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Courses/Leadership/Strategic Thinking

Turn your Thinking Around: New Approaches to Problem Solving

The aim of the course is to help problem solvers think about the issues they face in different ways.

Created byRoss Maynard
4.2
(66 reviews)
BeginnerUpdated Jul 22, 2021
Turn your Thinking Around: New Approaches to Problem Solving

What You'll Learn

check_circle• Understand why problem-solving efforts sometimes fails.
check_circle• Recognise that creative thinking is a mindset supported by clear principles.
check_circle• Deploy the new problem-solving tools to enhance the thinking of any problem-solving team.
check_circle• Organise an effective problem-solving team.
check_circle• Quantify the benefits of the problem-solving and improvement work carried out.

About This Course

My aim in "Turn your Thinking Around: New Approaches to Problem Solving", is to help problem solvers think about the issues they face in different ways. We can easily get into a rut in our problem solving using the same tools over and over, and producing predictable answers. In this course, I introduce new problem-solving tools to help you think about problems in new ways and, hopefully, develop new solutions which will address a problem more thoroughly than previously.

The problem-solving tools I introduce are grouped into four categories:

  1. New Thinking for when you want to think about things differently
  2. New People for when you want to freshen up the mindsets of the people you’re working with
  3. New Resources for when you want a new technique to try
  4. And Counterintuition for when taking a non-conformist view might bring new ideas

This is the third course I have written on problem solving and decision making. All three courses cover different aspects of this fascinating field: • In Problem Solving and Decision Making Creatively, I cover a five-stage approach to problem solving and introduce some of the most used problem solving tools including the Problem Statement and Goal Statement; Stakeholder Analysis, Process Mapping, The Ishikawa Diagram, Data analysis and the Ideas Grid • In The Creative Accountant: Personal and Professional Problem-Solving Skills, I look at the three types of problem and the different tools that work best with each type of problem. The Critical problem is a crisis where a response is needed urgently. The Tame Problem is a situation where a standard problem-solving approach works well; and the Wicked Problem is a highly complex and multi-faceted problem where a more flexible approach is needed and where new tools can help. The new tools covered include the Four Frame Model, Perceptual Positions, Bright Spots Analysis and solution focussed approaches.

In this course, I introduce 11 new problem-solving tools that are designed to help enhance the thinking of any problem-solving team, particularly if they want a change from the “usual” tools.

I hope you find the course helpful.

Your Instructor

Ross Maynard
Ross Maynard

Business author and consultant, specialising in performance measurement and improvement

menu_book60 courses
star3,769 reviews

I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the UK and work as an author of business courses and a process improvement consultant. I have over 30 years' experience and live near Stirling in Scotland, with my wife, daughter and Cocker Spaniel. I aim to make my courses accessible and understandable. My courses focus on business topics including KPIs, performance measurement, approaches to business improvement, Agile and Lean. I hope you enjoy my courses.

Credit Information

Do these courses count toward my professional development requirements?

This portal is provided as a training and development resource for City of Markham employees. Every course is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, is quantifiable in hours, and is verifiable — you receive a documented certificate of completion for every course you finish, stored on LearnFormula indefinitely.

If you hold a professional designation (for example in engineering, accounting, human resources, or law), courses may be counted as professionally relevant, verifiable learning activities toward your continuing professional development. Individual practitioners are responsible for confirming that an activity meets the requirements of their professional body. For questions about the City of Markham's training and development policies, please speak with your people leader or Human Resources.

What Students Are Saying

4.2
Student's Choice
66 reviews

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 327+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 29 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.