Master Strategic Thinking and Problem Solving Skills

Complex policy problems are great areas to explore multiple decision making strategies. This lecture describes a policy problem: Increasing the number of high school students entering college.

Use an eight step process to analyze any policy.

Begin by understanding the problem from multiple perspectives.

Discover how to generate policy alternatives to solve complex problems.

What will you use to measure your policy against? Use this video to develop basic measurement variables.

Use a simple rating technique to conduct the analysis.

Confront the tradeoffs in the video - measure your benefits against the costs.

Use this lecture to learn how to craft the perfect policy brief.

Explore a decision tool used by a former president in this session. We also use a table to categorize a problem into quadrants.

The IDEAL model is a revolutionary problem solving tool. Find out more in this lecture.

The John Whitmore model is useful to evaluate goals. In this lecture we craft a goal, and then use a criteria to ensure that it reaches at least 80% of an effectively worded goal.

This lecture describes decision paths in the form of a tree. It then guides you how to enter your own decisions into the matrix and make a decision.

If there is ever a need to sort people or items by a random order, the Random and Sort method is perfect for you.

Long term decisions often scare us. This session describes a model that can provide more clarity.

The rubber band model is perfect for discerning between to "good" decisions. In this session we explore the thrust of this framework.

Perhaps the oldest and most common form of decision making, this lecture provides an short and sweet overview of the pros and cons model.

This model is popular in the fields of government and science. We discuss how ti can be used in strategic analysis as well.

How to measure the economic cost of a problem.

Learn how to calculate future costs of a problem

Weight the current and future costs against the benefits.

Put all the costs and benefits together to decide a way forward.

We explore the foundation of conflict management.

Here we explore the work of the greatest management theorist of the 21st century: Mary Parker Follet. You will learn why she believed that compromise was the worst outcome for conflict.

Giving great feedback is the most important tool of being  a manager. In this lesson we explore this further.

Conflict often emerges from competing desires. Here we learn how to differentiate desire from needs.

This model is perfect for thinking about how to position your product or business in relation to market share and market growth.

This lecture describes the 20/80 principle.

Placing a product in the market requires a lot of planning and strategy. The Long Tail approach helps us think about this further.

Problems can often be solved or created based on the skill level in the organization. In this demo lecture we talk through the steps necessary to conduct a skills audit to help you grasp the skill level in your organization.

Jamie Lerner, one of the greatest Mayors in the world used design thinking to turn Curitiba in Brazil into one of the most efficient and human centered cities in the world. He used Design Thinking to achieve this feat. We learn more here.

Why do some of the same problems persist? Is it because we are using single loop learning? Here we learn how to use double loop learning to address permeant challenges.

How to analyze powerful actors by their influence and impact.

In this lesson we explore the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats model in relation to your organization and it's competitors.