Lead with the answer.
A method I use before every high-stakes meeting, email or pitch — and one I found genuinely useful, so it is worth sharing. It comes from coaching, Amazon's "working backwards", on top of Barbara Minto's Pyramid Principle, and it cures one stubborn habit: burying the point behind a story.
Be in. Be brief. Be gone.
State the answer first. Build the reasoning backwards only if asked. That is the Pyramid Principle — start at the tip, the conclusion, then descend into the support — and it is the opposite of how most of us instinctively talk, narrating the genesis of a problem before we reach the point.
The discipline is simple to name and hard to hold: no prologues, no side-quests, no "let me give you some background first". Say what you need, give them the one decision you want, and stop.
If they walked out after fifteen seconds, what is the one thing they would remember? Lead with that.
Six moves, before the room.
Run these in order before any meeting, email or message. Most take a minute; together they are the difference between landing and rambling.
Name the purpose
Pick exactly one: solve a problem, promote an outcome, reach alignment, secure funding, escalate, ask for help, or gain visibility. Vagueness here is the root of rambling.
Write the key message
One or two sentences — the thing they would remember if they walked out after fifteen seconds. If you cannot say it in two, you have not found it yet. Keep cutting.
Sharpen the problem
A raw note ("no edit button") is not a problem statement. Refine it, and lead with the cost of inaction — what unresolved costs in reputation, revenue, clients or time.
Tag it
Hazard, risk or problem? The category decides whether you contain, mitigate or solve. Getting it wrong wastes the room.
Pre-wire and sequence
The most senior person is rarely the right first stop. Win buy-in early, settle one small thing, then walk in with allies who can vouch — "already handled".
Anticipate, then exit
List the two-to-four questions they will ask and pocket the answers — do not pre-empt them. Then be gone: decide the one next step you want, and leave.
A problem isn't a complaint.
The single biggest upgrade is refining a raw gripe into a stated problem. Use one sentence with four slots — and lead with the cost of inaction, because that is what moves people:
Then tag it — because the category decides what you actually do:
An inherent source of potential harm — a condition that could cause damage. It has not fired.
→ Identify and contain the source.
Probability × severity that a hazard causes harm. Not yet materialised.
→ Mitigate, transfer or accept — before it bites. Score likelihood against impact.
A risk that has materialised — harm is now occurring or certain.
→ Solve it. Urgency tracks impact. You do not mitigate a problem; you fix it.
It all fits on one page.
Every run produces a single brief you can hold in your head. Not a script to read — a spine to keep you honest.
# Brief — [who you're meeting, their role] — [date] — [format] KEY MESSAGE — ≤2 sentences. The tip of the pyramid. PURPOSE — one from the taxonomy (+ a secondary, if any) THE PROBLEM — refined statement · tagged risk / problem / hazard COST OF INACTION PRE-WIRE — who first · who can vouch · who must say yes before whom LIKELY Qs → As — pocketed; don't pre-empt OPENER — the first sentence (leads with the key message) EXIT — the one decision/next step, then go be in · be brief · be gone — do not dump the catalogue
The test: a reader — or a listener — must grasp the key message in under fifteen seconds, with no catalogue-dump. If they can't, tighten it before you walk in.
Borrowed, refined, and automated.
None of this is mine alone. The discipline came together through coaching with someone I trust; the "work backwards from the conclusion" instinct is Amazon's; the underlying shape is Barbara Minto's Pyramid Principle. I've just pressed them into one repeatable routine and given it a name.
The confession, fitting for this corner of the site: I've since wired the whole thing into a little AI routine I run before high-stakes meetings — so the discipline is one command away, and I have no excuse to ramble. Half the value is just being asked the six questions out loud.
More field notes
Things I've found useful and reckon are worth passing on — from tinkering with AI to the craft of working well.