Critical Thinking Skills for Managing


Overview/Description
Target Audience
Expected Duration
Lesson Objectives
Course Number



Overview/Description
"Rational decision making is linear and is what you do when you put your facts in order. Intuition is looking at those facts and trying to see a pattern-and the patterns aren't always evident because the patterns aren't always linear. The two together are an extremely powerful combination." Joel Kurtzman, President, Kurtzman Associates and former editor, Harvard Business Review. The Critical Thinking Skills for Managing course charts the concepts and skills that can transform competent leaders into discerning situation analysts, focused problem solvers, and powerful decision makers. The course offers analysis methodology that will sharpen managerial ability through all the stages of the critical thinking process; situation assessment, problem solving, and decision making. Leaders will learn how to hone their issue identification skills, refine their questioning techniques, and maximize their decision-making outcomes. Critical thinking processes are broken down into discreet stages or steps that can be applied and tracked easily. Mastering the processes in this course can result in better action planning and implementation throughout the organization.

Target Audience
Supervisors, managers, directors, executives, team leaders, project leaders, and coaches

Expected Duration (hours)
3.5

Lesson Objectives

Situation Assessment

  • recognize the value of performing a situation assessment before attempting to solve a problem.
  • identify attributes that determine the qualitative relevance of data collected to support an assessment or a decision.
  • sequence the steps used to conduct a situation assessment.
  • apply the correct assessment step in a given business situation.
  • Problem Solving

  • recognize the benefits derived from increasing problem-solving competence.
  • match question/answer classifications with examples.
  • determine the probable cause of a given business problem by applying appropriate problem-solving steps.
  • Decision Building

  • recognize the benefits of employing decision-building procedures before making a decision.
  • determine whether the decision process in a business decision scenario is being tested adequately.
  • sequence the procedures used in the decision analysis process.
  • determine the appropriate procedural steps to employ to accomplish an effective decision analysis in a given business scenario.
  • Course Number:
    PD0254