Software Quality Engineering / Testing
Critical Thinker's ToolKit
Critical thinking is a vital topic for nearly all occupations in today's companies. An organization can collectively "out-think" its competition if its constituents master the thinking tools taught in this workshop. Critical thinking is the very foundation of good problem-solving skills. The American educational system is good at teaching us "what to think", but is woefully remiss on teaching us the correct way to understand and evaluate subject matter ("how to think").
This 3-day workshop is designed to fill that gap and improve the overall thinking skills of each attendee through the "hands-on brain" use of a distilled set of crucial thinking tools. The ToolKit, once learned, can be applied to any subject area. This workshop will be comprised of 1/3 lecture and 2/3 lab exercises.
Who Should Attend
All employees whose job performance includes effective thinking. This would include senior managers, project managers, business domain experts, technical project leads, business analysts, customer support personnel, and all IT personnel. Non-programmers and programmers alike will gain insight into how they and others think, and how thinking translates into successful decisions and actions.
Workshop Objectives
- Discover how you currently think, and what skills need improvement to "round out" your thinking repertoire.
- Watch yourself think and be able to make adjustments "on the fly" to better give any situation what it most needs.
- Conduct deep analysis of complex situations using proven CIA tactics.
- Learn and apply the Critical Thinker's ToolKit, which will improve decision making and execution strategy.
- Distinguish ‘fact' from ‘opinion and bias' from ‘reason'.
- Learn to recognize deceptive arguments.
- Evaluate information sources.
- Conduct deep analysis of complex problem situations using proven CIA tactics.
- Come to an understanding of human thought processes ... that lead to the actions ... that make up the processes ... that causes work to flow through a company.
- Gain facility in using matrices to systematically consider every significant aspect of a process or problem situation.
- Develop the ability to think in 3D (three dimensions).