What to say while still thinking!

Russell Davies posted an exceptionally helpful video on "how to look clever and knowledgeable when faced with a difficult problem" by using a rule-of-three. In case you're not familiar with the rule-of-three, think about how many times each day you hear someone giving a list with three examples, supporting an argument with three pieces of evidence, or calling your attention to a triplet like The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Western tradition in general tends to favor breaking your subject down into three parts. We might as well use this to our advantage when communicating.

Davies explains the scenario as a meeting where someone has just presented a lot of complex information and then immediately asks for your input without sufficient time to think. His solution is to write down three key concepts from the subject at hand then spend some time exploring the relationships they have with each other. The video provides several examples.

I also recommend this approach as a valid method for understanding new challenges in general. Activity theory, for example, bases human interaction on a three part system of the actor, an objective, and a tool to mediate the activity. This has proven fruitful as a model to learn and discuss many forms of collaborative work effort including application in fields like HCI and user factors. In writing, Kenneth Burke proposed a similar five-part tool to discuss purpose and activity in communication (it's called Dramatism or Burke's Pentad). In each case, what's important isn't the three part or five part structure as much as the activity of breaking a problem into a finite number of parts (five would be a maximum in my opinion) and examining the relationships they share with each other.

By the way, Russell Davies is not the same as Russell T. Davies, script writer and re-creator of the Doctor Who franchise. Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series is, in my opinion, the best season of the show! The Doctor, The Master, and Blink...what's not to love? (Oh, there's one of those pesky triples again).