Weatherhead Executive Education

Program Dates	Continuing Education
October 22-23, 2008, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (2-day program. Participants should attend both days.) Cleveland, OH Add to Cart Trish Brandt	This program provides continuing education credit for the following professions: PMI Project Managers 12 PDU SPHR Professionals 12 CEU PHR Professionals 12 CEU OHIO CPA 16 CPE

Business changes in an eye blink.  Executives are constantly bombarded with a plethora of potential opportunities and obstacles to growth.  The challenges to success are relentless, and great ideas are simply not enough.

In a world of rapid, constant change, managers do not have the time to thoroughly evaluate every option on the table.  Based on the premise that creative and logical decisions that are rapid and executable are better than optimal solutions that come too late, this course covers a proven process for solving complex problems quickly while overcoming barriers to profitability. 

Using a combination of analytical and creative processes, participants will leave with a powerful tool kit (including the rule of thirds, logic diagrams, and interview techniques) for effectively and efficiently developing achievable goals, identifying real solutions, exploring plausible alternatives, creating realistic work plans, and driving execution - all without sacrificing thoroughness or creativity.  The net result: better solutions developed faster to positively affect your growth, profitability, and ability to service your customers.

In this working session, participants will begin the process of resolving a current challenge in their organization.  Competency will be developed through group exercises, discussions and practice of new and proven techniques.  The course also includes exciting real-life examples from a variety of organizations, and provides powerful benefits to executives, managers and consultants.

Topics

• Problem definition & situation analysis
• Objective setting
• Stakeholder analysis
• Scoping the problem
• Hypothesis building & rapid testing
• Logical work planning
• Interviewing and data collection
• Data matrix
• Logic diagrams
• Drawing conclusions based on facts
• Designing the best solution
• Driving execution
• Overcoming barriers to change

Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, participants will have learned and practiced the techniques needed to:

• Identify the key business issues, and reach consensus about the nature of the problem to be solved – as well as the specific areas that will be explored to solve it
• Plan and organize faster, more effective and efficient data collection
• Move beyond biases and assumptions, making their logic transparent and open to legitimate discussion and exploration of the data
• Maintain the discipline to design solutions that meet the goals of the organization, and best fit the will and skill of the organization
• Nurture commitment and develop support during the problem solving process to overcome psychological and cultural barriers to change
• Drive results and analyze the effectiveness of the implemented solution

Who Should Attend
Executives and managers from all functional areas, change agents and professionals with responsibility for improving organizational effectiveness. Leaders managing cross-functional teams or task forces, management consultants, and those who are transitioning into consulting/problem solving roles will also benefit.

This program is applicable to all for-profit and not-for-profit organizations.

Level of Prior Knowledge in This Subject Area: None

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