Quality decision making is the ultimate purpose of an executive and manager. The most effective executives employ a structured process that makes their “thinking visible” and enables others to understand and act on their choices.

1950′s Decision Making Lineage

In the mid-1950s, Chuck Kepner and Ben Tregoe were conducting research for the Rand Corporation Corporation in California. They identified that a person’s success in decision making was not based on their experience, tenure or level in a company.

Rather effective decision makers who were able to more quickly spot problems, evaluate choices, and think ahead to risk – was based on their ability to gather, organize and analysis data using a process or set of steps.

In addition, the best decision makers who employed a “common process” to resolve issues were better able to articulate their thinking to others – making them more effective as executives or leaders.

2012 – Thinking Dimensions Today

Since that start in the mid-1950s, Chuck Kepner continues to develop and learn from his experiences. In the late 80′s he partnered with Mat-thys Fourie to build on this original thinking and incorporate new intuitive and creative components to the dimensions of decision making.

At the heart of their work was the understanding that the most critical role of an executive or manager is their ability to process and articulate their decisions. Decision making – whether looking at issues that involved past, present or future concerns – is made up of the same divergent / convergent thinking pattern. Because of this finding – the foundation of resolving any issue is distilled down to the quality of the decision making processes. Companies must invest and develop the most basic building block of performance – decision making.

The next six weeks in our blog will focus on the theme of Decision Making in business.

We hope you enjoy the subject and development here.