The value of integrity -an illustration
There are different ways of defining integrity, but in many ways it boils down to what´s the right thing to do and doing it with the right behavior. But instead of a long and academic explanation, here is an illustration when I was a young consultant with McKinsey&Company:
I was part of an engagement where it was all a bit chaotic from the client, and I was not sure exactly what we were supposed to approach, analyze or recommend. But this had been an important client over time, the client was fun to work with, and the industry exciting, and it provided a good platform for McKinsey consultants for further work. But this particular engagement was not very clear, and in fact many of my more senior McKinsey colleagues and client members couldn´t see the full value of this project. We were in a way "boiling the ocean" and without any clear guidance or direction. It was also a bit unclear, who was the main client to serve here; The Chairman, the CEO or the CFO, as it all had also become a bit politcal, also very different from previous engagements.
Into week 3 of the project, beginning of July, the frustration was more and more intense, the billing rates were high though, but the impact probably low. Allthough I was a junior on the team with a very big spreadsheet and didn´t have the full overview of all the work streams, I could feel the frustration and the limited impact and motivation from different stakeholders.
Then rather late at night, a beautiful summer evening, the whole McKinsey-team, 5 consultants in total, were called in to a phone conference by the senior McKinsey director on the team, with a clear message:
"Colleagues, I have read through all the material you have developed over the last 3 weeks, and knowing also the client and where they are and where they come from, I really don't see how we are adding enough value, or any value at all. You have done a great job, but we need the right mandate, and the right approach and the top management commitment, so I think we need to pause this project, pull back our resources, stop the billing, and rather have a fresh start when we have the right angle, approach and mandate. We could probably go on with a high billing rate, but it´s not the right thing and not long term. It´s our obligation to raise a red flag, and to put the client and company interest first."
Having listened to this legendary McKinsey director, I was inspired for life. I put my huge and chaotic spreadsheet into my computer file, and went on a great summer holiday to Italy two days later...