Barbara Minto was McKinsey’s first female MBA professional hire. She was with the firm from 1963-1973. She is best known for developing the Minto Pyramid Principle.
« Editing the reports that were constantly crossing her desk at the time, Barbara had noticed she always seemed to be reorganizing ideas into a pyramid shape. »
« “People were starting to write without working out their thinking in advance.” »
« “The pyramid is a tool to help you find out what you think… Until you do that, you can’t make good decisions on slides or video.” »
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« The concept required the groups of ideas to be MECE—divided pieces that were mutually exclusive of each other and collectively exhaustive in terms of the whole… Barbara pronounces it with one syllable, meece, rhyming with “niece” or “Greece.” “I invented it, so I get to say it how to pronounce it,” she says… “Well, it wasn’t really I, actually, it was Aristotle,” »
Barbara Minto is author of The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking.
See also: « BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. The method was first introduced in an army training manual and is now taught across different military branches. It’s a tactic that will help your writing — and your emails — stand out. »
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