DGP: Critical Thinking Skills for Professionals

Common problems in working:

- Little quality time

- Communicateion

- Unclear goals or expectations

- Supervisor

- Lack of accountability

- Differences of opinions

- Silos

- People working remotely

Why do problems occur?

- Changae

- Conflict

- Understaffed

- Lack of skills

When do problems happen?

- Goals are unclear

- People arent aligned

- Unclear expectations

- Miscommunication

- Disagreements

We all hear and view things DIFFERENTLY.

Problems keep on coming cuz theyre not very well to begin with.

The solution might be an idea suitable only for a quick fix.

DABDA

- Denial

- Anger

- Bargaining

- Depression

- Acceptance

7 -Step Problem Solving Skills Process

1. Problem identification

2. Reframe, into a form of goal oriented question

3. Brainstorm

4. Choose 3

5. Pros n cons

6. Prepare & recommend our recommendation

7. Get feedback

As for the brainstorming part, we actually do it everyday and individually. When we brainstorm alone, you dont have to think about people opinions or ego.

BUT, you may not developed ideas as fully.

With GROUP, you can take in all the ideas that the group have.

Try this:

1. Masing2 but goal oriented question

2. Pass ke orang sebelah (tambah info, idea, solution)

Bila discuss, dont be JUDGMENTAL. Once ada benda tu, akan terus shut down any new ideas.

Team akan start berhenti chip in their 2 cents.

Also, if ada idea yg bagus, jgn terus cakap 'good idea, lets go with that'. Fikir dulu. Is that really a good solution or tu cuma quick fix je? THINK!

Why do we need more than 1 solution?

Why cant we skip this step?

We NEED to ANALYZE more!

Kita taknak quick fix only to have the problem resurface again. We want to solve it once and for all.

Bila ada 3 solutions, EXAMINE.

Picture yourself communicating those ideas.

What could happen? Pushback? Any barriers? Is it practical?

Culture, rules, processes, procedures, etc.

Bila ada solution, be prepared to RECOMMEND that solution.

Prepare for these questions:

Be rational.

Akan nampak how well you actually go thru that solution before recommending it. Doesnt seem like u just throw it blindly.

BE and AVOID.

When you recommend an idea, you need to BE confident, BE calm, BE open-minded, and BE organized.

We also need to AVOID being defensive, AVOID being pushy, showing strong emotions, and threatening.

ENGAGE in FEEDBACK.

If you dont really like the idea or you can see how its not gonna solve the problem, say:

Or maybe recommend others should be included on the decision.

It might actually not be a NO, could actually be a MAYBE. Think through.

In Summary, example:

1. Problem: mcm mana nak cut a hole dekat kertas to put my head through.

2. Reframe: what cuttin g process nak kena guna, untuk bagi my head fit thru?

3. Brainstorm & organize ideas

4. Choose 3

5. Pros n cons

6. Prepare & recommend (state the problems and be rational. also be composed when presenting)

7. Be open to feedback

WordPress #3 | How to Change Website URL

Hi. Today we're gonna look at how to change your website URL in case you messed up. In this case, yes, I messed up. That is why this post existed. To reminisce about my mistake. It's okay, failure is the mother of success. Moving on.

First, you need to log in to your WordPress account. Go to Settings > General > Change both WordPress URL and Site Address URL.

It'll probably log you out. No worries.

Next, go to cPanel > search for Domains > click on the "Manage" button.

You need to look for the 'Document Root' file and correct the URL to match the changes you made in WordPress.

Can't seem to find it? It's okay, there's another way. Follow the steps below:

From cPanel, search and open File Manager > locate the WordPress Installation Directory. This is typically within the 'public_html' directory.

Click the 'wp-config.php' file and from the top navbar, choose Edit.

After it redirected you to the coding page, it's time for you to update your site URL.

Look for lines that define the site URL and home URL like so:

Then. change it to the correct URL that you desire. Save your changes and try accessing your website again.

If you STILL haven't managed to change it, like MEE! boy you gotta just accept the fate and re-install your site again. :") oh and don't forget to back up your site first.

Unless you have other ways, please follow that. Uninstallation is just an option I suggest.

DIVI Builder #6 | Start using Divi Theme (after installing)

Since, I, also always forget how to work with WordPress and Divi, so, I need to document this.

Okay, so some might get lost on what to do right after installing. Here are the steps. They're simple.

From your WordPress > Clik Page (side nav) > Click Edit on your main page > Click Enable Visual Builder (top nav).

Click on 'Start Building'. who needs a tour anyway. To make your life much easier and since this theme itself was bought for the sole purpose of lessening your burden, let's just choose a premade layout.

You can now browse freely and choose any layout that suits your taste. That's it. Have fun editing!

WordPress #2 | Add Favicon

Although small, favicon is a must.

A Favicon (short for 'favourite icon') is that small icon you see on the tab beside the title of whatever site you are viewing. They are there to add an additional branding element or just to look cute. For example, I add a rabbit icon as my favicon. Yup, just there to look cute.

Let's get into it shall we?

1. Login to your WordPress.
2. From the left menu bar, click Appearance > Customize.
3. Click General Settings > Site Identity.
4. Click Select Site Icon and upload your file.
5. Done!

Easy right? Exactly.

Ok bye.

WordPress #1 | Set a Page as Home or Default page

Hello.

To set that one particular page that you already pour your heart out and design, as the main page, just follow the steps below. Another easy tutorial.

Log in to your WordPress, go to 'Settings' > Reading > and change your homepage display to a static page as so:

Don't forget to choose your homepage.

Ok you're done! Easy right? yeah~

DIVI Builder #5 | Remove default header & footer

I'm guessing by now you're already playing with Divi and are enjoying your time.

But, oh no! Look at that annoying default header and footer that Divi provided. Yeah, we don't need them and here's how to remove em.

As usual, log into your WordPress. Click the 'Pages' menu and then click 'Edit' on the page where you want to remove both the header and footer. Ok now focus on your right side. There'll be a few sidebars. Spot one where it says "Page Attributes". That's the only menu you need to work with.

Set the template from Default Template to "Blank Page".

There. You're all set. You're welcome. Yes, it is as easy as that.

Remove WPMU (multi-site) from WordPress

Remember when we installed WordPress with the WPMU option? Yeah, that was a mistake and we need to remove it to turn it back into a single-site website (if that makes sense).

First login to your cPanel account and search for "File Manager". Click that and you'll be on a new page. Now, locate the root directory of your WordPress installation, which should be "public_html". Click that.

Within that root directory, search for the "wp-config.php" file. Right-click on that file and choose edit or anything that says edit (or icon, idk. find it).

Seeing codes? yeah, Don't worry it's gonna be an easy one. Now search for a line that says "/* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */". Paste this new code right above it:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', false);

It should look something like this:

Don't forget to save the changes you made. Close that coding page.

Now it's time for the revelation.

Alright, head to your WordPress, refresh em and see if it works or not.

You're done! That's it.

p/s: ok for some of you that don't get the result you yearn for, don't worry, you can just uninstall and re-install the whole WordPress. I'll show you how in the next post.

DIVI Builder #4 | Install DIVI themes into WordPress

Let us now look at how to install and use Divi by eleganthemes.com on WordPress.

Log in to your eleganthemes.com account. From the top menu bar, click Account and choose 'Product Downloads'. Click 'Download the Divi Theme'. Yes you need to download it first. You'll get a zip file.

Now head back to your WordPress site.

From your left menu bar, find themes. Then find a button that says install a new theme or anything near that. Now try uploading that Divi zip file you downloaded earlier.

...

okay now hold your horses. Do you get this error?

It's okay, that is why this post right here exist so that I can show you what to do.

Now, time to adjust some settings. 

Go to cPanel > MultiPHP INI Editor > choose your site > change "post_max_size" and "upload_max_filesize" to any number/size bigger than your Divi file (eg: 20MB)

Ok now try uploading that Divi file again and pray for it to work.

Ok proceed people. Now that you have this (YES!), you need to activate it to start using it. At the same themes page, just click activate on Divi. You'll see it and you'll get what I mean.

Appearance > Theme. You'll see Divi! Click Activate! You are done! We rock! We made a mistake but we still rock.

That's it. bye. Have fun editing!

DIVI Builder #3 | Introduction to Visual Builder

 Enabling the Visual Builder

Open WordPress dashboard > Pages > navigate to any page > Edit > Enable Visual Builder.

This is a drag-and-drop page builder.

The Basics

1. Sections

Used to create large groups of content.

3 types: Regular, Specialty & Full-Width.

Regular: made up of rows and columns.

Specialty: have advanced sidebar layouts.

2. Rows

Sits inside sections.

3. Modules

DIVI Builder #2 | How to Install into WordPress Theme

Go to elegantthemes.com > login.

Account > Product Downloads > Download the Divi theme > you'll get Divi.zip file.

To upload theme, go to WordPress dashboard.

Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme > upload Divi.zip file.

After the theme has been fully uploaded, click "Activate" to start activate and using the theme.