EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
It is highly important to be a skilled ‘thinker’ in today’s corporate environment. However, thinking is seldom taught as a business skill. There is a common understanding that we simply acquire these skills from our experiences. This is not necessarily the case. We need to be taught these skills to avoid being constrained by ‘status quo’ thinking patterns. This highly interactive training course will encourage participants to understand and acquire the relevant critical thinking skills for today’s modern business world. During the training course there will be a focus on identifying sources of information, gathering and evaluating data by thinking critically to inform the decision-making process effectively.
Participants will benefit from many practical exercises during the sessions which will lead them to understand how to think creatively when looking for alternative solution to move forward for decision making. Time will be taken to learn how thinking patterns become reinforced, often leading to biased judgements around solving issues rather than taking a considered approach to analysis of the situation. Issues around the management of risk when implementing decisions will be discussed, particularly from a people perspective. Many problem-solving and decision-making tools will be discussed and practiced throughout the course.
FOR WHOM
This training course will be best suited to those who have responsibility for leading teams and departments where the stimulus of creativity and enhanced thinking skills will have a positive effect on results
Those who will benefit most will have a current or planned responsibility or involvement in business decision-making processes in a highly pressured work environment
The Course Content
Developing Thinking, Creativity and Innovation to Provide Better Solutions
- Determining thinking as a learned subject
- Creativity and innovation in producing business solutions
- Utilising visualisation and fact finding and determining true causes of problems
- Introducing the concepts of critical thinking
- Using the critical thinking process to gather information
- Developing investigative questioning skills for gathering information
Identifying Sources of Information and Making Positive Evaluations
- Diagnosing, evaluating and interpreting information
- Determining the impact of data on the situation or problem
- Working to remove bias so as not to jump to conclusions when dealing with data
- Root cause analysis as a starting point
- Determining appropriate questioning during investigations using the 3-level technique
- Active listening skills to ensure the credibility and relevance of information acquired
Interpreting Information and Planning Credible Solutions
- Scenario planning to provide solutions
- Critically evaluate alternatives using different tools
- Bottom up, top down logic: inductive and deductive reasoning
- Convergent and divergent thinking systems
- Schematic diagrams, logic trees and their application
- Avoid irrelevant details when critically evaluating situations
Working with Project Teams – Bringing Together Collective Thinking
- Mind mapping tools to boost team creativity
- Team communication sharing the thinking in real-time
- Interpreting information to reach alternatives for collective decision making
- Decision making tools to rationalise effective outcomes
- Freeing up team thinking when they become stuck
- Developing thought processes to avoid procrastination
Avoiding and Mitigating Risk when Implementing Decisions
- Planning to implement decisions effectively
- Thinking in teams to reduce the risk of failure
- Identify potential risks and future problems with decisions relating to employees
- Consultations and mitigation of risk when dealing with people
- Quantitative risk analysis and modelling
- Practical review and learning plan
