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54 The McKinsey Mind

collection efforts in your organization is to assess your particular
situation honestly. Is the culture in your company more or less fact
based? Do colleagues present their ideas with factual support? Do
the decision makers explain the basis of their choices with refer-
ence to evidence? Naturally, there will be variance within the orga-
nization, but you shouldn’t take long to diagnose the dominant
orientation, if you can’t pinpoint it already.
Once you’ve analyzed your organization, you can begin
redressing any imbalances that you discover, particularly the
aspects you can control. Start within your sphere of influence—
your direct reports and department. If necessary, take a grassroots
approach to spreading the word. Of course, if you have the lux-
ury of building a department or company from scratch, you can
start from a fact-based orientation. Before you can determine the
right balance for your organization, however, you need to follow
the ancient maxim “Know thyself.”
Demonstrate the power of good facts. Dan Veto left McKin-
sey to form the strategic planning group of the huge conglomerate
Conseco. He used his skill at gathering, synthesizing, and commu-
nicating facts to earn the respect of his internal clients, the divi-
sion presidents:

I was new to the organization and in charge of building cred-
ibility for a newly created group within the company. I
wanted to make the new strategy group contribute to the
overall company’s success as quickly as possible. It took a
couple of months, but I was able to establish critical, credi-
ble relationships with the SBU [strategic business unit] heads,
who are, in essence, our clients. My strategy, based on my
McKinsey experiences, was to have our team focus on pro-
viding fact-based insights using information that previously
had not been shared among the business units.