The Pyramid Principle: Present Your Thinking So Clearly That Ideas Jump Off the Page and into the Reader's Mind [Hardcover]

If you have searched on Amazon for "The Pyramid Principle" be aware that there are 2 books:

This one; The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking written in 1985. Pearson published it in 1987, for sale only outside the US. They had first dibs on the second book but turned it down. Then, when the second book became popular, they gussied up the exhibits on the first book and slapped a current date on it. But it is still the 1985 edition.

The one you actually want; The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving. First published in 1996, it is 12 chapters and three appendices vs 9 chapters and 1 appendix and the examples are a bit more up to date.

It wasn't apparent from the information on Amazon that there are 2 versions of the book but having now seen them both I regret purchasing this one (the Pearson / FT Prentice Hall edition). Do yourself a favour and buy the correct version. If you write reports of any kind you'll find it very helpful.

This book was first published in the US in 1987 and then in the UK in 1991. The review that follows is of an edition published in 2002. The title refers to the core concept within the framework Barbara Minto recommends in order to present material "so clearly that the ideas jump off the page and into the reader's mind." The same framework will also guide and inform preparation of presentations to groups. According to Minto, research clearly indicates that "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." In this volume, Minto explains how to structure the provision of material in ways and to the extent that accommodate the structure of how those who receive, absorb, and digest it.

Others have expressed their reactions to this book. Here are two of mine. First, if I understand Minto's thesis (and I may not), the three aforementioned "findings about the way the mind works" seem to refer far more to the subconscious than to the conscious mind. If so, I question how Minto's highly rational approach to writing clear business documents can accommodate the need to communicate effectively in non-verbal ways (e.g. body language and tone of voice). Minto's approach requires completing a rigorous, disciplined, and focused process (a geometric progression, really) that presupposes that the recipient of the given document will absorb and digest (not merely organize) the material in a comparable manner.

My second reaction is that Minto's content is generally quite solid (despite what I view as a few questionable premises) but that her writing style often lacks any "Snap! Crackle! And Pop!" The narrative comes across (at least to me) as resembling instructions in an operations manual for a writing machine. Consider this brief excerpt from Chapter 2:

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

o The vertical relationship between points and subpoints

o The horizontal relationship within a set of subpoints

o The narrative flow of the introduction"

I do not doubt that this approach worked for Minto when she generated and then organized the material for this book about that approach. The question remains, does Minto's presentation of such material engage the reader's heart as well as mind? It seems ironic that she acknowledges the importance of using various elements of "the story" (i.e. characters, situation, plot, conflict, resolution) but only in Chapter 4 when discussing "Fine Points of Introductions." Seldom throughout this book do Minto's ideas "jump off the page and into [her] reader's mind."

My guess (only a guess) is that this book will have the greatest appeal to -- and greatest value for -- those who already think as clearly and precisely as Minto obviously does. They and she would be well-advised to keep in mind, however, that most others do not, especially those who receive a document whose preparation has been guided and informed by The Pyramid Principle.

Minto's book reflects as much the organisation (McKinsey & co.) and industry (management consulting) she comes from, as it does advice on structuring writing and thinking. By that I mean that the writing style propagated is going to be directly applicable to management consulting, accepted well internally (i.e. within consultancies), while clients might continue to cringe at it. Having seen the system from both sides (as a consultant and a client), I can understand how.

The basic premise of the book is to introduce some standard consulting tools for structuring thinking and writing

- the pyramid principle of organising your thoughts and summarising up front (drawing the conclusion for the reader from the start) rather than at the end and presenting directive supporting arguments later;
- the situation, complication resolution (question-answer) structure;
- the MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) way of organising thinking.

All of these are occasionally useful - dealing with relatively straightforward problems in situations with little dynamic complexity, and exclusively for business type writing. While it is the natural inclination of a consultant to be strongly prescriptive (thou shall do this or that) and while inductive reasoning is preferable (as one can hide weak arguments better that way) this is not an approach that will always work with clients (or in a non-consulting corporate environment), and is certainly not something that will help you writing academic publications, or help you in fiction writing at all - in fact one needs to throw all the advice given here overboard before attempting any of these latter two.

In terms of style it is also very strongly reflects Minto's background - strongly prescriptive, not seriously considering any alternatives but hers, sloppy in literature research (taking the most convenient or widely read source, rather than the most profound or the original one) and relatively condescending - if you've ever worked in the industry, there is at least some entertainment value in being reminded of it (if you've just faced it from the receiving end as a client, I am sure it will produce groans).

On a final note, a book on clear writing and organising thinking logically, should read well and the points made should immediately jump out at the reader and stick with him. Here Minto falls short on both counts - having had several years of consulting behind me I still found it very tedious to follow (in spite of knowing the content relatively well) - if not exactly difficult (there is no attempt to make this a research supported scientific treatise), and the lack of chapter summaries at the end (and corresponding blankness on what exactly she was trying to convey in the specific chapter) directly negates the pyramid principle of writing for the application presented - a 'how to' guide.