Critical Thinking and Structured Analysis

This course is certified to meet the content standards of the International Association for Intelligence Education

Course Description:

This course introduces participants to critical thinking, and builds on their new insights to develop their ability to organize and structure their analysis.  This class first offers participants insight into how our minds work for us, and sometimes against us, in intelligence analysis.  We will explore the mental shortcuts wired into our thinking, the logical fallacies that undermine our analysis, and how to mitigate the effects of these cognitive and logical challenges.  We will also explore the impact of culture, upbringing, and one’s mental and physical environment on problem solving and analysis, and ways to recognize patterns and false patterns in our analysis.  The class then offers intelligence professionals insight into how the mind intuitively compiles information, and how to add structure to this process to generate better assessments.  In it, we will explore structured techniques designed to generate creativity, increase problem-solving potential, test hypotheses, and project forward into prediction and forecasting analysis. 

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the basics of critical thinking and its impact on analysis.

• Recognize the cognitive biases and logical fallacies that undermine their analysis

• Recognize the impact of cultural and environmental bias on their analysis

• Identify strategies to minimize the impact of bias and fallacy on their analysis

• Describe structured analytic techniques and the benefit they can bring to analysis

• Identify structured analytic techniques appropriate to their analytic requirements

• Perform structured analysis to generate more rigorous assessments and help solve problems

Course Outline:

Day 1:

• Cognition

• Cognitive Biases

• Culture and Environment

Day 2:

• Logic

• Logical Fallacies

• Patterns

• Mitigating Bias and Fallacy

• Introduction to Structured Analysis

Day 3:

• Creativity and Idea Generation Techniques 

• Structuring and Organisation Techniques

Day 4:

• Scenario Generation, Evaluation, and Exploration Techniques  

• Diagnostic and Problem Solving Techniques

Day 5:

• Challenge and Contrarian Techniques

• Critical Thinking and Structured Analysis Assessment