Forus Training – Bespoke Training Programme
We recently devised a bespoke training programme for the Department of Foreign Affairs and their global teams in Irish embassies across the world.
The department sought their teams’ feedback to identify which areas they would like to up-skill in. A Training Needs Analysis (TNA) identified Research, Analysis and Decision Making Skills as an area they wanted to develop in. We were delighted when the Department of Foreign Affairs reached out to us and partnered with Forus Training to develop and implement this professional development programme.
Programme development involved creating training notes and activities to ensure the training provided an interactive experience. We wanted participants to take part throughout the Zoom session to increase transference of knowledge and meet the learning outcomes. It was an absolutely enjoyable experience hosting the training over Zoom to people from places all around the world (France, China, Canada, the USA, Italy, Spain, and many more!).
Training was provided at earlier and later times to ensure the global teams had the option to attend training at a time that worked for them.
What are Research, Analysis and Decision Making Skills?
In a nutshell, each skill starts with taking the ‘big picture’ view to enable us to see the heart of a problem. This is followed by research done to understand the issue which enables us to make better decisions based on evidence and facts. Important key skills we must develop during the Research, Analysis and Decision Making process are critical thinking and communication skills.
Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking is an intentional process to use when we have problems or decisions to make. In order to critically think, we must intentionally put ourselves in a certain frame of mind. When we have tough decisions to make, approaching the problem using critical thinking skills leads to better outcomes.
Critical thinking:
- helps to improve decision making by breaking complex problems into digestible parts to see the big picture,
- enhances problem solving ability,
- refines your research skills to find the right information to allow you to make a decision,
- uses your creativity to come up with innovative solutions; and
- stimulates curiosity by pushing us forward to delve deeper into emerging ideas we find during each step of the process.
Communication Skills are important too!
We cannot improve our research, analysis and decision making skills with critical thinking alone. We must improve our communication skills so that we can effectively communicate with the stakeholders and people who will provide support and buy in to the solutions we develop. Communication is a key skill to develop in both our personal and professional lives to allow us to present our ideas and thoughts in a way that people understand and can relate to. Communication isn’t just about speaking!
To be an effective communicator, we must:
- practise empathy,
- actively listen,
- take note of nonverbal social cues like body language and tone of voice,
- focus on teamwork and building relationships, and
- develop a filter (some subjects are not acceptable in communication, such as sexist, racist, or ageist language).
By the end of the programme, all participants left with knowledge on how to conduct research, different approaches to analysis, and finally, how to make well thought-out decisions using decision matrix trees and other tools to ensure the best solutions.
Do you have a bespoke programme you would like us to develop for your teams?
Get in touch with us to find out more about the types of interactive programmes we can put together for your teams.
We love getting our teeth dug into researching, analysing and working with you to devise a programme that meets your teams’ needs.
Sources:
Image source: https://www.dfa.ie/
How to conduct an effective training needs analysis: https://trainingindustry.com/articles/measurement-and-analytics/how-to-conduct-an-effective-training-needs-analysis/
Test your decision making skills: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_79.htm
