Women in Leadership Series: Strategic Thinking & Advanced Problem Solving Workshop

Strategic thinking and problem solving

- How the current context is shaping organisations

- The role of strategic thinking in senior leadership

- Responding to emerging challenges

Enhancing your decision-making

- Cognitive principles, and tools essential for effectiveness

- Addressing common limitations and challenges

- Utilise models, tools and tactics to enhance overall capabilities

Advanced problem solving for senior leaders

- How to objectively collect and evaluate evidence

- Exploring reason-based approaches to tackle complex solving

- Applying rational and creative problem solving tools and techniques

Leading and influencing others on key issues

- Effectively engaging stakeholders to understand the problem and identifying potential solutions

- Integrating multi-stakeholder perspectives and facilitating shared understanding

- Resolving conflict and disagreement in group problem solving

Definition: Understanding the problem

- Reaching agreement on the problem: Defining key variables, known causes, structure, scope, stakeholder impact, interdependencies and constraints 

- Evaluating problem impacts

- Developing solution criteria and the problem solving approach

Analysis: Identifying and evaluating possible solutions

- Generating and evaluate solutions based on feasibility, impact and risk

- Taking stock of required skills, knowledge and resources to resolve the problem or realise the opportunity

- Leadership, management, planning and team deployment considerations 

Implementation: from strategy to results

- Testing solutions: prototypes, pilots, simulations

- Adopting a systematic approach to solution implementation

- Building engagement and embedding change 

Overcoming roadblocks to strategic thinking and problem solving

- Cognitive biases, ideological paradigms and group-based

- The inherently challenging nature of ‘wicked problems’ 

- Cultivating your skills and maintaining your edge as a strategic thinker and problem solver