Course Introduction
This course aims to enhance delegates’ appreciation of different approaches to problem solving and decision making and how to apply them in practical workplace situations.
Course Objectives
Delegates who attend this course will be better able to:
- Describe the ingredients of, and steps involved in, effective problem solving
- Promote creativity in problem solving sessions through developing appropriate attitudes and behaviours and using practical tools and techniques
- Describe their personal decision making styles and their associated strengths and weaknesses
- Select and use a range of problem solving and decision making techniques for different workplace scenarios.
Course Content
The areas we will cover will be shaped by the specific needs of the group. However, we will expect to focus attention on the following:
- Structured approaches to problem solving – the steps involved in effective problem solving, clarifying goals and objectives, gathering, organising and using information.
- Using logical approaches, tools and frameworks to define, explore and solve problems.
- The impact of your personal traits and style in problem solving and decision making, balancing intuition and analysis.
- Assessing alternatives – establishing parameters and guiding principles to assess the pro’s and con’s of options and bring confidence to decision making.
- Group decision making and problem solving processes, how decision get made in groups, facilitating problem solving and decision making sessions.
Methods
The session will be interactive, making use of discussions and case study scenarios that raise issues relevant to delegates’ roles. While we will refer to underpinning theories and best practice in the field, we will focus on how things are done in practice.
Each participant will have the opportunity reflect on his/her specific experiences and ideas and to work with others to identify practical actions for application back in the workplace.
Specifically, we will give group members active practice in using different problem solving tools and approaches, applying them either to current business situations or case study scenarios. This will enable delegates to experiment and consider how they could use these techniques back in the workplace.