Critical Thinking and Out-of-the-Box Problem Solving

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Seminar Brochure

You will learn how to

• Make better decisions through critical thinking and creative problem solving
• Adapt to different thinking styles in group and team environments
• Foster an innovative environment in your workplace
• Recognize and remove barriers to individual and group creativity
• Systematically analyze a target problem
• Present your ideas clearly and concisely for maximum stakeholder buy-in
• Transform your creativity into practical business solutions

Course benefits
Successful organizations recognize that critical thinking and creative solutions to problems significantly enhance business potential. Today's decision makers must employ a variety of thinking styles, methodologies and creative processes to achieve competitive advantage.

In this course, you develop your skills as a critical thinker and problem solver. You learn to leverage your personal thinking preferences using tools and techniques based on cutting-edge technologies.

Who should attend
This course is valuable for anyone who makes decisions at any level of the organization.

Course workshop
Through a series of interactive small-group workshops, you gain practical decision-making skills using critical thinking and creative problem-solving techniques. Workshops include:

• Profiling your personal thinking style and the styles of others
• Identifying personal and team roadblocks to success
• Analyzing left- and right-brain characteristics
• Leading through speaking in another style
• Applying logical methodologies to transform a range of creative options into supportable decisions
• Preparing a framework to present your decision
• Developing your personal decision-making toolkit

Course content
INTRODUCTION

• Balancing people, processes and tools for optimal decisions
• The business drivers that demand creative problem solving
• Deciphering critical thinking

LEVERAGING PERSONAL THINKING STYLES

• The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)
• MacLean's Triune Brain Theory
• Assessing your preferred approach to thinking
• Leveraging whole-brain thinking
• Identifying left/right brain dominance
• Analyzing personal preferences
• Identifying your own natural brain dominance
• Determining non-dominant approaches
• Managing thinking preferences
• Avoiding quadrant bias
• Bridging opposing styles
• Predicting co-worker profiles

UNLEASHING YOUR CREATIVITY

• The creative environment
• Setting the creative stage
• The power of positive communication
• Identifying elements that stimulate creativity
• Eliminating barriers to innovation
• Group creative thinking
• Brainstorming options
• Challenging assumptions
• Dispelling personal and corporate myths
• The iterative mind
• Moving between quadrants
• Valuing non-dominant preferences
• Stretching outside your personal style
• Recording the creative process
• Drawing mind maps
• Chart writing

SOLVING PROBLEMS USING ANALYSIS AND PRIORITIZATION

• Systematic approaches to problem solving
• Defining criteria
• Focusing on outcomes
• Leveraging left-brain thinkers
• Applying questioning techniques
• Deconstructing problems using stair-step techniques
• Analyzing the creative process
• Identifying business-critical ideas
• Categorizing, prioritizing and purging
• Avoiding analysis paralysis
• Overcoming the "It won't work here" mentality
• The Five Monkeys Syndrome or "But we've always done it this way"
• Analyzing for outcomes, not solutions
• Applying analysis models
• Situation assessment
• Decision analysis
• Problem evaluation

TRANSLATING CREATIVITY AND ANALYSIS INTO PRACTICAL APPLICATION

• Organizational politics
• Recognizing the workplace culture
• Maintaining outcome-focused goals
• The influence of decision-making styles
• Recognizing your own blind spots
• Self-awareness and self-regulation
• Forming a coalition with style opposites
• Deploying your decision
• Clearly expressing analysis results
• Ensuring organizational benefit
• Guaranteeing maximum buy-in

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

• Integrating your solution into the business
• Creating a whole-brain presentation
• Strengthening your non-dominant position
• Adjusting communication to thinking styles
• Transforming confrontation into communication
• Continuing your development
• Conducting self-checks
• Being persistent: a key trait of successful creatives
• Mapping thinking skills to your business

YOUR PERSONAL DECISION-MAKING TOOLKIT

• Your personal thinking style
• Your stakeholders' styles
• Flexing to colleagues' styles
• Committing to your Personal Action Plan
• Checklists for success

Sponsor Background:
About Learning Tree

Learning Tree International is a world leader in Hands-on training for Management and Technology Professionals. Since 1974, over 1,700,000 course participants from over 13,000 organizations around the world have enhanced their skills through intensive hands-on exercises under the guidance of expert instructors with real-world experience.

Virtually every major company and government agency has relied on Learning Tree to provide its managers and employees with the skills they need to succeed in their job functions.

10 Reasons to Choose Learning Tree

... over 1.7 million professionals have trained with Learning Tree

1 Benefit from 32 Years of Training Excellence

Learning Tree International has trained over 1,700,000 IT and management professionals and managers from more than 13,000 organizations around the world. Virtually every major technologyoriented organization and government agency has trusted and relied on us to provide their employees with the training they need to master the latest technologies and management skills.

2 Learn from Expert Instructors

Learning Tree instructors are active practitioners who average more than 20 years experience in their field. Because they use the very technologies and skills they teach, they've already solved the same problems you are likely to encounter, so you and your organization gain the knowledge from their years of hands-on expertise. In addition to their extensive real-world experience, our instructors only qualify to teach Learning Tree Courses after completing our rigorous industryleading screening and training program.

3 Experience Superior Course Design

Learning Tree Courses are developed through a stringent, time-tested process that ensures every course is practical and relevant. Our development teams include multiple subject experts drawn from our worldwide network-and our courses are constantly updated to ensure what you learn is always up to date.

4 Courses are Available Anywhere, Anytime

In addition to our Education Centers located in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim, Learning Tree has the infrastructure and logistical capabilities to assemble, customize and deliver world-class training anywhere in the world. Whether it's a single course at your own facility, or a complete curriculum you need to present in different locations around the globe, location is not a problem.

5 Acquire Practical Skills with Hands-On Instructor-led Training

Each of our intensive hands-on courses is designed to help you gain the skills you need-quickly and in depth. Our courses are taught in a collaborative, supportive classroom-based environment, not on a Web site where you get instruction in a vacuum. And when you return to work, you can apply your new skills, tools and techniques right away, so you and your organization reap the benefits immediately.

6 Retain New Knowledge and Skills Longer

Learning Tree Courses are developed around the principles of Active Learning, the most advanced and effective method of adult education. You are immersed in your subject through individual and group activities that significantly increase your understanding, retention and ability to apply new knowledge and concepts to maximum effect.

7 Learn in a Superb Training Environment

Our modern, comfortable Education Centers are designed to ensure the comfort, ease and maximum effectiveness of your learning experience. We provide state-of-the-art equipment featuring MagnaLearn(tm), our proprietary Instructional Enhancement Technology-which helps you learn more quickly, in greater depth and with increased retention.

8 Achieve Professional Certification

We offer 45 Certification Programs that give you professional recognition and document your expertise. Achieving Learning Tree Certification demonstrates your mastery of the essential skills required to excel in your role.

9 Earn College Credit or Continuing Education Credit

Learning Tree Courses are recommended for college credit to more than 1,500 Universities and Colleges by the American Council on Education (ACE). Our courses are also eligible for PDU credits from the Project Management Institute, as well as CPE credits from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy.

10 Vendor-Independent Training

Learning Tree was, is and will continue to be independent of vendor influences. That means you get training that is unbiased. We present an objective, evenhanded treatment of the pros and cons of new products, techniques and technology. You even learn about third-party alternatives that the vendors themselves would never tell you about.

Learning Tree Management Training

For over 32 years, Learning Tree has been dedicated to meeting the professional development needs of people like you. Now, more than ever, superior management, leadership and interpersonal skills are critical to individual and organizational success. And it is equally critical to be able to apply those skills in complex, technology-intensive environments.

Experience the Quality...of Learning Tree Hands-On Training

Learning Tree is committed to providing the most effective high-quality education for IT professionals and managers. Our high standards for Course Development, Instructor Training and state-of-the-art facilities provide a learning experience that ensures your training investment produces the results you and your organization expect.

Active Training Ensures That "You Learn by Doing"

For over 32 years, Learning Tree has been a pioneer in the application of Active Training, which is the most advanced and effective method of adult education. And today, we are still leading the way.

In our courses, you learn by doing. Our instructors do more than just lecture--they actively involve you in your training. Brief lectures are followed by hands-on exercises so that you master new skills right away.

Get Real-World Solutions from Expert Instructors

Learning Tree instructors are active practitioners who work full time in high-tech companies, R & D labs and other business environments where they use the very technologies and skills they teach. Because they have already solved the same problems you are likely to encounter, our instructors are equipped to share their real-world experience and practical solutions with you. Everything you learn is practical, relevant and up to the minute.

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