Decision Making for Leaders: Managing Change (Udemy.com)
Leading with Vigilance, Innovation, Talent, and Precision
Created by: Ray Harkins
Last updated August 2026
What you will learn
- The importance of vigilance in business and how to practice it
- Examples of vigilance and non-vigilance in the news
- Ten strategies for improving your own vigilance
- How change is diffused in a culture
- The five factor influencing the rate of change
- Using the diffusion model to improve the results of your project
- The pitfalls of the traditional hiring model
- Why hire for talent
- How to uncover the talents in your prospective team members
- The 8D model as a structured problem-solving approach
- What are each of the 8D's
- How to apply the 8D approach in practice
How it compares
Against the other 1,210 rated Udemy courses in Business on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.0 out of 5higher than 3% of them
- Reviews305#813 of 1,211 by number of reviews
- Length3 hourslonger than 50% of them
- Last updatedAugust 2026more recently than 83% of them
Course Description
If you are working in a leadership role, or are aiming your career in the direction of leadership and management, then this course, Decision Making for Leaders: Managing Change will provide keys ideas to propel your career forward.
So much has been said and written about leadership. But where do you start??
This course, Decision Making for Leaders: Managing Change is not just based on time-tested business research, but also on the hands-on application by its instructor, Mike Vella. Mike served as the heads of operations for both a major tier 1 automotive supplier and a major commercial food processor. And this course offers some of the priceless concepts that steered him toward success as an industry leader.
This class is divided into four major sections, each connected to a critical aspect of managing organizational change: Vigilant Leadership, Cultural Change, Hiring for Talent, and Structured Problem Solving. Each section is about 40 minutes long ... easily watched or listened to during an evening or lunch break.
In Vigilant Leadership, you will learn the importance of vigilance in the workplace, not just for the top-level executive, but for every person who wants to grow with the organization. You will hear several examples of both vigilance and non-vigilance within major corporations. And you will hear 10 useful strategies for improving you vigilance and acting on trends within your industry.
In Cultural Change, you will understand how innovations are diffused, or spread throughout an organization or within society at large. And using this innovation diffusion modal, Mike will share with you practical tips for getting your improvement project or new business system accepted by your organization.
In Hiring for Talent, Mike explains the traditional approach for hiring new employees and why it so often fails. Using a different approach of hiring for talent, leaders can select candidates based on their natural propensities, not just their knowledge and experience. Mike also offers a collection of questions that can help you identify the talents of your potential team members.
And lastly, in Structured Problem Solving, Mike explains the "8D Methodology", a universal problem solving method originally developed at the Ford Motor Company in the 1980's for use by their engineering teams. You will learn about each of the 8 "D's" or disciplines required to solve complex problems with unknown causes.
When you purchase this course, you not only gain LIFETIME ACCESS to its materials at a very low cost and the entire slide deck as a downloadable resource, but you also gain access to us, your instructors, through the Udemy platform, with your comments or questions.
So if you are an aspiring leader, lifelong leaner, or a true professional trying to sharpen your skills, then THIS IS THE CLASS FOR YOU. Take your leadership skills to the next level by signing up for Decision Making for Leaders: Managing Change today!!
Instructor Details
- 4.0 Rating
305 Reviews
Ray Harkins
Ray Harkins is a senior manufacturing leader, educator, and founder of The Manufacturing Academy, with more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, quality engineering and management, and operations leadership. He currently serves as a General Manager in manufacturing, overseeing operations, quality, engineering, and continuous improvement while remaining actively engaged in solving the day-to-day challenges faced by manufacturers.
After beginning his career in manufacturing engineering, Ray expanded into quality and operations leadership, working alongside leading industry professionals throughout North America and Japan and touring hundreds of manufacturing facilities. These experiences shaped his belief that manufacturing professionals deserve practical training that they can immediately apply to improve quality, productivity, and their careers.
That philosophy has guided the development of more than 60 online courses covering Lean Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control, Supply Chain Analytics, Manufacturing Leadership, Reliability Engineering, and Operations Management. His courses are used by individual professionals and corporate training departments worldwide and have helped more than 140,000 students build practical skills and advance their careers.
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Reviews
By Diriki Mose on 8/18/2026
The recording is flawed. The editing of the recording is mismatched and every other slide, and sometimes after every slide, a displaced word or words are heard which disrupts the flow of what's being said.
By Anonymized User on 10/23/2025
Hopping the best training
By Nicole Kit Yi Li on 8/7/2025
Easy to get the key message.
By Doris Velez Seguinot on 5/16/2025
Learning about decision making for leaders' topic will provide the tools to understand cultural changes, structured problem solving, etc.
By Suzana Mohd Jizan on 11/30/2024
Is a good course. It is one of the competencies that I need for.
By Tyler Thomas Keller on 7/15/2024
Super boring presentation style
By Anonymized User on 1/1/2024
I like learning about the science behind decision making. Thew course takles issues that I'm facing, so I'm also happy to see some options I can adopt.
By Anonymized User on 12/19/2023
Great information and content. Don't care for the advertisement at the end.
By Anonymized User on 12/13/2023
The instructor is very personable.
By Veeraraghavan Kazhiyur Mannar on 10/1/2023
a very good and clear introduction on the structure and the outcome of the course.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 80 / 100












