The McKinsey Strategic Problem-Solving Model Adapted to Teach Information Literacy to Graduate Business Students

Library Philosophy and Practice Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring 2004)
(libr.unl.edu:2000/LPP/lppv6n2.htm)
ISSN 1522-0222
Information Literacy and the McKinsey Model:
The McKinsey Strategic Problem-Solving Model Adapted to Teach Information
Literacy to Graduate Business Students
Christy A. Donaldson
Reference Librarian
The Libraries
Montana State University – Bozeman
Bozeman, MT 59717-3320

Introduction
Graduate students are expected to be information literate and able to conduct
library research. Unfortunately, many graduate students do not have the required skills
and knowledge to do the research required at a graduate level. With more and more
information available, students are easily overloaded with data and information. To make
sure that our students succeed, in graduate school and in the workplace, we must make
sure they have the knowledge to survive in today’s business world. The key is creating an
information literacy program that will teach our graduate students these skills.
This paper proposes a program that uses the McKinsey strategic problem-solving
model for teaching information literacy to MBA students. Collaboration between the
business faculty members and university librarians is a key to the success of this
program. The goals for information literacy are usually held in common by
administrators, teaching faculty, and librarians; but there has been disagreement on
campuses about how to accomplish these goals. Using the McKinsey model, an
integrated information literacy program for graduate business students can be created.
Background
According to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), “the
information literate individual is able to:
• Determine the extent of the information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of
information, and access and use information ethically and legally
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Information literacy and critical thinking skills should be taught before the
graduate level, but many graduate students have skills that are insufficient for the level of
academic research required of them. Studies conducted on graduate students’ information
literacy skills show that students who receive information literacy instruction find it very
useful. Two teaching faculty members and a reference librarian at the University of
Arkansas collaborated in developing an information literacy program for graduate
students. During this process they “identified ten significant concepts that students need
to learn in order to master information literacy” (Murray, p. 115-6):
Ten Skills Needed by Graduate Students Conducting Research in the Information Age
• Focus the topic (narrow the topic / broaden the scope).
• Work in reverse chronological order, searching the newest information first.
• Understand the significance of terminology and determine correct subject
headings.
• Vary the sources (use books, periodicals, Internet sites, etc.).
• Use Boolean strategies (and, or, not) in computer searches.
• Multiply sources by three (identify three times as many references as needed for
the research).
• Evaluate critically the material retrieved; be especially suspicious of sources from
the Web.
• Assimilate the information; don’t plagiarize. Incorporate your own ideas based on
the research topic.
• Cite all sources.
The success of the program showed that a collaborative effort to teach
information literacy skills to graduate students does indeed work. With so much
information so readily available, the difficulty lies in finding the information that is
useful. Today’s workplace calls for a new type of employee. According to the Secretary’s
Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills report by the Secretary of Labor or SCANS
report, “a high-performance workplace requires workers who have a solid foundation in
the basic literacy and computational skills, in the thinking skills necessary to put
knowledge to work, and in the personal qualities that make workers dedicated and
trustworthy.” Netzley(1999) states, “to succeed in this knowledge-intensive environment,
graduates will have to work cooperatively, generate and archive knowledge, and
communicate effectively on demand.”
In order to develop a program for graduate business students that addresses all of
these requirements, we need to understand the elements of an academic information
literacy program. These elements include program development, characteristics of
information literacy, instructional strategies, assessment, and the model for teaching
information literacy. We have touched on the skills and knowledge needed to be
information literate. In the following sections, we will look at program development,
instructional strategies, assessment, and using the McKinsey model for teaching
information literacy.
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Program Development
The key to developing a program where graduate business students learn
information literacy skills is the collaboration between the business school faculty and the
academic librarians at the school. As we have seen in the University of Arkansas case, it
is possible for teaching faculty and librarians to collaborate successfully. Both can teach
students the basic elements of critical thinking. Critical thinking can be broken down into
its basic elements:
• Audience and Purpose Content (Relevance to the Topic) and Accuracy
• Relative Value (As Compared to Other Information Sources)
• Sponsorship / Authorship, Authority, and Bias Recency (Grassian, p. 115)
Critical thinking is an essential part of any information literacy program.
Librarians bring to this collaboration skills and knowledge about the types and locations
of resources of information needed for business students to conduct their research.
Teaching faculty bring their specialized knowledge of different fields of business.
Librarians often know of new tools or sources of information in these specialties, so
communication between these groups is essential. Teaching faculty and librarians must
work together to develop a program that enhances the research abilities of the students.
Instructional Strategies
This collaboration is part of the instructional strategy for teaching information
literacy. The program can be centered around one of the introductory graduate business
courses or a library workshop for incoming graduate students.
Taking learning styles into consideration is important in developing integrated
programs. Integrated programs are those programs that integrate different strategies for
learning through the use of visual tools, listening, locating and identifying sources of
information, organizing and using information effectively, and working collaboratively.
Assessment
In assessing this information literacy program, ACRL’s Information Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education was used. To correspond with the standards
listed before, ACRL also outlines performance indicators and outcomes of these
standards. These can be viewed at www.ala.org/acrl/ilstandardlo.html.
Assessment of this program is important so that the impact of the program on
students can be measured, including the quality of student research produced before and
after the program. A baseline measurement, showing what students know when they enter
graduate school, is important. One way to do this it to conduct a survey when students are
accepted into the business school or before the beginning of the information literacy
program. Once students have completed the program, they can be surveyed again.
Teaching faculty input on students' progress can also be gathered.
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Using the McKinsey Model for Teaching Information Literacy
McKinsey & Company is one of the most successful strategic consulting firms in
the world. They are consultants to many of the world’s largest companies, as well as
government agencies in the United States and around the world. McKinsey alumni hold
many top positions around the world and include Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM, and Lowell
Bryan, who advised the Senate Banking Committee during the savings and loan crisis.
McKinsey is a well-known brand and an icon of the business world.
Rasiel and Friga present the McKinsey Strategic Problem-Solving Model for use
in information literacy programs for graduate business students. This model should works
well for graduate business students because it is already tailored for the business
workplace. Using this model to teach information literacy and critical thinking also gives
the students the edge of knowing one of the most innovative business methodologies of
this decade.
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McKinsey model:


The McKinsey model begins with a business need, but as adapted for information
literacy, it begins with an information need. This need comes from a business problem,
or, in this case, a research problem, case study, or class assignment.
Once the problem has been identified, the next step is analyzing the problem.
McKinsey calls this step "framing the problem" or "defining the boundaries of the
problem and breaking it down into its component elements" in order to "come up with an
initial hypothesis as to the solution" (p. xvi). Not only is a hypothesis developed at this
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point, visual tools such as issue trees or mind maps are also used to further break down
our ideas into manageable parts.
Designing the analysis is the next step in the model. At this point the student must
"determine the analysis that must be done to prove the hypothesis" (p. xvi). Students
learn to develop an outline of what they know and what they need to know, as well as
where they might find the information they need. This step also includes developing work
plans for group study efforts.
Next is gathering the data. It is at this stage that the librarian can talk about
specific sources and tools that can be used when gathering data. McKinsey emphasizes
the use of fact finding and interviewing as a source of information gathering.
Students must understand the importance of time management. There is never
enough time to get all possible data. It is up to the student to find the most pertinent data
in the least amount of time. Using people who have expert knowledge is a great tool.
Students should remember some simple principles from the McKinsey model:
• Facts are friendly
• Don’t accept “I have no idea”
• Don’t reinvent the wheel
• Acquire external knowledge
• Control the quality of your input: garbage in, garbage out
• Research tips – start with the annual report, look for outliers, and look for best
practices
Interpreting the results is the final step--analyzing and evaluating to test the
hypothesis. Collaboration between teaching faculty and librarians is crucial at this point,
because teaching faculty have subject knowledge to see whether the hypothesis has been
proved. From this point, students can develop a course of action to take.
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The final part of the McKinsey model is creating the final presentation. Many
graduate business programs do not instruct students on presentation methods. This is a
very important step because it is what the client, employer, or professor sees. Librarians
can help students develop the technical skills to develop their final presentations, and
teaching faculty can help students streamline their interpretations for the audience.
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