Skills Essentials course

Courses | Full day | In-house from NZ$4200 per group


Why is this course essential?

As knowledge workers it is our job to make things better – to solve problems and realise opportunities. If our thinking is unsophisticated, our solutions will be similarly unrefined; we won’t spot our universal biases or be aware that our critical thinking is precluding creative thinking. If we don’t understand the universal requirements for change, or the need for every knowledge worker to practice change management, we will create solutions that our audiences may agree with but won’t adopt. And if we don’t learn to write like the professionals we are supposed to be, we will create documents as costly and unpalatable as meals produced by chefs who have never learned to cook or operate in a professional kitchen.

What does this course cover?

This course teaches you the essentials skills of knowledge working: the ability to think well to design appropriate solutions; to design and plan the change to implement those solutions; and to effectively and efficiently communicate and implement your solutions through documents and other messages that are clear, concise, and compelling.

What will you learn?

This course has three parts:

  • Thinking skills (for designing solutions)
  • Change skills (for designing change)
  • Writing skills (for designing information)

Thinking skills
Developing thinking skills to generate better ideas
Because ‘we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’ (Albert Einstein), we need to develop our thinking skills. This course outlines fast and slow thinking, universal biases, and modes of thinking that help us to critique existing ‘solutions’ and creatively design new ones.

Change skills
Understanding the conditions for change
To solve problems or realise opportunities requires great ideas, but ideas have little value if they don’t ultimately lead to change. This course explains the conditions for behaviour change and teaches you how to plan for, roll out, and manage that change.

Writing skills
Designing information to achieve your communication goals
This part is an abbreviated version of the full-day Writing Essentials course.

How do you book this course?

You will find everything you need to know (course dates, booking instructions, and booking conditions) on our courses page.

For groups, if you have already checked out the booking conditions for in-house courses, please contact us and we will give you a call to confirm your requirements.