Page 31 - The McKinsey Mind

01 (001-030B) chapter 01 1/29/02 4:48 PM Page 9

Framing the Problem 9

We framed the issue very clearly: What is the problem?
What are its dimensions? What are we going to do? And it
laid out a number of things that we could try in a limited
way to increase our chances of success. We covered the var-
ious issues stemming from each problem: you might want
to do something, but is it achievable, do we have the

resources financially, can we get the congressional support,
and what are the political ramifications?
Now that you’ve seen how useful structured thinking can be

in almost any sort of organization, let’s discuss how you can apply
it in your own business and career.
TEAMFLY

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDANCE
As we’ve seen, structured thinking is an important element in any
businessperson’s problem-solving arsenal. How should you use this
weapon? First, you must understand that structure doesn’t exist
in a vacuum; you have to wield it with a goal in mind. In the con-
text of framing and solving business problems, your goal is to

bring order out of chaos.
Today’s executives and entrepreneurs have access to far more
information than they can possibly use. They can manage this sur-
feit of data only by filtering out all but the most relevant facts. The
appropriate structured framework will allow you to do this much
more efficiently, thereby increasing the probability that you will

arrive at a solution in a reasonable amount of time—and add value
to your business. As Omowale Crenshaw observes:
One of the things that was very clear from my McKinsey

experience—and this definitely applies in an entrepreneur-
ial environment—was that the skill set that I have allows me
to make some sense of ambiguity, of all the possible paths we

®
Team-Fly