Charles H. Kepner - The New Rational Manager: An Updated Edition for a New World

Management books, at least the really great ones, are not written in the library or an easy chair. Those rare business books that have withstood the test of time evolve directly from real-world experience and the day-in and day-out struggle of executives, managers, and workers on the front line.

Surely, this explains in part the enduring appeal of The New Rational Manager and its several sequels. The original book, published in 1965, described the problem-solving and decision- making approaches developed in the late 1950s by Benjamin B. Tregoe and Charles H. Kepner, two social scientists conducting research on breakdowns in decision making at the Strategic Air Command. They discovered that successful decision making by Air Force officers had less to do with rank or career path than the logical thinking process an officer used to gather, organize, and analyze information before taking action.

Later, Ben Tregoe and Chuck Kepner studied up-close the thinking habits of managers. Some were proficient, others were less so. The distinctions between both sets of managers yielded rich insights into the fundamentals of effective problem solving and decision making.

Ben Tregoe and Chuck Kepner codified their findings into a set of processesrational processeswhich were further tested and refined, added to over the years, until we have the Problem Analysis, Decision Analysis, Potential Problem (Opportunity) Analysis, and Situation Appraisal processes presented here.

Since the original discovery and the founding of Kepner- Tregoe in 1958, Rational Process has been used in hundreds of organizations, large, mid-sized, and small; by top executives, middle managers, and hourly workers; in profit and non-profit organizations and government agencies; across industries and functions; and, globally, across national boundaries.

The cash value of ideas, as William James reminds us, is in their practical application. By that standard the Kepner-Tregoe processes have paid handsome dividends to those who have employed them.

These processes have been employed by managers who put astronauts on the moon; by engineers responsible for the life and safety of miners in the tunnels of central Australia; by key managers of one of the worlds largest manufacturers of photo- graphic equipment to launch a multimillion dollar new product effort; by the chairman of a major consumer products company to select a new president; by a major Japanese automobile manufacturer to establish the first Japanese automotive plant site in the United States; by research scientists fighting the incidence of cancer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.

Rational Process continues to make a lasting contribution to the discipline of management for one good reason: The approach gets results.

When Ben Tregoe and Chuck Kepner first founded Kepner- Tregoe, the companys mission was to transfer Rational Process to individuals to improve their performance as managers and workers. Today, Kepner-Tregoe goes beyond individual capability development to implement thinking processes throughout organizations to help them gain sustainable competitive advantage. We call this KT Clear Thinking.

When employees at all levels of a company follow KT Clear Thinking, the results are powerful: increased quality, improved efficiency, and lower costs. Given Kepner-Tregoes decades of global experience, weve provided a number of examples to illustrate the successes of KT Clear Thinking while using Rational Process.

We hope The New Rational Manager adds to your own insights about problem solving and decision making and that Rational Process provides you with the same cash value that it has provided to tens of thousands of managers and workers.

Chris Geraghty

Chief Executive Officer

Kepner-Tregoe, Inc.

Princeton, New Jersey

The Search for Organizational Effectiveness