Effective Problem Solving and Decision Making

April 14, 2025 | 09:00 –17:00
SSE Riga
EUR 490 + VAT

Key trait for any business leader is to consistently create sound business decisions that are based on thorough reasoning, solid data, and unbiased thinking. In other words, have strategic decision making. When making decisions, there are multiple challenges - the amount of information & data, conflicting viewpoints, and fast changing external environment complicates effective decision making. This course will help business managers in making impactful decisions. During this course, participants will be able to tackle these challenges and know how to approach decision making amidst complexity & uncertainty. 

This programme is part of the longer Effective Manager Programme, however, it is also available for purchase and completion as a separate course.

 

Context

Making sound decisions often times is the most important and most difficult to recruit (find) skill. Organization that has effective decision makers can use resources more effectively, bring confidence and clairity and build more resilient organizations.

The course will look at key components of decision making - navigating information & data, critical thinking, acquiring & synthesizing new information, making decisions based on data. In addition, the course will look at how to solve complex and wicked problems. Each of these topics will be covered thoroughly to ensure that course participants can effectively apply different frameworks and develop the right mindset to solve business problems. 

Through practical examples, simulations, case studies, and reflection, the participants will be able to fully experience & develop effective decision making & apply it effectively in day-to-day work.

Faculty

Rihards Garancs

Rihards Garančs is the Executive Education Managing Director at SSE Riga and lecturer in undergraduate and Executive MBA programmes across the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Russia, and Hanken Executive Education in Helsinki. He is the Course Director of the Artificial Intelligence, Data Analysis and Business & Leadership Skills courses. He is also the Topic Lead for Digital Transformation at the SSE Riga Institute for Strategy. 

Rihards runs a consulting practice that develops Business Intelligence, Data Strategy, Data & Digital capability building solutions. He helps companies & their employees advance in business analytics using the latest digital tools. 

Rihards holds a double degree MBA in HEC Paris and National University of Singapore, a BSc in Economics & Business from SSE Riga as well as Data Science certification.

Who should attend

This programme is designed for all workers that make decisions, perform analysis, manage other people, are team members or are simply a company expert/specialist that wants to  become more effective in making decisions. 

Benefits for the company

  • Organizations will gain participants that have a substantial arsenal of frameworks, concepts, and knowledge base to make impactful decisions.
  • Participants will develop a strategic mindset in approaching different types of problems, which will benefit the organization in solving complex issues and making better decisions.
  • The organization will benefit from having employees who understand how to solve complex problems, think critically, and have a data-driven decision-making mindset that is bias-free.

Benefits for participants

  • Participants will be able to identify what elements should be used, how to frame different decisions, and how to make them under pressure, ambiguity, or complexity.
  • Participants will be able to create new solutions and think holistically, taking into consideration multiple aspects when making decisions.
  • Participants will be able to practically apply knowledge to their daily or strategic problems and test their impact on decisions, enhancing their professional skills and personal development.

Content

Through practical examples, simulations, case studies, and reflection, the participants will be able to fully experience & develop effective decision making & apply it effectively in day-to-day work.

Topics covered:

Critical thinking/acquiring new information

  • Learning strategies
  • Information synthesis
  • Rethinking and information evaluation
  • Unbiasing your thinking

Data-driven decision making

  • Reading data critically
  • Business decision making
  • Dealing with “noise”
  • Implementing data-driven decision-making in your organization

Complex problem solving

  • Problem-solving approaches
  • Structured problem solving
  • Dealing with complexity and ambiguity
  • Creating new solutions
     

Participation fee

EUR 490 + VAT

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Course Calendar

Programme Calendar

Very useful information on structuring decision-making and problem-solving. It was insightful to see how effectively organizing the problem can lead to better solutions.

— Uvis Petrovskis
Sales Director, Krassky
Elīza Blumfelde
Executive Education Operations and Marketing Manager. Read More