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The New Rational Manager
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254 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 18, 2014
I believe this is an essential read for people struggling with many problems and assignments in their jobs. It outlines the easy steps to improve your performance in following situations:
- Understand the situation: What's happening ? What to do ? Where to start ?
- Analyse the problem: What's wrong ? Why ? What's the best way to solve it ?
- Make decisions: What are my options ? What are my goals ? What is the best option ?
- Plan wisely: What are the risks ? What are the opportunities ? How do I succeed with both ?
I liked the book or high concentration of valuable information, simplicity, and easy language.
- Understand the situation: What's happening ? What to do ? Where to start ?
- Analyse the problem: What's wrong ? Why ? What's the best way to solve it ?
- Make decisions: What are my options ? What are my goals ? What is the best option ?
- Plan wisely: What are the risks ? What are the opportunities ? How do I succeed with both ?
I liked the book or high concentration of valuable information, simplicity, and easy language.
May 23, 2018
I've read a few management and problem solving books. This is hands-down the best. It cuts the fluff and stays away from bureaucracy and theories. It introduces an effective and pragmatic approach to problem solving and decision making. It's a must read.
September 10, 2017
(A software developers perspective)
The New Rational Manager describes some useful techniques for discovering the root causes of problems, choosing the best decision, and identifying future risks or opportunities.
Each technique is covered is a variety of case studies which give a good insight in how to go about practising the techniques.
However, they are not a panacea for managers as they require a fair bit of insight into how the business / problem domain operates in order to be effective.
My motivation for reading this was from a software development perspective to see if the techniques could be useful in that setting.
In my view the sections of most value was the problem analysis and decision analysis.
The problem analysis is a structure approach to comparing the defective component to working components which will be a useful tool to solving defects or production issues as there is generally accessible methods to compare changes and jot down any and all potential areas of difference.
The decision analysis could be useful for architects in deciding the best approach for a design of a system when there are many alternative as it provides a useful framework for actually describing the requirements of the business into needs and wants with a measurable model of best fit.
The potential problem identification could aid in discovering opportunities but I'm not sure of its overall effectiveness for software with it being perhaps more of a management tool.
Overall, this would be very useful for managers of operations in a plant or software setting, but for run-of-the-mill software developers not so much until they get to a level of high responsibility such as an architect.
The writing was also quite dry at times which made it a bit of slog to get through - I skimmed through the last two chapters as it seemed to only relevant to senior managers.
The New Rational Manager describes some useful techniques for discovering the root causes of problems, choosing the best decision, and identifying future risks or opportunities.
Each technique is covered is a variety of case studies which give a good insight in how to go about practising the techniques.
However, they are not a panacea for managers as they require a fair bit of insight into how the business / problem domain operates in order to be effective.
My motivation for reading this was from a software development perspective to see if the techniques could be useful in that setting.
In my view the sections of most value was the problem analysis and decision analysis.
The problem analysis is a structure approach to comparing the defective component to working components which will be a useful tool to solving defects or production issues as there is generally accessible methods to compare changes and jot down any and all potential areas of difference.
The decision analysis could be useful for architects in deciding the best approach for a design of a system when there are many alternative as it provides a useful framework for actually describing the requirements of the business into needs and wants with a measurable model of best fit.
The potential problem identification could aid in discovering opportunities but I'm not sure of its overall effectiveness for software with it being perhaps more of a management tool.
Overall, this would be very useful for managers of operations in a plant or software setting, but for run-of-the-mill software developers not so much until they get to a level of high responsibility such as an architect.
The writing was also quite dry at times which made it a bit of slog to get through - I skimmed through the last two chapters as it seemed to only relevant to senior managers.
December 9, 2018
I read “The Rational Manager” in German and even though it took me some time to finish it, I enjoyed the read just like I enjoy sex.
It is written back in 1980's but it shares management principles that can be applied today, tomorrow and in 100 years from now.
The main theme of the book is performance management, problem analysis, problem solving, future constraints prognosis and human performance in organisations.
These are at least the topics I paid most attention to.
It is an important read for every manager who is concerned with both personal and business optimization.
In every dysfunctional business operation there are bottlenecks that should be identified and either optimized or eliminated.
By using our rational faculty and making the right questions we can spot the problems of every operation and at any stage.
Making the right questions therefore is the first step towards tackling both our organizational and personal problems.
After problem analysis and identification, the subsequent step is decision making.
We make good decisions by targeting tasks that hold the most gravity first. After successfully tackling the most important goals, only then we pay attention to secondary sub goals that are useful but not critical to system functioning.
First things should be tackled first and secondary things should be either utilized optionally or ignored completely. I cannot stress that more!
Managing human performance also is covered somewhere in the end of the book. This section gives us insights into human performance management through rational communication.
Every manager can handle human resource only through objective analysis of the working conditions rather than subjective points of you.
Again even in the human systems domain we apply rational thinking and analysis to come into final and objective conclusions on human productivity and performance.
It is written back in 1980's but it shares management principles that can be applied today, tomorrow and in 100 years from now.
The main theme of the book is performance management, problem analysis, problem solving, future constraints prognosis and human performance in organisations.
These are at least the topics I paid most attention to.
It is an important read for every manager who is concerned with both personal and business optimization.
In every dysfunctional business operation there are bottlenecks that should be identified and either optimized or eliminated.
By using our rational faculty and making the right questions we can spot the problems of every operation and at any stage.
Making the right questions therefore is the first step towards tackling both our organizational and personal problems.
After problem analysis and identification, the subsequent step is decision making.
We make good decisions by targeting tasks that hold the most gravity first. After successfully tackling the most important goals, only then we pay attention to secondary sub goals that are useful but not critical to system functioning.
First things should be tackled first and secondary things should be either utilized optionally or ignored completely. I cannot stress that more!
Managing human performance also is covered somewhere in the end of the book. This section gives us insights into human performance management through rational communication.
Every manager can handle human resource only through objective analysis of the working conditions rather than subjective points of you.
Again even in the human systems domain we apply rational thinking and analysis to come into final and objective conclusions on human productivity and performance.
September 22, 2023
The first edition might have been written in 1965, but this book remains one of the best management books I have read. Once you read it, you might think "but this is just common sense!". But if you take a minute to try and recall how often you actually see such behaviours at your workplace, you will actually realise that the advice given here is still useful and implementing it will make you stand out from the rest of your colleagues
October 3, 2019
I took a class on this, so my opinion of the book is probably a little jaded. By itself, I didn’t think there was much to it. Highly recommend a class. It does have some somewhat interesting examples.
January 24, 2021
Essential read for understanding KT rational thinking processes, the book covers all the 4 patterns of thinking to analyze problems, take decisions, identify potential future problems or opportunities and analyze situations, also includes a section to analyze problems related to human performance.
February 7, 2019
Must read for anyone who wants to improve their rational thinking ability.
March 11, 2025
A great addition to problem-solving materials that I have used! Problem-analysis, decision analysis, and potential opportunity analysis are some of the key takeaways that I can easily see being used at work, but I hope to find those that can use Situation Analysis and Potential Problem Analysis.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews