Page 148 - The McKinsey Mind

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PresentingYour Ideas 123

when presenting it to the company, I used terms that were
familiar to them, and I used an approach that was familiar to
them. I didn’t use the consulting methodology—the consult-
ing lingo, if you will—in my presentation; I used theirs. I’m
sure that’s one reason my presentation was so well received.

Bear in mind that not only do different organizations have dif-
ferent languages; even different parts of the same organization can
have different languages. You would not want to give the same
presentation to, say, your company’s board of directors and the
drivers of your delivery trucks. It’s nothing to do with how much
smarter one is than the other, but that each group has different
expectations, different goals, and a different language. These dif-
ferences require you to tailor your message to each group.

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDANCE
The earlier you can start the prewiring process, the better. By iden-
tifying and getting input from the relevant players early on, you
allow them to put their own mark on your solution, which will
make them more comfortable with it and give them a stake in the
outcome. You also give those outside your team a chance to expose
any errors you may have made or opportunities you may have
missed, and you still have time to correct them.
When it comes to tailoring, however, sometimes you have to
act on the fly. A good presentation structure will give you the flex-
ibility to change your pitch depending on the audience’s reaction.
You should never be so locked in to your script that you can’t devi-
ate from it if the occasion demands. Here’s an example, courtesy of
Bob Garda. In this case, he was actually a McKinsey client while
taking a sabbatical to act as the temporary CEO of a major met-
ropolitan utility: