When: 26 November 2025
Where: Trinity College Dublin
Time: 10am – 4pm
Lunch: Included
Cost: €349Sign-Up: www.williampriestley.ie

What is Problem Solving and Creative Thinking?

In 2020, the World Economic Forum listed the three most critical skills for the future as ‘Complex Problem-Solving’, ‘Critical Thinking’ and ‘Creativity’. This training course brings together leaders from across the business and not-for-profit sectors to explore foundational and creative problem-solving strategies. It equips participants with skills in deductive (logic-based), inductive (pattern-based), and reframing (perspective-shifting) approaches. Learners will engage in practical activities to enhance critical thinking and develop innovative solutions. Emphasis is also placed on self-awareness and adaptive thinking to tackle complex challenges.

What Does the Training Involve?

This highly interactive training course is designed to develop participants’ creative problem-solving capabilities through a sequenced approach of exploration, theory, and application. Grounded in contemporary theories of creativity and critical thinking (e.g. Kahneman; Flyvbjerg & Gardner; Perez; Wedell-Wedellsborg), the course uses structured play, storytelling, and deconstructed bias to stimulate imagination and encourage risk-taking in ideation. Participants will apply deductive, inductive, and reframing strategies to solve complex problems in both individual and group settings.

Learning Outcomes

1. Apply deductive reasoning to analyse and solve structured problems
2. Demonstrate inductive thinking by generating general solutions from observed patterns
3. Reframe problems from multiple perspectives to unlock innovative solutions
4. Integrate self-awareness into the creative problem-solving process
5. Collaborate effectively on problem-solving in a group setting

Methodology

Interactive/experiential, intrapersonal and interpersonal activities, self-reflection and linguistic analysis.

Facilitator

William Priestley is a member of the international Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and has over fifteen years’ experience delivering training to business leaders. He has contributed to national and European social policy, presented before the OECD and delivered a vision of empowerment from the TED stage. As an elected representative, he has written opinion pieces, including Why it’s surprising more young men don’t sell drugs, for the Irish Times and appeared as a television panellist on several occasions. In 2019, he staged an award-winning performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. William holds a Master of Education from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

Contact

086 385 2363 / info@williampriestley.ie / www.williampriestley.ie