Complex Problems and Sustainable Solutions: A Professional Training Course

Introduction:

As the world’s population increases we need to find new ways to manage the strain this puts on resources such as energy, food, and water. ‘Complex Problems and Sustainable Solutions: A Professional Training Course is developed in order to address complex problems and teach solving methods.

This training course is focused on the energy-food-water nexus, this skills-based course introduces you with a combination of proven methodologies and tools to help you work through local or global problems and find lasting solutions. And it doesn’t just help you work through sustainability issues. You can apply critical and creative thinking to any problem – big or small.

What will I learn?

Complex Problems and Sustainable Solutions: A Professional Training Course is for anyone who wants to:

• Develop critical and creative problem-solving skills to explore and solve complex real-world problems locally or globally.
• Dig beneath the surface of an issue to understand the interrelated factors that have caused it.
• Recognize how to shape and create change for the better.
• Become an agent of positive change.

It’s particularly relevant to those interested or already working in STEM (science, technology engineering and maths) fields and anyone involved with NGOs, charities, consultancies, transformation and innovation, development and public services.

Course Structure

You choose the challenge you want to tackle. This can be one of your own or one of the topics important for the development or business.

You’ll then be guided through the critical and creative thinking needed to solve it. There are 3 modules to work through:

1. Module 1 – Explore
2. Module 2 – Create
3. Module 3 – Change

Each module is based on a specific methodology:

Module 1: Exploring

• System Thinking
• Scenario Planning
• Theory of Change

Within each module there is a set of tools that you can use to help you work through your problem:

Module 1: Explorer

• Connections Circle
• Perspectives Circle
• Causal Loops
• Confidence Triangle

Module 2: Create

• Change Over Time Graph
• Scenario Planning Quadrant
• SCAMPER Tool

Module 3: Change

• Feasibility Funnel
• Ripple Effect
• Compass Tool
• ” If…Then” Chain
• Persuasion Pyramid

Note: You won’t always need to use all the tools to help solve your problem. We recommend familiarizing yourself with them before you start so you can get a sense of which ones might work best.

All of this is underpinned by a five-part framework called Nexus thinking: Specially developed for the course, these five types of thinking allow you to dig beneath the surface of problems, understand the interrelated factors that cause them and think about what could be done differently.

The great thing about this course is that you can come up with your problem to solve it and try it again and again with new challenges. Or use it to refine previous solutions. All the training presentations will be in English or one of the national languages, and the medium of teaching will be in national languages. The certificate is also issued and handed over at the end of the course.