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Description

Cognitive Biases: Spotting Your Mental Shortcuts, Questioning Them and Deciding Better

A one-day programme to identify the thinking shortcuts that distort decisions and day-to-day exchanges at work

  • 1 day — 7 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Foundation
  • Up to 6 participants

A hiring decision settled in thirty seconds. A project kept alive because it has already cost a great deal. A team view that converges far too quickly on the manager's opinion. None of these situations stems from incompetence or bad faith. They come from mental shortcuts the brain takes in order to decide quickly, and which produce the same errors again and again.

This 7-hour day makes those mechanisms visible through exercises experienced live in the session. Participants first encounter several common biases, then analyse their effect on their decisions and on their everyday interactions. They go on to build safeguards that can be applied directly to their own recruitment and performance review processes.

Learning objectives

  • Describe the two modes of thinking involved in decision-making
  • Identify the most frequent biases in a given professional situation
  • Analyse the effect of a bias on a recruitment or performance assessment decision
  • Put safeguards in place within your own decision-making processes
  • Lead a decision-making meeting that limits automatic alignment with a dominant view

What makes this programme different

Exercises that let participants experience the bias before any theory is introduced
Work carried out on real decisions brought by the participants themselves
A safeguards grid completed for three internal processes

Programme

1Understanding Where Biases Come From

Deciding Quickly and Deciding Well

  • Three exercises that reveal a thinking shortcut in action
  • Distinction between fast thinking and deliberate thinking
  • The role of workload in the emergence of biases
  • Identifying your own automatic patterns of judgement

2Spotting Biases at Work

Recruitment, Assessment and Collective Decisions

  • The effect of first impressions in an interview
  • The weight of previously known information in an assessment
  • Continuing a project because of the effort already invested
  • A group aligning too quickly with a dominant view

3Putting Safeguards in Place

From Awareness to Practice

  • Defining assessment criteria before the meeting takes place
  • Collecting individual views before the group discussion
  • Using structured dissent for high-stakes decisions
  • Application to three internal processes brought by participants

Who is it for

Hiring managers and anyone required to make decisions or assess others as part of their role.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.