levels of productivity, etc.
The main point of the Minto Pyramid is to align your thinking. What do you want the audience to take away? What arguments can you use to support your stance? When the proposition is framed like this, effective communication ensues because it forces you to tell a story.
A story focused on providing your recommendation that the audience can then apply to whatever the situation is.
Where to use the Minto Pyramid for Effective Communication
Many instances can use effective communication and benefit from this framework. Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to physically fill-out the pyramid for every single example in your life. However, it does help to think of your conversation in this Minto Pyramid flow.
Start with your argument and go from that point. For more involved conversations, like an important presentation at work or negotiating for a raise – it would be helpful to take an hour to frame your argument in this way fully. It will clarify your thinking and help you be surer of what you want to say in these high-stakes situations.
Below are some places where to use the Minto Pyramid structure.
1. BLOT for Email
The Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, found that the average person receives 126 emails every day. Whether it’s to your boss, colleague, partner, or friend – writing a rambling email is a sure-fire way to make sure it isn’t read.
Instead, use BLOT, or Bottom Line on Top. In the first sentence, spell out what the email is for. Sending a report to your boss? “Quarterly revenue is up 17% this year” with further details below. Emailing a friend? “We should get dinner on Jan 6th when you are in town” and follow-up with what you want to talk about.
Framing with BLOT will ensure your emails are understood, read, and answered!
2. Presenting Information
As already discussed, whether for a formal school or work presentation, make your point known up-front. Letting your audience aware of the key-takeaway upfront builds a story and guides them to see your following points as characters that support your overarching objective.
3. Talking with Your Boss & Co-Workers
You run into your boss in the hallway or she calls for an unexpected Zoom call. She asks about the quarterly reports. Tell her the 10 second take-away up top. That might be all she needed, and thanks you for your time. She leaves thinking that you are a rock-star employee for always being on top of your work! If she needs more details, you have the framework to back-up your key finding.
Presenting with effective communication helps your sound more confident, crisp, and professional.
4. Talking with Family
Whether there is an argument, or simply trying to decide where to eat, present your information up-front with your partner and/or family. Let them know your feelings and what you would like.
In a study about parents helping their children with math homework – they found emotions played a huge role in how the homework session turned out. Parents and children who expressed positive interest, humor, and pride demonstrated the child performed better on subsequent tests. Meanwhile, parents and children who experienced tension while working on the problems had the children demonstrating lower performance on subsequent tests.
The main reason for this tension, a lack of communication. It can be difficult to share your emotions, but helping them be known causes empathy in the other person and eases that tension. For instance, let’s say you are helping your son with math. You can start with, “honey, to be honest, I am a little tired from work today so I might not be 100% on math but I will do my best to help you.”
Being open helps the other person know how you are and lets them subconsciously pick up some of the emotional slack to ensure the task gets accomplished.
Need help communicating with loved ones better? Check out this guide on how to have effective communication in your relationships.
5. When Collaborating
Studies have found that effective communication can help make changes in an organization easier. Mainly, because with this style of communication, objectives are laid out in the beginning for everyone to understand and work towards.
When you are collaborating in your day-to-day life, look for how you can lay-out the objectives up-front.
Check out this guide on how to better brainstorm to take your collaboration to the next level!
Main Take-Away
- Using an effective communication framework like the Minto Pyramid frames your thinking to focus on the main point upfront, with supporting facts after. Which helps you present information more effectively and concisely.
Action Item
Make a point to practice the Minto Pyramid for the next week. Re-work your emails and conversations to follow its structure. See how starting at the top and working your way down helps you communicate effectively with those in your life.
