pronounced mee-see
The basic idea is simple that lists should be complete and of equal footing.
Mece is a tool created by a leading business strategy firm. It stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive, and dictates the relationship of content.
Being good at strategy goes hand-in-hand with being good at creating lists.
examples:
North, South, East, West is a mece list
Profit = Revenue - cost is a mece list
0-21, 22-45, 46+ is technically mece as no groups overlap but it isn’t good for strategy as its too fine grained and lacks clarity.
When tasked with providing a list of recommendations, ensure the list is mece - although this might not be visible in a proposal is can be referenced to show thorough thought processes and that you have done your homework.
Then from the list of acceptable options rank them in Good, Better, and Best (which is also mece - as adding Horrible as an option wouldn’t be appropriate in the category of ‘acceptable’ options.
Organising lists this where will give you and executives confidence that all things have been considered.
Using Mece as a lens to view others work will improve your powers of analysis, will improve team work as they will see the value.