1 - Ok, storytime, and it is time to criticize me for a moment.

Start with the image below. We& #39;re going back to when I worked at Nordstrom, in 2006.
2 - Back in 2006, I was responsible for a team that determined sales potential for each zip code.

This data was fed into a model created by my team, a model that determined how a new store at any location in the United States "might" perform.
3 - Needless to say, I was "confident" in this system.

I was so confident that I was blind to what was happening all around me.
4 - So when Nordstrom told me they were paying McKinsey $750,000 to revamp our "Market Potential Models" I was caught a bit off guard.

It was like they were bringing in Management Consultants to do my job!
5 - The McKinsey folks were assigned a "war room", and my team was there to "support" them.

Oh, how I hated this.
6 - I typically got to work at 7:00am (ish). By 7:30am the phone would ring.

I dreaded the calls.

"Hi Kev, Robert here from McKinsey, could you come down to the war room for a few moments? K-thx".
7 - I& #39;d trudge down to the war room. There& #39;s be a nice array of bagels and cream cheeses set up.

"Kev, grab a bagel and sit down."

My first instinct would be "Dont& #39; call me Kev, only my wife gets to do that ... you don& #39;t call Harry & #39;Hair& #39; so drop the fake informal tone."
8 - Now, let& #39;s be honest here.

Who has seen more applications of Market Potential Modeling?

a) McKinsey.

b) Kev.

They answer is (a).
9 - The McKinsey folks couldn& #39;t tell me that they worked with Neiman Marcus or Saks or whomever ... all they could do is hint that "other brands" were approaching this problem a certain way ... so they& #39;d ask me questions to get me to "think".

I didn& #39;t want to "think". At all!!
10 - So I applied all sorts of awful logic based on the four characters below.
11 - I applied "The Know It All" ... even though it was obvious they knew more than me I& #39;d talk loudly about what I knew about MY industry and MY data. I scored every zip code!!

When I did this, McKinsey would ignore everything I said!
12 - When I left my morning "touch base" with McKinsey (fuming), I& #39;d become the Quiet Dissenter ... telling those I trusted how these wombats had the nerve to tell me how to estimate sales by zip code.
13 - I& #39;d become "The Lizard" ... becoming binary in my thinking ... "You can& #39;t do X because of Y (though you could do X because of Z and Q and P, of course)".
14 - What I should have recognized is that my days as "The Climber" were over. I was on my way down.
15 - When the project (mercifully) ended, my boss shared the findings. I recall her telling me that the Cincinnati Market had $40,000,000 of sales potential. I told her that the models my team managed for the past five years suggested that number was accurate.
16 - I then made a fatal mistake.

I asked my boss "We& #39;ve know that fact for five years, why wouldn& #39;t you trust us to ask us what we thought the right number was?"
17 - And she just looked coldly at me and said "if you& #39;ve known that for five years, why did you never take the initiative to package the data that way so we wouldn& #39;t have had to pay McKinsey $750,000 for the information?"
18 - Within six months, I was done at Nordstrom.
19 - Why tell this story?
20 - I& #39;ve noticed something over the past two months.

I& #39;ve noticed really, really defensive professionals (probably me included).
21 - Professionals working alone, at home.

Businesses failing, or businesses struggling.

Pressure. Huge pressure.

Industries crumbling.

Lies everywhere ... spreading 10 times as fast as facts spread.
22 - So when you tell a person who is struggling to balance teaching kids algebra while having to do a Zoom with co-workers about saving a business that is -17% while desperately trying to hold on to a job and not get the plague that they might be wrong? Oh boy!
23 - Lots and lots of defensiveness.

At first, as a consultant, I& #39;d think negatively of this.

But six months of this behavior?

It& #39;s clear I should have empathy instead.
24 - So my approach (as a consultant) has to evolve and change.

I can& #39;t be cold like the McKinsey folks.

And I can& #39;t be judging of defensive professionals who have a reason to be defensive. They might want to "think" ... but are under much pressure.
25 - Hence, I have to change my approach.

That& #39;s going to be a key focus of my work over the next year.

Anyway, that& #39;s storytime for today, September 26, 2020.
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