SCQ Framework^SM

The Minto Pyramid Principle® is the powerful and compelling process for producing everyday business documents – to-the-point memos, clear reports, successful proposals, or dynamic presentations.

Minto Books International, Inc.
19 Cadogan Place
London SW1X 9SA
UK
Tel: +44 (0)207 235 6274
Fax: +44 (0)207 823 1827

The Minto Pyramid Principle® Concept

The Minto Pyramid Principle refers to a process for organizing your thinking so that it jumps easily off the page to lodge in a reader's mind. It notes that people ideally work out their thinking by creating pyramids of ideas:

• Grouping together low-level facts they see as similar

• Drawing an insight from having seen the similarity

• Forming a new grouping of related insights, etc.

Extended thinking eventually ends in a single pyramid of ideas, at many levels, obeying logical rules, and held together by a single thought. Communicating the thinking requires only that you guide the reader down the pyramid.

Because the rules of logic dictate how the ideas in a grouping must relate, both to each other and to the point above, the pyramid structure can act as a guide for working out your thinking. Simply fill in the boxes and make sure the resulting relationships obey the rules. And if you don't yet know what your ideas are, attempting to fill in the boxes will help you to discover them.

The technique applies to every type of document in which your purpose is to offer your thinking to a reader – email, 1-page memo, multi-page report, or formal slide presentation. It works equally for internal or external audiences, and regardless of medium or language. For this reason the Minto Pyramid Principle has become the de facto standard for all major consulting firms and professional organizations.

Barbara Minto holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She personally conducts both single day and 2-day live courses worldwide to groups of 10-14 within a company. The MPP is also available to individuals in textbook form and via self-study, either on video or over the internet.

Please see the options for Course, Textbook, Self-Study, or Online Study.