Description
In the past few decades, psychologists and business people alike have discovered that successful problem solvers tend to use the same type of process to identify and implement the solutions to their problems. This process works for any kind of problem, large or small. The Creative Problem Solving workshop will give participants an overview of the entire creative problem-solving process, as well as key problem-solving tools that they can use every day. Skills such as brainstorming, information gathering,
Designed for:
· Senior Managers, Entrepreneurs and Business Managers.
· Those in critical business leading positions.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:
Understand problems and the creative problem-solving process.
Identify types of information to gather and key questions to ask in problem-solving.
Identify the importance of defining a problem correctly.
Identify and use four different problem definition tools.
Write concrete problem statements.
Use basic brainstorming tools to generate ideas for solutions.
Evaluate potential solutions against criteria, including cost and benefit analysis and group voting.
Perform a final analysis to select a solution.
Understand the roles that fact and intuition play in selecting a solution.
Understand the need to refine the shortlist and redefine it.
Understand how to identify the tasks and resources necessary to implement solutions.
Evaluate and adapt solutions to reality.
Getting Started
Just to make sure the experience is as smooth as possible we’d like to suggest a couple of things you may or will need to get on with the course:
· While we are happy for anyone to enrol in the course, we suggest that you should be at least managing/leading a team (big or small) or preparing for a role that requires your leadership skills
· Internet connection is a big must
· Readiness to learn, remember this is about you and so you need to be ready to take time to yourself and motivate yourself
· Maybe something to write some notes down or ideas, but don’t worry the course documents can be downloaded at the end of the course for you to review and use at any time
Have fun!
The Course Outline
The Problem Solving Method
What’s in it for me: Understand what we define as a problem, what creative problem solving actually relates to and how we go about solving – using a defined process.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Information Gathering
What’s in it for me: Gathering information sounds easy but it often is the core of what results in you come up with. Learn about gathering the right parts of information to get to a sustainable problem-solving solution.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
How do you define a problem
What’s in it for me: This section focuses on defining the problem, not what we think it is, or the perspective of others. Learn how to determine the problem origination, the present state, desired state and analysis of the situation. Know when to pull the trigger or build your strategy more.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Preparing for Brainstorming
What’s in it for me: Identify mental blocks and how to remove them. Learn about how to stimulate creativity in brainstorming sessions.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Generating Solutions
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Solution Tools
What’s in it for me: Look into additional tools to generate solutions, such as Morphological Matrix, and where to use it, the six thinking hats and the blink method.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Analyzing Solutions
What’s in it for me: Assess the key criteria and take a look at real needs and wants, when analyzing the solution. We also look at Cost/benefit analysis to help determine the best solution and how to assess it.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Selecting the right solution
What’s in it for me: This is one of the critical areas in proposing a solution, which is identifying the right and recommended a solution. Here we look at doing the final analysis, looking at comparative analysis and assessing potential problems of the recommended solution.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
What’s in it for me: Identify the tasks and resources you need and how to Implement, Evaluate, and Adapting your solution.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
What’s in it for me: Learn about doing a post analysis, planning the Follow-Up Meetings and celebrating successes and improvements. Seems Trivial but an important booster in your future projects and management.
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
Closing up the course
What’s in it for me: You’ve done it, well done! But don’t stop here. Let’s summarise all you have learnt and remember knowledge is no good kept in a cupboard. Implement what you have learnt, try the tools and see the outcome until you find a combination that works for you! Congratulations we know you got what it takes to make a great leader!
Case Study: 1 Review Questions:1
