The power of three

The mathematically and spiritually significant number 3 is also a powerful tool to help you communicate with impact.

Photo by Jack Hunter on Unsplash

One of the things we teach in media training is the power of speaking in threes.

Three is the magic number when it comes to memorability. Some of the most famous quotes in history follow the rule of three, and it’s no coincidence that children’s book authors wrote about the Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Musketeers.

The rule of three is an effective technique when you’re trying to persuade, inform or teach, because our brains can easily remember three bits of information.

Groups of three also register in our brain as a pattern – think of the abundance of national flags bearing three colours.

“Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered.” - Barack Obama’s inaugural speech

Three for structure, three for evidence, three for emphasis

The rule of three is helpful in different ways: you can structure your response in three (answer, evidence, conclusion), present evidence or reasons in groups of three (“let me give you three reasons why…”) and use the rule of three for memorability or to emphasise a point (“they came, they saw, they conquered”).

Whenever I take people through media training, we focus on the three key messages they want to convey in a mock media interview, then practice actively incorporating these messages in different ways. It’s a handy tool to help you think on your feet when you’re under pressure.

Take three to simplify

The rule of three works for almost any form of communication when you’re trying to communicate a message, point, or case for change: media interviews, teaching, business cases, employee emails, negotiating a pay rise, or conversations with your significant other about an important life decision.

It’s particularly helpful for communicating major change or presenting complex ideas.

We often get tempted to stuff as much information as possible into our messages when we’re trying to convince our audience of an idea. We give more reasons, more evidence, more logic in a hope to increase understanding or help out audience see something from our perspective.

It doesn’t work. Half the points end up feeling like fillers, box ticks or occasionally, disingenuous extra ‘reasons’ that management want to try and make people believe.

Here’s three reasons why three is such a powerful number when you’re communicating

1. According to psychologists, the human brain is wired to absorb and remember information best when it’s presented in groups of three (five is the absolute max!). Any more, and the chance of your audience remembering the information is reduced. I would place a bet that no one remembers all seven of the habits I wrote about last week!

2. Keeping your argument to three key points or pieces of evidence helps order your thoughts and distill the most critical information. It forces you to focus, consider your audience and what drives them, and actively shape what it is that you want to communicate.

3. The dilution effect and the psychological inclination to average out evidence. According to the case presented in this fascinating TED Talk (bear with it, the opening feels strange but the speaker presents a compelling case), when we take in diagnostic information, we do not add it up to reach a cumulative position based on the facts presented; rather our minds average out the pieces of information. So, when you add weaker or irrelevant arguments in an effort to help demonstrate your point, they dilute the importance of the stronger evidence and reduce the weight of your overall argument.

   

I had initially included some contrasting examples here to demonstrate the rule of three in action, but in the interest of keeping today’s post pithy I removed it. I’m happy to share in the comments section if it’s of interest – just let me know!

The opportunity  

Using the rule of three is one of the most simple and effective ways to structure your content, and help your audience remember you and your words.

Next time you’re trying to persuade, influence or communicate change, try using the rule of three. Ruthlessly remove superfluous information and see what happens!

I’d love to hear how you go.

Thank you for being here,

Larissa