Thomas Janovic
Info. Tech.
Prof. Vengerov
11/8/11
Decision Making Methods: The Kepner-Tregoe Matrix
Decision making can be a person’s most vital weapon in the ways of the world. The many different types of decisions we make in our lives directly influences who we are as people. Some decisions can lead us to greatness and some can lead us straight into the gutter. Therefore, the decision making process we all experience thousands of times a day plays a crucial role in determining where our lives have been going, and more importantly where they are headed.
There are all different types of decision making methods in the world, many of which can be very helpful in determining how one makes his or her own decisions. One theory on decision making methods that was proven successful was that of Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe in the 1950s. The Kepner and Tregoe Method was built on the notion that people could be taught how to think critically. “It is essentially a method for fault diagnosis and repair rather than for disorganized or systemic problem domains, or those where freshness of vision is essential.”[1] They believed their techniques could help people make unbaised, risk-assessed decisions.
This method is about making the best possible choice, not the most perfect one or the one that sounds the best. According to kepner-tregoe.com, “The Kepner-Tregoe approach is based on the premise that the end goal of any decision is to make the "best possible" choice.” One of the main ideas in this approach is to properly evaluate the important decisions you make while at the same time lessening the risk associated with it. This method instructs you how to set clear and precise goals or objectives, while attacking them from every angle, weighing the alternatives and deciding on the best route possible. Those alternatives must be weighed and compared with each other until one final solution is obtained. When a major decision is thought out in this manner it allows you to better forecast certain problems or obstacles that might present themselves at uncertain times and places. Those complications can easily be squashed if you have properly prepared yourself before hand, immediately allowing you to have control over the situation much better than you would have without the proper thinking techniques.
The main objective in this approach is to help you to make unbiased, cold calculated decisions. Allowing your decisions to be made on emotions and/or gut-instinct will only hinder your decisions to be tunneled into your “pre-conceived beliefs or prior experiences.” Do not feel discouraged, this is the mold in which we were created. The Kepner-Tregoe approach is set up to limit that archaic, biased thinking and establish a more controlled and efficient thought structure, allowing risk analysis and goal prioritizing to rein supreme.
Works Cited
- http://www.mycoted.com/Kepner_and_Tregoe_method
- http://www.kepner-tregoe.com/AboutKT/AboutKT-History.cfm
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