The Power of Three: Why Leaders Should Keep It Simple
Tools Week 5
By Rick Aman onThe triangle is a perfect figure because it is the simplest form that encloses space. The power of three is the power of stability. - G.K. Chesterton – The Orthodoxy
As a higher ed consultant working with boards, presidents and leadership teams, I’ve learned that complexity is the greatest enemy of focus. Rooms I’ve stepped into, whether a board retreat, an executive session, or a strategy workshop tend to be filled with competing priorities, endless initiatives, and too many voices vying for attention.
Over time, I found a simple, but powerful tool to cut through the noise: The power of Three.
The number three shows up everywhere in our lives if you are looking. Across disciplines, traditions, and cultures. It carries a rhythm and weight that feels both natural and complete. Consider how often it appears:
Literature & Storytelling: The three-act structure; fairy tales with three trials, wishes, or bears; poetic triads such as — “Friends, Romans, countrymen.”
Family: The timeless image of father, mother, and child as the foundation of family.
Spiritual Life: The Trinity — Father, Son, and Spirit; the three virtues of faith, hope, and love;
Government & Society: Three branches of government — executive, legislative, judicial; three levels of civic life — local, state, and national.
Science & Nature: Newton’s three laws of motion; three states of matter—solid, liquid, gas; three dimensions of space.
Art & Design: Three primary colors; the rule of thirds in visual composition.
Culture & Everyday Life: Three meals a day; red-yellow-green traffic lights; sayings like- “third time’s the charm.”
Business & Leadership: Three lenses of the future- possible, probable, preferred; Three anchors of strategy- mission, vision, values; Three measures of trust - competence, consistency, care
Why does three keep surfacing? Because it represents balance, clarity, and completeness. Leaders who embrace it discover a rhythm that sharpens focus, simplifies complexity, and inspires follow-through.
Three Creates Memorability: Balance
In leadership, being remembered is half the battle. In a world of information overload, long lists get lost, but threes endure. One idea feels thin, two ideas feel unfinished, but three strikes balance. That’s why phrases like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or faith, hope, and love are etched in our minds. They balance depth with simplicity. For organizational resilience there are: mission, vision, values.
In my own work, I’ve seen boards latch onto three themes or three priorities with surprising staying power. Months after a retreat, people can still recite them without notes. That balance is what makes strategy memorable, and memorability is what makes vision stick.
Three Brings Clarity: Clarity
Clarity is often the hardest outcome for leadership teams to reach. I’ve sat in meetings where boards tried to juggle ten priorities. By the time the tenth was discussed, no one remembered the first. When we narrowed the conversation to three, the approach changed. The board began to wrestle with what truly mattered. What would they stand behind? What could they put aside? Choosing three requires discipline, but it also created freedom. With clarity came focus, and with focus came energy. Remember there is a difference between “no” and “not now.” I’ve watched institutions achieve far more with three strategic initiatives than with sprawling plans of a dozen goals. Clarity comes not from doing everything, but from choosing what matters most.
Three Drives Persuasion: Completeness
Three is persuasive because it feels complete. Audiences instinctively trust it. I’ve witnessed this in board retreats where strategy was framed around three big themes. Trustees didn’t just understand it they adopted it. They repeated it, used it in their own circles, and rallied around it. The completeness of three gave them ownership.
In business, I’ve seen the same principle. A CEO who once tracked dozens of metrics realigned his team around three: financial sustainability, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. The shift was dramatic. Conversations sharpened, meetings became more productive, and people spoke the same language. Completeness brought alignment.
The Power of Three in Leadership
The power of three is more than a clever communication device, it is a way of leading. When leaders discipline themselves to frame strategy, goals, and messages in threes, the atmosphere shifts. Complexity begins to dissolve, and what emerges is direction that feels balanced, clear, and complete.
The same holds true in higher education. In my work with colleges on strategic planning, I often encouraged leaders to discipline themselves to identify just three themes that would shape their preferred future. Instead of generating a laundry list of ten or twenty goals, most of which would be forgotten or ignored, I encourage they select three strategic initiatives that captured the heart of where they wanted to go. The effect can be striking. Faculty and staff could recall them without looking at a document. Students and community partners could repeat them in conversation. Trustees could carry them with confidence into their own circles of influence. That kind of clarity created momentum. Strategy no longer lived on paper; it became something people talked about, remembered, and acted upon.
The reason this works is both practical and deeply human. One idea feels too thin; two often feels incomplete. But three has rhythm. It balances simplicity with completeness, broad enough to feel whole without being overwhelming. Leaders who frame their vision in threes give people a map that is easy to hold in their heads and hearts, guiding both daily decisions and long-term direction. In doing so, they tap into something timeless. Three feels natural, memorable, and enduring. “The number three has a peculiar charm, a resonance in the mind beyond other numbers.” — H.G. Wells, A Short History of the World
Three Ways to Apply the Power of Three
1. Frame strategy in three themes. Whether in a strategic plan or a board retreat, identify the three priorities that will carry the organization forward.
2. Limit dashboards to three metrics. In business or higher ed, choose three measures that reflect true success and use them consistently to align teams.
3. Communicate vision in three phrases. A vision that can be repeated in three short, memorable statements is far more likely to inspire and endure.
Leadership is not about saying more; it’s about saying what matters in a way that endures. The number three provides the rhythm to do just that. It creates balance, sharpens clarity, and communicates completeness. As I look back on my years as a president and now as a consultant, I’ve seen the power of three make the difference between confusion and direction, between scattered energy and focused momentum.
Three values, clearly stated and consistently lived, can align an organization better than a hundred policies. — Stephen Covey – Principle-Centered Leadership.
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At Aman & Associates, we help boards and executive teams cut through complexity and define the three things that matter most. When an organization finds its three, it finds balance, clarity, and completeness and with that, the energy to pursue its preferred future.
Rick Aman, PhD – Aman and Associates
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