Here are sample solutions to the Pyramid Principle exercises, submitted by fellow readers of “How to Be Strategic”. For recollection, these exercises ask you to build a pyramid under the desired outcome of “My life is a great success in 10 years’ time”. You can click on any of the blank templates below to print or download them. Scroll down the page to find the sample solutions. As usual, please do the exercises yourself before you look at the solutions! You can send us your own sample solution by clicking here.

Pyramid Exercise #1: Isabelle’s Life

Are you sure you want to look at solutions yet? … Why don’t you go back up the page, print the blank template, and have another go yourself first? When you’re done, the sample solutions below will still be there - and they’ll be a lot more useful to you after you’ve had a go at the exercise on your own!

Pyramid Exercise #2: Your Life

Other Pyramid Examples

Some readers start applying the Pyramid Principle right away to lots of other issues. You will find a few examples below, and we naturally invite you to share your own output by clicking here.

This first example was an exercise carried out in June 2020 by Fred Pelard with a group 20 of university students. The question was: “what kind of job should I look for when I graduate?” In typical Pyramid fashion, we ‘flipped’ this into “I have the perfect job” as seen below.

This second example was an exercise carried out in 2020 by Fred Pelard during a training session. The question was: “will Korn Ferry manage to recover from COVID-19?” Hence the draft pyramid below.

This third example was volunteered by 3 alumni of Fred’s training. Their question was: “how can Universal Music beat Simon Cowell at Christmas?”