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186 The McKinsey Mind

making process, and how to get your ideas across to your audience
to help make change happen in your organization.
If there is one broad theme that connects all the elements of our
model of the McKinsey Mind—analyzing, presenting, and man-
aging—it is truth. The goal of problem solving is, after all, to
uncover the truth and communicate it. That is how correct deci-
sions get made and positive changes effected. But truth and the
search for truth are more than mere tools that increase shareholder
value. They are hallmarks of a free market and a free society, for
without truth we cannot control our individual destinies nor gen-
erate the progress on which a dynamic society depends. As has
been said since before the days of the ancient Greeks, when truth
loses out to falsehood and superstition, freedom loses out to despo-
tism and barbarism.
Even beyond that, however, truth carries an even higher sig-
nificance. In the Talmud, the collection of rabbinic teachings on
Jewish law written down some 1,800 years ago, the sage Simon
ben Gamliel says, “Upon three things does the world rely: upon
justice, upon truth, and upon harmony.” And of these three, truth
is the most important, for without truth there can be no justice,
and a harmony based on falsehood will eventually collapse into
acrimony and strife.
This last discussion has taken us a long way from problem-
solving tools and management techniques. Compared to the
preservation of a just and free society, improving the profitability
of Acme Industry’s thrum-mat division might seem like small pota-
toes. Maybe, but as individuals we have to start close to home,
within our own spheres of action. Find the truth wherever you can,
and the world will be a little bit better for it. We hope this book
helps you in your quest.