This site presents tools that will help structure and communicate thinking. The core is two complementary techniques:
- [[SCQA]] (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer): a method for generating or summarizing a question or thesis
- [[Trees]] (issue and/or answer/hypothesis): for logically structuring the components of an argument / thesis / essay / article etc.
These two seemingly simple techniques are in fact revolutionary. Widely used they would dramatically improve the quality of discourse and thought. Even within a team or company they can dramatically improve understanding, alignment and effectiveness. And like many simple things, they can be hard to do well.
Here are the three places to start:
- Situation, Complication, Question, Answer
- Issue and Hypothesis Trees
- Pyramid technique - a simple recipe to structure your thought or writing
The idea of issue trees, hypothesis trees and SCQA comes from the communication framework developed by Barbara Minto, a former McKinsey consultant. She termed the general approach the "Pyramid Principle".
It suggests that ideas should be presented in a logical and hierarchical order, with the main idea or conclusion at the top and then supporting it with smaller, related ideas or arguments arranged in descending order of importance. This structure gives rise to the name pyramid.
The approach has been widely used in business communication and consulting.