Hello SimDev Community-

As you can see lately, we've been focusing a bit more on Leadership Development instead of business simulations in general. This is because Leadership Development has come into the spotlight a little more than usual lately. We can't really explain why. The general trend has moved towards reinforcing the importance of leadership development and it's impact on financial results.

This brings us to the topic of this posting: Leadership Development Activities vs Simulations vs Games. What's the difference? There are huge differences depending on what you mean :).

Leadership Development Activities- This is the over arching description (or verb). There are pretty much endless amounts of possible activities. A Leadership Development Activity could include branch activities, speaking activities, teamwork activities, or just about anything. Within these activities might be a Leadership Development Simulation or Game. In general, think about Leadership Development Activities as the container where you choose what type of active learning you want your training participants to choose from.

Leadership Development Simulations- Leadership Development Simulations are simulations that emphasize the impact of the leadership development content on the business or financial results. In a sense, Leadership Development Simulations give the training participants the opportunity to live a day in the life of your CEO. At the executive level, leadership is critical to effective business management. A Leadership Development Simulation will let participants learn by demonstrating the importance of leadership on the business as a whole.

Leadership Games- These tend to lean more to the side of Leadership Development generic examples. This is where a participant will have to run a game such as a lemonade stand or even a board game (pretty outdated in our opinions. But hey, there's a place for everything). As opposed to Leadership Development Simulations, Leadership Development Games tend to be generic one size fits all solutions that aren't customized to a particular organization.

All these definitions are pretty high level and could be open for interpretation differences. The goal here was to get you in the ball park since this is an often asked questions. So, when it comes to Leadership Development Activities, now you'll know which fits you best.

We hope this helps.

Hello SimDev Community-

We have recently been receiving calls from people interested in working with a business training simulation or leadership development training simulation for the first time. It seems people are generally more aware of them, but uncertain where to start. A common question is, "Where can I learn more?" Unfortunately, I can't recommend any books or online resources. The books are a bit "out there" and there aren't any online learning how to's that we know of. But we have a top 5 things to know about a business simulations for training and development.

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.

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

We specialize in combining Leadership Development training utilizing business training simulations. Lately, the demand for this has suddenly exploded. In the past 6 months, we have almost focused completely on Leadership Development Simulations. The question is, "Why now?"

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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Buckle up business simulation race fans! Are you ready to run your training, organization, leadership, or executive development programs on pure alcohol. Well, rev up and start your engines. SimDevGroup is over haul'in it's core training simulation calculation engine with some super charged components. These training simulation components include:

- 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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Hello SimDev Community!

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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Hello SimDev Community-

Wow! It's been over a month since we've sent out a business training simulation related update. This is shameful and we're sorry. "But why?", you ask. It's the classic 'we've been busier than we'd like'. The good news is that we've been busy with much needed and highly focused business simulation related R&D. As a team, we stopped traveling and locked ourselves in a room for over a month trying to solve a particular training simulation problem that has frustrated us and our customers for a long time. We can't announce it yet since its still in testing, but this was time very well spent. Stay Tuned! We'll be helping you out when it comes to custom business training simulations soon.

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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Hello Everyone-

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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Dunno why we're talking about this, but its kinda fun. A customer told us yesterday that when you do a Google search for custom business simulations, SimDevGroup is number 1 and 2 in the organic search category. We must be doing something right :). This will probably change over time (usually does on Google), but its fun for now.
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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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Hello World- As you've probably already noticed, we have a new look as of this weekend (yea!). Only problem is this has caused a bit of turbulence with our blog images. We hope to have this fixed by end of today, early tomorrow. Stay tuned.

- SimDev Team
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We’re getting greener by the day. In January of 2009, SimDevGroup implemented improvements to reduce overall global waste. This includes waste from travel, office waste, program waste, and other sources. We’ve made huge improvements. We found that not only is this good for the environment, much of it is a big cost savings which is great for our customers as well. This is one of those rare win-win-win scenarios. Many thanks to Bill for taking this on and developing the program. So far, so good.

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!

First off, our apologies. We don’t usually like to talk business solutions in this section, but in this case it seemed to fit.

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!

We’ve had a notes section in the past, but with the site redevelopment there was a bit of a delay bringing it back to life. Unfortunately, 2008 was a very busy year for us and thus, we’ve decided to start a new one instead of bringing the older one over. We’ve had a lot of requests to have a notes section and this is the fastest way to bring it back to life.

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.