52 CREATE THE STORY
commands three rifle teams in a squad; a captain has three pla-
toons; and so on. If the marines were kind enough to study this
stuff, why should we reinvent the wheel? Go ahead and use it.
So few communicators incorporate the rule of three in their pre-
sentations that you will stand apart simply by doing so. The rule
of three—it works for the marines, it works for Jobs, and it will
work for you.
At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 6,
2005, Jobs announced the switch from IBM’s PowerPC chips to
Intel microprocessors. “Let’s talk about transitions,” Jobs said.The Mac in its history has had two major transitions so far
[begins to outline three points]. The first one, 68K to PowerPC.
That transition happened about ten years ago in the mid-
nineties. The PowerPC set Apple up for the next decade. It
was a good move. The second major transition has been evenDuring a break from writing this chapter, I took a golf lesson
from a local coach. Any golfer will tell you that the toughest
part of the game is remembering the dozens of small moves
that ultimately result in a fluid swing: posture, grip, takeaway,
balance, hinging, weight shift, follow-through, and other
variables. Problems occur when you think about too many
things at the same time. The marines have found that giving
directions in groups of three makes it easier for soldiers to fol-
low the directions. So, I asked my instructor to give me three
directives, and three only, to improve my swing. “Fine,” he said.
“Today you’re going to focus on closing your hips, shifting
your weight to the right side on the backswing, and making a
full follow-through. So, think hips, shift, follow-through.” Hips,
shift, follow. That’s it. The instruction worked wonders, and
since that day, my golf game has improved considerably. The
rule of three—good for presentations and good for golf, too!How the Rule of Three Can Improve Your Golf Game