Course Descriptions
Dr. Jay Grusin, who created and leads all the courses, is a former senior CIA officer with over 30 years of experience. He brings to the workshop a combination of extensive experience as an analyst and manager and teacher of analysts with over 7,000 hours of classroom experience. The curriculum in all the classes is intensely experiential and Dr. Grusin’s classroom style keeps participants engaged. Each participant receives a comprehensive notebook with guides and templates to reinforce learning back in the office. Content can be customized.
Two-Day Courses
These seminars facilitate in-depth learning and practice. Length can be customized: shortened to one day or lengthened to dive more deeply into the tradecraft and provide opportunities to apply lessons learned to ongoing projects: includes coaching.
A Seminar in Intelligence Analysis: Strengthening Critical Tradecraft Skills
This course is aimed at both experienced and new intelligence analysts in both private and public sector environments. Participants engage in two intensive days of hands-on step-by-step instruction that reinforce the intelligence analytic tradecraft skills of analysts at all experience levels. They will be better prepared to staff operations and watch centers and produce timelier actionable intelligence product. For defense contractors the training will speed the integration of new staff into the work force with minimum impact on customer support. Content maps to US Intelligence Community standards.
A Seminar in Intelligence Analysis: Better Decisions Faster in an Uncertain World
In this course participants will leverage the same skill set intelligence analysts have used for decades to support policy makers and military leaders to improve the speed and accuracy of decision making. Participants will practice a new approach to analysis that can strengthen their ability to identify and gauge uncertainty, mitigate risk, and look for opportunities to shape what’s ahead. It can be applied immediately across data sets disciplines, and business areas, including acquisition and bidding decisions, report preparation, and strategic planning.
NEW!! Briefing for the Boardroom and Situation Room
This intensely experimental two-day course was created in association with Dr. Ed Mickolus, president of Vinyard Software. Dr. Mickolus, a retired CIA analyst, with extensive experience as a briefing instructor for will team with The Analytic Edge to lead the course. It is built around carefully structured exercises that make extensive use of videotaping to maximize impact of the training. Like other intelligence training from The Analytic Edge content meets the highest US Intelligence Community tradecraft standards and can be applied across all business areas in both public and private sectors.
The course can be taught as a standalone or as part of a package that includes training in intelligence analysis in analytic tradecraft followed by instruction in its application to oral presentations.
Half-Day Workshops
These workshops use a series of exercises to introduce analysts and managers to the power of analytic tradecraft to support decision making and improve the timeliness and impact of analytic products. They can be lengthened to provide additional opportunities to practice the skills.
Glimpsing the Future: Intelligence Analysis Drives Better Decisions
Workshop participants will be introduced to how businesses can leverage analytic tradecraft to make better decisions faster and improve forecasting. The session will focus most heavily on applying these skills to identify and manage the level of risk and uncertainty inherent in any decision and develop mitigation strategies to manage the most critical vulnerabilities.
Workshop in Intelligence Analysis: The Most Critical Analytic Tradecraft Skills
Through a series of exercises participants will be introduced to the key concepts and systematic process that US Intelligence Community analysts have used for decades to produce actionable intelligence and longer-term assessments. The deliverable will be a lead paragraph that captures the “what” and “so what” that is essential for creating a bottom line up front.