The answer lies in critical thinking skills. The ability to clearly reason through problems and to present arguments in a logical, compelling way has become a key skill for survival in today's world. This two-day Critical Thinking workshop will give participants some practical tools and hands-on experience with critical thinking and problem solving.
At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
o Define critical and non-critical thinking
o Work through the critical thinking process to build or analyze arguments
o Develop and evaluate information
o Improve key critical thinking skills
o Assimilate critical thinking into you daily life
o Use analytical thought systems and creative thinking techniques
o Prepare and present powerful arguments
Course Overview
Solving tough problems requires you to define the true problem, analyze the possible causes, create potential solutions, choose the best one, and implement it. This workshop will help you learn new ways to approach problem-solving and make decisions to enjoy sustainable solutions.
In this workshop, you will learn
- Tools to perform root-cause analysis
- Methods to increase your creativity in finding solutions
- Strategies to decide who makes decisions
- Tools to make decisions more objective
- Ways to communicate tasks to ensure implementation is successful
Course Outline
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The Problem-Solving Model
This introductory session will cover the problem-solving model to give participants an idea of the process they should follow when solving a problem.
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Gathering information
The first step in problem solving is to have as much information as possible. This section will look at ways to make your search more thorough.
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Describe the problem
Describing the problem accurately and clearly is key to solving it. Part of that is understanding what the root cause is. We will look at tools like the 5 whys and Ishikawa diagram to do this well.
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Finding Creative Solutions
Coming up with solutions is a creative endeavour. In this section, we will examine ways to boost our creativity to brainstorm effective solutions
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Brainstorming
Team brainstorming is one of the most effective ways to be more creative. We will look at how to facilitate team sessions to enhance coordination, communication and creativity.
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Decision-Making Styles
Depending on how urgent and important a problem is, you would take different approaches to deciding what to do. This section will look at 4 decision styles and when to use them.
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Decision-Making Techniques
Once you have a few potential solutions, you need to pick just one to implement. This can be difficult. That’s why we have a few tools to help you make more objective decisions.
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Implementation
Once you’ve made a decision, your solution needs to be implemented. In this section we will look at how to set goals and objectives for our solution and how to make sure that everyone who needs to be part of the solution knows what is happening.
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Measure success
Finally, you need to measure your solution against the objectives you’ve set to see if it was effective. In this last section, we will look at setting metrics and communicating results.
