3JulHarnessing the rule (and power) of three

One of the simplest things you can do to improve the effectiveness of your communications, is to harness the rule of the three. The rule of three is nothing more than a guideline which says that information should be presented in groups of three—no more and no less. Despite the fact that scientists claim our short term memory can recall up to seven things (+ or – two), I’m going to counter that claim and say that in most situations in today’s world, we can really only recall three things effectively.

The rule of three has been with us in writing and speech for a very long time. As this Wikipedia article states – “The “rule of three” is a principle in writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things”. So if this simple technique can make us more effective, satisfying and even humorous, who wouldn’t want to incorporate the rule of three into their communication!

One area where the rule of three can really help is in the development of presentations. Many people try to cram their slides full of bullet and sub-bullet points, thinking that the audience will be able to recall all of this information. If you’re finding that your slides are becoming overloaded with information, try using the rule of three to reduce each slide down to three key pieces of information.

This could be as simple as reducing your bullets down to three points, or it could be a matter of ensuring that you only talk about three key facts or pieces of information related to a slide’s topic. More generally, always analyze each slide along with what you plan to say, to see if you can re-organize it around three pieces of information. If you’re using a lot of visuals instead of bullets (something I encourage everyone to do), try to limit your images to around three main image components or icons so as not to bombard the user with visuals. Related to this, if you are using animations, transitions or other effects (ie: to demonstrate processes, phases or milestones for example), also try to limit these to three, otherwise the audience may start to get lost in the mix. In fact this is one area where I would suggest having less than three if possible. I think you will find these techniques will allow the audience to take away more information from each slide and they will be better able to transition to other related slides, because the rule of three has given them the optimal amount of information to follow.

Writing is another area where the rule of three works wonders, especially when dealing with lists of things. In fact if you look closely in the previous paragraph, I’ve used the rule of three to create concise lists. Here’s the general strategy I use: if I have more than three items to list, then based on the rule of three, I will likely list the items in bullet point form since a sentence with more than three items can be too overwhelming for the reader. If I have less than three items, I will often strive to come up with a third item in order to create a more cohesive and satisfying sentence. This can often be accomplished by merging a fact or two from another area of the document or by adding general or abstract terms. For example, in the previous paragraph when I listed “animations, transitions or other effects”, I only started off with “animations” and “transitions” but needed a third item which led me to add the more abstract term “effects”. This grouping also tied in nicely with the latter part of the sentence which also consisted of three items: “processes, phases and milestones”, and together these groupings make the sentence more balanced. But regardless of how this golden quantity is achieved, simply working in lists of threes can lead to more simplified and crisper writing.

So in conclusion, every now and then we come across tips and tricks which improve how we work and communicate, and the rule of three is no exception. So the next time you’re creating slides, writing a document or even just speaking to someone, consider how the power of three can make you more satisfying to follow, more effective in relaying information or even more humorous to the receiver.