Multi Day, 1 Day, or Segmented Business Training Simulation?
That's easy to answer: It depends ;)
In reality, this is actually hard for us to answer. It really does depend. But to communicate our thoughts, we'll address the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Multi-day Custom Business Training Simulation- These are good if you want participants to really learn your entire business. We mean REALLY learn it. These usually require many many decision within the simulation and are very detailed. The goal here is to mimic the business within your training and development program. These are traditionally very expensive and exceptionally thorough. Our opinion: Good in some places, but not where trends seem to be moving when it comes to training and development and business training simulations.
1-Day Custom Business Training Simulation- These are very effective. These do a great job of balancing reinforcing your business training content and learning how the business functions. These are a very exciting and compressed day within your training program. This is a fantastic way to apply all the training content from previous days within the program. Our opinion: This is one of the more popular solutions and they work very well (cost effective too).
Segmented Business Training Simulation- These are also very effective. Running little versions of a larger training simulation at the end of each one of your leadership development days is incredibly exciting, applicable, and effective. This trend has grown in the last 2 or so years. Basically, you'll take a portion of the simulation that focuses on the content of that day and run it at the end. People get very fired up and its a great way to end the day. Our opinion: This is very effective and exciting.
We hope this helps you better understand various business training simulations and leadership development simulations. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Business Training Simulations- Where to learn what?
5. Be prepared with content 1st! Keep in mind, the simulation is NOT the training program. It is a reinforcement tool.
4. Pick the right type of simulation provider. Ask yourself if you want canned, customized, facilitation, or no facilitation. Many business simulation providers will want to supply their own facilitators. This is understandable, but not required. Also, do you need customized or canned? Customized is more expensive, but usually more effective.
3. Virtual or in person? This doesn't need a lot of explaining. We've found companies tried to do virtual and it just didn't work very well (not very engaging). Thus, the trend seems to be moving back towards in person. But there are different types of sims depending on location needs.
2. Have a clear idea of what you want out of the training program. Similar to what we mentioned in 5, you need to have a clear goal of what you want out of the training. The business simulation will reinforce this, but not teach it.
1. Have fun! Business simulations are an amazingly engaging tool. Have fun with the simulation and the program that surrounds it. Relax, the simulation won't bite and if the provider is good, they'll do their best to take care of the rest.
Hope this helps.
Missing Images in Business Simulation Blog
Hello- Today we launched our entirely new web platform. Nothing looks different, but its and entirely new web architecture. The only problem is: The blog images are missing. We're working on it and hope to have it fixed by Thursday afternoon.Thanks
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Leadership Development Training and Business Simulations
Talking with various training and development managers, the clear answer seems to be, "To engage and demonstrate the importance in an effort to gain acceptance and increase adoption."
Some of the comments we've heard are:
"In the past, we've utilized various exercises and engagements, but they are all still within the theory realm and don't apply to the business fundamentals."
"We haven't been able to demonstrate the importance to the business. It's always just been on a trust us basis."
"Everyone knows leadership is important, but it's impact on the business hasn't been considered. It's now become essential we demonstrate this."
We all know that leadership is critical and unique internal competencies are fundamental to effective strategic development and execution. But trying to connect these to business results are exceptionally difficult. Thus, we're often asked, "How do you do this." Unfortunately, the answer is even harder to articulate. In a sense, this is the baseline formula:
Business performance = (+/-1 */ / leadership effectiveness)
The missing ingredient that can't be explained is each business's uniqueness. This is one of those intangible capabilities where we are able to take business, cultural, market, execution uniqueness and apply it to leadership training. This is the indescribably piece of the equation that we are somehow able to translate. Basically, its a combination of education, business, training, and technology that comes naturally to us.
But, if you have the basic understanding the leadership effectiveness influences business training and growth, creating a business leadership simulation is only a few additional steps when combined with a bit of creativity and tenacity.
Not sure this article helps, but it gives insights into the thinking that goes into developing a business leadership simulation training program. Thoughts?
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Business Training Simulation- Go'in Green!
First, it's important to understand that we use very powerful computers to create our business training simulations. We use Apple's Mac Pro line of computers.
Anyway, since we write our business simulations on a Mac Pro, there are actually 4-8 processors in each computer (yup, these are very high end computers). This generates a lot of heat and consumes a lot of electricity. Both are bad for the environment. So, why not just turn them off? Well, because it's actually not that easy. After-all, there are no processor switches on the side of the machine.
To drop the energy consumption in half and still be able to create a custom business simulation,
This means we can continue to create our custom leadership training simulation, business games, business acumen simulations, and business training simulations without any loss in productivity. When it comes time for the training simulation to compile, we simply turn on the additional processors on the fly. Just like a light switch.
Have a green day!
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Upgrading The Business Training Simulation Engine!
- Advanced behavioral prediction capabilities. Wow! What ever that means, it sounds fast! It is, sort of. This will enable the training simulation to actually predict what participants are going to do next. This means that during your leadership development or executive development, the training simulation will actually be able to react to participant behavior. Think of it like trying to outsmart your leaders in your leadership development training programs. Kewl!
- Advanced supercharged statistical analysis and behavioral modeling. Wow! That also sounds fast. It is. This means that the training or leadership simulations will be able to calculate decisions quicker (and in smaller file size). If floppies were still around, we'd still fit on those (only the core but still pretty neato).
- Dynamic predictive file loading and unloading. Wow! That sounds like it's really smooth through the gears! It is. For anyone that wants to run their leadership development or business training simulations virtually, no problem! This is more efficient cloud computing at it's best.
- Finally, up to date graphic simulation CODECS- Bye Bye are the days of 1990s file formats. We are going into the next generation and beyond. Wow! That's sounds like it's good look'in too! It is. This means we can reduce file size and increase quality. This is again great for virtual programs. This means when you're doing your leadership development, leadership education, executive development, training, or anything that requires a business training simulation, it will run smoother and be better looking. Win Win Win!
In summary- our business simulations, business training simulation (s), leadership development simulations, or executive development simulations are shiny, new, and ready to rumble. Let's go take 'er around the blog. Start your engines! (burn out sound).
Have a fast holiday weekend!
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Virtual vs. In Person Business Training Simulation
In talking with one of our customers, the repeated debate of Virtual vs. In Person training came up. Specifically with relevance to using a business training simulation. We have a pretty strong opinion on this topic. If two of the goals are:1. Leadership Development
2. Learn the entire business
Then in person business training is far more effective. In our experience, we've seen amazing results that come out of general discussions that are not achievable from virtual solutions. In person business training allow participants the ability to talk through scenarios and challenges. They are also given the opportunity to work as a team on a leadership simulation. Finally, in person gives the facilitators the opportunity to observe applicability of leadership competencies.
By no means are we saying that virtual is out all together. There is certainly a place for this. We're just saying that if it's leadership or know the entire business, in person is preferred. But in general business training that includes leadership development is very effective in person.
Have a great day!
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Business Leadership Simulation
Today we're going to talk about utilizing a business training simulation for leadership training. The question is: How can a training simulation be used to help teach leadership and leadership competencies. Here's the summary:
You may be asking, "But how does a business training simulation exactly work with leadership competencies?" There's a combined solution of heavy facilitator involvement (you?), and building the importance of effective leadership into the business training simulation. We work with you to ensure that participant's demonstrate effective leadership and that that behavior is reflecting within the simulation.
So if you're working to try to better integrate the effectiveness of leadership competencies within your training program, feel free to give us a call. It doesn't have to be business training related. We have seen many interesting ways to accomplish this task and are happy to talk through some ideas.
Have a great day!
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Training Simulations: Freedom at last!
We are very excited to announce SimDevGroup now offer's our custom business training simulation in full unlimited license versions! "Wow! But what does that mean exactly?"
This means the following:
All custom business training simulations will:
- Give you the freedom to run as much as you like without additional costs
- Give you the freedom to run them yourselves (you don't have to pay us to facilitate)
- Give you the freedom to run when, where, and how you wish.
- Drastically reduce the costs of using a custom training simulation
You are free to sim the world over!
If you run your programs more than 5 times a year, then the savings are huge! Leadership and executive development will never be the same.
This means you're executive development and leadership development programs can use a custom business simulation without extra costs (woa, say that again!) It's true. Once you own the business training simulation, you are license fee free! Yipee!
Give us a call or drop us an email for more questions.
Have a nice weekend.
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Business Training Simulation on Facebook!
We've finally launched a facebook fan site. Go to facebook and do a search for Simulation Development Group. You should be able to find us. If not, let us know. This fan site will be dedicated to new information regarding advancement and activities related to business simulation activity including business training and training simulations.
Just today, there was an article in the WSJ about executive training and utilization of business training simulations. It was a quick read, but just goes on to prove they're advantageous usage within large companies. Training is changing and using a custom business training simulation will make a huge difference.
Check us out on facebook and start following us there as well!
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Site Updated- Finally
Finally, we've updated the web site. Amazing looking, isn't it? Actually no. We made significant changes, but nothing you can really see: yet. We Did a few things that should make accessing business simulation related news and information easier.
- Changed the architecture of the site so it's more easily expandable
- Changed the core navigation links so it's geared towards Business Simulations and Training & Development
- It's more green! No, not the color. But when people want to print pages, it uses more than 39% less toner. We eliminated the header images from being printed which drastically reduces the amount of Toner. Yea!
- Under each section (such as Business Simulation and Training & Development), there are now easier to access sub topics (such as Business Games, Training Simulations, Leadership Development Simulations).
That's really about it. We are hitting a few speed bumps which we'll hopefully iron out soon. Most of them you probably can't see.
Happy browsing!
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Where In The World Is SimDevGroup?
The other reason we've been out of touch is that we are once again, preparing for a web site update. We know, we know: We just did this. But this is part 2 of 3. You will hardly notice any changes. All the changes are at an architectural level. Some of the improvements to the web site are:
- Faster page loading
- More modern Java
- Printing style sheets
- A foundation for expansion
- No Blog Mungie-ness
The key takeaway here is the expansion component. We plan on offering more and more learning tools for our community and we'll be able to post business simulation related tips, tools, tricks, and resources that will help our followers. We hope to launch this site in the next 30 days. This should align with our ability to announce results that came from our business simulation related R&D.
Stay tuned, great things to come this Spring!
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5 Tips for Facilitating a Business Simulation
Our last post talked about the fact that the trend is clearly moving towards you facilitating a business simulation more. This is great! We thought we'd help with 5 tips for facilitating a business simulation program. Here goes:
5. Get Involved!- Be involved in the development of the business simulation. You'll know the program better.
4. Keep a Secret- Remember: the participants don't know what's inside the business simulation. Keep it this way.
3. Quiet Time- When you are looking at the results of the business simulation, do it in a quiet place without distraction.
2. Tell a Story- When providing the 'what happened' in the simulation, look for a story or theme. Its more interesting and educational.
1. Be Prepared!- A business simulation is complex. Make sure you really take the time, concentration, and focus when preparing for a results presentation. Its critical!
Have fun! Feel free to contact us if we can help.
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Business Simulation Facilitation: Less Us, More You!
We couldn't be more excited. We strongly believe that having you in front of leaders is critical. Its impressive to show a business simulation in action. Especially when it has an impact on business strategy. We say: Keep it up! Get in front of business leaders and show off utilizing a business simulation for training and development. We'll make sure you look great!
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Google Likes SimDevGroup
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Business Simulation- Cloud Computing Article
In a past post, we talked about a cloud computing based business simulation we're rolling out. We've received a few questions about cloud computing. Today, the Wall Street Journal talks about cloud computing and its a pretty good article. Very basic, but interesting.
Click here:
Cloud Computing- What is it exactly
Happy reading!
- SimDevGroup
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Business Simulation Facilitation: You’re The Rock Star!
It’s important for you and your team to stay in front of the leaders of your organization.
When it comes to business simulation facilitation, we make sure you’re the rock star! Don’t forget to take your bows at the end of the program :^)
Have a great weekend,
- SimDevGroup
PS- Sorry, we couldn't resist posting this image. ;^)
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Business Simulations, Tailored Simulations, and Custom Business Simulations
It’s important to note that everyone seems to have different definitions of simulation and this gets confusing when compared to business games (serious games). We can only tell you how we define business simulation in context to our services.
Business Simulation-
This is software solution that bears strong resemblance to part of or an entire business. It is important to understand that this can be any business. A business simulation is often canned. It might be similar to all or part of your business, but it is not a model of your actual business. A business simulation is useful when you’re trying to teach general business skills (acumen). If you’re trying to create strategic shift, these aren’t usually very useful.
Tailored Simulation-
This is the same as a business simulation, but may have some basic changes that might more closely resemble your business. An example of some changes are product name changes, company name, or general high level changes. In many cases this is a business simulation with some straight forward changes. In general, this is still considered pretty canned.
Custom Business Simulation-
This is a business simulation that bears very close resemblance to your actual business (or part of). Most importantly items such as core values (competencies), strategy, products, and methods are incorporated within a custom simulation. A custom simulation may have a similar core calculation engine to a business simulation, but everything else is different. All the results that come from a custom business simulation are developed around your learning goals. These simulations are most useful when strategy shift or process change needs to take place rapidly.
Now, the next logical question is, “Which one should I use?” This is a good question and very much depends on your needs. If you are looking to teach generic skills or provide and experiential general overview, go with a canned business simulation. If you’re looking to create rapid change or introduce your leaders to the overall business, a custom solution is the best fit. Here’s a pictorial overview:
We hope this helps.
- SimDev Team
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Cloud Computing Simulations = Reduced Travel Costs
Hello SimDev Community-
For those customers that have been working with us for a long time, you know that we are obsessed with finding ways to drive down costs. For those that may not have worked with Simulation Development Group, we are dirt cheap. Cheap to a fault at times. We can create a custom business simulation for surprising low costs (often for less than canned business training solutions). The fault comes in that we'll sometimes put this as the highest priority and our customers need to adjust this sometimes (yes, we know, there are worse problems).
"Where is this going?" you're probably asking. Its going here:
We have good news: We've figured out a way using cloud computing to create significant savings without impacting quality. WooHoo!
A custom business simulation for training or business acumen almost always requires a facilitator to be effective. A sim on its own is pretty ineffective. Sometimes we fly out to facilitate, sometimes you may want to facilitate, but we still need to be there for support. Either way, there are still travel costs incurred.
So we asked ourselves, "Is there a way for us to be there without us being there?" The answer is yes... Cloud Computing! Cool. To simplify the idea:
- You facilitate, we support you, but from our offices instead of yours. Why pay for travel when technology can let this happen remotely?
This isn't something we want to explain how (our competitors watch us closely enough as it is) within this posting. If you have questions, give us a call.
Our research shows that this creates costs savings of anywhere from $2000+ on average per delivery. This won't help if you want us to facilitate, but hey, if you want the glory, we'll give it to you.
All the best,
- SimDev Team
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Wow! Micro Sims Are Massive!
Hello SimDev World and Happy Holidays,
About a year ago, we started talking to existing and new customers about the idea of small rapid delivery custom business simulations. We did a blog posting on it in February. At that time, we called them quick sims. We are happy to report that this was clearly the best solution we could have offered our customers in 2009. This isn't just because budgets were tight. It was actually more because very focused simulations seem to have a better effect on learning than on the larger multi-day programs. We also have to say: We Love Them Too! Why? Because they are more exciting, very high energy, and people leave feeling invigorated and excited about what they've learned and how they'll apply it. In other words, it was our most popular solution by almost 2:1 in 2009. We're happy you like it.
Now, here are a few common questions we get with regard to Rapid Sims:
Q. What exactly is a rapid delivery custom business simulation or game?
A. These are simulations that combine your training content with running all or a portion of your business. The goal is to create very rapid "rounds" (maybe 1 or 2) running your business that includes having to utilize your training content.
Q. How long do the sims take to execute?
A. This can vary from 1 hour to much longer. It really depends on how complex you wish to make the simulation exercise.
Q. How complicated is it to get started and run the simulation?
A. Its really not that tough. Because the sim solution is small and applicable to your training content, the simulation fits nicely into the program. Most of the facilitation is done by us (you're welcome to if you wish). This relieves you of additional worries and complexities.
Overall, we just wanted to say that we're happy that you're happy with the rapid delivery simulation solution and there will be much more innovative solutions to come in 2010.
- SimDev Team
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Corporate Leadership Competencies' Effect on the Business
- People
- Action
- Thought
- Personal
There are many company specific branches of these, but the four above are usually the foundation. In our discussions with Sr. Leaders, they tend to firmly believe in the demonstration of the corporate compentencies, but are very challenged with how to demonstrate their importance. The past few weeks we've heard this concern more often then usual. Probably because of the slow turnaround from the economic downturn and the more proactive position Sr. Leaders can take (instead of reactive).
We talked about how to measure and demonstrate corporate core leadership competencies in a previous SimDev Group blog posting. If you're interested in how to put core competencies into action and measure it's effect on the business, read this.
The reason we bring this up again is to simply have you ask the following questions:
1. How does my corporate competencies fit into my L&D strategy?
2. How does my company's current strategy fit into my L&D strategy?
3. Is the corp strategy tightly integrated into my LD content?
4. How are my company's core competencies demonstrated within my learning content?
5. What am I communicating to Sr. Mngt regarding how I'm utilizing the corp strategy and competencies considering this is what usually drives a company?
The reason we're having you ask these questions is that we are often asked these questions too often on behalf of the L&D divisions (we defer to them). These are core questions that everyone should have very clear strategies and answers to.
Go ahead and ask yourself these questions and see what the answers are. Feel free to drop us an email if we can help you think through this. We're very accustomed to the questions :).
- SimDevTeam
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New Look, New Solution
The Site-
A new web look and solution all in one! As you can probably already tell, SimDevGroup has a new web site. This site is actually smaller than the previous site. Its more focused, cleaner, and easier to navigate. The amount of text has been reduced by over 50% and is more focused on custom simulations. Let us know what you think. We hope you like it.
The Solution-
This is only partially new. We’ve previously talked about saving 55% on a custom simulation. Ends up this is incredibly popular within the training and development community (we’re glad this helps!). Thus we’ve decided to officially talk about this within our web site.
The solution is quick to develop, quick to deliver, custom simulations that fit within an existing program (or content). Traditionally, custom sims are “the program”. This takes a very different approach. These mini sims are designed to be very easy to integrate within an existing program.
These sims have the following attributes:
- Customized to your existing content or program
- Rapid delivery rounds (around 1hr each)
- Highly aligned with your goals and corporate strategy
- Supercharges existing program content and goals
And is valuable because:
- Applies and ties your content to your business
- Enables managers to walk a mile in the CEO’s shoes
- Low cost and accessible
See More Here.
Thoughts? Do rapid delivery highly relevant, low cost custom sims help you? We hope so!
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Images Are Missing (temporarily)
- SimDev Team
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Learning Simulations for the Rest of Us!
There has been a trend over the last decade or so to make custom simulations more and more complex. This may be due in part to the fact that development tools have become more and more sophisticated. The problem with this is that it seems to have defied the natural progression of technology: Cheaper and cheaper while being more effective. Why is this? Thinking about this, it may be good to go back to MBA strategy 101 and look at the business simulation market from Porter's point of view:
In general, strategically speaking, the business simulation and games industry hasn't felt many of these powers. The rivalry has been pretty low, substitutes haven't been so great. If anything, the simulation industry has positively substituted itself. Buyer power hasn't been strong because creating a custom business simulation is a sort of black art (its far more difficult than in looks). Finally the barriers to entry are pretty high. Why are they high? Because creating a custom business game or simulation requires a broad and specialized set of skills such as economics, finance, marketing, computer programing, and of course, learning. That's a tall order and really hard to balance effectively. But, one thing is starting change (from our view): Customers don't want massive programs. They don't want the simulation to be the program. The don't want heavy weight, massive programs that require a huge time investment (and money of course). This is going to cause a problem in the business simulation and business games industry. The trend is going towards light weight, low cost, integrated simulations.
Is Bigger Really Better?
A custom business simulation or game needs to integrate into an already existing program as a light weight tool for learning. The Sim's job shouldn't be to train the people. That's the program's facilitator and content's job. The job of the simulation should be a very rapid learning reinforcement tool. Learn, apply, and do it again. That's it.
Light Weight, Low Cost (Woo Hoo!)
Simulation Develop Group started in late 2008 to develop a method of creating very customized yet light weight simulations. We enjoy creating delivering these types of custom business simulations just as much as the multi-day programs. What exactly does light weight mean? This means that it can be delivered entirely within 1 day or in pieces throughout your program. It can also be easily adjusted to match exactly to your existing content (example: Leader Development Competencies). The point is that the Simulation Development Group's solution isn't to be the entire program, but to be the reinforcement tool.
How about simulations for the rest of us? Custom simulations don't need to be big, they just need to be effective.
Thoughts?
- SimDev Team
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Current Economics, Leadership Development, What Now?
We have a new fed chief (again), new home sales have risen a surprising 4.9%, national home prices are up (what?), responsible consumer credit card behavior (double, what?), 6Mo Dow up ~33%, 6Mo S&P up ~36%, 6Mo Nasdaq up ~45%. Are we talking about current economic snapshots? Yup, you better believe it. Does it feel this way? Is it sustainable? How are companies reacting? What does this mean for professional/leadership development.
Granted, we have economists employed here, but we don't have all the answers to the questions above. Then again, neither do the government, hedge fund, or private equity economists. What we can talk about is what we're hearing from senior managers within companies we work with. To sum it up:
"We are cautiously optimistic, and it feels great!"
We have also had our phones ringing far more steadily with companies that are now ready to get their strategies in line, leadership in place, and fire on all cylinders. It feels like the sun is beginning to warm the skin of many who have been in the trenches weathering this storm. Its a welcome break.
As you know, we work many public companies and their senior teams. SimDev would like to take a moment to say, "Job well done." An executives job is rarely recognized. Times have been exceptionally hard for executives the last few months. Hard decisions were made, experience was put to the test, and risk was taken. From our standpoint, it looks like the time, sweat, and late nights are beginning to pay off.
What this means for leadership development is that its a good time to take account of how aligned the troops are within your organization. Does everyone know exactly the why and how behind the new strategy. Does everyone actually know the strategy. If the answer is no to any of these, its time for you to get the organization development needs in place and be ahead of the wave instead of just riding it out. This will put your organization at a competitive advantage and better positioned for optimistic change that the economy looks to be on the cusp of enjoying.
"Cheers to a new 2nd half"
- The SimDev Team
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Leadership Development Simulations' New Home
Hello Simulation Development Group Community. This is going to be our new home for our notes/blog. We'll slowly transition over to this site. Welcome!
Getting Greener
Some of ways we’re reducing waste:
Office Waste Reduction:
- Paper reduction- We’ve reduced paper by over 50%
- Successful switch to all Energy-Star compliant LCD displays
- Recycling laser toner cartridges
- Sharing less office space with European style open air layouts
- Biking to work rewards program- almost all of bike at least once a week
- Computer equipment recycling
- Overhead lights dim or off. We use natural light now
Travel Waste Reduction:
- Encouraging less travel- We’ve reduced travel by over 50%! Care for a video conference?
- Utilizing public transportation when traveling
- Re-using towels when in the hotels (if possible)
Program Waste Reduction:
- Printing 50% less at programs
- LCD projectors when possible
- Smaller/lighter equipment shipping containers
As mentioned above, most of the above has also reduced reoccurring costs which is great for everyone. If you have any other ideas for ways to reduce waste, feel free to drop us an email or make a comment.
Cheers to going green!
Leadership Competancies in Action
Now that we have the great big colorful competencies up there, let’s assume the following:
- Your company has its own leadership behavior model (if not, that’s ok too)
- You have an entire program built or under construction that delivers this model (or close)
- You are unsure how to blend measurement and accountability into the program.... no prob!
You and/or your team are probably the pros at delivering the content. If not, don’t ask us :^) there are companies far better than SimDev to help with these competencies (ex: Caliper or PDI). Deliver the content as usual in your superb style.
The simulation maps very closely to your existing business. This includes market, internal, external, and cultural uniqueness. The difference is that while the participants are under pressure to execute their business plan, a facilitator is watching how they exhibit leadership competencies. The net net is that if they are great at leadership, their business execution is very effective. If their leadership behavior is very poor, they have a very difficult time executing their business plan. Thus, they loose market share, loose income, and quickly learn how important it is to invest in leadership and their people.
Basically, to win the simulation, they will have to be very competent at the following:
Its simple, to win, a team must be competent and leadership, business, and execution (teamwork).
What better way to put in play what you have delivered? This gives them the opportunity to practice and see how the importance of this drives EBITDA.
Business Leadership Simulations are exciting, applicable, and an effective part of leadership development.
Thoughts?
- SimDevTeam
Simulation Blog Comments Provider
Thanks-
The Sim Dev Team
Soft Skills and Business Simulations or Games
The message is (these are examples):
- Be courageous
- Listen carefully
- manage execution
- be adaptable
- act strategically
How about a business game or business simulation that has the ability to measure how people put these skills into place. While participants are learning about the challenges of running their current business, they are being measured and scored on how effectively they apply these skills as a team.
Thus, teams are scored not only on how effectively they plan and execute their business plan, but HOW they execute utilizing the criteria above. This forces the participants to utilize the new skills and practice.
This is very effective experiential learning. This doesn’t need to be complicated. It just takes a coordinated effort. We recommend companies such as PDI. They are best at what they focus on.
Very cool and very effective.
Virtual Data Storage and Dynamic Sim Learning (Technical Post)
Lets start with a few questions:
- What if participants could not only interact with the Sim’s artificial market, but the real market of the company they work for at the same time? How would that effect a participants behavior and learning?
- Is there a way participants could immediately see their marketplace results intra-program in order to dynamically see results?
- How would this work and would it cost a bloody fortune?
Let us take a look at this:
First of all, this is all possible. The trick lies in its applicability. In this case, we’re taking an purposefully created artificial environment and mixing it with dynamic market conditions that have their own dials, levers, and news feeds. This is where the challenge comes in. From a crude visual stand point, this is what it might look like:
By utilizing some simple internet feeds, this is easily accomplished. Again, the challenge is how to effectively accomplish this without bursting the learning bubble.
Now more interestingly, what about dynamic market competition with real-time competition (instead of traditional rounds). This might set people’s hair on fire (is this good?). Picture this: An individual makes a decision which effects the entire marketplace (say a lower price). This causes another team to react (does this start a price war?). Another team is watching this and decides to optimize their product and adjust their forecasted units. At the same time, another team emphasizes marketing which starts a frenzy in marketing initiatives. This is all done in real time. What would traditionally take 2 hours is now thrown into 5 minutes.
This is certainly possible but would require some exceptionally gifted facilitators. Could you imagine facilitating 25 people in what equals 20 hours of facilitation per “round” (wow!).
How about the cost. Suffice it to say its coming down but at the moment, all of this is pretty labor intensive to pull off. Definitely worth exploring. Especially the dynamic decision modeling.
That’s great stuff!
Further Cost Reduction Techniques: Distributed Real-Time Development
1. Times are tough (as if we have to say this)
2. People want to re-explore distributed learning
The first point was driven into the ground, dug back up, and driven multiple times in a formal manner. In other words, this was the topic of almost all the presentations. The second point was a much stronger, but far more informal theme (informal chit chat with people).
After talking with very seasoned CLOs or development managers, it was clear companies want to reinvestigate the ability to conduct customized training over a distance. We’re not talking about e-learning, but more team oriented, real-time, applicable development (challenging to say the least).
Thankfully, this is something we’ve been working on for the past several months. The ability to deliver a customized simulation experience without the exceptionally high cost of travel. We’re at a point where we’ve experimented with the solution and it seems to be working. By partnering with Adobe, we can delivery real time simulation collaboration and video within 1 program.
We’ll post more details soon on the main web site once the final details are ironed out. We just wanted to share this with others since its at a point where it’s going to become a solution.
UPDATE: Timing is everything. The WSJ published an article today about the need for distributed learning - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123974778994418393.html
Sims, Games, and Stories
Let’s start with a branching story-
In summary, some business training can utilize a branching story more effectively than other training methods. A branching story is a linear story (from left to right) that contains various stops where readers (or participants) can make decisions (vertical movement). In general, there are only a few possible outcomes (not so good, good, better, best). By creating the opportunity for participants to actively engage in a story, they can more effectively live through a situation.
Branching stories tend to be effective for quick team building exercises where you want teams to solve basic problems through team work. These methods are incredibly easy to deploy, manage, and utilize minimal budget resources (they’re cheap!).
Business Games-
This is making learning fun. An example would be the late 80s/early 90s game “Where in the World is Karmen San Diego”. This is a game for kids that teaches all sorts of skills but you’d never know it. This is like eating your vegetables covered in Hollandaise sauce. They taste good and are good for you (sort of). The term Business Games is more often used to stand for simulation games that are challenging and have a component of competition. We tend to use games and simulations interchangeable even though we probably shouldn’t. This is probably because interactive simulations are fun, challenging, and competitive.
People may argue us on this one, but pure games are more often used by kids and not often found within business circumstances. Employees don’t want to feel childish. That being said, they are fun!
eSimulations-
This is the tough one to define. An IT simulation will often focus on a business problem, process, or management challenge. The form of this is often on the computer and is developed in anything from Spreadsheets through C/C++/Java or online utilizing various tools (i.e. Flash, SQL, Flex, etc). These are very non linear and can have an infinite number of potential outcomes. For the purpose of business training, these often take the form of teams driving a business in competition with each other in an effort to teach specific (or broad) business skills or strategies. Simulations are very effective at developing business acumen while helping participants learn and exercise intangible skills (ex: new strategy, process, or procedure). They are also very exciting, rewarding, and fun to utilize.
Electronic Business Simulations are exceptionally effective for management re-engagement, training, and team building. This is basically learning by doing without the risk. Sims can help businesses align employees behind strategies while enabling them to live through the experience of executing the new strategy and see first hand what happens if someone doesn’t.
The above examples are a generalizations. Like all generalizations, there are many exceptions to the rule. We decided to write on this because people have been asking us the difference between a business IT simulations, business game, or branching story. These are all forms of simulation and it can really come down to splitting hairs and preference of names. We accept all the above and don’t mind what you call them.
- SIMDEVGROUP
2009 Accessible Sim Solutions Package- Low Cost QuickSims!
In our last posting “More with less?” we talked about ways customers could save substantial amounts of money while still being able to offer world class simulation based development. We’ve taken things a bit further.
Since October of last year, we’ve been working on building a simulation framework that would reduce the amount of repetitive work that is required in a custom simulation. We’ve succeeded in reducing the amount of this work by as much as 55%. This technically means our sims are now as much as 55% off (wow!).
There is still customization work required, but this will save you substantial amounts of money while still enabling you to offer world class customized training simulation solutions normally reserved for top executives.
We can now build you a custom simulation for well below the cost others charge for stale canned business training solutions. And to boot, development time is in as little as 2-3wks (another WOW!).
Click here to contact us.
Click here to learn about simulation.
We hope this helps!
More with less? 3 BIG tips to saving loads on a business simulation
This is especially true for corporate development and training divisions. Today’s posting could be viewed as a controversial one coming from a business simulations and business games provider. The topic today is how to substantially save money while delivering more. Another way to look at this is a method to deliver world class simulations program for substantially less. Here we go:
Here are three costs saving strategies for delivering a business simulations based training course that can save you an estimated 63%. WOW!
Tip 1: Go from a two or more day solution to one
Tip 2: Require only one facilitator from the simulations firm
Tip 3: Buy a Hybrid Business Simulation Solution
The details:
Tip 1: The One Day Business Simulations-
Let’s assume you have 25 participants in the program. Lets also assume these executives make approximately US$200K per year. This means each participant’s time is worth approximately $563 per day (assuming 10 days vacation). 25 * $563=$14K in savings. Oh, but wait, there is also hotel, food, space rental, consulting time, consulting travel costs. Wow! This is expensive. All in all, going from a two day program to one can save you an estimated $40K or about 17% on total program costs. This is amazing savings and in many cases, a very aggressively filled full day will be an appreciated cut back while still delivering world class cutting edge business simulation based training.
Tip 2: Demand Only 1 Facilitator or Consultant-
We understand that the conventional trend is to have 2 consultants from the simulation development company. Well, its time to be unconventional. There are two benefits of requiring only 1 consultant.
When combined with tip one, saving can be at least 18%
You’re internal facilitators will have more exposure and be given more responsibility with delivering the program. This is fundamentally important because it builds the relevancy, skills, and job satisfaction within your own department.
Tip 3: Go with a Customized Hybrid Simulation (what the heck does that mean?)
Ok, this is going to get a little technical, but read through because this is important.
Customized IT simulations are usually made of 5 pieces.
1. User Interface: This is what the participants see when they make decisions
2. I/O (input output) interfaces: This is what the simulation talks to that makes magic happen. For example, when decisions are made, how does it magically make it’s way into powerpoint? This is where the I/O interface comes in.
3. Logic Kernel (what?): This is where much of the calculations happen. Its the icky models, math, assumptions, and other data that calculates the results of the participant’s decisions.
4. Low Level Interface: This is the portion of the simulation that enables the simulation to speak with computer. For example, this is what enables simulations to create print outs, create color on the screen, etc...
5. I know I said 5, but there are usually two I/O interfaces so take a look at 2 above.
So now this is where it gets interesting. As someone who has developed and delivered many IT simulation solutions I can tell you I live most of the time in part 3: the Kernel. This is because if it doesn’t work well, everything falls apart. Bad data in creates bad data out. What’s interesting here, is that many of the models I create have much of the same logic or methods.models. The real difference is that assumptions are different. With this logic, why can’t much of the kernel be reused? Do you think the participants care if the Kernel has been reused from a standardized model? Think of it like this? Do people care if the same motor in a BMW appears in the 330i and X5? Nope! Its a darn good motor (one of BMW’s best) and reusing the motor saves consumers money (a lot).
The questions is why not have a hybrid of custom and reusable components in a custom business training simulation or business games? The answer is it should be done this way. The interface and learnings are customized for your needs. This saves an amazing amount of time and thus money. The results for you are an inexpensive custom business simulation or inexpensive custom business game.
The result: We’ve estimated that the cost saving for a custom business simulation is about 63% with these 3 relatively simply steps for you. Heck, most of the work is passed off on the business simulation provider so its even better for you. With some basic assumptions the cost of a program can go from about $225K to $84K. Wow! That is less then half the cost.
In other words, you’re doing more with less! Comments?
Welcome to SimNotes 2.0
Thus, welcome to SimNotes 2.0. We’ll have the comments section up by January 15th, I promise.
Thanks for all your support and I hope this is as useful as SimNotes 1.0.
