Chapter 4 First, Find the "Right Thing"

The process of work is the process of solving problems one by one.Sometimes a problem comes to your desk for you to work on.The problem itself is fairly clear, and so is the solution.However, no matter which direction you want to rush and want to start from that place first, the correct way to work can only be: before that, please make sure that you are solving the right problem-it is very likely that it is not a previously assigned problem. That question for you. A McKinsey alumnus with a background in science and engineering told me that the way to do great work is as organic and complex as problems in medicine.The patient came to the doctor's office and said he had a slight fever.He would tell the doctor about his symptoms: sore throat, headache, stuffy nose.Physicians don't immediately trust a patient's conclusions.He would dig through the medical records, ask probing questions, and make his own diagnosis.The patient may have a fever, a cold, or something more serious, but the doctor will not rely on the patient's own judgment to make a diagnosis.

At McKinsey, we found that clients often had no stronger diagnosis of themselves than a doctor's patient, and sometimes the questions they brought us were extremely unclear.When I was doing my first study at the firm, our team was tasked with helping a New York investment bank "increase profitability," which was like a patient telling a doctor, "I don't feel well."In another case, a McKinsey team went to evaluate expansion opportunities for a division of a manufacturing company.After several weeks of data gathering and analysis, the team realized that what the branch needed was not to expand, but to close or sell.

The only way to find out if the problem you're being handed is a real problem is to dig deeper and gather facts, ask questions, and shop around.Generally, it doesn't take long before you can figure out whether you are going in the right direction. When black-and-white TVs are in the mature stage and color TVs are just in the ascendant, if black-and-white TVs are still selected as the target product, no matter how high its production efficiency is, this product will definitely be unsalable.While improving productivity is doing the right thing, doing the wrong thing can lead to huge losses.

What do you do when you're convinced you're racking your brain with the wrong problem?When a doctor thinks a patient's mild symptoms are masking something more serious, he will tell his patient: "Mr. Jones, I can treat your headache, but I think it's a symptom of something more serious. , and I'll check further." In the same way, you should go to your client or your boss—whoever asked for your input in the first place—and tell him, "You let me find out. Problem X, but the real impact on our performance comes from solving problem Y. If you really want to, I can solve problem X now, but I think it is in our interest to focus on Y. "

If you have supporting material, the client can either accept your suggestion or let you move on to the original issue, but you have done your duty to act in the client's best interest. This is the working principle of McKinsey, to do things right, but also to do the right thing.Finding the "right question" first is the first step in doing the right thing.