Eight Effective Strategies for Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making

As the 21st Century begins to unfold together with its uncertainties and challenges there is dire need to improve our ability to think creatively and find solutions to seemingly impossible situations. Creativity is not necessarily an inborn skill and it is something that can be nurtured with the right training and perception. The two guiding principles of creativity is ‘synergy’ – the way in which information is perceived and ‘synthesis’ the way in which we process the information. Both these applied in tandem will allow us to relate previously unrelated concepts and ideas which is the crux of what creativity is all about.

Day 1
Understanding the Mind and the Brain
Introduction to the 6 ‘I’s of creative thinking
Evaluation the individual creative potential
Understanding Barriers to Creative Thinking
Learning to SYNERGISE and SYNTHESIZE
Escaping the Paradigm trap
Learning the elements of Brainstorming
Introducing the Eight Strategies - SCRAMBLE
Case study on the usage of Eight Strategies

Day 2
Applying SCRAMBLE to the daily life
Customising each of the Eight strategies
Group discussion on the usage of SCRAMBLE
Understanding the correlations between the different forms of thinking
Developing an action plan for implementing the Eight Strategies

RUN 1: 28 to 29 October 200814 October 2008
RUN 1 ► CLICK HERE to Register Online
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$590.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$472.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$531.00

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Seven Tips to a Better Review

Happen to read this article http://www.salary.com/personal/layoutscripts/psnl_articles.asp?tab=psn&cat=cat040&ser=ser031&part=par556, which I find it quite useful, so to share with all of you.. Maybe you will find that many of the words are common sense, but that is the case, always we just forget and ignore the common sense.

Myth 1: My input is ignored during the performance review process.
Keep a journal documenting your key achievements on a weekly or even daily basis so you can easily reference your accomplishments over the entire performance review period.

Myth 2: My performance does not affect my salary.
Be prepared for your review meeting by conducting a self assessment and research your market value.

Myth 3: Performance reviews do not lead to improved performance.
Use the performance feedback to understand what is important to the company and to identify areas where you can improve. Focus your efforts over the coming months on demonstrating improvement and alignment with company goals.

Myth 4: Performance reviews only happen once a year.
Take notes and be sure to record anything notable in your work journal.

Seven Tips to a Better Review
1. Track your contributions
2. Compile your greatest achievements
3. Research your market value
4. Present your findings
5. Listen to your feedback
6. Confirm the accomplishments and areas that could be improved
7. Create a plan to achieve your goals


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Reliability in Design

Reliability theory is a probabilistic design approach to the problem of the design characteristic life. It is about estimating, controlling, and managing the probability of failure in devices, equipment and systems. Since reliability parameters must be defined in probabilistic terms, parameters such as random variables, density and distribution functions are utilized in the course. This course introduces the basic concepts, formulas, applications of reliability theory, design techniques, methods for specifying reliability, quantitatively, and the relationship between reliability and cost. It also covers the procedures for allocating reliability to each of the elements of an equipment or system to meet the overall reliability requirement, and for modeling and predicting equipment/system reliability.

During a product development program, a design is developed to meet previously defined reliability requirements. There are a host of design principles and tools of which the designer should be aware and should use as required to achieve a reliable system design.

They include:
1) parts management,
2) part derating,
3) reliable circuit design,
4) redundancy,
5) environmental design,
6) fault tree analysis,
7) design for testability,
8) design reviews, and cost considerations.

RUN 1: 23 to 24 October 20089 October 2008
► CLICK HERE to Register Online
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$780.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$624.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$702.00


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Market Research - Fundamentals, Cases and Research Techniques

Instructional Approach This will follow a seminar cum workshop approach, lectures followed by practical sessions. Participants will be divided into teams to work on a short project to get a practical understanding of the course. They can work on a topic that relates to the organization that they are working for. Case studies and video presentations will be used to give a better understanding of the course.

Course Outline
- The global market environment – Local vs. global. Understanding the local markets
- Market Research – The advantages and application of Market information - Case studies and reviews
- Target – Market Segmentation
- Consumer Behavior- Understanding consumers and developing a consumer profile.
- Planning a Market Research Study.-the Process and types.
- Workshop on working on a proposal for a MR study –Defining objectives and planning the study
- Methods of conducting MR studies
- Workshop on Designing questionnaires and Interview schedules
- Methodologies and working with professional partners
- Data collection- Survey or Focus Group
- Analyzing Data collected and interpreting in terms of the objectives
- Evaluate the data collected
- How to use the data –applications for decision making
- Plan a new strategy based on data collected
- Evaluate the strategy.
- Presentation of the Case Study

RUN 2: 23 to 24 October 20089 October 2008
► CLICK HERE to Register Online
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$720.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$576.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$648.00

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Course on Website Optimization with Google Services

You may already have a website, but are the right people visiting it? Do your visitors hang around to read and browse the information on your Web pages? Do they do the things that you want them to do?

Want to optimize your website? Take this course to learn how to use many free and yet powerful webmaster services, such as Google Webmasters, Analytics, AdWords and Optimizer.

Submit your site to search engines. Track, measure and analyze the visitor traffic on your sites. Find out how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their visitor experience. Check where your visitors are dropping off during the conversion process. Track the performance of your keywords, AdWords (ad texts), email, or other marketing campaigns. As a result, improve your website return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money on the web.

Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, you shall be able to:
- Set specific business goals for your site
- Optimize your website in terms of linkability, findability, stickiness and conversions
- Use Google services to drive, track and analyze visitor traffic and goals on your site
- Interpret the data from the perspectives of an Executive, a Marketer and a Webmaster
- Monitor and enhance free/organic and paid traffic sources
- Monitor and enhance offline and other online campaigns

RUN 2: 24 October 200810 October 2008
► CLICK HERE to Register Online
Time: 9.00am - 5.00pm
Venue: NTU@one-north campus, Executive Centre
Fee: Standard: SGD$390.00 NTU Alumni: SGD$312.00 Group (3 & above): SGD$351.00


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