Creativity and Innovation

Critical thinking is your best thinking. You use reason and logic to help you sort through data to remove bias, opinion, and emotion and come up with rational conclusions. It's a hugely valuable skillset, but it's not much use if it's just an academic or intellectual exercise. In this Challenge, you'll use critical thinking to evaluate different Employee Appreciation strategies in a telecommunications company scenario.

Assumptions are necessary to help us make sense of our world. This course defines what assumptions are, describes how different kinds of assumptions may be challenged, and covers the importance of seeking out other people's perspectives.

As a leader, making tough decisions requires thinking critically. In this course, you'll learn about the stages of critical thinking, and the benefits of using cognitive flexibility and skepticism to help you make the best decision.

In critical thinking, an argument is part of reaching a logical conclusion. In this course, you'll learn to identify and judge arguments, recognize logical fallacies and persuasion techniques, and make effective arguments of your own.

Many organizations have discovered the advantages of using cross-functional teams to accomplish their goals. While the diversity inherent to these teams can present certain challenges, successfully managing cross-functional teams is worth the reward. In this course, you'll learn about the benefits of cross-functional teams. You'll also learn about the various development stages of cross-functional teams and the risks at each stage. Finally, you'll learn about the key abilities a cross-functional leader should have and best practices for cross-functional team success.

Innovation only happens when a company's leaders support it and find ways to bring new ideas and opportunities to life. In this course, you'll learn ways to build and support a successful innovation culture.

The hallmark of leadership is being able to work through problems and make tough decisions using the skills and experience of your team. In this course, you'll learn how to use a three stage approach to engage your team in this effort.

When drawing conclusions, you analyze and weigh the data and information you have to support taking action. In this course, you'll learn about the process of drawing a logical conclusion with the help of questions and diagramming tools.