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Solving Problems with Creative and Critical Thinking

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BeginnerCourse

Use critical and creative thinking to analyze and solve any problem you might encounter in the workplace, an extremely valuable skill to have in any profession!

4.5 (33 Reviews)

Language

  • English

Topic

  • Personal Development

Enrollment Count

  • 3.92K

Skills You Will Learn

  • Critical Thinking, Personal Development, Professional Development, Creative Problem-Solving, Analysis

Offered By

  • IBMSkillsNetwork

Estimated Effort

  • 3 hours

Platform

  • edX

Last Update

  • August 1, 2025
About this Course
About this course
This short, self-paced course was created to teach you how to effectively solve and analyze problems with critical and creative thinking. This course will equip you with invaluable skills that you will have to use in your day-to-day work, especially in office or business-related jobs.

Critical and creative thinking are important because when you encounter a problem, you need to be able to think of different ways to solve the problem, as well as have the ability to recognize and choose the best solution possible. There are certain steps you must take before finding a solution; the most important being analyzing the problem. By taking this course, you will learn a specifically designed five-step method that will help you find the root cause of a problem. By learning the process you must go through to find the problem, you will also get one step closer to finding a solution.

This short course is suitable to be taken by everyone – students, career starters, even experienced professionals and managers who want a skill refresher. By taking this course, you will gain the fundamental skills needed in order to successfully solve any problem and the confidence to achieve professional success.

This course is part of the People and Power Skills Professional Certificate from IBM, which consists of a series of short courses to help you develop essential soft skills for success in the workplace.

What you'll learn
  • Apply critical and creative thinking to solve problems
  • Utilize the 5-step process in order to find the root cause of a problem
  • Analyze a problem and identify all possible solutions
  • Identify the best solution to implement when solving a problem in the workplace
Prerequisites

No previous experience required! This course can be taken by anyone regardless of professional experience.

Curriculum

The course is composed of the following lessons:
- Solve Problems with Creative and Critical Thinking: An Overview
- About the course
- Topic 1: What’s the problem?
- Topic 2: What’s really going on?
- Topic 3: What are my options?
- Topic 4: What is the best solution?
- Topic 5: What will success look like?
- Course-end Assessment

Instructors

Lavanya Sunderarajan

SME AI, DS and Cloud technologies

I am an educational consultant for Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Cloud application development. I am passionate about making learning and upskilling meaningful and impactful for the learners. I have completed the PG program in AI and ML from Great Learning, affiliated with Mc Combs business school, University of Texas, Dallas. I am a certified educator and I conduct technical training for corporates and individual adult learners. I am a software engineer, backed by many years of experience in software development in product-based and project-based companies with involvement in the SDLC. This experience is integrated into my blended teaching methodologies. I embarked on a journey to re-skill staff who did not have the luxury of the hiatus to catch up with technology besides what they got to work on or sometimes left behind technology as they explored other areas. It has been the most gratifying experience to be able to teach technology and hone myself in it too. I have an in-depth understanding of software development using Agile methodologies and DevOps. My extensive international work experience has made me comfortable working with and in different cultures.

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