critical thinking problem solving and decision making course

• Open training
• Team training

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving for Effective Decision-Making

Professional development and personal effectiveness.

An Essential Competency In Today’s Workplace

Mastering critical thinking and problem-solving skills can help you make better decisions or recommendations- an essential competency in todays knowledge workplaces. Critical thinking helps you to examine and improve thought processes, ask the right questions, challenge assumptions and consider varying viewpoints. Effective problem-solving helps you to properly identify and systematically work through a problem in a comprehensive manner, ensuring clarity when it comes time to make decisions or recommendations.

This course will demonstrate how critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making work optimally together, and will provide hands-on practice with tools that you can apply to your everyday workday tasks, big or small.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Define critical thinking and identify your critical thinking styles
• Work through the critical thinking process to build, analyze and evaluate varying viewpoints
• Improve key critical thinking skills, including active listening and questioning
• Analyze context and information to clearly understand and identify a problem
• Apply problem solving steps and tools
• Identify appropriate solutions using specific approaches
• Select the best technique for making decisions
• Avoid common decision-making mistakes

Workshop topics

Maximizing the Power of Your Brain

• Critical thinking and problem-solving the key to effective decision making
• The Iceberg Principle and the Understanding-Resolution Ration

Critical Thinking

• Definition of a Critical Thinker
• Critical thinking behaviours: active listening, probing, Empty Your Bucket
• Identify and evaluate issues and viewpoints
• The 3 Cs: context, credibility, and consistency
• Critical thinking worksheet- practice it!
• Problem Solving
• The problem-solving process- various models
• Obstacles and counterproductive approaches
• Problem-solving techniques for groups and individuals
• Applying a problem-solving model to a workplace scenario

Decision Making

• Individual and collective decision-making traps
• How to choose: criteria, goals and vision-based decision-making
• Individual and group decision-making tools and techniques
• Decision-making practical application to a workplace scenario

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course

Who should attend this course?

Anyone who is required to problem solve on the job or make important project, department or organizational decisions or recommendations

Does this course address your competency development needs?

This workshop addresses:

• Achievement and Results Oriented
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Analytical Thinking
• Change Management and Leadership
• Creative Thinking
• Decision Making and Decisiveness
• Engagement and Motivation
• Impact and Influence
• Innovation and Initiative
• Self Confidence and Self Esteem
• Strategic Thinking
• Teamwork and Cooperation
• Working with Others

To learn more about core competencies, click here .

$ 595 plus tax

Choose my session

• Instructor: Barbara Odenwald

The advantages of team sessions

• Learn and grow together as a team
• Location and time of your choice
• Sessions can be customized to fit your objectives
• Surprisingly cost effective

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Critical Thinking – Problem Solving and Decision Making

This critical thinking training course takes you through the dynamics and psychology of problem solving and decision making. The concepts, tools, and skills involved in solving problems and making decisions are introduced, helping peel back the layers and understand how these processes can be derailed by cognitive bias, anchoring bias, choice overload, decision fatigue, and group dynamics. Learn how to tackle complex problems more effectively, address barriers, and be more objective.

Covered in this course:

• Applying critical thinking to problem-solving and decision-making processes
• Collecting information techniques
• Barriers to problem solving and how to overcome them
• The challenges to decision making
• Cognitive bias, anchoring bias, choice overload, decision fatigue, and group dynamics
• How to objectively make a decision

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Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making

In today's complex, data-driven world, professionals face many "gray" areas in which they need to think critically and exercise personal judgment. This course offers tools and techniques for sharpening the "gray cells" of the brain for clearer thinking and more effective decision-making.

Understand and practice specific techniques for deducing the right conclusions from data, to solve problems and make decisions.

Uncover techniques for evaluating your own and others' proposed solutions and decisions.

Practice avoiding stumbling blocks for effective decision-making and learn how personal assumptions and views can help or hinder your reasoning and decision-making.

Audience: All NIH Employees.

Class Registration Process

When you register for a class, you will be automatically placed on a waiting list. A message "No Seats Available" will appear. Select YES, Continue Registration . Once the course is approved by your manager and final approver, you will successfully be registered if a seat is available. This new process helps avoid enrollment errors. Watch our video  to learn more or visit our Course Registration  page.

Upcoming Offerings

• Start Date Fri, 07/19/24, 9:00am EDT End Date Fri, 07/19/24, 4:00pm EDT Location Virtual Cancel Deadline Fri, 06/28/24 IC Price $270 Register
• Start Date Thu, 09/26/24, 9:00am EDT End Date Thu, 09/26/24, 4:00pm EDT Location Virtual Cancel Deadline Thu, 09/05/24 IC Price $270 Register

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Critical thinking

Problem-solving and decision-making in a complex world

In the age of algorithms and information overload, critical-thinking skills are essential to stay relevant in business. As processes, jobs and entire industries become digitised, it will be vital to capitalise on human advantage by practising strategic self-reflection and asking the right questions. Our two-week online course provides the tools and skills to avoid cognitive bias, reason with rigour and harness artificial intelligence (AI) effectively.

About the programme

This online course is practical, business-oriented and draws on the rigorous processes of The Economist ’s newsroom. Our expert contributors, including Tom Chatfield, the late Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024; filmed in 2023) and Kate Raworth, will equip you with critical-thinking techniques fundamental to staying competitive in the AI age. Understand how to resist oversimplification, reframe complex problems and avoid “groupthink” in business scenarios.

To find out how our courses can empower your organisation with a customisable course structure tailored to your business challenges and goals,  click here .

To think critically is to make the most of your own mind: to reflect upon the limitations of what you know rather than leaping to conclusions, then set about building a more rigorous understanding alongside others.

Dr Tom Chatfield

Author, broadcaster, tech philosopher and course founder

Programme modules

Understand the pitfalls of “fast thinking” and how this can lead to ineffective decision-making. Learn to recognise and overcome cognitive bias and practise strategic self-reflection.

Explore how to use data discerningly, reframe complex problems and ask intelligent questions. This module will feature examples of critical thinking and stress-testing from The Economist ’s newsroom, and examine how these practices can be applied more widely.

Programme benefits

This course will benefit professionals who want to remain competitive in an increasingly automated world. It will prepare you to: 

Recognise and overcome cognitive biases

Challenge assumptions and consider multiple perspectives

Use data discerningly to aid decision-making

Make strong arguments based on evidence

Course leaders and contributors

The Economist ’s team of journalists will contribute specialist insights on business through case studies, videos and podcasts.

The course will be enriched by group discussions with peers from many types of global organisations. Assignments and case studies will challenge participants, providing opportunities to apply new strategies and skills to real-world business scenarios and think critically as a team. Invited experts will explore not only the theory behind critical thinking, but tangible methods and strategies to put this theory into practice. 

Course advisor and deputy editor

The Economist

(1934-2024; filmed in 2023) Professor Emeritus, Nobel laureate and author of "Thinking, Fast and Slow"

Photo credit: Audra Melton

Economist and author of “Doughnut Economics”

Photo credit: Johannes Frandsen

Author and broadcaster

Photo credit: Paul Clarke

Deputy executive editor

Business affairs editor

Deputy editor

Get more information about this course

Enter your details below to receive information, including the course prospectus from GetSmarter, about Economist Education's online course, Critical thinking and decision-making.

By submitting your details, your data will be sent to GetSmarter and processed in accordance with their  privacy policy .

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Find out how our courses can empower your organisation with a customisable course structure tailored to your business challenges and goals.

Submit our contact form  here  and we’ll get in touch.

Economist Education

Critical Thinking: Problem-Solving and Decision-Making in a Complex World

Learn to use critical-thinking tools to thrive in an algorithmic age.

15 July 2024

Payment Options

Course duration

Access resources from start date

4–6 hours per week

Self-paced learning online

Course overview

The proportion of financial-services leaders and employees who say critical-thinking skills are crucial for their business.

PwC (Accessed October 19th 2023).

The share of professionals in Britain and Germany reporting strong confidence in their critical-thinking skills.

The Stepstone Group (July 2023).

Duration : 2 weeks

In an increasingly complex, algorithm-driven world, critical thinking is a vital skill for everyone in business. Professionals must use data discerningly and interrogate the assumptions and claims of others. Only then will they be able to capitalise on their competitive advantages over machines and over peers less able to harness artificial intelligence (AI). All this means developing tools and strategies to avoid cognitive bias and error, to make rigorous arguments and to seek truth from facts.

Critical Thinking: Problem-Solving and Decision-Making in a Complex World , a two-week online course from Economist Education, shows participants how to interrogate assumptions, use data and combat cognitive bias to make better decisions. The course’s first module explores how everyone falls prey to uncritical thinking, including narrative oversimplification and confirmation bias, and provides tools to recognise and counteract them. The second module emphasises the importance of rigorous arguments based on data and research, while guiding participants to reframe complex problems and harness diverse perspectives.

The course is guided by Dr Tom Chatfield, an expert on critical thinking, as well as senior editors at The Economist , and features insights from guest speakers including the late Daniel Kahneman (1934-2024; filmed in 2023), a Nobel prizewinner. The curriculum uses real-world examples, including The Economist ’s editorial processes, to demonstrate the crucial role of critical thinking in decision-making. Realistic scenarios and case studies challenge you to overcome oversimplification and faulty reasoning. The course encourages an approach to critical thinking that you can apply in your work, by fostering strategic pauses, self-reflection, investigation and collaboration.

By the end of the course, you will not only understand your cognitive strengths and vulnerabilities but also gain the tools to make decisions informed by data, stress-test business ideas and interrogate assumptions in a technology-driven world.

Is this course for you?

This course is designed for experienced professionals and emphasises the value of human critical thinking in a machine-driven world. Participants from diverse fields, such as marketing, consulting and financial services, will learn to interrogate assumptions, use data discerningly and identify essential questions that AI cannot. By embracing critical thinking, experienced professionals and aspiring leaders will be better equipped to stress-test business ideas, enabling them to avoid costly errors and make better decisions. This course is a must for those looking to stay relevant in the age of AI.

How is this course different ?

This two-week online course is tailored to working professionals looking to rapidly obtain skills in a specialised subject. Designed to provide maximum benefit with minimal time spent, the interactive online learning model allows you to study at your own pace without having to submit lengthy assignments. This two-week course also gives you the chance to engage with a network of peers and expert faculty to further your professional development.

What will set you apart

The curriculum.

Recognising and overcoming uncritical thinking

Discover the negative effects of uncritical thinking by exploring narrative oversimplification, the availability heuristic, confirmation bias and constructive doubt.

• Identify the causes of cognitive bias
• Articulate your tendency to think uncritically
• Explore the availability heuristic and learn to think beyond the obvious
• Evaluate your assumptions and cultivate constructive doubt to avoid the trap of confirmation bias
• Propose ways to stress-test your ideas to reduce the risk of uncritical thinking

Critical thinking in practice

Learn how to use critical thinking to analyse information, solve problems and make informed decisions.

• Examine the quality of information used for problem-solving and decision-making
• Explore how to present, defend and scrutinise arguments as a team
• Collaborate on reframing situations in order to challenge unexamined assumptions
• Reflect on the value of multiple perspectives and constructive disagreements
• Model good thinking by challenging assumptions and evaluating the quality of evidence

Course designers

Dr Tom Chatfield

Expert on technology and society; author, broadcaster and course founder

Tom Standage

Deputy editor, The Economist , and course adviser

Your skills recognised

Validate your skills online with an official badge from Economist Education.

How you will learn

This online course is divided into manageable units designed to accelerate your progress:

Work through downloadable and online instructional material

Interact with your peers and tutors in reviewed small-group discussions

Enjoy a wide range of interactive content, including videos, podcasts and more

Receive a toolkit for practical use in your career

Apply what you learn throughout this two-week online course and develop the skills to put critical thinking into practice long after the programme has finished.

Your success team

GetSmarter, a provider of online education, offers a personalised approach to accelerate learning with support every step of the way.

A subject-matter expert who will guide you through content-related challenges.

Global success team

Available 24/7 to solve your tech-related and administrative queries and concerns.

A powerful collaboration

Economist Education is collaborating with GetSmarter, an online education provider, to create courses that add lasting value to your business and professional life.

About The Economist and Economist Education

For more than 180 years, The Economist has offered in-depth reporting of the news shaping the world. With its objective analysis and original insight, The Economist is one of the world’s most trusted brands in journalism.

Building on this legacy, Economist Education offers online courses led by expert practitioners and crafted with The Economist ’s team of correspondents and editors. Since its launch in 2021, Economist Education has won the 2022 DPA Award for Best Digital Publishing Innovation, as well as the 2022 Digiday Award for Best Subscription or Membership Product.

About GetSmarter

GetSmarter, part of edX, partners with the world's leading universities and institutions to select, design and deliver premium online courses with a data-driven focus on learning. Technology meets academic rigour in GetSmarter’s instructor-led interactive online format, which allows for self-paced learning and a greater level of engagement.

Upgrade your skills

Strengthen your critical thinking to thrive in a tech-driven world.

Want to know more?

Payment options

You can pay your course fees before the course starts, or you may opt for a split payment plan on courses that are nine weeks and shorter. For courses 10 weeks and longer, there is a three-part payment plan available. To find out more about payment options please visit our Payment and Financing page , or contact an Enrollment Adviser , to find out which option you qualify for.

Seek employer assistance

By improving your skills and industry knowledge, you'll have an influence on the success of your organization. Why wouldn't you ask your boss to help you fund your studies if it's going to have an impact on the way you do business?

Of our past students, 37 percent have received financial assistance from their employers. You can ask for help, too. Here is a guide to show you how to request financial assistance from your employer .

If you are a Learning & Development (L&D) manager, or involved in training and upskilling for an organization, you can request information regarding our corporate offering on our GetSmarter for business page.

Manage your time

GetSmarter's learning model is designed to help you, as a working professional, improve your skills without compromising on work and family responsibilities. The course work is broken up into weekly, manageable bite-sized modules, with incremental deadlines, designed to help you pace yourself over the duration of the course and allow you the legroom to work when it suits you best.

At the beginning of each module you'll be presented with the course content and assignments necessary for completion. You also have access to your Success Adviser who will help you manage your time, and support you with any administrative or technical queries you might have.

Discover the Online Campus

The Online Campus will be your virtual classroom for the duration of your course. Through its easy-to-use interface you'll have access to a diverse variety of course content formats including: interactive videos, module notes, practice quizzes, presentations, assignment briefs, and additional web resources.

On the Online Campus, you'll also be able to ask questions and interact with your fellow students and teaching team through the discussion forums. If you are looking for your Online Campus login, please visit your Account page here .

Copyright © 2024 GetSmarter

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making

• Course Code GK2895
• Duration 2 days

Course Delivery

• Show all delivery types
• Company Event
• Public Classroom
• Virtual Learning

Public Classroom Price

SAR1,900.00

Course Overview

Course schedule, target audience, course objectives, course content, course prerequisites, further information.

This course is available in the following formats:

Company Event Event at company

Public classroom traditional classroom learning, virtual learning learning that is virtual.

Request this course in a different delivery format.

Improve your decision-making capabilities through critical thinking, structured reasoning, and creative problem analysis.

Effective decision makers are those rare individuals who are able to consistently identify and choose the best option among multiple alternatives. Their decisions are imaginative, reasoned, and defensible.

In this course, you will be provided with the training and tools necessary to become an inventive, logical decision maker. You'll explore a structured way to approach and dismantle problems, and you'll learn to clarify problems in terms of objectives and issues, with a view toward optimum outcomes.

Applying the techniques of critical thinking allows you to dismantle complex problems and to understand the inputs and implications of your thought processes. This training allows you to develop positions on issues that are logical and explicable to others. After completing the course, you'll understand why most decisions are of poor quality and you will be able to impose quality controls on your decisions and the decisions of others.

Contact us for dates

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Any professional who is, or will be, making important business decisions, including: department managers, directors, supervisors, project managers, IT project managers, project coordinators, project analysts, project leaders, senior project managers, team leaders, product managers, program managers, associate project managers, stakeholders, team members, and all other professionals.

• Quality control in decision making
• Why intuitive decision making is not effective
• How thinking and reasoning processes operate
• Natural barriers to sound reasoning
• Where to look for bias and assumptions in problem analysis
• Analytical techniques for comparing alternative solutions
• Structure, standards, and ethics of critical thinking
• Inputs and implications of thought processes
• How to control and evaluate your thought processes
• How to reason effectively and consistently
• Problem analysis best practices - using your decision time most effectively
• Understand problems from multiple perspectives
• Techniques for structuring the comparison of alternatives
• Formulating creative solutions
• Analytical decision analysis techniques such as sequencing, sorting, time lines, and matrixes

Hands-On Exercises

• Evaluate the strategic thinking of others
• Assess the reasoning of others
• Dismantle reasoning into the elements of reason
• Judge the elements of reason based on standards
• Problem solving by starting with restatement of the issues
• Problem solving from a number of different perspectives
• Identify decision-making factors
• Quality control in recommendations
• Creativity and the decision-making process
• Apply sorting techniques to the decision-making process
• Structure the analytical process with a matrix
• Analyze decision options using decision trees
• Evaluate decision options using probabilities
• Compare options using paired ranking

1. The Problems with Instinctive Decision Making

• Factors which influence our natural decision-making
• Quality problems with intuitive decision-making processes

2. What is Reasoned Decision Making?

• What are the barriers to reasoning well?
• What are the qualities of reasoned decision processes?

3. The Natural Barriers to Sound Reasoning

• Emotional state
• Mental shortcuts
• Bias and assumptions
• Need for explanations
• Narrow focus
• Stubbornness

4. An Introduction to Critical Thinking

• Are you a critical thinker?
• What is critical thinking?
• Why do we need critical thinking?
• Developing as a critical thinker
• Second-order thinking

5. The Structure of Reasoning

• Point of view
• Assumptions
• Implications and consequences
• Data, facts, and experience

6. Standards of Critical Thinking

• Significance
• Ethics of critical thinkers

7. Problem Analysis and Decision Making - Best Practices

• Think critically
• Impose creativity
• Clarify purpose
• Focus on major factors
• Actively focus in and out
• Structure the selection process
• Take a step back-does the decision make sense?

8. Imposing Creativity on the Choice of Solutions

• Suspend judgment
• Imagine courageously
• Think beyond conventional wisdom
• Question everything and everyone
• Imagine backwards from the ideal
• Restate the problem
• Dismantle the problem

9. Analytical Decision-Making Techniques

• Decision trees
• Probability

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Attendance of this course will gain the student 18 PMI PDUs

• Code: GK2895
• Meta Description: Improve your decision-making capabilities through critical thinking, structured reasoning, and creative problem analysis. Effective decision makers are those
• Meta Keywords: , Leadership and Business Skills, Professional Skills, GK2895, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, Leadership & Business Skills
• Name: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Tech Type: Leadership & Business Skills
• Title: GK2895 | Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making | Training Course | Leadership & Business Skills.
• Vendor: Leadership & Business Skills

Course details

Problem solving and critical thinking.

The ability to problem solve and think critically has never been more important. As the speed of decision making and the accuracy of information vary across both personal and organisational life, having the chance to problem solve is difficult. Thinking critically is hugely important to balance longer term consequences with current day action, avoiding the ramifications of poor decision making in an instant. 

Critical Thinking is therefore a vital skill to learn, practice and refresh.

By following a disciplined process, understanding what critical thinking is and why it can be so difficult, this interactive day event will allow you to raise issues or challenges you currently have and use new tools to think these through from an unbiased perspective.

Please note: this event will close to enrolments at 23:59 UTC on 26 February 2025.

Programme details

10.15am Registration at Rewley House reception

10.30am Problem solving: what is a problem and how to define it?

11.45am Tea/coffee

12.15pm Problem solving: tools and tips

1.30pm Lunch

2.30pm Critical thinking: how we as humans think and process information 

3.45pm Tea/coffee

4.15pm Critical thinking: tools and tips to improve 

5.30pm End of day

Recommended reading

Conn, C., Bulletproof Problem-Solving  (Wiley March, 2019) 

Atkinson, I., The Creative Problem Solver  (Pearson Business, 2014)

Kahneman, D., Thinking, Fast and Slow (Penguin, 2012)

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit or are a full-time student in the UK you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees.

Concessionary fees for short courses

Sean Heneghan

Sean runs his own HR/Coaching Consultancy individuals, teams and organisations to identify and develop their potential. 

Prior to establishing his HR/Coaching Consultancy, Sean worked as an operations manager within one of the UK’s largest retailers. After taking his MSc in Organisational Psychology and then his degree in Coaching, Sean worked with a leading Training and Development organisation. Sean was able to utilise his skills in psychometric testing, leadership and development before working with this organisation in Europe and Asia at a senior level with directors and senior teams.     

Since 2003, Sean has worked across private, public and voluntary sectors helping them to transmit ideas into actions. He has trained/coached and worked alongside managers and directors within all three sectors enabling them to recognise/work with and be aware of working practices at the highest level. This has enabled them to improve within their area of operation and own performance.

Application

Please use the 'Book' button on this page. Alternatively, please  contact us  to obtain an application form.

Accommodation

Accommodation is not included in the price, but if you wish to stay with us the night before the course, then please contact our Residential Centre.

Accommodation in Rewley House - all bedrooms are modern, comfortably furnished and each room has tea and coffee making facilities, Freeview television, and Free WiFi and private bath or shower rooms.  Please contact our Residential Centre on +44 (0) 1865 270362 or email  [email protected]  for details of availability and discounted prices.

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Critical Thinking and Decision-Making  - What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking and decision-making  -, what is critical thinking, critical thinking and decision-making what is critical thinking.

Critical Thinking and Decision-Making: What is Critical Thinking?

Lesson 1: what is critical thinking, what is critical thinking.

Critical thinking is a term that gets thrown around a lot. You've probably heard it used often throughout the years whether it was in school, at work, or in everyday conversation. But when you stop to think about it, what exactly is critical thinking and how do you do it ?

Watch the video below to learn more about critical thinking.

Simply put, critical thinking is the act of deliberately analyzing information so that you can make better judgements and decisions . It involves using things like logic, reasoning, and creativity, to draw conclusions and generally understand things better.

This may sound like a pretty broad definition, and that's because critical thinking is a broad skill that can be applied to so many different situations. You can use it to prepare for a job interview, manage your time better, make decisions about purchasing things, and so much more.

The process

As humans, we are constantly thinking . It's something we can't turn off. But not all of it is critical thinking. No one thinks critically 100% of the time... that would be pretty exhausting! Instead, it's an intentional process , something that we consciously use when we're presented with difficult problems or important decisions.

Improving your critical thinking

In order to become a better critical thinker, it's important to ask questions when you're presented with a problem or decision, before jumping to any conclusions. You can start with simple ones like What do I currently know? and How do I know this? These can help to give you a better idea of what you're working with and, in some cases, simplify more complex issues.  

Real-world applications

Let's take a look at how we can use critical thinking to evaluate online information . Say a friend of yours posts a news article on social media and you're drawn to its headline. If you were to use your everyday automatic thinking, you might accept it as fact and move on. But if you were thinking critically, you would first analyze the available information and ask some questions :

• What's the source of this article?
• Is the headline potentially misleading?
• What are my friend's general beliefs?
• Do their beliefs inform why they might have shared this?

After analyzing all of this information, you can draw a conclusion about whether or not you think the article is trustworthy.

Critical thinking has a wide range of real-world applications . It can help you to make better decisions, become more hireable, and generally better understand the world around you.

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Thinking Critically

This free online course includes:.

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• Final Assessment

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This free online training course on Critical Thinking will provide you with an understanding of the process of critical thinking. You will learn about group problem solving and critical thinking as a collective effort. Next, you will learn about the business trends in critical thinking. You will also be learning about the decision-making tactics, critical thinking methods and approaches to solving problems as well as incorporating creative and analytical thinking into problems solving.

Furthermore, in this free Critical Thinking online course, you will learn how to explore, identify and analyze problems as well as what information to gather. Then, you will be learning about brainstorming guidelines, collecting, recording, and developing ideas as well as determining the best solution and the factors of the best solution.

This online course then wraps up with teaching you about accepting a decision, how to prepare your proposal as well as about understanding your audience. It will also teach you how to use visual aids when presenting and about rehearsing your proposal before presenting it. This online course will be of great benefit to learners interested in concepts, theories, techniques and tools used in Critical thinking. Enroll in this course today and start learning how to use critical thinking to solve problems and present solutions.

All Alison courses are free to enrol study and complete. To successfully complete this course and become an Alison Graduate, you need to achieve 80% or higher in each course assessment. Once you have completed this course, you have the option to acquire an official Diploma, which is a great way to share your achievement with the world.

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Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making

We are constantly faced with problems that require us to make decisions that are mostly reached without a complex decision-making process: are we hungry? We decide to eat. But some problems are more complex, such as prioritizing or determining why a process fails and what to do. These issues require a rational approach to resolving them. Sometimes, things get more complicated, or our decisions can significantly affect our lives, jobs, or those around us. Other times the problem is so unusual that it challenges rational and critical thinking; here lies the importance of objectively analyzing to formulate a decision, and here is when creative problem-solving and decision-making become invaluable tools.

This course covers the most important creative problem-solving and decision-making approaches. By understanding the mechanisms of thinking and providing the relevant methods and tools practiced during the sessions, participants will become more confident in solving problems and making decisions at work or in life, from simpler situations to more difficult or complex ones.

Course Methodology

The course uses interactive techniques, such as brief presentations by the consultant and the participants, role plays (rehearsed and impromptu), Video clips with detailed debriefs, and individual and group feedback.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Build and expand decision making, critical thinking, and creative problem solving skills
• Apply rational approaches to solving problems and making decisions
• Utilize traditional and creative techniques for identifying causes and generating solutions
• Practice essential tools for proper decision making
• Employ creativity and lateral thinking as business tools

Target Audience

Managers, supervisors, and administrators who will benefit from better problem-solving and decision-making, and business professionals who want to take their critical thinking to the next level by using their experience and intuition to make the right moves and decisions,

Target Competencies

• Attention to details
• Decision making 
• Creative thinking
• Practical and proactive thinking
• Situation analysis
• Problem-solving ability and anticipating potential problems
• Definition of problem,  problem-solving, and decision-making
• The relationship between creative problem-solving and decision-making
• The helicopter view
• The six-step method in problem-solving
• Team problem solving
• The link between causes and symptoms
• Defining the problem
• Writing a problem statement
• Techniques for recognizing problems
• Six critical questions to clear out
• The rational approach
• Kepner & Tregoe's approach to problem-solving 
• Root cause analysis
• Corrective actions
• The five-why process
• The cause and effect diagram
• Pareto analysis
• Effective decision-making
• The How-How method
• The decision analysis worksheet
• Approaches to team decision-making
• Uses of creativity as a business tool 
• Lateral thinking
• Mental blocks to creative thinking and ways to overcome them
• Brainstorming
• The six thinking hats

2024 Schedule & Fees

Per participant.

Fees + VAT as applicable

(including coffee breaks and a buffet lunch daily)

Location & Date

Meirc reserves the right to alter dates, content, venue, trainer, and to offer courses in an integrated virtual learning (IVL) format whereby face to face classroom participants and virtual learners participate simultaneously in the same course in an interactive learning experience.

Tax Registration Number: 100239834300003

This course is also offered in Virtual Learning, click on the course below.

Course Outline

Schedule & fees, virtual learning.

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• +971 4 556 7171 | 800 7100
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• Offices 901 & 902, Sultan International Tower, Corniche Road
• PO Box 62182, Abu Dhabi, UAE
• +971 2 491 0700 | 800 7100

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100239834300003

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• +966 11 451 7017 | 9200 13917
• Office 206, Sultana Square, Prince Sultan Road
• PO Box 1394, Jeddah 21414, KSA

KSA Tax Registration Number

311655469100003

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