Team Exercise for Change: Critical Thinking, Analytical and Problem Solving

Course Objective
In today’s business environment, little is certain, tempo is quicker and the dynamics are more complex. It is impossible for managers and executives to stay on top of all things they need to know to do their job. We encounter problems every day and need to be more prepared for internal and external crisis. As circumstance of each problem varies, there is no standard answer and past experience may not always be relevant. Our ability to think critically and to master the problem-solving techniques will enable us to react quickly, promote collaboration, analyze problem systematically, identify solutions, resolve conflicting requirements and evaluate options to determine the best solution.

In today’s information age, strong analytical ability will help us to filter relevant and quality information from a vast quantity of data to generate ideas and solutions.

This course will teach you how to perform situation analysis, identify the root cause of the problems, simplify and communicate, seek ideas, identify solutions, evaluate options and make decisions.

It will also show you the critical thinking technique with emphasis on the relationship between evidence and the conclusion as follows:

• to think in multiple perspective – big picture, facts and evidence, feeling and emotions, out-of-the-box, optimistic, caution, realistic and practice;
• clarify and organize your information; and
• draw logical conclusion based on evidence.

Target Participants
Managers, supervisors and all employees are welcome to join.

Course Background
Often, problem solving is a team exercise. A systematic and standardise problem solving approach, combined with analytical and critical thinking technique, will help to guide and facilitate the identification of the best solution. Even if the solution can be decided by an individual, a process is still required to evaluate multiple and possibly conflicting stakeholder requirements and get buy-in for an optimal solution that balance efficiency, cost, risks and control.

From simple problems such as:

• How to avoid misuse and reduce wastage of office stationaries but on the other hand to ensure good quality stationaries are available when required; or
• How to reduce the turnaround time for employee expense claim from 4 weeks to 2 weeks but still maintaining proper control to detect unauthorised and falsified claims

To more complex problems such as:

• How to build a new facility adjacent to an operating facility while maintaining construction progress, operation reliability and safety; or
• How to maintain company growth and profitability with increasingly stringent regulatory and compliance requirements, economic uncertainty and fierce competition;
• This course will show you the approach and techniques to tackle.