Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Training
A one-day programme for organisations that want staff to think about a problem before solving it. Most workplace problem solving fails in the first ten minutes, when a symptom gets mistaken for a cause, or the first plausible explanation gets adopted because nobody had a reason to question it, and everything after that is competent execution in the wrong direction.
The programme teaches a small number of tools that hold up under pressure: how to frame a problem, how to test an argument, how to find a cause rather than a culprit, and how to structure a decision when the information is incomplete. It is deliberately unspecialised, and it works best when a team attends together and applies the tools to a live problem of their own.
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Course at a Glance
| Duration | 1 day |
|---|---|
| Delivery | Physical or online. Tell us your preference when you enquire. |
Programme Agenda
9:00 AM - 9:15 AM
Welcome and Programme Overview
Introduction to the session, objectives, and housekeeping.
9:15 AM - 10:15 AM
How Thinking Goes Wrong
Fast intuitive judgement and slow deliberate reasoning, and why the fast system is usually right and occasionally catastrophically wrong. The biases that show up most in working life: confirmation bias, anchoring, availability, sunk cost, overconfidence and hindsight. Demonstrated through short exercises where participants get the answer wrong before the bias is named, which is considerably more persuasive than being told about it.
10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Break
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Framing the Problem
Why the framing determines the answer, and how to notice the frame you have been handed. Distinguishing symptom, problem and cause. Writing a problem statement that is specific about what is happening, where, since when and how much, and that does not contain a solution in disguise. Deciding what would count as solved. Participants reframe a problem from their own workplace and compare the before and after.
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Evaluating Evidence and Arguments
Separating a claim from the evidence for it and the reasoning between them. Identifying assumptions, including the ones nobody stated. Correlation and causation, base rates, small samples and selective evidence. Judging source reliability, including the specific problem of confident output from an AI tool. Common argument failures in meetings: appeal to authority, appeal to precedent, false dichotomy and moving the goalposts.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Root Cause Analysis
Working past the first answer. The 5 Whys done properly, including how to avoid the single-thread trap where the technique produces one tidy chain and misses the other three causes. Cause and effect analysis using a fishbone diagram across people, process, equipment, materials, environment and management. Distinguishing contributing factors from root causes, and testing a candidate cause by asking whether removing it would have prevented the outcome. Applied to a case.
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM
Generating and Evaluating Options
Separating option generation from option evaluation, and why combining them kills the useful ideas first. Techniques for widening the option set beyond the two that were obvious. Evaluating against explicit criteria with weightings agreed before the options are scored. Considering the option of doing nothing, and the second-order consequences of each choice.
3:15 PM - 3:30 PM
Break
3:30 PM - 4:15 PM
Deciding Under Uncertainty, and Deciding as a Group
Reversible and irreversible decisions and how much analysis each deserves. Making the decision criteria and the assumptions explicit so the decision can be reviewed later on its reasoning rather than its outcome. Group failure modes: groupthink, deference to the most senior voice, anchoring on the first proposal, and diffusion of responsibility. Practical countermeasures including independent estimates before discussion, an assigned challenger, and a pre-mortem.
4:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Live Problem Clinic
Teams apply the day's tools end to end to a real problem they brought with them, and present their framing, cause analysis and recommendation for challenge.
4:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Wrap-Up and Q&A
Key takeaways, next steps, and close.
Key Outcomes
- Recognise the cognitive biases that most often distort workplace judgement, including in their own reasoning
- Write a problem statement that is specific and does not contain a hidden solution
- Separate claims, evidence and assumptions, and judge the reliability of a source
- Run a root cause analysis using 5 Whys and fishbone without stopping at the first plausible cause
- Generate a wider option set and evaluate it against criteria agreed in advance
- Apply countermeasures to groupthink and other group decision failures, including pre-mortems
Training Mode Physical / Online / Hybrid / e-learning
HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable
Level Foundation to intermediate, suitable for executives, supervisors, managers, analysts and technical staff across functions
Duration 1 Day (8 Hours) | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue In-house at the client's premises, or delivered via the client's preferred platform (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or equivalent)
Assessment Applied problem clinic output plus a 10 to 15 question knowledge assessment
Certificate Certificate of Completion issued to all participants upon full attendance