This is the first course of the Decision-making and Problem-solving for Business series.

Effective Learning

Effective Thinking * Problem Framing * Generating Alternatives * Making Decisions Dynamically * Implementation and Evaluation * Group Problem Solving and Decision Making

Effective Thinking * Problem Framing * Generating Alternatives * Making Decisions Dynamically * Implementation and Evaluation * Group Problem Solving and Decision Making

FAQs

Mental shortcuts, when used ineffectively, also can lead to dead ends--and headaches, lost productivity, and bad decisions.

The Science of Better Learning

Processing every bit of information about a problem is a huge task. Your brain, with or without your approval, uses rules of thumb to make its job easier.

To counter the adverse effects of the representativeness heuristic, you have to pay attention to actual probabilities. The same holds true for the third rule of thumb, the anchoring heuristic.

Selective perception is similar to the second thinking trap: the contrast effect. A contrast effect occurs when you compare, or contrast, two different situations, and each one distorts your perception of the other one.

Rationalization, the third thinking trap, is like the others in that it leads you to deny or skew some aspects of a problem. Denial doesn't help you solve problems. It's beneficial to look at all aspects of an issue clearly.

The first strategy for productively thinking through a problem is to avoid cognitive laziness. In general, people tend to do as little thinking as possible. Thousands of years ago, less thinking meant more time spent on survival.

You need to really listen to what your co-workers say when talking about a problem or circumstance. The extent of their knowledge is usually betrayed by the amount of detail and the kinds of details they provide.

In this topic, you discovered strategies to productively think through a problem:

• avoiding cognitive laziness

• gathering more information about a problem

• taming the ego

When solving problems and making decisions, examine your assumptions and minimize your biases as much as possible. If you do, you'll have more:

• confidence in your ability to solve problems

• assurance that you're addressing the true problem

• understanding why others have failed at problem solving and decision making.

Determining the relationship between two things, or variables, is key to actually understanding the degree of influence each has on the other. You'll explore four types of relationships, or correlations:

• true causation

• positive correlation

• negative correlation

• nonexistent correlation

The given strategies will help you eliminate potential biases in the way you think about a problem.

If you ask someone if he's considered evidence against a correlation and he says yes, it's less likely he's overestimated the strength of the relationship. That's because he's really looked at reasons that the correlation is weaker than he originally thought.

Most problems you face at work involve many variables. That's why they're often difficult to solve. You'll have a much better shot at success if you use the strategies you learned to determine the relationships among those variables.

Making attributions entails assigning the cause of an event to another thing--a person or a situation. In this topic, you'll learn about three types of attribution- making biases:

• the fundamental attribution error

• the self-serving bias

• the egocentric bias

Are you able to make valid attributions about the problems you face at work? Which are examples of attribution-making biases and their corresponding descriptions?

Practice careful thinking by recognizing when your thoughts are in some way biased. In this topic, you'll learn to spot three biases that distort thinking and compromise decisions:

• hindsight bias

• confirmation bias

• consistency bias

Psychologists have found that people feel a social pressure to keep their actions consistent. That's because inconsistent people are often stigmatized. They may be called hypocritical, contrary, or dishonest.

In this topic, you'll learn these techniques:

• List possible causes of past outcomes.

• Purposely focus on contradictory evidence.

• Examine your motives regarding the problem.

Actually, you should gather as much evidence as you can, focus on contradictory evidence, and seek input from disinterested parties. Putting off the problem would have no effect on your bias.

Overcome your subconscious urges, and use the strategies you learned to solve problems like a lean, thinking machine. In this topic, you learned the following techniques:

• List possible causes of past outcomes.

• Purposely focus on contradictory evidence.

• Examine your motives regarding the problem.

Solving problems doesn't have to be stressful. But it will be if you adopt an ineffective mind-set and style that essentially freeze you in your problem-solving and decision-making tracks.

Only one of the pigs' thinking, however, kept the local wolf problem at bay. That was because the third pig had an effective problem-solving mind-set. In this topic, you'll learn about three of those mind-sets:

• the apathetic mind-set

• the analytical mind-set

• the adaptive mind-set

The second mind-set, the analytical mind-set, isn't as flawed as the apathetic mind-set, but it still limits your thinking. It's the mind-set Edith displayed when talking to Nancy and Ricardo.

Just as there are different kinds of skiers, there are different types of decision makers. The type of decision maker you are is determined by the habits and procedures you adopt when making a decision. It also is central to your impression on others.

. In this topic, you learned about the four decision-making types:

• the despot

• the waffler

• the safety blanket

• the judge

Not many people would argue against the value of self-esteem, respect, and enhanced perspective. And those are benefits you'll receive when you use techniques that improve the effectiveness of your thinking.

In this topic, you'll learn how to apply critical thinking to situations in which you're assessing the merit of a "claim." Sales pitches and advertisements almost always contain a claim of some kind. You'll assess those claims by:

• evaluating underlying assumptions

• examining invited inferences.

The second strategy for thinking critically about a claim is to examine the invited inferences of the claim. An invited inference is a conclusion the claim maker invites--or urges--you to draw about the benefits of the claim.

In this topic, you'll learn about three memory devices:

• chunking

• mnemonic devices

• the method of loci

In fact, chunking involves grouping numbers into manageable segments. Mnemonic devices are formed from the first letters of objects to be remembered. The method of loci entails using a familiar place to aid in the recall of a list.

As you explore different ways of solving problems and making decisions, you'll learn the quickest way to get where you need to go. But your brain is a complicated place. Forming effective thinking habits takes a lifetime of practice.

Effective problem solvers know how important it is to retain the important lessons they've learned. That's why they cultivate the third habit of effective thinking: learning from experience.

Use this job aid to identify and counteract potential biases in your thinking.

Purpose: Use this job aid to identify and counteract counterproductive problem-solving shortcuts, or heuristics

Purpose: Use this job aid to identify and counteract ineffective attribution-making biases.

Your brain often uses shortcuts and rules of thumb to process information more easily. "Rules of thumb" are useful principles which have a wide application, but are not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable in every situation.

Thinking traps are intellectual processes that lead you to false conclusions. You must be careful to avoid them. There are three types of thinking trap:

1. selective perception

2. the contrast effect

3. rationalization

To successfully head off, or block, unproductive mental shortcuts and instead think effectively about a problem, you need to avoid cognitive laziness, gather more information about a problem, and tame the ego.

It is your goal to solve business problems. In other words, you would always like to know what caused a problem in the first place. But you need to be aware that there is a difference between causes and associations.

Biases may distort the way you assign these attributions. You need to guard against the following types of biases:

- the fundamental attribution error

- self-serving bias

- egocentric bias

Bias can distort thinking and compromise decisions. Three biases to watch out for are hindsight bias, confirmation bias and consistency bias.

Mental biases can eclipse your view of the big picture. But you can learn techniques to overcome these biases.

To find solutions that work, you need an effective problem-solving mind-set. A mind-set is the thought process you use to think about and solve problems. In many ways, your mind-set results from the attitude and mental habits you adopt when solving problems.

It is also central to your impression on others. Ineffective decision makers usually make less-than-ideal decisions.

There are four types of decision makers:

- the despot

- the waffler

- the safety blanket

- the judge

Critical thinking is a reasonable, reflective, and skillful way of thinking about business problems.

You probably cannot improve your memory through willpower alone. You need to use specific strategies, especially when the information to be remembered is vital.

Three valuable memory devices are:

- chunking

- mnemonic devices

- the method of loci

There are many thinking habits that can help you improve your problem-solving and decision-making skills. These include

- viewing problems as opportunities

- seeking a wide range of life experience

- learning lessons from experience

In this course, you'll learn to:

• think effectively about mental shortcuts

• overcome biases and flawed assumptions

• refine your problem-solving mind-set and decision-making style

• cultivate the right state of mind.

You think knowing stuff changes the game? You think sitting in a library, stacking up facts like you’re building a Jenga tower, is gonna make you a winner? Man, that’s cute. But life ain't a trivia night. Information alone? It’s worthless. It’s like having a Lamborghini in your garage but you never learned how to drive. You just sit in it, making engine noises. Vroom vroom. People walk by, they see the car, but they also see you ain't going nowhere. You got all this knowledge, all these textbooks, but when life throws a punch, you’re still looking up the definition of "duck." It’s what you *do* with that information that actually matters. Don't be the person with the shiny car and no keys.