Critical thinking for sustainable business solutions

This course is part of Sustainable Business Strategy for Future Leaders Specialization

Instructor: Haider Ali

Access provided by ExxonMobil

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Understand how the creative ideation process functions to generate a broad range of relevant outcomes to your challenge domain and systems map.
Converge on a selection of the most impactful ideas to take forward for implementation and (in)validation.

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

Shareable certificate

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Assessments

9 assignments

Taught in English

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Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Sustainable Business Strategy for Future Leaders Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 4 modules in this course

This course will help you to discover how to flip your logical thinking and reasoning mind to enable you to generate a wide range of innovative ideas. Using techniques such as the SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put, Eliminate, Reverse) method to assist in generating ideas, you will assess when to apply the different thinking modes appropriately in the ideation process.

You’ll apply critical reflective thinking to avoid personal biases and unintended consequences when you develop potential solutions. You will also analyse proto-concepts critically to ensure their suitability and the likelihood of positive impact. Via text-based resources and task books, you’ll gain comprehensive understanding and benefit from in-depth reference points as you formulate your ideas and plans.

This week, you will dive into the process of creative thinking to solve systemic challenges. You will learn how to generate a broad range of ideas to address your defined sustainability issues.

What's included

8 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt

8 readingsTotal 44 minutes

Welcome to the course4 minutes
Course requirements6 minutes
Engaging with your tasks7 minutes
Introducing ideation for systemic challenges5 minutes
What is ideation?7 minutes
Divergent and convergent thinking modes6 minutes
Ideation rounds illustrated7 minutes
Week 1 summary2 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

Week 1 assignment30 minutes
How much do you know already?30 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 10 minutes

Your task: Introduce yourself10 minutes

This week, you will learn how to converge your ideas into concrete concepts to take forward and test throughout the rest of the course.

What's included

11 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt

11 readingsTotal 64 minutes

Introduction to Week 23 minutes
Rules and techniques for effective ideation2 minutes
Using hybrid brainstorming7 minutes
Ideation rounds5 minutes
Your task: Ideation technique 1 – Pre-mortem7 minutes
Your task: Ideation technique 2 – Worst idea technique7 minutes
Your task: Ideation technique 3 – Round robin7 minutes
Your task: Ideation technique 4 – Reverse brainstorming7 minutes
Your task: Ideation technique 5 – Creative opposites9 minutes
Your task: Ideation technique 6 – Sustainability ideation cards7 minutes
Week 2 summary3 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

Week 2 assignment30 minutes
Week 2 self-assessment30 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 70 minutes

Sharing your Ideation technique output70 minutes

This week, you will converge your thinking to make decisions about which ideas to take forward or to leave behind.

What's included

5 readings3 assignments1 discussion prompt

5 readingsTotal 92 minutes

Welcome to Week 34 minutes
Converging on final concepts15 minutes
Creating a sustainability concept card30 minutes
Your task: Understanding sustainability concept consequences40 minutes
Week 3 summary3 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 90 minutes

Week 3 assignment30 minutes
Week 3 self-assessment30 minutes
Week 3 self-assessment30 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 6 minutes

Sharing your refinement task outputs6 minutes

This week, you will refine the ideas you are considering taking forward and reflect on how this will affect your draft systems map from course 2 in the Coursera Specialization 'Sustainability for business success'.