Available in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne
- Do your leaders or staff need to make better, more thoughtful decisions?
- Do they need to navigate and analyse complex decisions on operational, ethical or compliance issues?
- Are they expected to provide high quality, informed advice to others?
This customised training workshop is ideal for senior managers, team leaders and supervisors who need to take a more analytical approach to problem-solving, decision-making, and planning. All programs are tailored to meet the particular situations experienced by your team.
In this critical thinking skills training course participants will be exposed to a wide range of practical approaches and techniques to raise awareness of how and why they make decisions. Participants will also be involved in hands-on activities to apply critical thinking methodologies to scenarios, engage in lively group discussions, share their experiences with the group, and identify their personal opportunities for improvement.
Critical thinking core themes
While some individuals may be able to develop critical thinking skills organically on their own, for most people it is a learned skill. Like most skills, adult learning is best achieved through an experiential learning process involving opportunities to practice and revise the new skill over time.
Critical thinking and problem-solving may be considered as a set of skills including, but not limited to, these attributes:
Having an analytical mindset
- The ability to determine relationships between variables
- Using a systematic approach to understanding decisions or situations
Identifying assumptions
- The ability to draw logical conclusions from information at hand
- Recognising sources of potential bias and assumptions and questioning those
Evaluating information
- Assessing and weighing available evidence, considering its relevance and reliability
- The ability to judge the quality of procedures or solutions against a standard or framework
Being creative and curious
- The ability to be flexible and change approach as circumstances or information change
- The ability to synthesise evidence/facts and construct a strategy, method, or argument that goes beyond the available facts
Self-management
- Being self-aware of own emotions and preferences so as to remain open-minded
- Using effective communication skills including asking open questions, active listening, emotional intelligence and assertiveness
Customised training to suit your team
Importantly, every program is tailored to include a focus on particular areas of interest for each client, including the use of realistic case studies or real-life issues that require more detailed consideration and analysis. These components are identified during the customisation process undertaken by Vectis.
This program is delivered as an interactive session, or multiple sessions, involving the participants in small group discussion, evaluation of scenarios, and opportunities to apply the new skills and receive feedback where suitable.
Read what our training clients have said about our work
Critical thinking training topics
Whilst we have a good understanding of what is needed to create the best learning experience, the selection of topics for a program is always guided by the outcomes desired by our client. Topics that may be included are:
- Understanding Critical Thinking – is it a process or a skill?
- Defining Critical Thinking vs Conventional/Linear Thinking
- Critical thinking models with a focus on using the RED framework
- The importance of self-awareness
- Recognising when emotions are involved and why
- Proximate vs. Root cause analysis
- Recognising and managing cognitive biases
- Obtaining input from stakeholders
- Using active listening skills to obtain full information
- Avoiding poor thinking habits, beliefs, and situational distortions
- Identifying assumptions – How do I know this? Where has it come from?
- Using decision-making processes such as WRAP to assess decision from various perspectives
- Being assertive when communicating decisions
- Establishing milestones and triggers for evaluating progress/escalation
- Effective interpersonal communication skills
- How to evaluate previous decisions – what to look for
- Using reflective methods to review outcomes such as Rose-Thorn-Bud framework
- How to apply lessons learned to future decisions
Other topics may be incorporated into a Critical Thinking training program including topics usually presented in our management training course.
Would you like to discuss this further?
All our training programs are customised to cater for the needs of each clients team and particular workplace challenges. Contact us to discuss how we can help your team develop highly effective decision-making skills.