Why you should make sure your team uses MECE frameworks

I know what you’re thinking…

The reader is joking that the writer of this article is using consulting buzz words

If you don’t already know what MECE stands for, here is a refresher:

Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive

What it means to Wikipedia:

The MECE principle, pronounced "ME-see", is a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets that are mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE).

What is means to me:

The framework you are using has covered everything that matters, and none if it overlaps in a meaningful way.

What it means to painters:

Examples of what is and is not mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive using paint

The frameworks that people use regularly are all MECE:

Demonstration that the Pros and Cons framework is MECE

Demonstration that the SWOT framework is MECE

Demonstration that the Hogwarts Houses is MECE in a joking way

Consultants use MECE frameworks to build strategies. Why are MECE frameworks so important to building strategies you ask?

Because strategy is just an agreed-upon path forward. The best way to get everybody to agree upon a path forward is to show them on a map.

MECE frameworks make for really good maps.

To show you why that’s the case, let’s spend some time in the world of Illustratia, where the local population (the Illustrations) haven’t discovered the importance of MECE maps yet.

A simple map with land and water and an X on it that a boat must travel to

The problem with Illustratia is the cartography industry was just getting started, and nobody had learned to draw MECE maps yet.

This made choosing a path forward very difficult..

Sometimes, you had maps that weren’t mutually exclusive:

A blurry map that will cause you to make a mistake

…which didn’t allow them to distinguish between land and water.

Sometimes, you had maps that weren’t collectively exhaustive:

…which left out important information.

Eventually, the Illustrations grounded enough ships to recognize the importance of having a map that had all the information in one place for them (collectively exhaustive) and had clear enough separation between the lines (mutually exclusive).

This allowed them to feel confident that they had the right information to chart their path forward.

For consultants specifically, the bonus of a MECE framework is that even when they are high-level, they still contain enough information to set a direction.