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A former McKinsey associate distills the Firm's proven techniques for thinking about, working on, and selling solutions to business problems, plus advice for surviving high-pressure professional life.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
The McKinsey Way lifts the veil on the world's most prestigious strategy consulting firm, translating its internal jargon and methods into practical tools any businessperson can use. Ethan Rasiel, drawing on his own experience and interviews with dozens of former McKinsey consultants, shows how to approach any problem in a fact-based, rigidly structured, hypothesis-driven manner—organizing thinking with MECE lists, generating an initial hypothesis, finding the key drivers, applying the 80/20 rule, and avoiding the trap of forcing facts to fit conclusions. Beyond analysis, the book covers the messy human side of consulting: assembling and motivating teams, managing hierarchy, conducting research and interviews, brainstorming, making presentations, prewiring clients, and driving implementation. Finally, it offers candid survival advice on mentoring, travel, and preserving a life outside work. Concise, story-rich, and eminently practical, it's a field guide to problem solving the McKinsey way.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An ambitious businessperson or manager who wants to solve business problems more effectively and advance in their career.
- The problem
- Facing complex, ambiguous business problems without a proven method to structure thinking, analyze facts, and deliver solutions. Feeling unsure whether they are attacking the right problem, worried about credibility, and overwhelmed by data and pressure.
- The plan
- Approach problems in a fact-based, structured, hypothesis-driven way.
- Structure your thinking to be MECE and build an issue tree from an initial hypothesis.
- Focus on key drivers and highest-payoff issues rather than boiling the ocean.
- Assemble and motivate a team, do smart research, interview well, and brainstorm.
- Sell your solution through structured presentations, prewiring, and organization-wide buy-in.
- The payoff
- You solve problems faster and more convincingly, backed by facts. · You gain credibility, get buy-in, and see your solutions actually implemented. · You manage teams and clients effectively while maintaining professional integrity and a life outside work.
See our guide
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Additional reading
- The Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully · Gerald M. Weinberg
The book is cited for its 'Raspberry Jam Rule,' a marketing principle stating that the wider you spread your efforts, the thinner the impact. Maister applies this directly to advise PSFs to focus their marketing on a narrow, well-selected audience.
- The Soul of a New Machine · Tracy Kidder
This book is used as a case study in motivating professionals. The author highlights its story of recruiting and leading a team by framing the work as an immense challenge, tapping into the professional's intrinsic need to prove their abilities.
- The Evolution of Cooperation · Robert Axelrod
The author explicitly credits this book for providing the theoretical underpinnings for his chapter on creating collaborative firms. It informs his view that cooperation stems from durable relationships and repeated interactions, not just shared goals.
- Process Consultation Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship · Edgar H. Schein
Schein's work on process consultation is foundational to the book's emphasis on the consultant-client relationship and the collaborative role over the expert role.
- Knowledge for Action: A Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Organizational Change · Chris Argyris
Argyris's pioneering work on authentic behavior in organizations underpins the book's central claim that authenticity is not just a virtue but a highly effective consulting strategy.
- Future Search: Getting the Whole System in the Room for Vision, Commitment, and Action · Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff
This book provides a specific methodology for the 'whole-system discovery' approach that Block advocates as a powerful way to build widespread commitment to change.
- The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems · Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin
This work details the 'Positive Deviance' methodology, which Block presents as a prime example of a gift-based approach that focuses on existing solutions within a system rather than its problems.
- The Oxford Handbook of Professional Service Firms · L. Empson, D. Muzio, J. Broschak, and B. Hinings (eds.)
The author recommends this as a comprehensive compendium of state-of-the-art research in the field, providing broader context for the leadership-specific issues discussed in her book.
- Leadership in the plural (article) · J.-L. Denis, A. Langley, and V. Sergi
This academic article is cited as the theoretical foundation for the book's central concept of 'plural leadership,' which frames leadership as a collective and distributed phenomenon.
- The executive role constellation · R. Hodgson, D. Levinson, and A. Zaleznik
The book credits this work as the origin of the 'constellation' concept, which the author develops into her core 'Leadership Constellation' model for mapping informal power structures.