Your needs matter most. So our instructors will work with you to customize every course’s content and length to ensure it meets your specific requirements.

Look through the course descriptions here to see what they offer to your employees. Then let us know how we can best serve you.

Analytic Techniques and Substance

 

The Thinker's Workshop^TM
Receive comprehensive training in the use of essential tools for thinking and analysis, based on Morgan Jones’s industry-leading The Thinker’s Toolkit. Use analytic structuring techniques to overcome inherent mental obstacles and to make better decisions. Discussion of analytic methods and practice using specific tools. (One, two, or three days)


Denial and Deception Awareness
Gain a robust awareness of denial and deception (D&D) efforts that may be present in any information base that analysts use. Study the impact of D&D operations on decision-making. Identify how our psychological/cognitive processes make us susceptible to D&D. Examine historical cases of deception, and use an analytic methodology to help reduce the likelihood of being duped by D&D. Review characteristics of D&D operations and develop criteria for evaluating possible D&D situations. (Two or three days)

Navigating the New Information Environment
Learn the most effective methods to extract and analyze information from all available sources, including social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Using a hands-on, interactive approach, recognize the appropriate technique and information set to obtain an answer and solve an analytic problem. Receive personal guidance and unique materials from the instructor.  (Two days)

 

Introduction to International Terrorism
Gain understanding of international terrorism: the groups perpetrating acts of terrorism and terrorists’ psychology, motivations, techniques, and signatures. Identify and exploit vulnerabilities in terrorist operational planning. (One or two days)

Analytic Presentation—Writing and Briefing

 

Analytic Thinking and Presentation
Practice developing analytic judgments, building cases to support judgments, and presenting the results in writing and orally. Focus on the writing principles that lead to well-reasoned and well-written finished intelligence products. Engage in extensive individual and team activities that include opportunities for personal feedback. (Two, three four, or five days)

Advanced Analytic Writing
Review the basic premises underlying intelligence writing and examine a major intelligence problem. Practice through several writing and self-editing exercises. Receive extensive personal feedback from the instructor. For analysts with at least two years of experience. (Two, three, or four days)

Writing for the Senior Executive Audience
Explore the unique demands of writing on current issues for busy senior executives. Use a case study to produce a series of articles for an executive audience based on a stream of continually updated information. Practice conceptualizing, organizing, structuring, and editing written products to ensure a well-written, relevant, and timely result. (One or two days)

Introduction to Intelligence Analysis For Those Who Speak English as a Second Language (Taught in English)
Improve communication of analytic concepts and the process of intelligence work, including gathering information, structuring decisions, and making sound judgments. Focus on the role that language plays in the process. Designed specifically for officers who are non-native English speakers. (One, two, or three days)

Building Better Sentences
Learn how to use more precise and concise language. Review the principles of effective writing and apply these techniques through numerous writing exercises. (One or two days)

Improving Paragraph Structure
Learn about and practice using the Inverted Pyramid Style of paragraph writing. Focus on crafting strong core assertions and employing more precise word choice and sentence structure. (One or two days)

Editing Your Own Work
Learn proven techniques for reviewing written work objectively. Practice applying the principles of effective writing, focusing on structure and grammar. (One or two days)

Reviewing Analytic Papers
Learn and apply time-tested techniques for reviewing analytic products. Focus on using the “sweep method” to process products more efficiently. Adopt best practices for giving effective feedback to writers. Engage in a customized review exercise that relates to your organization’s specific products and style. (Two or three days)

Effective Briefing Workshop
Provides hands-on training to help officers give clear and memorable presentations. Review your own briefings on video to recognize and build on effective communication practices while identifying and reducing distracting behaviors. Class sessions include small group activities, brief lectures, presentations, coaching by an experienced briefer, group review of videos, and class discussions. (One, two, or three days)

Advanced Briefing Workshop
Review the basic principles of effective presentation while developing advanced briefing skills for more difficult settings. Using video and playback, recognize and correct remaining poor presentation practices. Receive extensive personal feedback from the instructor and other participants. For officers with at least two years of experience. (One, two, or three days)

 

Management & Leadership

Survivor's Guide for First Line Managers
Examine the crucial issues that all new first-line supervisors face and discuss best practices for dealing with them. Draw heavily on the personal experience of the instructor, an experienced senior manager and award-winning mentor to new managers. (One day)

Leadership Essentials
Discuss the distinction between management and leadership. Engage in exercises to increase self-awareness and understanding of key leadership and management traits. Learn best practices for leading organizational change, creating and sustaining emotional engagement, prioritizing, and making decisions. (One or two days)

Reviewing Analytic Papers
Learn and apply time-tested techniques for reviewing analytic products. Focus on using the “sweep method” to process products more efficiently. Adopt best practices for giving effective feedback to writers. Engage in a customized review exercise that relates to your organization’s specific products and style. (Two or three days)

 

Instructor Development

Basic Instructor Skills
This course provides the participants with the necessary skills to develop a basic lesson plan, manage the classroom, understand principles of adult learning, write learning objectives, correlate objectives with assessments, and use a variety of instructional methods. Participants make short instructional presentations and receive feedback from the instructors.  (Four or five days)

Basic Facilitation Skills
This course focuses on an essential instructor skill, facilitation. It introduces participants to the principles of facilitation and gives them several opportunities to conduct short facilitations and receive feedback.  (Three or four days)

 

Training Evaluation Seminar
This class shows participants how to create effective Kirkpatrick Level 1 and Level 2 evaluation instruments and gives them opportunities to practice creating instruments to gauge student satisfaction and learning in the classroom and online. Participants will discuss the differences among Kirkpatrick’s four levels of evaluation.  (One day)

Instructional Design Workshop
Participants learn the basics of course design. Topics covered in this course include: analyzing learning needs, developing learning goals and objectives, outlining course content, identifying appropriate methods of instruction, accounting for energy flow throughout the course, creating assessment materials, piloting the course, and conducting reviews and revisions. During this class, participants have the opportunity to use these principles to design a course and are encouraged to bring any course design work that they are currently doing to the Workshop.  (Three or four days)