Root Cause Analysis and Critical Thinking Training Course

This programme will explore the key concepts of critical thinking applied to problem solving and decision making for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical professionals.

★★★★★ "I would recommend. 5*. The breakout rooms [were particularly] a great way to interact and to learn f... more (6)"

24 November 2025 »
from £499

Need help? Enrol/reserve

Format: Live online
CPD: 6 hours for your records
Certificate of completion

Course overview

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is the process of discovering the root causes of problems to identify solutions. When used with critical thinking, the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding the logical connection between ideas this provides a highly effective method for identifying the source of faults, failures, decision making, and undesired outcomes for processes. This approach is extremely effective when used by the pharmaceutical and associated healthcare industries to solve problems. In addition, RCA procedures with the application of critical thinking are an increasing focus by regulatory inspectors.

Often organisations waste a great amount of time and money in fixing the symptoms of a problem, rather than the problem itself. Using Critical thinking applied to RCA will enable you to solve problems far quicker, and much more effectively.

This one-day course introduces delegates to different RCA and critical thinking problem-solving tools and techniques which are then applied throughout a series of highly interactive and practical exercises putting these theories into practice to apply a systematic end-to-end process for analysing problems and decision making.

This training course is part of our collection of Leadership & Management Training Courses which focus on leadership, innovation, strategy, communication, finance, problem solving and conflict management, to name a few key areas.

Benefits of attending

Apply best practice tools and techniques to identify, and document the root causes of problems
Propose and evaluate solutions to prevent problems recurring and manage regulatory inspection findings
Communicate your findings and recommendations to colleagues and senior management
Gain an overview of the increasing importance of RCA and critical thinking skills for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical and associated healthcare sectors
Understand the critical thinking and application to RCA
Be aware of key tools and approaches to apply critical thinking to RCA for pharmaceutical and associated healthcare industries

Who should attend?

Anyone working in the pharmaceutical, biopharma, medical device and veterinary industries who wants to maximise RCA and critical thinking skills, particularly applied to problem solving and decision making including the following:

Managers responsible for process and quality improvements
Professionals working in R&D and production
Quality managers, internal and external auditors, inspectors
Line managers and supervisors
Anyone involved in managing customer and/or supplier/CMOs, CRO relationships
Problem solving team members and leaders
Product or process designers
Operational and production professionals

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This course will cover:

Background and defining RCA and critical thinking

Steps in RCA and applying critical thinking

Preventive and mitigating problems

Preventive action
Risk analysis
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Diagnosing RCA

RCA methodologies

Brainstorming
Ishikawa Diagrams
The five “Whys"
Is/is not
Process maps

Critical thinking

Overview of background
Define critical thinking, decision making and problem solving and understand the differences
Examine types of decisions & problems in the pharma industry
Understand the focus of critical thinking in ICH Designing Quality
Applying critical thinking to thinking questions to go beyond checklists
Tools and approaches for critical thinking to use in the pharmaceutical and associated healthcare industries including
- RED
- thinking outside the box
- ways to improve your critical thinking
- application to RCA

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Laura Brown
Independent Pharmaceutical Consultant

Dr Laura Brown is a QA and training consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. She has also worked as an Associate Facilitator at Cranfield School of Management. She has worked in senior management roles for companies including Wellcome, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Good Clinical Research Practices and Phoenix International where she gained extensive experience of problem solving and decision-making using RCA and critical thinking skills. Since completing her MBA Laura has co-authored several books on management including: Strategic Thinking (Be Your Own Strategy Consultant – Demystifying) Strategic Thinking), Developing the Individual, The Ultimate Book of Business Skills and Project Management for the Pharmaceutical Industry.

More details

NEW higher discounts for multiple bookings - bring your colleagues to make your training budget go further:

30% off the 2nd delegate*
40% off the 3rd delegate*
50% off the 4th delegate*

Please contact us for pricing if you are interested in booking 5 or more delegates

24 November 2025

Live online

09:30-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+00)
10:30-18:00 Paris (UTC+01)
04:30-12:00 New York (UTC-05)
Course code 15089

GBP 499 599
EUR 699 839
USD 803 959

Until 20 Oct

1 day live online training
Browser-based, no download usually required
See presenters and interact with fellow attendees
Download documentation and certification of completion
Fair transfer and cancellation policy

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* Early booking discounts may not be combined with other discounts or offers. As such, the discounts for 2nd/3rd/4th delegates are based on the full price; and apply only when booking multiple delegates on the same date.