The Power of Three

I’ve been noticing the power of three a lot recently.

It all started after a conversation with my uncle, who has been visiting from Newfoundland. A lifelong Everton fan (football), he was dissecting their recent form and our conversation turned to hat-tricks. The men’s team last celebrated a hat-trick back in 2020 whilst Ornella Vignola scored her debut hat-trick in September of this year.  

It must have been this conversation that triggered my attention to the power of three and the extent to which it shows up everywhere.

And in international schools

It is everywhere; three steps, three pillars, three essentials. The World Economic Forum uses it to structure its newsletters: Three Workplace Trends, Three Climate Trends for example.

It can look like packaging. A neat way to make ideas feel simple. Something designed to catch attention rather than deepen thinking.

But look deeper and something else is happening. International educators work in systems that are layered and constantly shifting. They need structures that offer clarity without oversimplifying the lived reality of leading in a school. How can the power of three be helpful?

Firstly, three is the smallest number that creates a pattern. Our brain recognises patterns quickly. Two points feels like either or thinking but a three-point structure allows for the middle ground, it allows for nuance.

A list of five or seven points can sound overwhelming whereas a list of two can feel incomplete. Three hits the balance between depth and accessibility. Communication built around three points, three phrases, has a natural rhythm. It feels whole. This is why thought leadership pieces such as the World Economic Forum newsletters use this structure.

My thought partner, Chat GPT pointed out that by committing to just three points, individuals are forced to choose what matters most. This, it stated, reduces noise and increases impact. As I write this, I realise that my own leadership mantra has three elements: Be Curious, Have Belief, Maximise Impact. It took time for me to reflect and challenge my beliefs around leadership to distil it into three elements, so Chat GPT might have a point.

Whether conscious or part of our subconscious, a three-part approach to communication is one that people intuitively trust.

Building on this, it is a structure that is easy to remember. Cognitive research shows that people recall information best when it’s grouped in small chunks, so it can be helpful when building commitment around a shared vision or plan and when communicating with multiple stakeholders.

Secondly, whilst the power of three is in part down to its effectiveness as a communication tool, for me its impact comes from the fact that it invites movement and momentum from a starting point to a given end point and is a cycle that can repeat and become sustainable. A strong three-part model often has a sense of flow. It can help simplify complex change management.

At its core, a complex school development plan can be distilled down to Plan, Do, Review. This isn’t to ignore the analysis that goes on during each stage, at varying levels of detail and involving different teams over time. However, for middle leaders looking to take on a more strategic role and feeling overwhelmed it can sometimes be helpful to break the process down.

Finally, the power of three can also lend itself to developing a coaching culture within an organisation. I will explore this in my next blog.

I’m not for a minute suggesting that everything within international education can or should be wrapped up neatly into a three-point framework but the fact that the power of three is all around us and has been for a very long time must speak to its effectiveness when applied to the right context.

Do we use the power of three because it has become a polished marketing trick, repeated so often that we no longer question it? Or is it a genuinely powerful framework for international educators navigating complexity?

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