Communicate like a consultant: The Rule of Three

Pop-quiz: What do these have in common?

• The three little piggies
• Vini, vidi, vici
• The three branches of government
  

Why is the rule of three so important?

Whether you're telling a story, coining a phrase or explaining how our society works, you'll come across groupings of three. We don't need to get into the psychology of it, but our brains are wired to recognize, enjoy and memorize better information which is presented in groupings of three. Two groups can often feel too rough, and 4 or more groups are usually impossible to memorize.Groups of threes are often the key to make information easily digestible. Keep an eye for the next recruiting presentation or politician speech, and count the number of times they say "There's three factors we need to consider".

How can you use it?

If you ever hear a consultant say "this is such a laundry list of ideas" you know you're in bad sheets (pun intended). Consultants hate long lists without structure almost as much as staying in hotels without a loyalty program.

So if you've come up with multiple ideas, how can you deliver them nicely? Ideally you'll have a fully MECE structure to deploy. However in some cases that's not possible (often due to time pressure). So the rule of three is a nifty trick you can use. You just need to:

1. Review the whole list of topics you want to discuss
2. Group / ungroup your ideas into three logical buckets which are easier to communicate (remember, MECE), and communicate these buckets first (remember, top-down)
3.  Finally, subdivide them down into your actual “raw” topics

A quick example
The problem

Our client is an apparel retailer and needs to improve its value proposition … what can it do?

The laundry list approach

“I see several things we could do. We could lower our prices, we could review the price ladder as to make sure we have the right entry prices, we could introduce new product lines like athleisure, we could remove some product lines like kids wear, we could explore broadening our men's clothing range, we could train our staff better, we could make refurbish the store, we could…”

Tough to remember everything right?

Our case interview method

 Our case interview course has been developed by MBB consultants with clear goals in mind - To teach you how to think, act and communicate like a world-class strategy consultant. By going through it you'll become equipped not only to ace the interview process, but also to be a top performer at your firm.

Other methods focus on helping you memorize dozens of frameworks and pre-packed structures. We take a different approach. We believe that distinctive candidates and distinctive consultants don't rely on crutches and that they use their own minds to solve the toughest problems. We're here to help them master the concepts and processes they need to be able to shine. We can support you in:

1) Understanding business fundamentals: Get your mini-MBA with our Marketing, Strategy and Economics, Accounting & Finance modules

2) Learning how to crack a case:  Identify the problem, Build a problem driven structure, Lead the analysis and how to provide recommendations.

3) Shaping your approach with our building blocks: Master profitability analysis, competitive dynamics, pricing discussions, among others.

Our coaching sessions

Coaching can help the best candidates to pinpoint their development points and turn them into strengths. They will give you self-awareness about your profile and how to best position yourself for that MBB offer. Equally importantly, they will give you the confidence to know you can succeed in such a challenging process.