Analytical thinking is a new approach that helps you make decisions and solve challenges faster and easier than ever before
Analytical thinking and problem solving are foundational thinking skills that involve breaking things down into their component parts. They also involve deductive reasoning, drawing conclusions from givens and applying judgments to reach conclusions from a combination of evidence and assumptions.
it helps you learn how to think like an analyst. You’ll learn how to think creatively and logically … how to approach your challenges analytically … and how to understand the decision-making process to solve your problems more efficiently and successfully.
In this seminar we will cover all these important thinking approaches. After understanding the thinking mechanisms, we will provide you with methods and tools that you will practice during the sessions and that can help you at work or in life, and from the most mundane situations to the most difficult or unusual ones.
Objective:
How to correctly diagnose and understand the problem
Ways to break down potential causes and focus on the problem
Creative methods to find solutions
Utilizing your team to expand possible ideas
Distinguish Between Problem Solving and Decision Making, in Order to Identify “True” Decisions
Recognize How Your Feelings About Uncertainty and Risk Impact the Way You Make Decisions
How to use your natural thinking to make effective decisions
Identifying possible roadblocks
Overcoming resistance to change
Avoiding decision-making traps
Winning support for your solutions
Apply Tools and Techniques for Sharpening Analytical and Intuitive Aspects of Decision Making
More Deliberately Apply Personal Experience to Complex Decision Making Under Conditions of Uncertainty
Course Outline:
Define the Problem.
Isolate the real problem, not just the symptoms
When you should ask “Why?” to diagnose the problem
Key questions that help you quickly and accurately define the problem
Identifying and understanding the scope of the problem and why it’s important
Identify Root Causes
Free your mind and overcome assumptions and biases
How to stop yourself from taking your best guess
Go beyond the obvious for lasting solutions that work
Search for multiple causes to be sure you fully solve the problem
Identify Viable Solutions
How to find multiple solutions so you have options to make the best decision
How to identify alternate solutions for a problem
How to stop personal judgment from influencing your ability to try solutions/solve problems
Does your risk preference stop you from making decisions?
Psychological Factors Impacting Decision Making
Identify Personal Attitudes Toward Decision Making
Articulate the Common Reasons for Decision Avoidance
Describe the Key Cause of Decisions Made in Haste—Overconfidence
Apply Techniques to Avoid the Most Common Pitfalls of Decision Making
Get Creative!
The role of creativity in coming up with the best possible solutions (from the obvious to the absurd)
How to spark creativity in groups
How to keep creative ideas alive rather than letting them succumb to naysayers
Get a new perspective and look at your challenges in new ways
How to find patterns and common elements in problems — and what that means
Learn how to generate ideas and not evaluate them
Test Potential Solutions
How to select and test realistic and practical solutions
Identify potential resistance and other roadblocks
How and when you should consider the consequences
Conduct a postmortem on your solution to be sure it accomplished all you thought it would
Make Effective Decisions
How to use your natural thinking and decision-making style to full advantage
Overcoming weaknesses that can derail your decision making process
Learn the most common decision-making strategies
Win Support for Solutions
Tactics for getting stakeholder buy-in
How to identify and address questions and objections before they come up
Essential strategies for overcoming resistance to change.