MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

Hone Your Critical Thinking with Problem Solving, Risk-Taking and Decision- Making Skills – As leaders there are often times that we are feeling overwhelmed. What if you could learn a process for thinking to make better decisions and create better solutions? In this training, you’ll learn and practice techniques to generate breakthrough ideas and solve your most pressing problems. In these highly competitive and fast-moving times pushing the boundaries; personal, team, and organization is not an option, but a necessity. Leaders who want to achieve success understand that taking risk is an essential part of achieving results. We will help you discover your ‘risk tolerance’ and learn a 5-step process to start implementing your ideas by taking calculated risks. You will also become a confident decision maker, knowing within a matter of minutes what action to take in any situation that presents itself to you!

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Objectives

01. Thinking Concepts: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. Types of Thinking: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Thinking Process: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Critical Thinking: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. Strategic Thinking: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Positive Thinking: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Problem Solving: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. Solving Strategies: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
09. Decision Making: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
10. Risk Management.: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
11. Intuitive Decisions: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
12. Leadership Thinking: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Thinking Concepts: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. Types of Thinking: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Thinking Process: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Critical Thinking: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. Strategic Thinking: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Positive Thinking: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Problem Solving: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. Solving Strategies: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
09. Decision Making: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
10. Risk Management.: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
11. Intuitive Decisions: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
12. Leadership Thinking: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Thinking Concepts.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Types of Thinking.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Thinking Process.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Critical Thinking.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Strategic Thinking.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Positive Thinking.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Problem Solving.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Solving Strategies.
09. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Decision Making.
10. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Risk Management.
11. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Intuitive Decisions.
12. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Leadership Thinking.

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Introduction

The ability to analyze information objectively and make a reasoned judgment is referred to as critical thinking. It entails assessing sources such as data, facts, observable phenomena, and research findings.

To solve problems or make decisions, good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information and distinguish between useful and less useful details. Employers value the ability to think critically—find out why and see how you can demonstrate it throughout the job application process.

Employers seek candidates who can evaluate a situation logically and offer the best solution.

Someone with critical thinking skills can be trusted to make decisions on their own and does not require constant supervision.

Hiring a critical thinker eliminates the need for micromanagement. Critical thinking abilities are highly valued in almost every industry and workplace. You can demonstrate critical thinking by including relevant keywords in your resume, cover letter, and interview.

Critical thinking is a self-correcting procedure that requires a commitment to gaining a deeper understanding of what matters. To improve one’s thought process, logical reasoning is required. The process benefits the thinker by forcing him to look beyond the obvious reasons for the answers, which aids in the development and strengthening of cognitive skills.

The value of critical thinking is that it promotes making sound decisions, understanding the consequences of our actions, and seeking rational explanations in order to improve our intellectual self-improvement. This is possible because the emphasis has shifted from emotions and assumptions to facts, figures, evidence, data, and information.

Critical thinking is widely recognized as an educational goal. Its definition is contested but competing definitions can be understood as different perspectives on the same fundamental concept: careful thought directed toward a goal. Conceptions differ in terms of the scope of such thinking, the type of goal, the criteria and norms for careful thought, and the thinking components on which they concentrate. Its adoption as an educational goal has been recommended on the grounds of respecting students’ autonomy and preparing students for life success and democratic citizenship. “Critical thinkers” have the dispositions and abilities to think critically when necessary.

The abilities can be identified directly; the dispositions can be identified indirectly by considering what factors help or hinder the exercise of the abilities. Standardized tests have been developed to assess the degree to which such dispositions and abilities exist in a person. Experimentally, educational intervention has been shown to improve them, particularly when it includes dialogue, anchored instruction, and mentoring. The generalizability of critical thinking across domains, alleged bias in critical thinking theories and instruction, and the relationship of critical thinking to other types of thinking have all sparked debate.

The term “critical thinking” to describe an educational goal dates back to the American philosopher John Dewey (1910), who called it “reflective thinking” more commonly. He defined it as follows:

Any belief or supposed form of knowledge must be actively, persistently, and carefully considered in light of the grounds that support it. (Dewey 1910: 6; 1933: 9)

The further conclusions that it tends to lead to and identified a habit of such thought with a scientific mindset. His extensive quotations of Francis Bacon, John Locke, and John Stuart Mill show that he was not the first to advocate for the development of a scientific mindset as an educational goal.

In the Critical Thinking Workshop, we will hone our critical thinking with problem solving, risk-taking and decision- making skills. As leaders there are often times that we are feeling overwhelmed. What if you could learn a process for thinking to make better decisions and create better solutions? In this training, you’ll learn and practice techniques to generate breakthrough ideas and solve your most pressing problems. In these highly competitive and fast-moving times pushing the boundaries; personal, team, and organization is not an option, but a necessity. Leaders who want to achieve success understand that taking risk is an essential part of achieving results. We will help you discover your ‘risk tolerance’ and learn a 5-step process to start implementing your ideas by taking calculated risks. You will also become a confident decision maker, knowing within a matter of minutes what action to take in any situation that presents itself to you!

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Executive Summary

Critical thinking is the ability to reason, understand the logical relationship between ideas, and focus on important issues in order to avoid future problems and encourage thoughtful decisions. The importance of critical thinking is that it fosters an individual’s reasoning ability. It assists him in becoming an active learner rather than a passive receiver of any relevant data and information.

A key characteristic of the critical thinker is that he will not accept anything at face value. Instead, he will call into question previously held assumptions, resulting in findings that paint an entirely new picture.

Understanding, identifying, analyzing, constructing, evaluating, and then systematically solving problems are all part of the critical thinking process, rather than instincts or intuition. The procedure is all about rational thought and reasoning, not emotions. Logic and creativity are two of its most powerful pillars, and they are widely used to improve creativity skills and speed up the work process.

It also promotes independent thinking, which aids in the improvement of comprehension and presentation skills, allowing ideas to be presented in a systematic and fact-based manner. A critical thinker can articulate his ideas persuasively and thoughtfully.

Critical thinking is defined as an approach that considers new arguments, perspectives, and ideas in order to challenge existing schools of thought. It promotes the ability to think on your feet and solve problems on your own without direct supervision. To defy assumptions, it is a core competency based on constant revision and reflection.

One important fact about the critical thinking process is that it is an acquired skill that anyone can develop with practice and determination. It is in high demand in today’s changing workplace because organizations are increasingly emphasizing this soft skill.

There are 12 courses (or focus areas) in the Critical Thinking Workshop that will assist in acquiring these skills.

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Here’s What We’ll Be Covering:

1. Thinking Concepts – Thinking is a complex process in which we manipulate information to form concepts. It also engages in problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. In this course you will discover the nature of thinking, prototypes, idea behind critical thinking and access various thinking concepts and tools to help us navigate the complexities of thinking.

2. Types of Thinking – Some argue that there are as many different types of thinking as there are people who think them. No, it does not. In fact, There is a distinction to be made between types of thinking and methods of thinking. It’s helpful to know which ones we want to identify and improve. This lesson covers the 7 different types of thinking and examples for each of them.

3. Thinking Process – According to researchers, a thought process can be both conscious and unconscious. In fact, your mind can process multiple thoughts at a time. In this course we will reveal multiple thought process examples and sure-fire tools we can use to sharpen and improve our thinking.

4. Critical Thinking – Imagine how much better your life would be if there was a way to make the best decisions possible every day. There is and it’s known as critical thinking. In this lesson, we will gain the skills to help master the skills of critical thinking which can profoundly impact almost every aspect of our lives.

5. Strategic Thinking – Strategic thinking is a powerful skill for leaders in an executive or managerial role. In this course, we will define what strategic thinking is, discuss various applications in the workplace and show us how to develop this skill for ourselves.

6. Positive Thinking – Positive thinking can help you empower others and even play an important role in your overall health and well-being. Discover powerful positive thinking techniques and 7 tips to think more positively at work.

7. Problem Solving – Understanding the value of problem-solving in the workplace will assist us in growing as leaders. Developing these skills will help us in resolving critical issues and conflicts that arise. Learn the powerful 4 step problem solving process and steps to improve our problem-solving skills.

8. Solving Strategies – Problem solving strategies are approaches to and facilitation of the problem-solving processes. Different strategies are more effective when attempting to solve broad problems such as increasing growth versus more focused problems such as improving our customer service on boarding process. In this lesson discover 4 powerful problem-solving strategies along with methods and techniques that provide a complete end – to- end process for developing effective solutions.

9. Decision Making – Having good decision-making skills is something that almost every company looks for in a leader. It’s one of the most valuable skills you can have. In this course, we will discuss decision making skills, the decision process and various types of decision making.

10. Risk Management – Risk taking is an accepted part of doing business. Through risk management, most businesses actively seek to reduce risk and its potential impact. In this lesson, we will uncover specifically what risk management is, discover the 4-step risk management process and the process of risk analysis, as well as, how to identify your risk tolerance level.

11. Intuitive Decisions – Intuitive decision making is a different style of decision making. Based on using your gut or your intuition- which often accesses information others may miss. This type of intuition is based on a wide range of knowledge, experience, perceptions, feelings, and skills that an individual has acquired in the past. In this lesson, we will discover the advantages and disadvantages in using our intuition to make decisions and steps to increase your intuition decision making skills.

12. Leadership Thinking – Leadership necessitates constant thought; if you’re not thinking about a problem, you’re probably thinking about your people or possibilities. A leader’s mind is in near-constant motion. Every leader must consider whether or not the motion is producing anything worthwhile. In this lesson, we will learn from successful leaders form our past and uncover the 9 leadership thinking styles and identify ours in the process.

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Curriculum

Women Empowerment – Workshop 8 – Critical Thinking

1. Thinking Concepts
2. Types of Thinking
3. Thinking Process
4. Critical Thinking
5. Strategic Thinking
6. Positive Thinking
7. Problem Solving
8. Solving Strategies
9. Decision Making
10. Risk Management.
11. Intuitive Decisions
12. Leadership Thinking

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Distance Learning

Introduction

Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Women Empowerment corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.

Study environment

You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.

Study tools & rules

Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.

Successful distance-learning

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.

Self-assessment

Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.

Accepting responsibility as a student

Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.

Planning

By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.

Management

Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.

Study objectives & tasks

The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.

Study forecast

As a guide, the Appleton Greene Women Empowerment corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.

Performance management

It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.

With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.

With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.

Keeping in touch

You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.

Work colleagues and family

You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.

Making it relevant</