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Minto Pyramid Principle: Session 5 Sanket Sunand Dash

The document discusses the Minto Pyramid Principle for effectively structuring written communication. It explains that the Minto Pyramid aims to help clients assimilate insights by minimizing their information processing requirements. Key points include: placing the bottom line at the top; tailoring the pyramid to the audience; and remembering the magic number 7 for how many items the average human can hold in their working memory. Ideas should be logically grouped into pyramids using deductive, chronological, structural, or comparative ordering. The document provides examples and tips for applying the Minto Pyramid, such as always trying a top-down structure first.

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Siddhika Kamble
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102 views

Minto Pyramid Principle: Session 5 Sanket Sunand Dash

The document discusses the Minto Pyramid Principle for effectively structuring written communication. It explains that the Minto Pyramid aims to help clients assimilate insights by minimizing their information processing requirements. Key points include: placing the bottom line at the top; tailoring the pyramid to the audience; and remembering the magic number 7 for how many items the average human can hold in their working memory. Ideas should be logically grouped into pyramids using deductive, chronological, structural, or comparative ordering. The document provides examples and tips for applying the Minto Pyramid, such as always trying a top-down structure first.

Uploaded by

Siddhika Kamble
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MINTO PYRAMID

PRINCIPLE
Session 5
Sanket Sunand Dash
Summary of Session 2
• Design an issue tree for controlling your personal expenses
• Expenses = No. of items * Qty of Items * Price per item
• Issue 1: Reduce no. of items to be purchased
• Issue 2: Reduce quantity of purchase
• Issue 3: Reduce price per unit
• Issue 4: Make units of consumption last longer
Objectives
 Understanding the principles behind Minto Pyramid Principle
 Applying the Minto Pyramid Principle in the case on InterfaceRAISE
Consulting.

3
Communication
 What is the objective of communication by consultants?
 Helping clients assimilate insights and recommendations effectively while
minimizing their information processing requirements
 Minto Pyramid aims to achieve the same purpose
Assumptions Behind Minto Pyramid
Human mind tends
Humans comprehend
to group
content objects
better when it is
presented as a pyramid
into pyramids

Eff
ec
tiv
e
Wr
iti
ng
sh
ou
ld
gr
ou
p
ide
as
int
o
py
ra
mi
ds
Key Points for Ordering Content
 Put the bottom line at the top
 The key line summarizes your understanding of the situation and gives
actionable suggestions
 Tailor the pyramid to the requirements of the audience
 Remember the magic number 7
 Average human mind can hold only 7 items in its short-term working memory
 An idea is defined as a statement that raises a question in the
reader's mind because it presents him/her new information
How to Group Ideas
 Ideas at any level must be summaries of ideas below them
 Ideas in each grouping must be of same kind
 Can they be expressed using a plural noun
 Ideas is each grouping must be logically ordered
Ways to Logically Order Ideas
 Mind performs four types of analytical activities:
 Reasoning deductively
 Working out cause-and-effect relationships
 Dividing a whole into its parts
 Categorizing
 Therefore ideas can be logically ordered in only four ways:
 Deductively
 Chronologically
 Structurally
 Comparatively
Analyzing Content: Substructures of Pyramid
 Vertical relationship between point and sub-points
 Sub-points answer questions raised by the immediately higher-level point
 Horizontal relationships between sub-points
 They answer the question raised by the point in an logical manner
 Logical manners implies deductive method or inductive method
 Narrative flow of introduction
 Readers read documents to seek answers to question(s)
 Introduces the Situation, Complication and Question
Source: The Pyramid
Principle by Barbara
Minto (pg. 19)
Source: The Pyramid
Principle by Barbara
Minto (pg. 20)
Analyzing a Case
Situation

Complication

Question

Solution

Assumption

Justification

Limitation
Structure of the Minto Pyramid

Source: The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking (pg. 26)
Structure of the Minto Pyramid

Source: The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking (pg. 29)
Homework
 Analyze the InterfaceRAISE case using the SCQA framework with
rationale
 Based on the Issue Tree prepare a Minto Pyramid to present your
recommendations
Tips for Beginners
 Always try top-down first
 Use situation as the starting point for thinking through the
introduction
 Don’t omit to think through the introduction
 Put historical chronology in the introduction
 Limit the introduction to what the reader would agree
 Support all key lines
APPENDIX
Reasoning Methods: Deductive
 All statements have a subject and a predicate
 Arguments have following form
 Major premise: Shared predicate with conclusion
 Minor premise: Shared subject with conclusion
 Conclusion: Outcome of argument (higher-level point)
 Example
 Major premise: All IIM Rohtak students are intelligent
 Minor premise: X is a student of IIM Rohtak
 Conclusion: X is intelligent
Reasoning Methods: Inductive
 Inductive is a bottom-up approach while deductive is a top-down
approach
 Ideas can be grouped together inductively if they can be described
by a common plural noun
 Example
 Premise 1: Lion, a member of cat family, is a carnivore
 Premise 2: Tiger, a member of cat family, is a carnivore
 Premise 3: Leopard, a member of cat family, is a carnivore
 Conclusion: Members of the cat family are carnivores (Higher-level point)
Thank You

Course Name || Indian Institute of Management Rohtak 20

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