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The Kepner-Tregoe Matrix

Making Unbiased, Risk-Assessed Decisions

No matter what position you hold, from the board room to the mailroom, you make decisions every day. And the end result in business is directly linked to the quality of the decisions made at each point along the way. So not surprisingly, decision-making is a universally important competence in business. Some decisions clearly have a greater impact on the business than others, but the underlying skill is the same: The difference is in the scope and depth of the process you go through to reach your decision.

One reason why decision-making can be so problematic is that the most critical decisions tend to have to be made in the least amount of time. You feel pressured and anxious. The time pressure means taking shortcuts, jumping to conclusions, or relying heavily on instinct to guide your way.

In your organization, you've probably heard of someone who made it all the way to VP by relying on his gut to make decisions. At the other extreme is the guy who simply can't make a decision because he analyses the situation to death. The bottom line is, you have to make decisions, and you have to make good decisions. Poor decisions are bad for business. Worse still, one poor decision can lead to others, and so the impact can be compounded and lead to more and more problems down the line.

Thankfully, decision-making is a skill set that can be learned and improved on. Somewhere between instinct and over-analysis is a logical and practical approach to decision-making that doesn't require endless investigation, but helps you weigh up the options and impacts.

One such approach is called the Kepner-Tregoe Matrix. It provides an efficient, systematic framework for gathering, organizing and evaluating decision making information. The approach was developed by Charles H. Kepner and Benjamin B. Tregoe in the 1960s and they first wrote about it in the business classic, The Rational Manager (1965). The approach is well-respected and used by many of the world's top organizations including NASA and General Motors.

The Kepner-Tregoe Approach

The Kepner-Tregoe approach is based on the premise that...(Sign in to read more.)

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Key Points

The Kepner-Tregoe Matrix is a well-respected and systematic approach for making decisions. The matrix process forces users to be well organized and thorough. By weighting and ranking both the benefits and risks, it helps you choose the very best alternatives. Using the Kepner-Tregoe approach requires patience and a commitment: The payoff for the time invested is good, unbiased decision-making that makes good business sense.

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