what is the rule of 3 while making a presentation

Presentation Skills 3: The Rule of Three

This is one of the oldest of all the presentation techniques – known about since the time of Aristotle.

People tend to remember lists of three things. Structure your presentation around threes and it will become more memorable.

The Rule of Three – We remember three things.

The rule of three is one of the oldest in the book – Aristotle wrote about it in his book Rhetoric. Put simply it is that people tend to easily remember three things.

Remember as a kid when your mum sent you down to the shop to buy a number of things. But when you got to the shop all you could remember were three things. This is the rule of three

Odds are that people will only remember three things from your presentation

What will they be?

1. The audience are likely to remember only three things from your presentation – plan in advance what these will be.

Believe it or not, the chances are, people will only remember three things from your presentation. So before you start writing your presentation, plan what your three key messages will be. Once you have these messages, structure the main part of your presentation around these three key themes and look at how they could be better illustrated.

2. There are three parts to your presentation

The beginning, the middle and the end. Start to plan out what you will do in these three parts. The beginning is ideal for an attention grabber or for an ice breaker. The end is great to wrap things up or to end with a grand finale.

3. Use lists of three wherever you can in your presentation

Lists of three have been used from early times up to the present day. They are particularly used by politicians and advertisers who know the value of using the rule of three to sell their ideas.

Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) – Julius Caesar** “ Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears” – William Shakespeare “Our priorities are Education, Education, Education ” – Tony Blair A Mars a day helps you to work, rest and play – Advertising slogan Stop, look and listen – Public safety announcement

A classic example of the rule of three was Winston Churchill’s famous Blood, Sweat and Tears speech. He is widely attributed as saying I can promise you nothing but blood sweat and tears. What he actually said was “I can promise you Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears”. Because of the rule of three we simply remember it as Blood sweat and tears.

There are lots of other examples of the rule of three on this link

4. In Presentations “Less is More”

If you have four points to get across – cut one out. They won’t remember it anyway. In presentations less really is more. No one ever complained of a presentation being too short.

Presentation Essentials

Three Presentation Essentials

• Use visual aids where you can
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
• The audience will only remember three messages

So there you have the presentation essentials. I suggest that you print out this little box and stick it in your work book for future reference.

** Technically the quote is – Veni (I came), Vidi (I saw), Vici (I crushed them) which is falsely tied to Gaul and Britanny Conquest by Julius Caesar, but was pronounced before the Senate after the crushing of a small revolt in what is now Turkey…

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I get the point but find it slightly humorous and ironic that you give four reasons as to why people remember things in three. Why not take your own advice and keep the list to three?

great.usefull.simple

Interesting, useful

highly informative with excellent examples

Why do people tend to remember three things?

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Want Your Presentation to Be Memorable? Follow the Rule of Three

• by Brad Holst

What makes a presentation memorable?

If you’re listening to a dynamic speaker, you might quickly point to their ease of manner, to their tone of voice, or even to their warmth and authenticity. You’d be right, all of these things are essential to a successful presentation.

But what about the content? If you take away all of the behavioral elements, how can a presenter make you remember the core of what they have to say?

The best leaders and presenters understand how to overtly use the rule of three to deliver information efficiently and with focus, while projecting a credible executive presence. Let’s take a look at how you can use this powerful organizational tool in your own presentation content.

Listening Is Hard Work

Even under the best of circumstances, listening is a more complex activity than we think. In his studies, Ralph Nichols , an early pioneer in communications at the University of Minnesota, determined that immediately after the average person has listened to someone talk, they remember only about half of what they have heard—no matter how carefully they felt they were listening. More modern studies have shown that most of us listen at or below a 25% efficiency rate. What’s more is that we may only remember about half of what’s said during a 10-minute conversation, and still forget half of that within 48 hours.

Now imagine our ultra-modern meeting spaces with the distractions of laptops, smartphones, and virtual conference rooms. Look at what your content has to compete with!

Everyone’s Working Memory Is Limited

Often, one of the biggest challenges in business presentations is the fact that multiple stakeholders want to keep adding to the content. Before you know it, your small list of “must know” items has become a long list of items that includes the “nice to knows” and some additional tedious details that no one in the room will actually need to know.

This kind of presentation can quickly become an unorganized, unintuitive mess. There’s a good reason why no one will remember all that information at once.

You’re overloading your listener’s working memory.

The classic psychology study on memory by Harvard Professor George Miller and subsequent work by researchers  Simon and Chase  have demonstrated that people can repeat back a list of no more than about seven randomly ordered, meaningful items or “chunks” (which could be letters, digits, or words). This work became the basis for best practices like chunking digits like telephone numbers into three parts, making it much easier to remember and act on than a single block of 10 random numbers.

More modern memory studies have refined Miller’s determinations and have redefined working memory capacities. Nelson Cowan describes his findings that, on average, our central memory stores are limited to three to five meaningful items. Cognitive load theory also suggests that when you begin to overload these basic limitations, learning and retention just doesn’t happen.

Understanding the Rule of Three

The rule of three is ubiquitous.

Humans are both neurologically and culturally adapted to the number three and its combination of brevity and rhythm. We know from studies in neuroscience that our brains seek out patterns and finds the structure of three to be a complete set; it feels whole.

Three is the least number of items in a series that make a pattern, and once you start looking for this pattern, you’ll see that it’s everywhere.

In mathematics it’s a rule that allows you to solve problems based on proportions. In science there are three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. The Latin maxim omne trium perfectu m (everything that comes in threes is perfection) echoes Aristotle and his Ars Rhetorica . There Aristotle posits that the most persuasive rhetorical appeals must rely on ethos, pathos, and logos.

Extrapolate from that, and even simple storytelling and narratives have a simple structure of a beginning, a middle and an end.

Using the Rule of Three to Your Advantage

The good news is that you can easily incorporate the rule of three into your presentation planning right away and see a remarkable difference in your content’s clarity and impact. For example, the rule of three can be used to great advantage when opening a presentation:

• First raise a problem or opportunity to grab the audience’s attention
• Then suggest how that problem can be resolved with a motivating call to action
• Follow that by a sharing a tightly focused agenda

If you’ve used The Mandel Blueprint® content planning tool, you’ve already experienced the rule of three in action to structure these three steps. It contains Mandel’s thinking and messaging framework, SCI-PAB® (Situation/Complication/Implication – Position/Action/Benefit®), a two-step intuitive problem/resolution framework, with each of step divided into three parts:

• SCI will ensure you raise a problem or opportunity that the audience understands and cares about.
• PAB motivates the audience to action by creating clarity on the path forward and the value of the outcomes.
• And when you share an agenda with something as simple as “Today I’d like to focus on these three things…” you project an efficient, powerful, and engaging executive presence.

Never forget that there are dozens of other things competing for your listener’s mindshare. You need to quickly inspire confidence in others regarding your leadership ability and set them up for active listening and participation.

Structuring an Agenda

With or without a SCI-PAB to guide your content, as a general rule, you should create a tightly focused agenda of three main points that support your primary idea.

Ask yourself, if the audience is only going to remember three things, what should they be?

Focus on delivering the “must know” information for the audience, but prepare your answers to any questions regarding what would be “nice to know.” If they’re interested, rest assured that the audience will ask you about it.

Resist the temptation to add additional agenda points unless absolutely necessary. Any more than three items dilutes the focus of your presentation and can creep into that realm of high cognitive load for your audience. Overloading their working memory during your presentation means people simply won’t remember what you have to say.

The Power of Three

Our modern meeting spaces and technology distractions can tax even the most conscientious listener. Your goal is to cut through this competition for mindshare and deliver your content in a focused, easy-to-process, and intuitive manner.

Using the rule of three taps into something deeply human in all of us. Its roots in storytelling, critical thinking, and neuroscience make it a powerful tool that anyone can use with great success.

Try using it the next couple of times you need to present. Don’t be discouraged if you need to practice more than once or twice.

Third time’s a charm.

Works Cited (alphabetical order)

Chase, W.G. and Simon, H.A. (1973). Perception in chess. Cognitive Psychology 4(1): 55–81. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0010028573900042

Cowan, Nelson. (2010). The magical mystery four: How is working memory capacity limited, and why? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19 (1): 51-57. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864034/

Grabmeier, Jeff. (2018). This is your brain detecting patterns. Sciencedaily.com. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180531114642.htm

Miller, George. A. (1955) The magical number seven, plus or minus two. Psychological Review, Vol. 101, No. 2, 343-352. Retrieved from http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/peterson/psy430s2001/Miller%20GA%20Magical%20Seven%20Psych%20Review%201955.pdf

Nichols, Ralph G. and Stevens, L. (1957). Listening to people. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1957/09/listening-to-people

Soloman, Howard. (n.d.). Cognitive Load Theory (John Sweller). Instructionaldesgin.org. Retrieved from https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/cognitive-load/

Thill, John and Bovee, C.L. (2004). Excellence in Business Communication. Prentice Hall

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Transform your presentations with the rule of three.

Recently, I wrote about how to use the rule of thirds in composing and framing your video image and how that impacts your credibility. Three is a powerful number that guides how our brains process information. It holds a special place in the way great speeches and presentations have been written and delivered.

The rule of three is a widespread organizing principle for just about everything in our world. In physics, we have Newton’s three laws of motion. In music, we have the concept of triads and three-part harmony. Most stories, whether in theater, folk tales, or movies, follow the three-act structure of a beginning, a middle and an end.

The knack for pattern recognition is hard-wired into our brains, which seem to work best when thinking in trios. If you want something to stay in people’s heads, put it into a tri-part sequence. The possibilities run from the banal to the sublime:

🌼Snap crackle pop. 🌼Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 🌼Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Once you’re aware of the rule you’ll start to see and hear it everywhere: Blood sweat and tears. Lights, camera, action. The Three Stooges. Three Little Pigs. Just Do It  (Nike ). Turn to Cold (Tide). Taste the Feeling (Coke). The list is endless.

Take the tricolon , a rhetorical device using a series of three words, phrases or sentences in a parallel structure, length, or rhythm that produces sticky phrases. For example, “We cannot desecrate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground,” from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

In pop culture, one iconic film scene has been memorialized in memes as The Phone Speech. Liam Neeson as Bryan Mills in Taken 1 speaks a warning to his daughter’s captor: “ I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.”

Simplicity is that makes the rule of three so powerful, satisfying, and persuasive.

“One won’t do, two isn’t quite enough,” as James Bond author Ian Fleming noted in Goldfinger. He wrote: “Once is happenstance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is enemy action.”

Here are three ways to use the rule of three in your next speech or presentation:

1. Structure the core of your presentation into three parts.

🌼Beginning, middle, end. 🌼Opportunity, solution, benefit. 🌼Problem, solution, action.

2. Use three bullets to support a main idea.

According to Roy Peter Clark , senior scholar at The Poynter Institute: “The mojo of three offers a greater sense of completeness than four or more.”  

🌼One bullet is a power statement. 🌼Two bullets are for comparison and contrast. 🌼Three bullets offer completeness, wholeness, and roundness

3. Feature three agenda items or supporting ideas for your speech.

Organize your content into three units to help your audience follow along, understand your idea, and buy into your point of view. Announcing that you have “three solutions to share with you today,” sparks attention.  Meetings you lead will be more gratifying. People will want to attend your presentations knowing that they will leave with a trio of valuable ideas worthy of their time.

Legendary author and lecturer Dale Carnegie said about presentation structure: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you just told them.”

Now that you know a bit more about the rule of three and how it can help you be a better speaker and presenter, you can begin to put it into practice to bring structure and clarity to your business communication.

Implementing the rule of three is as easy as ABC. It requires a shift in your mindset to identify what is truly essential. Yet, it can have a huge impact on the way you are perceived and whether people want to listen to what you have to say.

Rosemary Ravinal

Business leaders and entrepreneurs who want to elevate their public speaking impact, executive presence, and media interview skills come to me for personalized attention and measurable results. I am recognized as America’s Premier Bilingual Public Speaking Coach after decades as a corporate spokesperson and media personality in the U.S. mainstream, Hispanic and Latin American markets. My company’s services are available for individuals, teams, in-person and online, and in English and Spanish in South Florida and elsewhere.

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How To Present A Clear Message To Any Audience: The Rule of Three

by Andrea Pacini — Tuesday 9 August 2022

• Public Speaking
• Confident Presenter

Have you ever had this experience: it becomes increasingly obvious to you during a presentation that the structure isn’t clear enough? You’re losing the audience (which might be clients, colleagues, the board, partners or investors).

If so, you are not alone. Most business leaders and professionals struggle with this.

Fortunately, there is one simple yet powerful communication technique that will help you: the Rule of Three.

The Rule of Three

Three is the most powerful number in communication. An audience is far more likely to remember information if it’s presented in groups of threes.

If you give your audience one piece of information, they will feel it’s not enough. If you offer more than three they may find that overwhelming.

Harvard Professor George Miller published a paper in 1956 called The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two . He argued at the time that we struggle to retain more than seven or nine digits.

More recent scientific research brings that figure down to three or four pieces of information.

The advert which launched the original BBC Three channel featured a song by Bob Durough in which he sings: “Three is a magic number”. There is something so right about things that come in threes. They are effective and satisfying.

Three in Everyday Life

Threes are deeply embedded in our culture as easy ways to remember things. Once you realise it you’ll notice threes everywhere.

Good stories have a beginning, middle and end

Most plays have three acts

Films and books come in trilogies

Some of the best marketing slogans use just three words

Just Do It (Nike)

I’m loving it (McDonald’s)

Every little helps (Tesco)

Taste the difference (Sainsbury’s)

The UK government used the power of three for their Covid slogans

Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives

Hands, Face, Space

Some of the most powerful political statements use three

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (the national motto of France)

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (the well-known phrase from the United States’ Declaration of Independence)

Government of the people, by the people, for the people (Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address)

Our priorities are Education, Education, Education (Tony Blair)

Fairy tales often use three for maximum impact

The Three Musketeers

The Three Little Pigs

Many businesses use a three-tier pricing structure. You often come across bronze, silver and gold price points or service levels. It’s no coincidence that we use the same system for first, second and third in sporting events. No one cares who came fourth.

The rule of three is often used to great effect in comedy. Comedies often have three characters (like the old Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman routines). The first two examples are sensible and the third is ridiculous.

Using three words or three phrases for maximum impact appears in all sorts of other areas of life. Here are some other famous examples:

Ready, steady, go

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth

Sex, drugs & rock n’ roll

See it, say it, sorted (British Transport Police)

Applying the Rule of Three to Presentations

Next time you prepare a presentation, try applying the Rule of Three. Break down your structure into three parts.

At Ideas on Stage we’ve worked with thousands of clients since 2010 and I’ve never seen a presentation that can’t be divided into three parts.

If you aren’t doing this, and paying attention to the way you structure your presentations, you’re making it unnecessarily difficult for your audience to follow you, remember what you say, and take action.

To help you understand how you can apply the magic number three to your presentations, here are some examples I’ve come across in a business context. Feel free to adapt these for your own use.

• The three priorities we’ll use to achieve the sales target for the next quarter
• Three reasons to buy your product or service
• Problem, Solution, Call to action
• Three benefits to your solution
• Three reasons why the board should approve the budget for your project
• Three reasons to hire you
• Context, Actions, Results
• Three reasons to invest in your startup

Sticking to Three

People often push back about the Rule of Three and tell me they have more than three points to share during a presentation. How can they possibly stick to three points?

If you’re thinking the same, ask yourself the following:

• Do you really need to include everything? Are those nine points of equal importance? Of course not. Often, it’s better to explain three things that someone will comprehend rather than overwhelming them with too much information. Remember, if everything is important, nothing is important .
• If there really are nine important points, can they be grouped into three sections? Perhaps there are patterns and points of connection? Try combining certain elements so you can still stick to the Rule of Three.

Putting it into Practice

Alan Furley is the Co-Founder and CEO of ISL Talent, an award-winning UK Recruitment Consultancy. They work as a talent partner to startups and scaleups to help them build strong teams.

We worked with Alan to help him create a presentation for prospects on the following topic: How To Get Your First 10 Hires Right.

Alan broke the one-hour presentation down into three key messages which had some supporting points (also broken down into threes).

Key message 1: If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail

• Spend time planning before jumping into hiring
• A clear process for your next hire
• The power of an Org Chart

Key message 2: Treat your employees like you treat customers

• Stand out to people who aren’t looking for a job
• Think about them not you
• Purpose, team and values in hiring

Key message 3: Think retention first, recruitment second

• Hire potential vs credentials
• Capturing your values
• Have a retention plan

The beauty of this technique is that it works all the time. Regardless of how long your presentation is — 5 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour — you can always structure your content into three parts.

I use the Rule of Three myself when I’m running group workshops for our clients. The course comprises five online sessions of three hours each. I like to structure the whole workshop into three parts across those 15 hours like this:

• How to craft a captivating message
• How to reinforce your message with powerful visuals
• How to deliver your message with confidence

The Rule of Three in Real Life

In 2007 an academic paper titled The rule of three: How the third event signals the emergence of a streak examined people’s perception of ‘streaks’ in stock market movement and sports victories.

When something repeats three times we are most likely to see that as a ‘streak’. If it happens more often we don’t place any more importance on it.

The study asked students how much (theoretical) inheritance money they would invest in a stock. The students were prepared to put the most money into shares when they had risen in value over the three previous days. If the stock continued to rise it didn’t make them any more likely to invest.

Similarly, bookies and gamblers place greater weight on teams that have won three games in a row.

The study concluded that punters would be well advised to bet against teams that have won three games in a row and back teams that have lost three games in a row (in order to beat the market).

If you try to deliver too many points to your audience you will lose them along the way.

Our brains are wired to find the Rule of Three particularly satisfying and we retain three pieces of information more easily than any other quantity.

The Rule of Three is widely deployed in literature, comedy and politics. It finds its way into all sorts of catchphrases and slogans.

Using the Rule of Three in your presentations is highly effective. Any presentation can be restructured to conform to three sections.

Even if you have more points to make, still try to structure your presentation in three parts.

If you enjoyed this article, I would love to hear from you. Please get in touch or share the article with any colleagues or friends who might benefit from the ideas.

If you want to become a more confident presenter, take the Confident Presenter Scorecard . Answer simple Yes/No questions, get an instant score plus suggestions for improvement. It takes less than 3 minutes. Once you complete the scorecard, you’ll receive a free pdf copy of my best-selling book Confident Presenter .

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Carmine Gallo’s Rule of Three: Incorporating the Most Persuasive Number in Communications

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Rule of Three

Aug 19, 2013

In the world of communication and storytelling, simplicity and clarity are often the keys to success. One of the most powerful tools for achieving this is the Rule of Three —a concept that is deeply rooted in human psychology and communication. Carmine Gallo, a renowned communications coach and author, emphasizes the effectiveness of the Rule of Three in his books and teachings. According to Gallo, incorporating three key points, ideas, or messages is the most persuasive and memorable way to communicate with your audience.

Let’s explore how you can incorporate the Rule of Three into your presentations, speeches, and written communication to make your message more compelling, memorable, and persuasive.

What is the Rule of Three?

The Rule of Three is a writing and speaking principle that suggests that concepts or ideas presented in threes are inherently more satisfying, effective, and memorable. This principle is deeply ingrained in human communication, with examples found in literature, speeches, and marketing.

• Three is simple : The human brain processes information best in small, manageable chunks. Grouping ideas in threes helps break down complex information into more digestible parts.
• Three is memorable : People tend to remember three points more easily than four or five. When you present three ideas, your audience is more likely to retain them.
• Three is persuasive : Whether it’s a marketing message, a speech, or a pitch, delivering information in groups of three often feels more complete and convincing.

Examples of the Rule of Three in Practice:

• Political Slogans : “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
• Marketing Campaigns : “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
• Storytelling : “Beginning, Middle, End.”

In his book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs , Gallo shows how the Apple co-founder frequently used the Rule of Three to simplify and drive home product messaging, making presentations memorable and impactful.

Why Three is the Magic Number in Persuasion

1. cognitive ease.

The Rule of Three works because our brains are wired to process and retain information in threes. Research shows that humans have a limited short-term memory capacity, and three is the optimal number of items we can process without being overwhelmed. When ideas are presented in threes, they create a natural rhythm that makes them easier to follow and understand.

• Simplifies Complexity : By breaking down complex ideas into three main points, you make it easier for your audience to grasp and retain your message.
• Enhances Clarity : It avoids overloading your audience with too much information, helping them focus on the core message.

2. Creates a Pattern

Humans are naturally attracted to patterns, and three creates a sense of completeness and structure in communication. When you present ideas in threes, it feels like a complete, well-rounded argument or story.

• Triads are Satisfying : Triads (groups of three) create a sense of rhythm and flow, making your communication more pleasant and compelling to listen to or read.
• Creates Anticipation : When you establish a pattern, such as introducing two points and building toward a third, the audience anticipates a conclusion, making your final point more impactful.

3. Boosts Memorability

The Rule of Three helps your audience remember your key points long after the presentation or conversation ends. This is critical in business communication, where you want your ideas to stick in your audience’s mind.

• Recall is Higher : Studies show that when people are given three ideas, their ability to recall those ideas is higher compared to when more points are presented.
• Resonates with Audiences : The Rule of Three resonates with people because it aligns with how we naturally categorize and understand information.

How to Incorporate the Rule of Three in Communications

1. in presentations.

Incorporating the Rule of Three in presentations makes your content more digestible and helps keep your audience engaged. Structure your presentation around three main ideas or sections to create a clear, memorable framework.

• Three Main Points : Before designing your slides, identify the three most important messages you want your audience to take away. For example, if you’re pitching a product, your three points might be: “Innovative features, market demand, and competitive pricing.”
• Three Supporting Examples : When making a claim, back it up with three supporting facts, stories, or statistics. This provides enough evidence to be convincing without overwhelming your audience.
• Three Key Takeaways : Conclude your presentation with three actionable takeaways. This reinforces your message and ensures that your audience leaves with a clear understanding of the most important points.

In Steve Jobs’ famous iPhone introduction, he used the Rule of Three to unveil the product by saying, “An iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.” This powerful triad made the audience understand immediately that the iPhone combined three revolutionary functions.

2. In Public Speaking

In speeches, the Rule of Three can add rhythm, cadence, and impact to your words. Whether you’re delivering a keynote or a motivational speech, using triads in your structure makes your points more persuasive and memorable.

• Three-Part Structure : Begin by outlining your three key points. For example, in a leadership speech, you might structure your talk around “Inspiration, Empowerment, and Action.”
• Repetition in Threes : Repeat key phrases three times for emphasis. This creates a memorable rhythm and drives home the point. For example, Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic speech includes the phrase “I have a dream” repeated in threes.
• Storytelling in Threes : When telling stories or anecdotes to illustrate your points, keep the narrative in three parts: setup, conflict, and resolution.

In his famous Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln used the Rule of Three in his opening line: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people,” cementing his message in the minds of his audience.

3. In Writing and Marketing

In marketing copy, the Rule of Three simplifies your message and makes it more appealing to consumers. Whether it’s crafting headlines, product descriptions, or campaign slogans, using triads is a highly effective tactic for grabbing attention.

• Three Key Benefits : When describing a product or service, focus on three main benefits. For example, a fitness app might highlight “Easy tracking, personalized workouts, and real-time feedback.”
• Three-Part Slogans : Craft slogans and taglines that incorporate three ideas. Slogans like “Just Do It” and “Think Different” have the power of simplicity, but adding a third element can create even more impact, such as “Stop. Think. Decide.”
• Three Calls to Action : End your marketing content with three clear calls to action. For example, on a landing page, you might direct your audience to “Sign up, Learn more, or Contact us.”

In a successful Apple marketing campaign, the slogan “Light. Years ahead.” follows the Rule of Three by introducing a triad concept, leaving an impactful message that highlights the product’s innovation.

Final Thoughts

Carmine Gallo’s Rule of Three offers a simple yet incredibly powerful framework for making your communication more effective and persuasive. By organizing your message into three key points, you can simplify complex ideas, enhance clarity, and boost memorability. Whether you’re delivering a presentation, writing a marketing campaign, or speaking to an audience, the Rule of Three helps you cut through the noise and make your message stick.

Incorporating this principle into your communication can transform your ability to persuade and influence, making your message more impactful and ensuring that your audience walks away remembering what matters most.

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Using the Rule of Three in Presentations

Last updated on July 11th, 2024

One of the most important aspects of making a presentation is to keep in mind the rule of three! This is perhaps one of the most underused techniques, as many presenters are simply unaware of the significance of the rule of three.

Three, The Magic Number

There is a lot that banks on three for success. If you’re a presenter, your audience is likely to remember three aspects of your presentation, i.e. the start, the middle and the end. This is not to say that they shall remember each and every aspect of the aforementioned but rather things that stand out. Hence, you must make sure that you apply the rule of three with some dexterity.

The Most Recognized Lines from Literature & Movies have Three Aspects

But three is not just limited to presentations. Art, literature and visuals, all make use of the rule of 3 . The catchiest phrases are the ones that use this very rule, for example; ‘the good, the bad and the ugly’. Even the most recognized pieces of literature, such as ‘ Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none’ – William Shakespeare .

Great Leaders Have used the Rule of Three

The rule of three has also been used by great leaders in their speeches and in defining attributes for their countrymen to follow. Here are a few examples:

• ‘Never, never, never give up’ – Winston Churchill
• ‘With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve’. – Muhammad Ali Jinnah
• ‘Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth’. – Abraham Lincoln

The famous quote by Abraham Lincoln is often shortened to ‘ Government of the people, by the people, for the people’. Similarly, the quote by Muhammad Ali Jinnah has been shortened to Unity, Faith, & Discipline’, which after his famous speech became recognized as the three guiding principles of the people of Pakistan.

In all the aforementioned, the rule of three is used. This is not to say that these leaders deliberately used it; however, using the rule comes naturally in speech, especially when one tends to emphasize upon an important point. As a presenter you might want to bear that in mind to make good use of this rule to focus on the key aspects of your presentation. You can also get a few ideas from our posts on  Persuasive Speech Topics .

Rule of three in Composing Visual Images, Math & Computer Programming

The rule of three is also used in composing visual images. Photography, films and painting all use this rule. For example, the rule of thirds is used when making use of guide lines for aligning images. Moreover, the rule of three is also used in computer programming such as C++, mathematics, statistics, economics, business concepts, etc.

When making presentations, you need to remember how to incorporate the rule of three best. Below are a few ideas to help you do just that.

1. Divide Your Presentation in Three Parts

You might want to focus on the three key aspects of your presentation, i.e. the beginning, the middle and the end. To make each of them meaningful, make sure you are able to indulge your audience with meaningful information that would help them connect all three of the aforementioned. For example, you can start with a memorable phrase to set the tone. When discussing key findings, try to focus on only the essential bits, followed by a conclusion that can leave your audience with a memory of the concluding bits (e.g. a call to action).

2. Use Catchy Phrases using the Rule of Three

You can use the rule of three for the three parts of your presentation. Say, your presentation is about the environment, you can divide it in three parts as; ‘identification, mitigation and conservation’. In this case you can start with your presentation by highlighting problems, followed by the middle of your presentation where you give mitigation strategies, followed by the conclusion which may emphasize on conservation of the environment.

You can use the rule of three to make your presentation memorable by allowing your audience to focus on three key aspects, i.e. ‘identification, mitigation and conservation’.

3. Use Visual Images using the Rule of Three

There are a number of ways you can apply the rule of three to visual imagery. One method is to use isometric images and templates. In previous posts we have already explained the benefits of using Isometric PowerPoint Templates & Clipart . This type of images are three dimensional and give the illusion of more depth than 2D images, making them more memorable and visually appealing.

Similarly, you can use other types of 3D imagery which can be pivotally placed in slides to emphasize an important point. Another method of making good visual use of the rule of three in presentations can be to use three dimensional videos or images which have three essential aspects, such as the ground, the mountains and the horizon.

Here is a tutorial which shows you how to add a video frame in PowerPoint slides . This tutorial also uses the rule of three in visual imagery, as the there are three key aspects of the slide, i.e. the background, video frame and the video running inside it.

When applying the rule of three to your presentations, be it in your presentation speech, visuals or the general outline of your presentation, you will find it easier to get your message across and make your presentations more memorable. You may apply this rule with other relevant rules, like the 5/5/5 rule for presentations or the PowerPoint 7×7 rule .

About Farshad

IT professional, communications specialist and Blogger!

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October 13, 2021

Using the Rule of 3 to elevate your presentations

"We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground." – Abraham Lincoln using the Rule of 3 in the Gettysburg Address

When we bring up the Rule of 3 in our public speaking workshops, we're surprised to find that many people don't seem to know what it is.

Yet, we know they do. Maybe they're not aware of it. Or maybe they've never heard it called by a name. But the pattern of threes is something we all encounter a lot: three little pigs, three bears, love triangles in the stories we've heard all our lives. Patterns of three in famous speeches. Three characters or three elements in a joke.

What is this Rule of 3 and why do we like it?

In writing and storytelling, it's the idea that a series of three is more engaging, more exciting, or more memorable than groups with fewer or more elements. 

Some people say this is because three is the fewest number required to make a pattern and that human beings love patterns.

Others talk about the inherent tension in the odd number of three (love triangle, for example) and how five introduces too many elements (thus the scarcity of love pentagons in literature).

And there's some evidence out there that using three promotes clarity and recall, including a few articles about how the Marine Corps is structured in threes to promote stronger response during combat.

"There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and engineers." – Legendary banker Baron Rothschild, using the Rule of 3 with a twist

How you can make it work for you

There are a number of ways to use the rule of three to enhance our messages, but we’ll just give you (you guessed it) three for now:

Use three to organize your thoughts quickly. If you have to give an impromptu talk or no-notice update in a meeting, organize your message into three points to support your topic. You can enumerate them or not . But having a main message and three points gives you structure when there's not much time to prepare—and you've got the Rule of 3 backing you up , making you sound on top of it.

Apply the rule to get a story under control. Stories in business presentations can fall flat because either they lack tension or they go on too long. The Rule of 3 can help you get a sprawling story under control (just use three details to set the scene, for example). It can also help you create some drama if you use it the way traditional storytellers do —with a progression of three experiences that enable your main character to learn.

Create a pattern with an unexpected twist. You can also use the Rule of 3 to bring surprise or bit of humor to a presentation, two great ways to keep an audience interested in your talk. Comedy employs this technique a lot, as in this line often quoted from The Dick Van Dyke Show : "Can I get you anything? Cup of coffee? Doughnut? Toupee?" It works by setting the audience up to expect a certain pattern, then throwing them a curve with item number three.

At least one caution

Don’t let your pattern become a pain for your audience. Any time a speaker uses a technique, there's the risk of over-using it. Audiences catch on. They start to notice the pattern or habit. And then the technique, at best, loses its punch. At worst, it becomes an annoying distraction.

More on the Rule of 3

Here's a bit more on how the Rule of 3 works in traditional storytelling. 

This recent article in The New York Times explores uses of the Rule of 3 and how three has become a magic number for fashion influencers. 

Below, find the beloved School House Rock song and animation,  Three is a Magic Number .

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