communicate better! - powerful problem...

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COMMUNICATE BETTER!(USING LOGIC)

July 2010 (Revised)© Copyright, Arnaud Chevallier. All rights reserved.

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1Friday, December 10, 2010

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So, you have something to say

Cartoons are from Cartoonbank.com

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http://doiop.com/solving



... but you don’t know how to say it

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Cartoons are from Cartoonbank.com





Using logic can help you improve your thinking and communication

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This presentation shows how to use logic to improve your thinking and communication

Introduce optimally

Include the right

informationTell a story

Choose the order of

components

Use pyramids

Use the right

sequence

Relate each idea w/ others

Optimize w/ additional

tips

Use logic to improve your thinking and communication

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: 39Download this presentation at http://powerful-problem-solving.com 6

Introduce optimally

Include the right


Choose the order of

components

Use pyramids

Use the right

sequence



tips






Primary idea

Primary supporting ideas

Introduction

Supporting data

Effective communications are pyramidal

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Must be a story!

The introduction is a story that takes your audience from what they know to what you want them to know

WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE

KNOWSINTRODUCTION

WHAT YOU WANT YOUR AUDIENCE

TO KNOW

Cartoon is from Cartoonbank.com

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Every introduction has a situation, a {complication/problem} and a {key question/answer}

And/or

Situation

Complication

Key question

Answer

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The situation is a declaration that you know that your audience agrees with

Establishes time and place

Generates the reaction: “I agree, but so what?” / “Why are you telling me this?”

Contains only the elements critical for understanding this problem

Is self-sufficient: it can be understood without additional information

Is no controversial: your audience has to agree with it

Situation

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The complication builds on the situation to lead to one question: the one that your

communication will solve

Complication Complements the situation with the explicit statement of a problem

By the end of the complication, you must have introduced all the relevant elements for your audience to understand your problem

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The key question and/or answer is the central idea of your communication: the top of your

pyramid

Answer

Situation

Complication

Key question

Introduction

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Sometimes it is convenient to combine the key question and the answer in a single element

Answer

Situation

Complication

Key question

Key question / Answer

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You can modify the order of elements to produce specific effects

Standard (S-C-KQ)

Direct (KQ-S-C)

Preoccupied (C-KQ-S)

Situation

Complication

Key question / Answer

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: 39Download this presentation at http://powerful-problem-solving.com 15

Introduce optimally

Include the right


Choose the order of

components

Use pyramids

Use the right

sequence



tips






The most important factor to ensure that your message is clear is to present your ideas in the

the right sequence

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Let’s look at an example. Consider receiving the

following card

Dear Chivis,

Do you remember, last Saturday afternoon, when I was playing with my boyfriend and you came? Well, he said that, when I turned around, you gave him a kiss.And Sunday, when you came to my house and my mom prepared a tuna fish salad, and you said: “Yuk, that’s the worst salad I’ve ever had!”?

And yesterday, when my cat got tangled in your legs and you kicked her and threatened to attack her with your dog “Brutus”?Well, for these reasons I hate you and I don’t want to be your friend.

Lucy

Example from Zelazny, Say it with Presentations

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Wouldn’t it be clearer if Lucy had put the central idea first?

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Dear Chivis,

¿Recuerdas que el sábado pasado por la tarde cuando estaba jugando en el parque con mi novio y tú llegaste, él me dijo que cuando les di la espalda, lo besaste?¿Y que el domingo, cuando viniste a mi casa y mi mamá te preparó ensalada de atún para almorzar y dijiste: “¡Fuchi! ¡Es la peor ensalada que he comido!”?¿Y que ayer, cuando mi gata se restregó en tu pierna, la pateaste y amenazaste atacarla con tu perro “Titán”?Bien, por todas estas razones, te odio, y ya no quiero ser tu amiga.

Lucy

Dear Chivis,

I hate you. Here is why:

1. You stole my boyfriend2. You insulted my mom3. You scared my cat

Lucy

Main idea

Supporting arguments

Example from Zelazny, Say it with Presentations




Lucy hates me

I stole her boyfriend

I insulted her mom

I scared her cat


The second card is clearer because it establishes a dialogue with the reader...

Why?

Etc.

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Why did Lucy write me this

card?

Why?





... and she doesn’t have to guess Lucy’s point: she knows from the start and can relate each new element to the original idea

Lucy hates me

I stole her boyfriend

I insulted her mom

I scared her cat

Ok, but does it makes sense?

Ok, so what do I reply?

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Why did Lucy write me this

card?

Chivis may or may not agree with Lucy’s message, but she understands what it is





The main ideas that support your central idea

The central idea of your message

So it is useful to first present your summary idea and then build a supporting pyramid below

1.

The information that supports each idea

2.

3.

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In a presentation, the title and the index are the parts of the pyramid that your audience notices first…

The title of the presentation is the general idea

The index shows the supporting ideas

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The tagline is the main idea of the slide

The slide’s content supports its tagline

The tagline is an idea, no just a title

The tag line of each slide summarizes its content. It is understandable without the rest of the slide and it coordinates with the tag lines of the other slides

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Our sales are growing

Sales (M$)





The tag lines of your various slides combine to form the general summary of your communication

You stole my cat

I HATE you

You insulted my momYou stole my boyfriend

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Pyramids are also useful in table of contents and titles of sections

VS.

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Similarly, pyramids are useful to structure paragraphs

PISA is a collaborative effort by governments to monitor student progress in a global framework…

PISA seeks to measure how well young adults, at age of 15 and therefore approaching the end of compulsory schooling are prepared to meet the challenges of today’s knowledge societies. The assessment is forward-looking, focusing on young people’s ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges, rather than merely on the extent to which they have mastered a specific school curriculum. This orientation reflects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula themselves, which are increasingly concerned with what students can do with what they learn at school, and nor merely whether they can reproduce what they have learned.

Key features driving the development of PISA have been:

– Its policy orientation, with design and reporting methods determined by the need of governments to draw policy lessons;

– The innovative “literacy” concept that is concerned with the capacity of students to apply knowledge and skills in key subject areas to analyze, reason and communicate effectively as they pose, solve and interpret problems in a variety of situations;

PISA seeks to assess how well 15-year-olds are prepared for life´s

challenges.

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While building your pyramid, ensure that your ideas are connected to one another

Ideas connect with the ones around them

Ideas within a group are of the same type

Ideas within a group flow logically

1.

2.

3.

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Ideas within the pyramid connect with the ones above, below and at the same level

Each idea...

... supports the point above

... summarizes the ideas below

... connect logically with those at the same level

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So developing the pyramid is an iterative process of grouping and summarizing

1. Grouping ideas: What do the ideas have in common?

2. Summarizing: So what?

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The structures and rules within the pyramid help you to not only communicate your ideas clearly, but also

to discover themThe focus of the pyramid is on ...

• The narrative flow of the introduction

• The vertical relationship between points and sub-points

• The horizontal relationship within a set of sub-points

Vertical Relationships

Horizontal Relationship

Introducción

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Communicate the general idea (that summarizes all the others)

Separate the analysis from the communication

Name groups of ideas

Differentiate induction and deduction

Avoid blank assertions

Pyramids are even more powerful if you watch for key concepts

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Communicate juste one idea: the one that summarizes all the others

?

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You solve problem from the bottom up, but you communicate from the top down. Don’t reproduce your

analysis process in your communication!

Analysis Effective communication

“I know there are things you don t want to hear, but I m enjoying the hell out of saying them.

“´´

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Los elementos de cada grupo deben ser similares; si puedes identificarlos con un nombre, puedes

comprobar la consistencia de tu pirámide

Material Color Corte Patrón MarcaPunto de

venta

Buen diseño Buen prestigio

Buena camisa

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The lateral order depends on whether the grouping is deductive or inductive

Ded

ucti

on

We think there will be a recession in a few

months

During recessions employee satisfaction

drops

Violence is increasing in cities

Indu

ctio

n

Violence is increasing at the border

Violence is increasing in on roads between cities

Mexico is becoming more violent

Therefore we think the satisfaction will drop

We think that employee satisfaction will drop in

a few months

The second argument comments on the first to yield a third

The arguments are similar35





You can make the same argument with induction or deduction. In your communication, it’s better to use induction

Ana

lysi

sC

omm

unic

atio

n

I’ll hire Emma

Emma qualifies on all accounts

I’m looking for an assistant that can speak Spanish and

organize a project and is willing to travel abroad

Therefore I should hire her

I’ll hire Emma because she meets all my requirements

She is willing to travel

She can speak Spanish

She can organize projects

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When you summarize ideas avoid “blank assertions”; instead identify their essence and

use that as a summary

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I’m hungry

I have no money for the rent

I have two problems

I’m hungry

I have no money for the rent

I need to find: first food, then money

✘ ✔

The summary is blank: it summarizes the ideas below but doesn’t bring any value

The summary is effective: integrating the ideas and analyzing them, it brings a new element (time)





Closing, you can drastically improve your thinking and communication using logic

So, you have something to say

... but you don’t know how to say it

Introduce optimally Use pyramids


Include the right

information

Tell a story

Choose the order of

components

S-P-PCR

Use the right

Idea central Ideas principales

Apoyo

Visiblesen otros

documentos

Optimize w/ additional tips

Ideasrelacionadas

entre sí

En mismogrupo =

mismo tipoLógicamenteordenadas

Resumelas de abajo

Apoya las del nivelde arriba

Se conectalógicamente con

las de al lado

Visibles enpresenta-

ciones

Relate each idea

Una idea

Identifica grupos con

nombres

Inducciónmejor que deducción

No hacerafirmaciones

en blanco

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References

• B. Minto, The Minto Pyramid Principle, Minto International, 1996

• G. Zelazny, Say It with Presentations, McGraw-Hill, 1999

• http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/staff/gatter/work/051104_The_Minto_Pyramid_Principle.pdf

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http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/staff/gatter/work/051104_The_Minto_Pyramid_Principle.pdf





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