The number three is prevalent in many contexts. It shows up in some of our most revered stories like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. It is foundational in many religions: Christianity has the Holy Trinity, Hinduism the Trimurti, Buddhism the Three Jewels, Taoism the Three Pure Ones, and Wicca the Triple Goddess. Time is divided into three parts: The past, present and future. The universe is governed by 3 forces: electric, magnetic and gravity.
According to Pythagoras, the number 3 is the noblest of all digits. It is the only number to equal the sum of all the terms below it, and the only number whose sum with those below it equals the product of them and itself.
I have spent my entire career in roles where my effectiveness and career growth is dependent on my ability to influence others. I spent years trying to find and develop a formula that allowed me to consistently improve my persuasive skills. A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon the power of 3 and decided to start focusing on using this power in how I communicate with my product, marketing and design partners. I have seen remarkable results and am now a true believer!
The power of 3–sometimes known as the rule of three–is a principle that suggests that when things come in three, they are more effective than other numbers of things. In other words, when you have a desire to inform or persuade others, choosing to focus on three elements makes your story more effective than if you choose to focus on two or four things.
The power of 3 improves your power of persuasion in three key ways:
- It forces you to be more concise and focus on the most important points. As a speaker, presenter, or writer it is often tempting to include every key point. This is especially tempting for user researchers who feel a desire and sometimes an obligation to share every insight from a study. When you exercise the discipline to highlight the three most important points, you ensure that your message will be concise and that often means it will be much clearer to your audience. If you are a researcher, this does not mean that you don’t include more than three insights in your report or your presentation but it suggests that your executive summary or key findings section include only the three most important things.
- It provides structure which can give you confidence and lead to higher credibility with your audience. Narrowing to the three most important points provides a structure which allows you to focus you energy on supporting those three key points. This added focus ensures that you feel more confident in your message. The confidence, combined with the development of evidence or supportive data for your key points gives you and your message greater credibility with you audience.
- It will make your message more memorable. As it happens, our brain seeks patterns to help us remember things. Three is the smallest number required to create a pattern. Once a pattern is formed, the brain can easily digest information and encode it to memory.
I, like Pythagoras, view 3 as the most noble number. There are threes all around us in nature, time, religion, and culture. And utilizing the power of 3 in written and spoken communication can help you to be a more persuasive communicator.