TRAINEE MANUAL

Copyright © 2021
Table of Contents
COURSE OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................................................................... 3
ABOUT THIS COURSE .................................................................................................................................... 3
WHAT IS CREATIVITY? ................................................................................................................................... 4
Philosophy of Creativity ............................................................................................................................ 4
Cultivating Creativity ................................................................................................................................. 4
How to Cultivate Creativity ....................................................................................................................... 4
The Six Thinking Hats ................................................................................................................................ 5
Learning Activity........................................................................................................................................ 7
TEAMWORK/ COLLABORATION .................................................................................................................... 8
Teamwork Skills in the Workplace ............................................................................................................ 8
CRITICAL THINKING ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Why Do Employers Value Critical Thinking Skills? .................................................................................. 11
The Benefits of Critical Thinking ............................................................................................................. 11
Barriers to Critical Thinking ..................................................................................................................... 12
Characteristics of a Critical Thinker ........................................................................................................ 12
Key Steps to Practice Critical Thinking Skills ........................................................................................... 13
PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS ..................................................................................................................... 14
SEVEN STEPS IN DECISION-MAKING ........................................................................................................... 14
SELF-LEADERSHIP ........................................................................................................................................ 15
Core Competencies and Skills of a self-leader ........................................................................................ 15
PRACTICE EXERCISE ................................................................................................................................. 16

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 COURSE OBJECTIVES

After this course, you will be able to:

• Clarify the importance of critical

thinking
• Describe what the Six Thinking Hats are
• Define Self-Leadership and its core
competencies
• Outline the problem-solving process
• Explicate how to build teamwork and
collaboration skills

ABOUT THIS COURSE

The rationale behind this course is not to just teach a list of life skills but those skills that are not
only relevant to participants at this stage of their lives, but also have a positive impact on the
organisation.

Topics will include Creativity & Innovation, Teamwork/Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Problem
Solving amongst others.

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WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
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This is the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, and to create
meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, originality, progressiveness, or
imagination.
Creativity is not just for artists, musicians, writers, and designers. We are all creative, but the
people who are known for it have spent time cultivating it, failing at it, and working at it.

Philosophy of Creativity

• Our ideas about our surroundings become set in stone in our early adult life
• Kids are relatively unbiased they don’t carry around many of the pre-conceptions that
adults do. They’re generally much less afraid to be embarrassed by their ideas
• Our best ideas come in what seems like a flash of inspiration
• Great ideas are built out of a collection of existing parts

Cultivating Creativity

“The idea is that your creativity acts like a tortoise – poking its head out nervously to see if
the environment is safe before it fully emerges. Thus, you need to create a tortoise enclosure
– an oasis amongst the craziness of modern life – to be a safe haven where your creativity can
emerge.”- John Cleese

How to Cultivate Creativity

• Have a ton of terrible ideas. The more ideas you can think of, the better the chance you
will have a good one.
• Step away and do something else, anything else.
• Listen to or watch something funny. Laughter relaxes us.
• Create a range of solutions. From a standard solution to wacky.
• Don’t be afraid of a blank canvas. Just put anything down.
• Don’t get discouraged. “Learned Helplessness” is a real thing.
• Teamwork

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The Six Thinking Hats
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The six thinking hats is a tool for group discussion and individual thinking.
A concept created by Edward de Bono.
This concept outlines 6 "Hats" that you can put on to approach a decision. Each hat has its own
strengths and limitations. Using this approach in decision-making will help you to break out of
your habitual approach and allow you to develop a more well-rounded perspective.

The White Hat:

Only The Facts

What do you know about the issue?
What are the facts?
What do you need or want to know?
Where would you go to find out this information?

The Red Hat:

Our Feelings
What are you feeling now?
Which solution is best, based on your feelings?
What prejudices are present?
Do you have a gut feeling?
What does your intuition tell you?

The Black Hat:

The Devil’s Advocate

What should you be cautious about?
Of what should you be careful?
What are the difficulties?
Why won’t this work?
What are the risks?

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The Yellow Hat:

The Glass Half Full

What is good about this?
What would be a positive outcome?
Can this be made to work?
What do you like about this?
What can be the value of this?

The Green Hat:

New ideas
Can you create another way to do this?
How would you solve this problem?
What other possibilities are there?
What are some other approaches to this issue?
Can this be done in a simpler way?

The Blue Hat:

The Process
Summary of everything
What is next?
What is the action plan?
Outcome of the meeting
Are we asking the right questions?

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Learning Activity
Explain the thinking for each Hat?
Which hat do you wear most frequently? Why?
Which hat/s do you wear the least? Why?
Feeling stuck? Try putting on your preferred hat
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TEAMWORK/COLLABORATION

Working effectively as part of a team is incredibly important for output, quality, morale, and
retention.
“Teamwork is the key to success in most realms of life and business but it is a challenge in itself.
It requires that people manage their egos, develop humility, communicate effectively, resolve
conflicts and above all, commit to one another and to a common goal.” - Luis E. Romero
“Collaborative strategy gets us to … go from I think, you do to we think, we win.” - Nilofer
Merchant
It all starts with truly leading your life but then extends to learning the skills to have better
collaboration and teamwork.

Teamwork Skills in the Workplace

Know Your Goal

Make sure you are not isolated from your project’s goal. Align your actions with the goal of
your project and drive decision-making

Strike off the habit of complaining

Our brain has a tendency to focus on negativity. Complaining can take the whole ship down.

Use your time wisely

Be careful about developing time management skills because how you use your time can
impact the project of your team.

Active listener

One important part to develop your teamwork skills: be an active listener to make your team
members feel valuable and minimize misunderstandings.

Conflict management

Settle disputes through conflict management to mediate problems between team members.

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Reliability

It is important to make sure that one sticks to deadlines and completes any tasks assigned.

Respectfulness

Simple actions in a team like using a team member’s name, making eye contact, and actively
listening when a person speaks.

Share your enthusiasm

This will maintain the excitement of working together.

Communicate

Share ideas with each other and be open to feedback – the good and the critical.

Improve your self-awareness

Be clear about who you are and what you want or need from others.

Resource management

Successful collaboration requires organizing and sharing information.

Collaboration tools

Clear and timely collaboration involves using collaborative tools to communicate anytime,
anywhere.

Create a learning experience

Learning opportunities will make the team active and create a desire to grow.

Encourage innovation

Get the right exposure to overcome the challenges and obstacles you face.

Expand your definition of success

Share your expertise with others so the team achieves big group goals.

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Soft skills

Improve your soft skills, that includes dealing with your mindset, character, and how you
handle projects.

Addressing problems

As a team, identify the obstacles to meaningful discussion of problems.

Forgiving the mistakes

Holding grudges will demoralize the team. Be willing to apologize and forgive.

Live purposefully

Always remember to keep the purpose of the project and project goals on the front burner.

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CRITICAL THINKING
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“Critical” here is not in the negative sense. Critical thinking is thinking that involves/exercises
skilled judgment or observation.
A good critical thinker has the cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively
identify, analyze and evaluate arguments and true claims.

Why Do Employers Value Critical Thinking Skills?

Employers want job candidates who can evaluate a situation using logical thought and
offer the best solution.
Someone with critical thinking skills can be trusted to make decisions
independently, and will not need constant handholding.
Critical thinking abilities are among the most sought-after skills in almost every industry
and workplace.

The Benefits of Critical Thinking

(In the workplace)
At work—critical thinking will allow you to do your job better.
The fact that some tertiary institutions don’t teach you what the job market demands
and they do not teach you how to live, is why more than half of graduates don’t find a
job that utilizes their core course of study.

(In life)
In life—critical thinking helps us avoid bad personal decisions, make informed political
decisions, attain personal enrichment.
A lack of critical thinking promoted centuries of erroneous assumptions (e.g., the earth is
flat, the earth is the center of the universe).

“The unexamined life is not worth living” - Socrates

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Barriers to Critical Thinking
Egocentrism
The tendency to see reality as centered on oneself.
Self-Interested Thinking: supporting conclusions because they are in your interest/to
your benefit. Critical thinking is objective.
Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to overrate oneself. Critical thinking requires one to be
honest about their abilities.

Sociocentrism
Group centered thinking
Group Bias: the tendency to see one’s own group (e.g., nation) as being inherently better
than all others.
Conformism: allowing beliefs to be shaped by outside forces such as - Groups (peer
pressure), Authority (parents, teachers, boss).

Unwarranted Assumptions and Stereotypes

Assumption: a belief without absolute proof.
Unwarranted Assumption: a belief without “good reason.”
Stereotype: assuming that all people within a group (e.g., sex, race) share all the same
qualities; assuming that a particular individual that belongs to a group has certain
qualities simply because they belong to that group.
Hasty Generalization (type of stereotype): drawing conclusions about a large group from
a small sample.

Characteristics of a Critical Thinker

• Strives for clarity and precision
• Sensitive to the discussed “thinking errors”
• Intellectually honest (admits ignorance and limits)
• Welcomes criticisms of beliefs; open to revising basic beliefs
• Bases beliefs on facts, not on preference or interest.
• Thinks independently (doesn’t let groups control their beliefs).
• Values having true beliefs, not comfortable ones.
• Intellectual perseverance; will strive for truth even when it is hard to do.

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Key Steps to Practice Critical Thinking Skills
• Understand your own biases
• Question your assumptions
• Don’t take information on authority until you’ve investigated it yourself.
• Think several moves ahead
• Put yourself in others’ shoes
• Improve your brain function
• Analyze the pressures you are facing
• Deal with your ego-centrism
• Re-shape your character where necessary
• Analyze group influences on your life

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PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS
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Define the problem
Consider these questions:

• Is this the real problem, or merely a symptom of a larger one?

• If this is an old problem, what is wrong with the previous solution?
• Does it need an immediate solution, or can it wait?
• Is it likely to go away by itself? Can I risk ignoring it?
Problem Solving Process

• Start from the simple solutions

• Brainstorm all possible solutions
• Use the street-smart approach
• Implement the solution
• Monitor progress
• Review and learn from your experience

SEVEN STEPS IN DECISION-MAKING

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• Identify the decision to be made

• Gather relevant information
• Identify alternatives
• Weigh evidence
• Choose among alternatives
• Act
• Review decision and consequences

Decision Making - Points to Remember

• Decisions are tentative; you can change your mind.

• There is probably no one right choice; and few decisions are totally wrong.
• Deciding is a process, not a one-time event.
• A decision may lead to more than one possible outcome. The decision is within your
control, but the outcome may not be.

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SELF-LEADERSHIP
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Self-leadership is the practice of understanding who you are, identifying your desired
experiences, and intentionally guiding yourself toward them. It spans the determination
of what we do, why we do it, and how we do it.

Self-leadership is “a comprehensive self-influence perspective that concerns leading oneself

toward performance of naturally motivating tasks as well as managing oneself to do work that
must be done but is not naturally motivating” (Charles Manz, 1986).
Positive self-leadership refers to the capacity to identify and apply one’s signature strengths to
initiate, maintain, or sustain self-influencing behaviors.

Core Competencies and Skills of a Self-leader

• Self-Awareness and self-knowledge
• Identifying desired experiences
• Constructive thought and decision making
• Planning and goal setting
• Optimizing motivation
• Harnessing the ecosystem
• Amplifying Self-Leadership performance
o There are three techniques worth learning to amplify self-leadership
performance:
▪ High-performance planning
▪ Self-coaching
▪ Functional visualization techniques
• Embracing failure and cultivating grit
o “Learn to fail or fail to learn” - Tal Ben-Shahar, 2014

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CLASS EXERCISE

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REFLECTIONS
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