Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

How often do you think about how you think? Critical thinking helps people make decisions, take action, and develop beliefs based on rigorous and skillful use of information, experiences, observations, and logic. Critical thinking provides people with a competitive advantage. The combination of critical thinking and problem-solving skills allow people to continuously improve their work processes and eliminate stumbling blocks to their performance and satisfaction at work. The tools covered in this workshop can help both teams and individuals to overcome barriers to critical thinking and creativity, visualize a process, pinpoint problems, find their causes, and determine the necessary solutions. Participants will learn how to think before they think, to be able to choose the best tools and techniques for each situation. Course Objectives: Participants who successfully complete this course will be able to: Define critical thinking and its workplace valueIdentify situations where critical thinking is neededStrike a balance between open-mindedness and skepticismQuestion their steps in their thinking processConsider the necessary factsTest their assumptions and avoid biased judgmentAsk meaningful and relevant questionsFollow a critical thinking processView a situation from 6 different perspectivesGenerate more creative ideasCreate and then focus a team on a specific, shared problem definitionIdentify and organize the root causes of your problemsUse information to determine the frequency and impact of your problem’s root causesIdentify creative problem solutions and action plansStrategically plan for how you will roll out your solution, planning for both helping and hindering forcesEmploy a variety of specific, hands-on techniques, designed to change your perspective and subsequently generate new ideas, solution sets, and unique insights on purposeCourse Outline: Critical Thinking ToolsThe Ladder of Inference – overcoming or minimizing cognitive biasFour Steps for Critiquing Your ThinkingAvoiding Group ThinkThe Stepladder Technique – involving others’ input when assessing situations6 Thinking Hats – looking at a situation from 6 different perspectivesCritical Thinking MindsetHow to be open-mindedHow to be well-informedHow to not jump to conclusionsBarriers to CreativityWhat typically hinders creativityHow individuals or teams can generate and assess critical pieces of information essential to making the right decisions throughout the problem-solving processHow to balance perspectives rooted in emotions, logic, improvement opportunities, critical thinking, and creativity, when making decisionsGenerating & Prioritizing Problem StatementsHow to generate a list of potential problems to tackleHow to prioritize the problem listHow to create a problem statement that clearly defines the problem, in a manageable wayHow to be sure all team members share a common problem definitionIdentifying Root CausesHow to assess data and information to better understand why a problem existsIdentifying Solutions & Action PlansHow to create unique, on-target solutions that address the identified root causesHow to create the action plans necessary to solve the problemHow to generate recommendations for implementation of solutions using Force Field Analysis Up to 30 students Virtual Classes will be a live, Instructor lead class in Zoom for Government, a virtual technical assistant VTA will be available to assist students with any technical issues, take roll, administer evaluations, and distribute certificates of completion. Course materials will be provided electronically.Onsite classes will be held at your location. The instructor will travel to you. Materials will be printed and shipped to your site. A sign-up sheet will be provided for student to enter their name (as they want it on their certificate) and the email address to send the certificate to. GSA travel costs will be added to the course fee. Contact us for a travel estimate.A minimum of 2 weeks lead time is needed for virtual classes, 3 weeks for onsite classes.Questions? Contact our training coordinator via email or phone at (202) 843.5447.