Kepner-Tregoe Resolve Workshop

Attended the four-day Kepner-Tregoe Resolve workshop last week. I usually don't give much attention to "management" courses because I see them merely as a breather from my daily work, but this one is pretty good. We tackled:

• situation analysis - Do we have a problem, or is it merely a concern that we need to decide or act upon?
• problem analysis - How to we go about solving problems in the most efficient way?
• decision analysis - What steps to take in order to come up with the best decision possible?
• potential problem analysis - Risk assessment and contingency planning.

Our instructor is convinced that the KT process works. His students sometimes bring up real-life problem cases as part of the coursework. Given enough information, KT is able to resolve these problems every single time. Our instructor told us a true story about this guy who used the process to decide whom between his two girlfriends he is to marry. Two years later, they divorced. Not that the process didn't work. The guy forgot to destroy his "calculations", and his wife (ex-wife) found out.

There's nine of us in the class and only one girl. On the first day of class, she was late for over an hour. She walked into the room with a rollerbag without much of a hi-hello, and cautioned everyone about asking why she is late. Next day, she's already debating with the instructor. She's asking such difficult questions, our instructor said he has to check with his boss. I was intrigued so I asked her what course she took at the university. Applied physics specializing in superconductors. Used to be an investment banker working with bonds and options. Now an Intelligent Node platform engineer. On our last day, she had to catch her flight home right after the course. She took out a pair of jeans from her bag, pulled them on, and took off the skirt she was wearing. Inside the classroom.