Putting order in our thoughts: structuring ideas using the MECE principle.

Now, my work is closely related to presentations of data solutions prepared by the data team for business. At the moment, I believe that the success of a common cause depends 50% on a well-made presentation. You can find a great solution, but if you don’t present it to the business correctly, everything will go to waste, and the business won’t appreciate it. However, the remaining 50% is undoubtedly associated with a well-made solution. But let’s imagine that the solution is high-quality and you need to make a presentation... so I started studying this issue because this is where I have a severe gap - before, I was only involved in creating solutions. I recently found an article that gave me clarity and understanding — so I decided to share this with you.

So, how do you make a presentation about date-driven solutions (and not only) to the business?

The McKinsey consulting empire's signature way of finding every possible solution to every problem is MECE.

MECE is an English abbreviation pronounced "messy".

We tell you why this is necessary.

The MECE principle is used to look at any problem as a whole and not miss a single solution. In presentations, it helps to structure thoughts and cover the issue from all sides.

Knowing the MECE principle prevents awkward situations:

• when the speaker speaks inconsistently, thoughts get confused and "clutter" each other;
• when it seems that the speaker is marking time and repeating one thought in different words;
• when the accents are broken, and the speaker talks about the unimportant, barely touching on the principal thing;
• when the speaker imposes one solution to the problem without mentioning others;
• when the presentation's content does not reveal the topic at all.

We explain with puzzles.

The basis of any communication is a logical and consistent structure. A presentation with a sound system does not "dump out" all the information at once but consistently states the topic, immerses the audience in the situation, identifies the problem's possible solutions, provides arguments and evidence and draws conclusions.

The structure of such a presentation looks like this: Introduction, Problem, Solution, Conclusion.

If you've ever put together puzzles, you probably guessed where we're going with this. In a good presentation, semantic blocks are like puzzle elements that resemble parts of the overall picture.

Puzzles have two features that help you understand the MECE principle:

• each element has a unique shape and place in the overall picture; it is impossible to replace one part with another;
• the puzzle is incomplete, even if only one piece is missing.

McKinsey & Company uses MECE

In English, "MESE" is "mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive", which means mutually exclusive, jointly exhaustive. McKinsey & Company uses this principle to find solutions to problems faced by clients.

The meaning of the MECE principle is to describe all possible solutions to a problem so that they do not overlap or duplicate. That is, "cut" the general problem into parts, each of which will be a unique and inimitable solution to the problem, just like in a puzzle.

Let's imagine that the MECE principle had not yet been invented, and the client approached McKinsey to increase product sales.

Consultants offer ideas: make a commercial; reduce the cost of products; improve store operations; launch a flash mob on social networks; hold a promotion at points of sale; decorate stores in a new style so that people feel comfortable coming; sign up sales consultants for sales training; make all product advertising brighter and more modern.

All ideas are good, but some are related, and overlap: training for salespeople and new design at points of sale are improvements to store operations; a flash mob on social networks and a commercial are types of advertising. The solutions are mixed up and do not exclude each other: you can shoot one video or immediately improve the entire advertisement.

We turn on MECE: first, we select the most general solutions that cover the entire problem and combine everything that can be thought of. As a rule, there are no more than five such options.

A bearded professional joke from electricians describes the most common solutions to the problem: "All malfunctions in equipment come down to two things: there is contact where there should not be one; there is no contact where it should be."

In our example, there are only three global ways to increase sales: improve the quality of advertising, reduce the cost of products and improve the operation of stores. According to the MECE principle, they are jointly exhaustive; nothing can be added to them. Therefore, the remaining ideas must be sorted into these three "baskets": video and flash mob - for advertising; selling promotions in stores, training sellers, and new design of points of sale - to improve stores.

The result is a classic decision tree: at the first level, global, jointly exhaustive and mutually exclusive options that cover entirely everything that can be done with this problem. Specific proposals are already grouped within them.

It turns out that the MECE principle is elementary in theory, which is precisely the case when it is easier to show than tell. Therefore, we have prepared three examples of reinforcing the material to understand better how to use it.

Let's train with examples.

Problem

It's 13.00, it would be nice to have lunch.

Solutions

Order food delivery, cook it yourself, eat in a cafe.

Where is the mistake?

Puzzle pieces intersect.

The decisions "order food" and "eat in a cafe" intersect in meaning because, in both cases, the food will be ready; you just pay for it.

MECE solutions:

"Tighten the screws" on violators, reward those who are disciplined, and change the schedule and mode of work.

How to use MECE in presentations

1. Follow our algorithm: first, determine the purpose of the presentation and the expected result, and then proceed to the structure. Most often, logical errors arise when the speaker does not clearly understand the purpose of the presentation or does not accurately formulate the problem and the expected effect for the audience.

2. Think about the most general, simple and even obvious solutions to the problem you will talk about at the presentation. Usually, there are no more than five. These are the main semantic blocks, “baskets” for smaller ideas.

3. Move on to specific arguments you will give in favour of certain decisions. Feel free to post everything that comes to mind and write it on the general list. When you're finished, start sorting them so that each thought is sorted into the main semantic blocks-baskets. Remove ideas that duplicate each other and combine those that are close in meaning. The Minto pyramid principle will help you cope with this task; we wrote about it separately.

4. Once you have drawn the decision tree, proceed to the presentation script: arrange large blocks of thoughts in order and within them - practical solutions. Follow the formula “problem-solution-argument-expected result”.