Critical Thinking for Public Sector Leaders Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Programme Managers, Policy Advisers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-GPS-079

Before you join: Participants should have experience contributing to public-sector, development or humanitarian decisions, such as preparing briefings, managing programmes, supervising services, analysing performance data or advising senior colleagues.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Public-sector leaders regularly make decisions where evidence is incomplete, mandates compete, stakeholders disagree and delay has real service consequences. A housing allocation rule, humanitarian cash-transfer criterion, health inspection response or municipal procurement decision can be weakened by unclear problem framing, unchecked assumptions, weak evidence or pressure for a preferred answer. Critical thinking provides a disciplined way to define the decision, test claims, compare options and explain recommendations under scrutiny.

This course develops practical problem-solving methods for leaders working in government, development agencies, humanitarian programmes and public bodies. Participants learn to frame complex problems; build issue trees; assess evidence quality; identify cognitive bias; map system effects; test assumptions; evaluate policy and delivery options; and make proportionate decisions. The course also covers stakeholder analysis, equity questions, risk assessment, implementation readiness and concise decision briefing for senior officials, boards and partners.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic public-service cases, small-group analysis, structured challenge sessions, simulations and individual application planning. Cases may involve service backlogs, emergency response choices, programme redesign, regulatory enforcement, budget trade-offs and contested policy proposals. Participants leave with a reusable decision-quality toolkit, including templates for problem framing, evidence assessment, options appraisal, decision logging and action planning. They will be able to apply these tools immediately to a live decision or recurring management problem.

The course is suited to managers and advisers who influence service, policy, programme, regulatory or operational decisions and need a more rigorous basis for recommendation and action.

What you will be able to do

  • Frame public-service problems using decision statements, constraints and success criteria
  • Construct issue trees and argument maps for complex policy and service questions
  • Assess evidence quality using evidence hierarchies, triangulation and source checks
  • Detect cognitive biases and apply structured challenge methods to major decisions
  • Map system dynamics, stakeholders and equity effects affecting proposed interventions
  • Compare options using multi-criteria decision analysis, cost-effectiveness and risk registers
  • Produce concise decision briefs with explicit reasoning, uncertainty and recommendations
  • Apply a decision-quality process to a live public-sector management issue

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging weak claims and solution-first proposals
  • A repeatable method for structuring ambiguous public-service decisions
  • Stronger written recommendations for senior officials and governance forums
  • Improved ability to identify bias, uncertainty and unintended consequences
  • A practical action plan for improving decisions in current responsibilities

For your organisation

  • More transparent recommendations with stated assumptions, evidence and trade-offs
  • Earlier identification of implementation risks and unintended service effects
  • Better consistency in option appraisal across programmes and departments
  • Reduced reliance on anecdote, hierarchy and incident-driven responses
  • Clearer accountability through decision rights, logs and review triggers

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define a decision problem with clear scope, constraints, criteria and decision rights.

  • Problem statements separating symptoms, constraints, decision rights and intended outcomes
  • SMART criteria tested against statutory duties, budgets and service standards
  • Distinguishing complicated service delivery problems from complex adaptive challenges
  • Cynefin domains used to select ordered, expert or emergent responses
  • Assumption logs recording evidence, owners, confidence levels and review dates
  • Decision framing avoids solution-first briefs and politically convenient diagnoses

Participants can construct and test logical arguments supporting a public-service recommendation.

  • Toulmin argument maps identify claims, grounds, warrants, qualifiers and rebuttals
  • Separate facts, interpretations, forecasts, values and unsupported assertions
  • MECE issue trees partition policy questions without overlaps or omissions
  • Five Whys traces recurrent failures beyond the first reported incident
  • Argument quality tested through relevance, sufficiency, credibility and logic
  • Briefing recommendations state reasoning chains, uncertainties and decision implications

Participants can judge whether available evidence is credible, relevant and sufficient for a decision.

  • Evidence hierarchies distinguish systematic reviews, evaluations, administrative data and anecdotes
  • CRAAP test assesses currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose
  • Base rates correct intuitive estimates of prevalence, risk and demand
  • Triangulation compares administrative records, surveys, field reports and stakeholder accounts
  • Data quality checks examine completeness, timeliness, definitions, bias and missingness
  • Evidence registers document source limitations, transferability and confidence ratings

Participants can identify common decision biases and introduce practical safeguards against them.

  • Confirmation bias challenged through disconfirming evidence and competing hypotheses
  • Premortem analysis identifies foreseeable implementation failures before commitment
  • Red teams test policy assumptions, incentives, risks and unintended consequences
  • Availability and anchoring biases examined in incident-driven decision making
  • Groupthink controls establish dissent roles, anonymous input and independent reviews
  • Debiasing protocols specify pause points, challenge questions and escalation triggers

Participants can analyse system effects, stakeholder interests and distributional consequences of interventions.

  • Causal loop diagrams map reinforcing and balancing feedback within service systems
  • Stock-and-flow thinking distinguishes accumulations from rates of change
  • Stakeholder mapping assesses influence, interests, legitimacy and likely responses
  • Problem trees connect root causes, intermediate causes and observable effects
  • Equity impact questions identify differential burdens, access barriers and exclusion
  • Boundary critique makes included interests, excluded voices and assumptions explicit

Participants can compare feasible options against transparent criteria, evidence, costs and risks.

  • Options criteria define legality, feasibility, cost, equity and effectiveness
  • Weighted decision matrices compare alternatives using transparent scoring rules
  • Cost-effectiveness analysis compares incremental costs against measurable service outcomes
  • Multi-criteria decision analysis tests sensitivity to weights and scores
  • Scenario planning examines plausible futures, drivers, uncertainties and signposts
  • Risk registers assign likelihood, impact, controls, owners and review dates

Participants can establish clear decision roles, escalation routes and review arrangements.

  • Decision rights clarify accountable executives, advisers, approvers and consulted parties
  • RAPID model allocates Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input and Decide roles
  • Decision logs record rationale, evidence, dissent, conditions and review triggers
  • Reversible decisions receive time-boxed trials and predefined stopping rules
  • Escalation thresholds distinguish operational judgement from ministerial or board decisions
  • Proportionality tests match analysis depth to risk, urgency and consequence

Participants can assess whether an intervention has a credible pathway to intended results.

  • Logic models link inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and assumptions
  • Theory of change identifies mechanisms, preconditions, risks and indicators
  • Human-centred service journeys reveal claimant, citizen and frontline pain points
  • Regulatory impact analysis frames affected parties, compliance costs and alternatives
  • Pilot design specifies target group, comparison, measures and learning questions
  • Implementation readiness assesses capability, funding, governance, procurement and dependencies

Participants can communicate a recommendation clearly while representing evidence and uncertainty accurately.

  • One-page decision briefs present recommendation, evidence, options, risks and asks
  • Pyramid Principle structures headlines, supporting arguments and essential evidence
  • Audience analysis adapts detail for ministers, boards, communities and delivery teams
  • Risk communication distinguishes known facts, uncertainty ranges and commitments
  • Consultation summaries separate stakeholder preference from evidential strength
  • Recommendation defence uses time limits and conflicting stakeholder priorities

Participants can create a structured plan to improve the quality of a current workplace decision.

  • Live issue canvases define the decision, scope, constraints and evidence gaps
  • Structured diagnosis applies issue trees, systems maps and assumption logs
  • Options appraisal combines criteria, evidence, risk and stakeholder implications
  • Action plans schedule evidence collection, decisions, owners and review points
  • Peer challenge refines reasoning, clarity, feasibility and accountability
  • Personal practice commitments identify recurring decisions and feedback arrangements

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Public-sector problem-framing template
  2. Evidence quality assessment checklist
  3. Assumption and decision log template
  4. Stakeholder and equity analysis model
  5. Multi-criteria options appraisal matrix
  6. Decision-quality action plan

Who should attend

  • Programme Managers — improve decisions on delivery priorities, resources and implementation risks
  • Policy Advisers — build defensible recommendations for ministers, executives and governing bodies
  • Public Service Managers — diagnose recurring service failures before selecting interventions
  • Humanitarian Coordinators — assess evidence, trade-offs and risks during time-sensitive responses
  • Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists — strengthen the use of evaluation findings in decisions
  • Regulatory and Compliance Managers — apply proportionate analysis to enforcement and escalation choices

Skills and tools covered

Problem framingEvidence appraisalSystems thinkingBias mitigationOptions analysisDecision briefing

Tools and standards

Cynefin Framework, Toulmin Model of Argumentation, RAPID Decision-Making Model, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis

How the course runs

Training methodology

The instructor uses short briefings to introduce each method, followed by public-sector cases, group analysis, simulations and structured challenge discussions. Participants work with decision briefs, service data extracts, stakeholder scenarios and policy options similar to those faced by public bodies and development programmes. Facilitated peer review tests reasoning, evidence and recommendations from different professional viewpoints. Individual application planning connects the methods to a current workplace decision, with instructor feedback on scope, evidence needs, risks and next actions.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience contributing to public-sector, development or humanitarian decisions, such as preparing briefings, managing programmes, supervising services, analysing performance data or advising senior colleagues. They should be comfortable reading short reports, discussing operational evidence and working with basic numerical information. No prior training in formal logic, economics, statistics, systems dynamics or policy analysis is required. The course does not require specialist software, advanced quantitative modelling or a current management title. Participants are encouraged to bring a non-sensitive decision problem from their work.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have some experience contributing to decisions, briefings, programmes, services or operational management. Formal training in logic, policy analysis, statistics or economics is not required.

Bring a non-sensitive current decision, service challenge or policy question that would benefit from clearer analysis. You may also bring an anonymised briefing, performance report or options paper if organisational rules permit.

It is designed for managers, advisers, programme staff, policy professionals, regulators and humanitarian personnel with decision-making responsibilities. It is particularly relevant where decisions require evidence, consultation, governance approval or public accountability.

The course focuses on the specific demands of public-sector decisions, including mandates, equity, stakeholder legitimacy, political scrutiny, implementation constraints and accountable governance. It teaches named analytical methods and reusable decision documents rather than general leadership behaviours.

Participants can use the problem-framing template, evidence register, options matrix and decision log for current work immediately. The final application plan identifies a live decision, key assumptions, evidence gaps, stakeholders and review points.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The five days progress from framing and reasoning through evidence, bias, systems, options, governance, briefing and workplace application.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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