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"If it's hard to do, then you're doing it wrong."
- Lynn Doolan

22. HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS LIKE MCKINSEY
McKinsey is one of the most reputed business strategy consultancy firms in the world.

Building the Solution:
"McKinsey will go to the facts first."

Things at McKinsey come in threes:
1. A topic is described in three bullets
2. Create issue trees: Issues are broken down into three sub-issues
3. A solution to a problem has three main components, etc.

"MECE"
The hallmark of problem-solving at McKinsey - every analysis is decomposed such that the issues are:

1. Mutually Exclusive: Each idea is distinct and separate; overlap represents muddled thinking and
2. Collectively Exhaustive: You've covered all the possibilities; you've thought of everything.

The Problem Is Not Always the Problem
"What do you do when you are convinced you are working on the wrong problem?"

Don't Reinvent the Wheel
"Most business problems resemble each other more than they differ."

Don't Make the Facts Fit Your Solution
"No matter how brilliant, insightful, and original you may feel your initial hypothesis to be, you must always be prepared to accept that the facts may prove you wrong. If they do, adjust to the facts."

Make Sure Your Solution Fits Your Client
"The most brilliant solution, backed up by libraries of data and promising billions in extra profits, is useless if your client or business can't implement it."

Sometimes Let the Solution Come to You
"If you get your facts together and do you analyses, the solution will come to you."

Solving Problems that Can't Be Solved
"You have several options to pick from when confronted by a problem that seems too difficult to solve."

80/20 Rule
"If you keep your eyes peeled for examples of 80/20 in your business, you will come up with ways to improve it."

Know Your Solution
"Know your solution so thoroughly that you can explain it clearly and precisely to your client in 30 seconds."

Pluck the Low-Hanging Fruit
"By plucking the low-hanging fruit, by resisting the temptation to hoard your information until some big end-of-study presentation, we make our client more enthusiastic, our jobs easier, and ourselves happier."

Hit Singles
"It's much better to get to first base consistently than to try to hit a home run and strike out 9 times out of 10."

Look at the Big Picture
"When you're feeling swamped by it all, take a metaphorical step back and figure out what it is you're trying to achieve."

"I Don't Know" versus "I Have No Idea"
"Just as you shouldn't accept I have no idea from others, so you shouldn't accept it from yourself, or expect others to accept it from you. This is the flip side of I don't know."

Sell Without Selling
"The no-selling legacy persists at McKinsey because it works very well in the consulting business. The Firm waits for the phone to ring."

Structuring an Engagement
"Before you go hot footing in search of a solution, get a feel for the scope of the problem."

Teams
"As a team leader, you should make an effort to promote team bonding; just make sure it doesn't become a chore."

Doing Research
"Learn from others' successes and mistakes. Leverage your valuable time and don't reinvent the wheel."

Conducting Interviews
"When you're picking people's brains, ask questions and then let them do the talking. Keep the interview on track by breaking in when necessary."

Brainstorming
"Brainstorming is the sine qua non of strategic consulting."

Selling Your Solution
"A presentation reflects the thinking of the person or team that put it together."

Internal Communications
"Meetings form the glue that holds your team together."

Working with Clients
"The first thing to do when working with a client team is get them on your side. Make sure that they want to help you."
- THE MCKINSEY WAY , Ethan Rasiel, McGraw Hill Professional Book Group, 1999

23. HOW TO SOLVE IT
George Pólya's 1945 book How to Solve It suggests the following steps when solving a mathematical problem:

1. First, you have to understand the problem.
2. After understanding, then make a plan.
3. Carry out the plan.
4. Look back on your work. How could it be better?

If this technique fails, Polya advises: "If you can't solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can solve: find it." Or: "If you cannot solve the proposed problem try to solve first some related problem. Could you imagine a more accessible related problem?"

24. THE 8-STEP ‘SIMPLEX’ METHOD
1. What is the problem?
2. Get the facts – all the facts.
3. Ask yourself: Why did the problem arise? What’s stopping you?
4. Generate ideas to solve the problem.
5. Select the best solution & evaluate it: Use the Six thinking Hats or do a Cost/Benefit exercise.
6. Plan how will you implement the solution.
7. Sell your solution to others: If there are other people involved in the process – your boss, for example.
8. Do it now – implement your solution.

25. SOLVE PROBLEMS BY DRAWING PICTURES
Next time you face a business problem, try this on your own:

1. Draw a small circle in the middle of a page and label it "my business" (or "me").
2. Now, off to one side, draw a larger second circle, and call it "my customers".
3. Draw an arrow between the circles, and label it "my sales channel".
4. Add a few words describing that channel: is it "good", "needs improvement", "solid", "stretched", etc.
5. On the other side of the "my customer" circle, draw a third circle and call it "my competitor".
6. Is this circle bigger than yours? Is it closer to your customers, or further away? Think about what you're starting to see here in the relationships of these circles, and note down any thoughts that occur.
7. Draw an arrow between "competitor" and "customer" and describe that channel.
- Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures

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