Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making [GK2895]

OVERVIEW

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

Learn how to be an inventive, logical decision maker by understanding the principles behind critical thinking and the tools used to consistently identify and select the best decision among multiple alternatives. In this course, you'll explore a structured way to approach and dismantle problems 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. By applying problem analysis and good practices you'll be able to develop positions and arrive at decisions that are logical and explicable to others. After completing the course, you'll understand why most decisions are of poor quality and be able to impose quality controls on both your decisions and the decisions of others.

OBJECTIVES

After you complete this course you will be able to understand:

• Natural barriers to sound reasoning
• Bias and assumptions in problem analysis
• Thought processes and reasoning
• Analytical techniques for comparing alternative solutions
• Structure, standards, and ethics of critical thinking
• Problem analysis best practices

Hands-On Exercises:

• Evaluate the strategic thinking of others
• Assess the reasoning of others
• Problem solving by starting with restatement of the issues
• Problem solving from a number of different perspectives
• Identify decision-making factors
• Creativity and the decision-making process
• Structure the analytical process with a matrix
• Evaluate decision options using probabilities
• Compare options using paired ranking

AUDIENCE

This course is aimed at any professional who is new to formal problem analysis, 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 others responsible for resource allocations.

CERTIFICATION

Recommended preparation for exam(s):

• N/A

CONTENT

Introduction to Decision Making

• What's a Decision?
• High Quality vs. Low Quality Decisions
• Becoming a Better Decision-Maker

Barriers to Brilliant Decisions

• Instinctive Decision-Making
• Barriers to Sound Reasoning
• Outlook vs. Reality

Critical Thinking

• What Is Critical Thinking?
• Structures of Thinking
• Thinking with Standards
• Sophistry and Intellectual Ethics

Problem Analysis Guidelines

• Opening the Mind
• 10 Best Practice Guidelines
• Structuring Techniques
• Putting It All Together

The Decision

• Who Decides?
• Who Should Decide?
• Take Home Message