Lobbyists throw so much information at officials and politicians in letters, briefings and powerpoints that they induce cognitive overload.
Too many briefings and position papers sent to officials, politicians and CEOs look like a pile of vomit on paper. It looks like half-digested thoughts, ideas, and random epiphanies. It’s no wonder the reader can’t use it.
The higher someone goes up in an organisation the more the cognitive overload kicks in. When you choose to waterboard the reader or listener with too much or too complex information they’ll likely just shut down. As our brains find it hard to differentiate between the trivial from the important your waterboarding technique is going to backfire.
Overloading people with choices and information does not help the reader and listener. It does not help them make a decision in your favour. Throwing everything and anything into a briefing does not display brilliance. Instead, it reflects chaos.
If you are dealing with a politician, senior official or business leader they’ll have a team of people filtering any information that gets to them. Their advisors will shift the information and prepare a recommendation on any decision to take. Their recommendations are usually followed. I have heard of CEOs who employ advisers just to filter the flow of advice they get from lawyers, lobbyists and consultants. The advisers have to re-write the recommendations in plain English and digest the many pages of advice into one. If you are waterboarding them, they’ll likely not back your recommendation.
If you are not clear you are never even going to get to the officials and politicians making the decision.
Miller’s law
The average number of objects a person can hold in their short term memory is 7 +/- 2.
The paper is worth reading. See link.
Barbara Minto in her classic, ‘The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving’ explains the importance of this:
“What he (Miller) points out is that the mind cannot hold more than about seven items in its short -term memory at any one time. Some minds can hold as many as nine items, while others can hold five (I’m a five myself). A convenient number is three, but of course, the easiest number is one”(Page 3).
McKinsey consultants use Minto’s system. She taught them the system. Their clarity of thinking comes across in McKinsey’s consultant’s work.
If you overload your letters, briefings or powerpoints the intended beneficiary will shut down. They’ll likely just decide against you just because you have irritated them.
The magic number 3
I prefer around 3 points. I find it works best with busy and tired politicians and officials.
Politicians read a lot of the briefings and letters in the evening at home. Senior officials will face similar constraints. If it’s not clear to a tired reader at 9 p.m. it’s going to be rejected.
All letters, briefings ad power-points are short. Meetings are short. There is one thing to decide and nothing more. Don’t overload.
Minto’s system is hard to train yourself. Those who do find that their briefings are read in one go and the recommendation often followed.
The same idea works even better if you are training colleagues or clients (link).