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4 The McKinsey Mind

discussions with McKinsey alumni have led us to several specific
conclusions about the suitability and adaptability of structured
thinking:

• Without structure, your ideas won’t stand up.
• Use structure to strengthen your thinking.

Let’s see what these lessons look like in practice.
Without structure, your ideas won’t stand up. Think about
your company and the way you and your colleagues formulate and
present business ideas. Do you use a consistent structure or at least
emphasize the need for internal coherence and logic in your prob-
lem solving? Or do people usually arrive at decisions ad hoc,
without a recognizable structure or factual support? When
McKinsey-ites exit the Firm, they are often shocked by the sloppy
thinking processes prevalent in many organizations.
Most of us are not blessed from birth with the ability to think
in a rigorous, structured manner; we have to learn how. Unfortu-
nately, that skill is not part of most university curricula, and few
companies have the resources or the inclination to teach it to their
employees. McKinsey and some other strategy-consulting firms are
exceptions to this pattern. Even some of the most highly regarded
companies in American business don’t always stress structured
problem solving, as Bill Ross learned when he joined the Trans-
portation Division of General Electric:

GE people move quickly when new situations arise. It’s part
of the culture. The mind-set seems to be “once we have iden-
tified an issue, let’s wrestle it to the ground and move
quickly,” and they’re great at doing it. Rarely do people take
the time to examine the issue and develop a clear plan of
action. The structured approach really surprises a lot of peo-