MECE principle

The MECE principle, pronounced "ME-see",[1][2][3] is a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets that are mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE).[4] It was developed in the late 1960s by Barbara Minto at McKinsey & Company and underlies her Minto Pyramid Principle,[3] and is based on ideas going back as far as Aristotle.

This article is about the principle of "mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive". For the settlement in Croatia, see Mece.

The MECE principle is useful in the business mapping process wherein the optimum arrangement of information is exhaustive and does not double count at any level of the hierarchy. Examples of MECE arrangements include categorizing people by year of birth (assuming all years are known). A non-MECE example would be categorization by nationality, because nationalities are neither mutually exclusive (some people have dual nationality) nor collectively exhaustive (some people have none).

Common uses

Strategy consultants use MECE problem structuring to break down client problems into logical, clean buckets of analysis that they can then hand out as work streams to consulting staff on the project. [5]

Similarly, MECE can be used in technical problem solving and communication. In some technical project like Six Sigma projects the most effect method of communication is not the same as the problem solving process. In Six Sigma the DMAIC process is used but executive audiences looking for summary or overviews may not be interested in the details. By reorganizing the information using MECE and the related SCQA story telling framework the point of the topic can addressed quickly and supported with appropriate detail. The result is far more effective communication.[6]

Criticisms

The MECE concept has been criticized for not being exhaustive, as it doesn't exclude superfluous/extraneous items.[7]

Also, MECE thinking can be too limiting as mutual exclusiveness is not necessarily desirable. For instance, while it may be desirable to classify the answers to a question in a MECE framework so as to consider all of them exactly once, forcing the answers themselves to be MECE can be unnecessarily limiting.[8]

Another attribute of MECE thinking is that, by definition, it precludes redundancies. However, there are cases where redundancies are desirable or even necessary.[9]

See also

References
  1. Kivestu, Kenton "What is the MECE Principle?" YouTube, Rocketblocks channel
  2. Cavano, Katharina "3 Steps to a Faster Moving Sales Pipeline"
  3. Minto, Barbara. "MECE: I invented it, so I get to say how to pronounce it". McKinsey Alumni Center. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  4. Spencer, Tom (January 30, 2013). "MECE Framework". tomspencer.com. Consulting Frameworks.
  5. "What is the MECE principle? A deep dive into the problem structuring framework". rocketblocks.me. May 23, 2017.
  6. Pruitt, W. Frazier (May 2020). "Some Assembly Required". asq.org. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  7. van Gelder, Tim (June 4, 2010). "What is MECE, and is it MECE?". timvangelder.com.
  8. "MECE vs ICE". faculty.msb.edu. Homa Help Site. Archived from the original on 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2014-11-12.
  9. Chevallier, Arnaud (2016). Strategic Thinking in Complex Problem Solving. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 78.
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