The McKinsey Engagement

by Paul N. Friga

  Collaboration. Team dynamics were principally collaborative rather than competitive. Whenever anybody seemed to hit a wall, others would try to help. All the team members treated their teammates' problems as their own. One phrase that we used was "making eagles fly together"—the team was full of brilliant people who were very successful individually, but they were also able to work closely and to collaborate to achieve the goals that the team had initially set.

  In assigning specific responsibilities, the engagement managers (partners and associate partners) played an active role. They explained all the roles on the project along with the proposed timeline prior to the beginning of the project, and then they sat with each associate on the team and explained what was expected of him or her (these meetings were short and not very detailed). Then, the associates would think through their tasks/assignments individually, devise an approach, and formulate their own work plans. Each associate then shared his or her approach and work plans with the rest of the team so that everybody understood what everybody else was doing throughout the engagement. This was helpful in keeping everybody on the same page—it helped to make sure that there was no overlap or work redundancy, and conversely, it helped to ensure that nothing slipped through the cracks. Additionally, because we understood other team members' roles and problems, we were able to help direct them to people who might be able to provide assistance (e.g., people who had faced similar problems in the past).

  CASE STUDY

  Put bluntly, there was no chance that we would have finished the project on time without numerous "assists" as described here.

  WHAT WE DID

  One of the best decisions we made throughout the project was to take advantage of all our resources; specifically, we brought in some other students from the consulting academy (a group within the MBA program) to help us with research. After working on the project for a little while, we realized that there was a ton of research to be done—simply too much research for the five of us. We thought creatively about how we could bring more people onto the project most effectively, and we decided to use an already-existing program to meet our needs.

  During "Academy Intensive Week Two," all the students in the consulting academy spend a week of their semester working on a real-life consulting case to gain skills and experience. Because Dr. Friga is the director of the program, he was able to make our Johnson County project the focus of the week (how's that for leveraging your network?). We had an immediate injection of 35 other MBA students to help us with research for the week, which proved to be invaluable. The five of us each led our own group of about five other academy members who helped us to accomplish our own bucket-level goals. Technically, we were called "area experts" instead of team leaders (we didn't want to install any sort of hierarchy), but we all ended up as the natural leaders. After the week, the five of us regrouped and discussed our huge progress, our results, and the implications for the overall project.

  Another area in which we really excelled was leveraging expertise. One example that comes to mind immediately is that I was using my legal experience to map out the legal options available to the community to fill its needs, while another team was evaluating the finances. Because these areas were so intertwined, we helped each other with a lot of research and information that was relevant to both teams. We corresponded frequently, both on simple matters (e.g., an estimate of a certain expense) and on complex, high-level matters (e.g., general cost/service trade-offs and priori-tization of long-term goals).

  WHAT I LEARNED

  While working on the Johnson County project, I witnessed how important it is to make use of people's talents, skills, and interests. I believe that when each person is matched with a responsibility that he or she embraces, there are better results for two reasons: first, people with relevant existing knowledge can execute related tasks better than individuals who are approaching a topic cold, and second, when people like what they are doing, they're just better at it. The people who are really at the top of their game are always the people who truly love what they do.

  I also learned to be creative in utilizing resources and getting help from others. Most notably, I would have never thought to call in the whole Consulting Academy to help with research, but it proved invaluable. Because of our strict time constraints and the sheer quantity of work we needed to accomplish, we needed all the extra help we could get!

  DELIVERABLES

  Figure 3-2 Assist: Status Report

  4

  MOTIVATE

  Figure 4-1 TEAM FOCUS Model—Motivate

  CONCEPT

  Think back to the last team project you worked on. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being completely unmotivated and 10 being the lead cheerleader, how motivated were you? Now assess how motivated your teammates were and also try to identify what motivated them. There were probably varying levels of motivation and sources of motivation on that team—in fact, this is the case for most teams. It is obvious that an unmotivated person (or, even worse, a negatively motivated person) on a team can do significant damage to the team's morale, its interactions, and ultimately its overall performance.

  What can we do to increase the motivation and therefore the effort and effectiveness of each team member on a project? The message that is drilled home at McKinsey, and also featured in much research on this topic, is simple to understand but sometimes hard to implement: "Realize that everyone is different and is motivated by different things."

  At a very high level, one tends to focus energy on starting with the following types of motivation for consultants on engagements. Do any of these sound familiar?

  Money: hard, cold cash in the form of bonuses or raises

  Promotion: moving to the next level on the totem pole

  Recognition: nonfinancial praise

  Appreciation: a simple thank-you (or two)

  RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

  Our charge, therefore, is to find a way to deal with the variance in individuals and their underlying sources of motivation.

  RULE 1: IDENTIFY UNIQUE MOTIVATORS

  The starting point is to find a systematic way to understand people's differences. It is not always easy to get a handle on the underlying factors that drive personality differences in order to strategize about how best to increase idiosyncratic motivation. Fortunately, behavioral scientists have made a great deal of progress in terms of understanding personality types and predictable behavior. We have come a long way since Maslow's hierarchy of needs (physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization). There are several personality profiling tools available these days, and most consulting firms and business schools subscribe to one or more of the following:

  MBTI: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

  DISC: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance

  Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN)

  Strengths Finder: "now, discover your strengths"

  These are all valuable metrics, and it doesn't matter very much which one you choose—what's more important is what you do with it. At McKinsey, there is widespread use of the MBTI. In fact, when I joined McKinsey in 1996, all consultants were required to take the Myers-Briggs assessment before starting their first engagement. There was also a mandatory team meeting as projects kicked off during which all team members discussed their MBTI profiles, working styles, and personal preferences (along with "pet peeves"). The widespread use of such a tool allows teammates to have a better understanding of where the others on their team are coming from and gives them a clue as to what may motivate them. One caveat to profiling is that a person's default personality can change over time, and there are always mood swings that affect where a particular person is at any one point in time.

  For example, here are a few key dimensions of personality types that may surface during the MBTI or other personality profile assessments:

  "Outgoingness"—is the person more extroverted or introverted?

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p; "Analytics"—is the person more inductive (moving from data to theory) or deductive (moving from theory to data)?

  "Decisiveness"—is the person quick or slow in decision making?

  "Interpersonal interaction"—what is the person's level of sensitivity to team members?

  After achieving an understanding of the default personality types, the next strategic move is to determine an appropriate, motivating influence style for successful interaction. Again, rather than try to cover influence styles in great detail (other books do this), I will focus on identifying key influence tactics that relate to team problem solving.

  One of the default influence tactics is the authoritarian approach. This involves trying to leverage the authority inherent in a formal title or position in the organization. The truth of the matter is that formal authority goes only so far in terms of motivation (with the possible exception of military organizations during warfare).

  To truly inspire someone, the position you hold needs to be backed up by something more. One incremental influence method is the social approach. This style relies on a personal connection with the members of the team. If you establish a friendly relationship, team members may be motivated to do something because they enjoy interacting with you.

  Finally, I find that the strongest motivating tool is demonstration. If you would like to inspire a certain behavior (in teammates, classmates, or even family members or spouses), a powerful tool is to demonstrate the desired technique. Somewhat related to this is to remember the Golden Rule, which simply suggests that you do unto others as you would have them do unto you. One of the best examples of this is when you sincerely offer to help someone on her piece of the project and provide some positive energy for her. Not only is such a gesture appreciated for the specific task, but it creates a feeling of goodwill that will almost certainly benefit the team as a whole.

  After identifying the personality type of everyone on the team and thinking through interaction strategies, the final step is to develop some unique motivation strategies. One of the best strategies is to focus on the end prize of the entire team's effort. A clear articulation of the benefits to the client or to the organization that you all are part of is quite helpful. A related strategy includes explicit discussions of the personal and professional outcomes each person may realize. For example, these could include recognition, a promotion, or even a financial incentive.

  One additional strategy, valuable in all team interactions, incorporates the idea of competition. It does not have to be an intensive competition, with mega prizes to the winners and shame to the losers; it can be just a spirit of comparison with someone else on the team in terms of performance. As an interesting example, one of my good friends happens to own the best steakhouse in Indianapolis (Tom Trotter of the quaint but excellent La Trattoria restaurant in Greenwood, Indiana), and he claims that competition among his servers seems to keep them motivated and on their toes. He shares data related to overall sales, wine sales, and other performance metrics, and then he lets his servers compete in a friendly way. The results are outstanding, and the service is impeccable.

  RULE 2: POSITIVELY REINFORCE TEAMMATES

  The second Rule of Engagement builds on the discussion in Chapter 3. To my mind, nothing is more motivating than positive feedback for individual accomplishments. Dale Carnegie hit the nail on the head when he observed that the secret to winning friends and influencing people is to focus on them and to share sincere compliments readily. In fact, when I teach this concept to my students, I share a little model developed to guide them through the positive interaction process. Introducing "Paul's Five Ps of Schmoozing":

  Prepare. Observe positive actions in the people around you and know their backgrounds.

  Put others first. This is a great general paradigm to follow in life.

  Praise sincerely. Share your observations, but don't overdo it or seem artificial.

  Pressure no one. When interacting, avoid uncomfortable topics and getting too close.

  Provide value. In addition to the positive reinforcement you offer, find ways to help the person in the future (one of my favorite tools is to send articles that I think the person will be interested in reading).

  It is important that you provide positive reinforcement to team members on a regular basis, especially if they are junior to you in the organization. There must be, however, a limit to the amount of positive feedback you provide. In The McKinsey Mind, we refer to this as the "BS Factor"—a point of diminishing returns after the quantity of feedback reaches an indigestible level. People just don't believe that you are sincere in your reinforcement efforts after a certain point. One tip to ensuring sincerity is to focus your feedback on specific observations you make relating to the person's progress toward one of his or her stated developmental objectives for a given project (see Chapter 2).

  Occasionally, people say that they have to struggle to find something positive to say about a teammate. I suggest that their framing is off. You can always find something positive to say about any person—it just may take a little more looking. Recently, I spoke at my alma mater, Saint Francis University, as part of an innovative Executive/Professor in Residence Program run by my mentor and friend Dr. Randy Frye, and I addressed this topic as I mentioned how important optimism is for success in teamwork. When a person says that he or she is having a difficult time finding the positive, this may be due to the fact that the person is fixated on one or more negatives and cannot move past them. To achieve the harmony we desire in teams, the key is to find and articulate that positive aspect; once you do so, you will see an immediate increase in motivation—not only in the person you are observing, but in yourself as well.

  RULE 3: CELEBRATE ACHIEVEMENTS

  The final Rule of Engagement in this chapter is something that McKinsey and most consulting firms still don't develop as fully as they could. The norm for many engagement teams is to have an intense sprint to the end of the project, with team members working their tails off and producing a fantastic deliverable. Exhausted, they may have one last team dinner, and then they move on to their next project. This is a travesty!

  The benefits of celebrations are widely known but often forgotten. Good energy knows no bounds and feeds off itself. A celebration is a chance to focus on the positive outcomes of a project, such as client impact, achievement of personal objectives, and joint learning. Holding a postcompletion celebration should be a standard operating procedure. To McKinsey's credit, it is normally very generous in supporting such activities; many times, the celebrations are bigger and better than you might imagine. I remember post-engagement celebrations that included limousines, golf outings, fancy dinners, Arizona retreats, spa treatments, and the like.

  My final token of guidance related to celebrations includes the critical success factors for a good postengagement celebration. First and foremost, all team members must be included, from the administrative assistant to the head partner. I have also seen great celebrations that included team members from the client as well. Second, the venue must be a bit different—the standard team dinner just doesn't cut it. If it is a dinner, it must be either at a fun location or very, very fancy. One of my favorite places to take my students during a celebration event is the ESPN Zone, where we can eat, drink, and play all kinds of sporting games. Speaking of games, bowling can also be a fun team-celebration venue—and, of course, you would have to have a friendly competition (as described in an earlier section). The last critical success factor is that, while there can be some discussion of positive observations from the project, the general rule is no shop talk! This is a time to bond, to have fun, and to get to know one another in an informal way. There are separate opportunities for reflection and learning from the engagements, but not during the celebration.

  My overall point is that you shouldn't underestimate the importance of good, old-fashioned celebrations after current and future engagements. As we get older, many of us start losing this insight!

  O
PERATING TACTICS

  The Operating Tactics for the Motivate element of the TEAM FOCUS model are:

  Tactic 18: Identify and discuss one primary and one secondary motivator for each person (the source of energy for that team member).

  Tactic 19: Give praise for and celebrate each major team milestone; share compliments with team members on a daily basis.

  Tactic 20: Have a social gathering after the project is complete.

  STORIES FROM THE FIELD

  STORY FROM THE FIELD—1

  Topic: Personal responsibility and coaching help to motivate a young associate. Our first story from the field comes from ex-McKinsey consultant Prof. Dr. Florian Pfeffel, who is currently with accadis Hochschule Bad Homburg in Germany. Florian recalls how important ownership and autonomy are for motivation while on consulting engagements.

  Motivation is a critical component of successful projects. This is especially true for young and new consultants who join your team. I was on a project once at a mobile operator, and after a few weeks of the engagement, the partners and directors weren't happy with the performance of a young associate.

  We had different opinions regarding the underlying reasons for the problem . . . some of us thought that his basic capabilities weren't up to par, while others maintained that his underperformance was purely conditional. At the time, he was assigned to supporting various other associates' working packages; he owned nothing himself. We decided to transfer one complete working package to him, and we shifted responsibilities so that the engagement manager was his direct coach.