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118 The McKinsey Mind

sentation: prewiring. At McKinsey, consultants learn to prewire
every presentation.
Doing so has several advantages. It keeps you from getting
blindsided by major objections to your solution. It also helps you
build a consensus in favor of your solution among those who have
to approve or implement it. It gives you a chance to adapt your
solution to the political realities of your organization. Finally, it
acts as an additional reality check on your findings. These conse-
quences will improve the likelihood that your solution will be
approved and implemented.

LESSONS LEARNED AND IMPLEMENTATION
ILLUSTRATIONS
Because they want to be effective in their organizations, McKin-
sey alumni work hard at getting buy-in. Practically everyone who
talked to us or returned a questionnaire mentioned the value of this
strategy. We boiled their experiences down to two lessons:

• Avoid surprises.
• Tailor your presentation to your audience.

Avoid surprises. In business, people don’t like surprises. By sur-
prises, we don’t mean getting an extra day off or a bigger than
expected bonus; we mean new information that forces decision
makers to change their plans or alter their procedures. That’s why
risky investments like small stocks have higher expected returns
than safe investments like government bonds. Prewiring reduces
your potential for surprises. It also acts as a check on your solu-
tions because those who review your recommendations may men-
tion something that you missed in your research and just might
change your results.