Introduction

• Balancing people, processes and tools for optimal decisions
• Business drivers that demand creative problem solving
• Deciphering critical thinking

Leveraging Personal Thinking Styles

The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)

• MacLean's Triune Brain Theory
• Assessing your preferred approach to thinking
• Leveraging whole-brain thinking
• Identifying left/right-brain dominance

Analysing personal preferences

• Identifying your own natural brain dominance
• Determining nondominant approaches

Managing thinking preferences

• Avoiding quadrant bias
• Bridging opposing styles
• Predicting co-worker profiles

Unleashing Your Creativity

The creative environment

• Setting the creative stage
• The power of positive communication
• Identifying elements that stimulate creativity
• Eliminating barriers to innovation

Group creative thinking

• Brainstorming options
• Challenging assumptions
• Dispelling personal and corporate myths

The iterative mind

• Moving between quadrants
• Valuing nondominant preferences
• Stretching outside your personal style

Recording the creative process

• Drawing mind maps
• Chart writing

Solving Problems Using Analysis and Prioritisation

Systematic approaches to problem solving

• Defining criteria
• Focusing on outcomes
• Leveraging left-brain thinkers
• Applying questioning techniques
• Deconstructing problems using stair-step techniques

Analysing the creative process

• Identifying business-critical ideas
• Categorising, prioritising and purging

Avoiding analysis paralysis

• Overcoming the "It won't work here" mentality
• The Five Monkeys Syndrome or "But we've always done it this way"
• Analysing for outcomes, not solutions

Applying analysis models

• Situation assessment
• Decision analysis
• Problem evaluation

Translating Creativity and Analysis into Practical Application

Organisational politics

• Recognising the workplace culture
• Maintaining outcome-focused goals

The influence of decision-making styles

• Recognising your own blind spots
• Self-awareness and self-regulation
• Forming a coalition with style opposites

Deploying your decision

• Clearly expressing analysis results
• Ensuring organisational benefit
• Guaranteeing maximum buy-in

Putting It All Together

Integrating your solution into the business

• Creating a whole-brain presentation
• Strengthening your nondominant position
• Adjusting communication to thinking styles
• Transforming confrontation into communication

Continuing your development

• Conducting self-checks
• Being persistent: a key trait of successful creatives
• Mapping thinking skills to your business

Your Personal Decision-Making Toolkit

• Your personal thinking style
• Your stakeholders' styles
• Flexing to colleagues' styles
• Committing to your Personal Action Plan
• Checklists for success