Course: Applying Cognitive Science to Management

In this course, you examine management and leadership through the lens of cognitive science and psychology. You explore how assumptions, intuitive thinking, mental models, and cognitive biases shape decision-making, collaboration, and strategic choices within organizations. You learn when intuition can be valuable, when it pays to slow down and think more deliberately, and how individual and shared ways of thinking influence teams, organizations, and industries.

You also examine the role of shared mental models and dominant logics: how they can support coordination and decision-making, but may also stand in the way of new ways of thinking and innovation. Finally, you explore how artificial intelligence may reshape the way we interpret information, make decisions, and collaborate.

The course is research-based, closely connected to practice, and fully taught in English. Through short lectures, interactive case discussions, and structured reflection exercises, you connect theoretical insights with real-world examples and the experiences of fellow participants, and translate them into insights you can apply in your own professional context.

• You work in management, lead teams, manage projects, or coordinate initiatives.
• Whether you are a starter, medior, or senior, you will gain actionable insights you can apply immediately.
• Examples: team leaders, project managers, product managers, department heads.
• Recommended prior knowledge: basic management experience or interest in organizational decision-making.

• Skills and knowledge: you gain insights into cognitive processes, mental models, intuitive vs. deliberate decision-making, and collective cognition in organizations.
• Practical application: you can immediately apply these skills to your decisions and team collaboration.
• Recognition: you receive a Certificate of Participation from Utrecht University.
• Professional value: your learning is recognized within managerial and organizational development contexts.

Day 1 – Introduction & Type I Thinking

• Implicit beliefs: positivist vs. constructivist, nomothetic vs. idiographic
• How assumptions shape interpretation, thinking and decision-making
• Dual Processing: Type I vs. Type II thinking
• Heuristics as shortcuts in decision-making
• Common biases (overconfidence, availability, anchoring, confirmation)
• Reflection Task: Strengths and risks of intuitive judgments

Day 2 – Type II Thinking: Deliberate Reasoning

• Mental models as cognitive maps for structuring complex problems
• How management frameworks shape deliberate reasoning
• When to slow down and challenge intuitive judgments
• Combining intuition with deliberate analysis
• Reflection Task: When to rely on intuition vs. deliberation

Day 3 – Shared Mental Models in Industries, Teams and Artificial Intelligences

• From individual to team cognition
• Shared mental models and effective coordination
• Dominant logics as shared cognitive frames within teams, organizations and industries
• Challenging existing assumptions to enable new ways of thinking and innovation
• Reflection Task: Benefits and challenges of cognitive diversity
• How AI may reshape interpretation, decision-making and collaboration
• Reflection Task: How AI may change how your organization thinks, decides and collaborates

The content of this course is aligned with the latest research in management and cognitive science. You will work with realistic cases and apply practical examples from your own professional experience as well as your peers’.

The instructors providing professional education from Utrecht University possess strong subject-matter expertise and are actively engaged in relevant, up-to-date research within their fields. They combine academic depth with sharp practical insight, enabling them to fully understand the professional context of the participants.

Our instructors’ excellent teaching skills are specifically tailored to how professionals learn: practice-oriented, interactive, and immediately applicable. Moreover, they place great value on collaboration and create a learning environment where dialogue, knowledge exchange, and co-creation are central.

Thank you for your interest in this course! You can enroll via the yellow button on this page.