Business Simulation Blog

All SimDevGroup Backend Systems In The Cloud!

2012-01-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

This is more excitement for us than anything, but as of 2:33am this morning, all of SimDevGroup's backend management systems is 100% completely in the cloud. So, what does this mean and why did we do it? Here's why this matters:

- This reduces our IT costs by approximately 27% per year - Lower cost to us means lower costs for business simulation users
- This reduces our time on IT projects by about 73% - This is HUGE! This means we'll spend more time creating business simulations
- This reduces our Carbon Footprint. Its hard to measure and exact amount, but we don't have to run a closet of computer systems any longer.
- Since we're in the cloud, all computer systems sync in realtime. This means all simulation projects for training and development or leadership development are all in sync, all contacts, appointments, etc.

Overall, yes, we're excited, but anyone that uses SimDevGroup for custom business simulations or leadership development simulation should also be excited because this keeps our time to delivery down in addition to our costs of development.

Have a great weekend!

Formats and Methods of Business Simulations- The Big Debate!

2012-01-10T15:00:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

What format do you deliver your business simulation for training and development? Paper, Visual Basic, Flash, Flex, Compiled C, Cocoa, C#, Java, Sign Language? We have to ask: Does this really matter all that much? If the end product is exactly what you were looking for, why do people care? We use all of the above and aren't married or religious about the method and we'd suggest that you shouldn't be either.

Different business simulations have different outcomes (aka: Goals for training). Shouldn't this alone dictate the idea that different tools should be used depending on the outcome specifics of your training program. Note: Not the outcome of the simulation, but the outcome of your training and development objectives. Why do we point this out... Because business simulations should be a second priority, not the first! The first priority is ensuring the goals of your training and development program are met. Then comes business simulations.

Why are we writing about this? Because this old argument keep reappearing and we just kind of roll our eyes. The only time this really matters is if ERP or LMS integration is ABSOLUTELY essential. Why are we shouting absolutely? Because we're not a huge fan of massive overkill in any situation much less for Training and Development. These systems are huge and often massive overkill. Just IOHO ;D.

Anyway... why worry about the development environment? You should worry about the outcome and alignment. This is the most important part. Go with the 80/20 rule and you'll be happy.

Hope this helps. Have a great week!

Business Simulations New Year's Resolution

2012-01-03T06:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year SimDevGroup Community!

We've had a terrific 2011 and 2012 looks to be even better. This year, we are cutting back the number of business simulations we create (gasp!). Traditionally, we only do a handful. The reason is that we spend about 25% of our time doing research and development. The goal is to create the world's finest business simulations or leadership development simulations for training and development at the lowest price possible (aka: focus!). 2011 we only spent about 15% of our time in R&D and we want to ensure this doesn't happen in 2012.

With this in mind, we would like to solicit your help!

Please send us an email and tell us what you'd like to learn more about. Most of the business simulation research and development is dedicated to finding ways to teach others how to use a business simulation or leadership development simulation within training and development. To drop us an email, just use the contact form that is at the bottom of most any of our web pages. We use these forms because if we don't, we get an uncontrollable amount of spam.

Again: If you'd like to learn anything about using a business simulation or leadership development simulation, please send us an email and we'll do our best to create a method to share this information.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy Holidays from SimDevGroup

2011-12-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Wow! The phones and emails sure have slowed down this week! This suddenly caused us to poke our heads out from building business simulations to realize that the holidays are here :) .

This is a just a quick note to say thank you and happy holidays! We've had a great 2011 and have built many exciting business training simulations and leadership development simulations. Thank you for trusting us as your partner. We've had a great time.

Happy Holidays!
- SimDevGroup Team

Collaborating on Business Simulations

2011-12-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community!

Again, sorry for the lag in posts... again, its the run up to developing business simulations for January delivery. Anyway, we just wanted to quickly talk about the importance of collaborating on projects. We don't know it all (Gasp!). Far from it. We know how to build business simulations, but you know your business, your needs, and your company better than anyone else: Especially us!

Thus, we cannot over emphasize the importance you should feel when working with us. When we create business simulations, we hope to get as much input, ideas, and nutty concepts from our customers as possible. Through collaboration, we hope to learn from each other and build the best business simulation or leadership training simulation possible. We're very un-uptight, we don't take ourselves very seriously, and we love learning from others! Thus, don't hesitate to jump in with us, give us some ideas, and learn.

Have a great half week!

Happy Holidays for Our US Based Customers

2011-11-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Specifically our US based community. We'd like to wish you a happy, safe, and most of all, FESTIVE holiday season. Apologies we've been quiet lately. Its our usual pre-January new business simulation development madness. We'll try to post more often.

Have a great holiday!
- The SimDevGroup Team

Business Simulations and 2012

2011-11-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

We're hard at work creating new business simulations for 2012. Here's what we're seeing in terms of trends for 2012:
- Business Simulations for self facilitation are back on the rise- This is great, but we're being very careful about who facilitates and ensuring the readiness.
- Business Simulations for assessment- This is a new one. Companies are starting to use business simulations for situational assessment. Its fun and interesting to use business simulations in this way.
- Business Simulations for Leadership Development- Nothing new here. Just seems to be on the rise.

Those are our top three so far. It seems that companies are getting their 2012 programs off the ground a little late this year. Usually by November, we're most of the way through development. This year, we're about halfway through which is late. No big deal. Just a little different.

Have a great week!

How To: Taking Training Content and Creating A Business Simulation

2011-10-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community!

A common question we hear is, "How do you take our training content and create a business simulation?" The answer is: Its not easy ;^).

Seriously, SimDevGroup follows a Lean Six Sigma process when developing a custom business training simulation. This is a great model to work with because it focuses very strongly on assessment, info gathering, info management, development, review, and redevelopment. This has worked for us for over 7 years and we have no plans on changing this.

Whether you are creating a customer business training simulation or leadership development simulation, or not creating a simulation at all, we recommend getting familiar with this model and at least following it loosely. To learn more about Lean Six Sigma, simply search online and a very diverse set of information will be returned. Apply what you see to your training program creation or leadership development program creation. You'll find it very easy to apply.

Hope this helps!

Being Product and People Centric

2011-10-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

As you may or may not know, most of us here came from Apple. A few of us worked very closely with Steve and thus, its a terribly upsetting time for us. But we thought we'd take this opportunity to communicate what we learned from our years at Apple. Be product and people centric and delight people with whatever you do in your role. If you work from the user back, focus on ease of use, and relentlessly drive towards best results, you'll forever create great solutions.

Thus, we'd like to suggest that whatever business training solutions you create, work from the user backwards and relentlessly drive towards delighting and over delivering on what others expect from you. Its how we live here and we can't emphasize the wonderful feeling you'll get from beating people's expectations.

Have a great weekend!

Business Simulations: Competing Against The Computer

2011-09-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Apologies for the tardy post. We moved our offices to a new location. Need I say more? Didn't think so.

Lets repeat a question we're often asked: Do Business Training Simulations require that I compete against the computer? We say, "No! Try to avoid this!"

Having participants compete against a computer is actually kind of a bad idea. Why? Because participants don't believe the outcome and they know it's rigged. Also, people by nature love to have friendly competitions. Why do you think games are so much fun and so popular. This would also explain the explosion in social networked based collaborative games online. We advise you to take a hard look. Are the business training simulations you're currently using forcing the participants to compete against a bunch of computerized assumptions or are your participants competing against their peers?

In some cases, competing against an unreal competitor is fine. In most of the cases where companies are trying to teach specific skills (especially leadership development), this method just doesn't fit. All modeling should be relative to peers, not relative to R2D2. Having an R2D2 based competitor is a cheap way out of a complex solution. Its best if the teams see results based on the decisions of their peers. Just our humble opinion based on what we've see work and not work within the world of business simulations for corporate learning and development.

Have a great weekend.

Business Simulations and Assessment

2011-09-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Are business training simulations good for employee assessments? Yes they are, but we recommend being cautious with this.

We're not saying its a bad idea. Its actually a very interesting way to assess an employee's business capabilities. We only mention caution because if you try to assess and teach at the same time, most people who are making decisions within the business simulation will focus on trying to score highly. Thus, learning will be a very distant second. Its a great idea. We just recommend separating the two.

We have seen using a business training simulation for assessment and training both succeed and fail. As usual, it depends on the training topics, methods, and content. But, the short answer to, "Can I use a business training simulation for assessment?" is: Yes you can. Just think it through carefully. :)

Hope this helps!

Remember, Business Simulations Are Poor Instructors

2011-09-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

We know, we know. We've said this many times (especially when you talk with us): Simulations are terrible instructors! Shall we repeat it? Thought not.

Ok, why are we bringing up the fact that business simulations or leadership simulations are terrible instructors? Well, this is because we have suddenly received a lot of calls lately about stand alone business training simulations as an instruction program. This is a poor fit for a business simulation. Business simulations are simply a highly effective tool for training content reinforcement. The best business simulations are those that reinforce YOUR training content (not some generic content or remote theory).

An effective business simulation is one that enables your training participants to practice and apply your training content. Instructor led (whether distance or local) is still the best way to encourage collaborative learning and people learn best from people. But a business training simulation is an exceptional tool to enable a safe way for participants to experience the positive impact of your training content on your business.

So, once again, a business training simulation or leadership development simulation is great for content reinforcement and application, but not so good as a stand alone instructor. For now, we'll leave it at that until we feel the need to repeat it once again ;^).

Have a great weekend!

Business Simulations Running on an iPad

2011-09-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community-

As always, we have been very busy with R&D. We love R&D and wish that this is all we could do. Obviously, this isn't a good business model so we squeeze in R&D on a very structured basis. But, one of the projects we've been focusing on is building a business simulation that runs on an iPad. Well, we've done it. It runs great and is a lot of fun to use. Is it better than a traditional platform? No, not necessarily, but it does have the sizzle factor. We've done user testing and its great for 1 person per ipad, but terrible for teams. This probably doesn't come as a major shocker, but worth mentioning.

These simulations take a lot of time to create because it requires they be written in Cocoa (within XCode) which is a very specialized application development environment that is on Mac OS X only. But... running a leadership simulation on an iPad is a lot of fun. We had a good time building it, runs well, but we're just looking for the right fit. This of course, depends on the customer. Thus, if you're really looking to run a simulation on an iPad, let us know, but be ready for some usage tradeoffs. iPads are still single user devices.

Have a great long weekend!

Quanititative Relavance In Modeling Behavior Within Business Simulations

2011-08-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

How does one go about relating similar or like data and providing incentives to change behavior? Oddly enough, this is usually done in written form by building a story and a set of relevant circumstances. As technical and mathematical as the title of this post may seem, what makes this work for a business simulation is something as simple as a good story. The story really helps connect the quantitative relevancy of the training simulation to the actual real life events the participants are forced to work within on a daily basis.

Why do we bring this up? We want you to understand that you shouldn't worry about the quantitative relevancy model. You should be thinking most about the story, the circumstances, and what you want the participants to learn most. The story really connects participants to the 'why' behind the entire training exercise. Thus, our tip... When you're thinking about creating a custom business simulation, take time to think of the back story of the program. It will be time well spent.

Do Business or Leadership Simulations Have To Be Competitive?

2011-08-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community!

Definitely not! In fact, many of our leadership development simulations are not competitive. The primary driver behind why some aren't is very simple: Need for more collaboration.

In many leadership development programs, the topic of cross function or cross division collaboration is a very important competency to build. The problem is that so many leadership development simulations or business training simulations are built with the assumption that teams are going to compete against each other. Does this sound like a very good way for participants to learn effective collaboration? We didn't think so either!

How does a collaborative simulation work exactly? Good question. This is very simple. The participants that are going through the business training simulation program are broken into teams, but not competing teams. Instead, they must work together to accomplish a common goal, but one that not a single team can control on their own. Isn't this really simulating how a company actually works? Of course it does. The groups and participants of the leadership simulation are still scored and evaluated, but in a very different way.

Thus, including a business training simulation within your leadership development program does not require the simulation to be based on a competitive model. Actually, we recommend against it. The trick is to build up the case correctly, group to teams in a logical and applicable way, and foster a collaborative environment and not you vs me environment. This creates a very healthy and energetic environment where participants are learning teamwork, cross collaboration, and effective communication skills.

The result is a very effective, applicable, and engaging leadership development simulation that is easy to facilitate, engaging for participants, and applicable to the business requirements.

We hope this helps!

New! Business Simulation eBooks Section Added! Learn Even More!

2011-07-27T12:45:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community!

We are excited to finally announce that we have opened a new section: Business Training Simulation ebooks

This is where we will load up formal ebooks that are free to download and read. We have separated out ebooks from whitepapers. Whitepapers is where we will post more of our research type results and ebooks are geared more towards light and quick reading on specific topics.

Let us know what you think and we hope this helps you learn more about using business simulations within training and development.

Connecting Behavior and Leadership to Learning Objectives is TOUGH!

2011-07-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community!

Don't kid yourself, connecting learning objectives to leadership development to behavior to business outcomes within a business training simulation is not an easy thing to do. It takes planning, forward thinking, and creativity to successfully accomplish. We have to be honest, its not something we do alone. We don't try to kid ourselves that we have the answers. We create custom business simulation solutions. With custom solutions comes a very high level of collaboration. The good news is that because its a highly collaborative process, the outcomes are usually very satisfying.

If you are thinking of creating a custom business simulation based on specific behaviors (like leadership competencies), buckle up. There is no one size method fits all. Its a learning adventure that is very well worth doing, but is definitely a process and a learning process to boot. If its well done, it will take a high degree of collaboration, commitment, and creativity. Most of all, it takes a grounded sense of what is truly accomplishable and facsilitatable. The fruits are well worth the labor. You'll wind up with a training support and reinforcement tool like no other. It will sing in harmony with the content you want to deliver and the business objectives you want to reinforce. A business training simulation based on leadership behavior is an endeavor that is well worth the time. We just wanted to let you know it will stretch your learning and development organization in ways you probably never imagined. The good news is that its like a good fitness routine: you'll come out stronger on the other side. We'll be right there with you as your workout buddy and trainer. Leadership development is a tough topic to teach. You think its tough to teach, try to simulate it ;).

Have a great week!

Learn How To Facilitate A Business Training Simualtion

2011-07-08T12:20:00.000-07:00

UCXXCR5W6XWY

Hello SimDev Community-

Would you like to learn how to facilitate a business training simulation? Great! It looks like we're probably going to open up enrollment for a small number of participants who wish to learn how to effectively facilitate a business simulation. We're not sure when and where yet, but if you're interested in attending, please let us know soon. This will be 2 days of informal, fun, and useful information.

You will learn the following:
- Manage the technology of a business training simulation
- How to setup for a business training simulation program ahead of time
- How to give insights into the results of a business training simulation
- Manage the participants, technology, and content all in tandem
- How to deal with a business training simulation "crisis"

Of course, we'll post more information when it becomes available. Hopefully, we'll have more information about this training course soon.

Have a great summer-e weekend!

Secret code: UCXXCR5W6XWY

Leadership Development Simulation Training?

2011-07-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community!

Are you interested in learning how to build and facilitate your own leadership development or corporate training simulation? We have been getting quite a few requests for train the trainer solutions. We normally host train the trainer sessions for individual companies that are implementing a leadership development simulation or business training simulation. We do these all the time. But we have kicked around the idea of hosting a few companies at one time. In essence, a build your own leadership development simulation training summit. Is this interesting to you?

If you are interested in either a leadership development simulation training course or business training simulation training course, please drop us a form letter. We're going to take a temperature of the interest and decide in the fall if enough people are interested.

Let us know and how a wonder holiday (here in the states).

Another Revamp of Simulation Development Group's Web Site

2011-06-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community!

We are almost out of this crazy simulation delivery season. Soon, we'll be able to take a breather and work on other things for a month or so. Thus, we're pre-announcing a slow migration to a new web site platform. What does this mean for those who use a customer business training simulation for learning and development? Well, it means you'll be able to learn more than ever. We try our best to make our site educational, but this can get challenging at times due to infrastructure. We plan on creating a new place for you to go and learn more about business training simulations, leadership development, or learning and development as a whole. We hope to finish the transition by the end of the summer. If we don't we're in trouble because the fall delivery season cranks back up and we'll be behind.

Stay tuned! More coming soon!

- SimDevGroup Team

New Advances in Delivery Technology in Learning and Development

2011-06-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community-

Long time no talk and we hope to be out of the madness soon.

Facilitation a learning and development program is hard enough without having to worry about technology. The good news is: Technology is getting smaller and faster (gasp- Shocker, we know). When thinking about the technology needs of facilitation a learning and development business training simulation or leadership development simulation, you should think about a few things:

Our top 5 list of technology considerations to think about when facilitating a learning and development business training simulation:

1. Use Clean Technology- What we mean here is: Is the technology you're using very non-contaminated? Is the technology yours or are you using participant's technology. Our advice: Use your own clean machines.
2. Test and Test Again- Get your hands on the technology as early as possible and then test your business simulations on this technology as much as you can. You'll thank yourself for it later.
3. Forego Power For Predictability- We have yet to see a business simulation really use up the power of modern computers. Thus, if you can, try to get older machines that your IT department has cleaned up for you. Chances are, there are older computers laying around that will work great.
4. Scrap advanced technology for tested!- Don't feel the need to invite uncertainty into your program. Go without wireless if you can, its more stable. Go without advanced HDMI if possible, its more stable. Go without the flux capacitor, its more stable. Go with what works and has been around for awhile!
5. Keep Technology Local- Try to avoid a highly internet dependent solution. Make sure there are backups if the internet goes down. Believe us, it happens. Whether it be a hotel connection (very unstable), Corporate connections (firewall issues), or anything, make sure to have a local backup solution.

As you have probably guessed, we believe in the show must go on! No matter the case, the technology has to work. Even though there have been advances in technology, go with what works when it comes to using a business simulation within your learning and development program.

Good Luck!

Where has SimDevGroup Gone?

2011-05-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community-

Let's start off with an apology. Our postings have been less frequent. We warned this was going to happen in a previous post. April, May, and June have training simulation overlap in them. This wasn't intentional, but when it comes to planning outcomes, what really is? In results, we haven't been able to make many postings worth reading when it comes to business training simulations or leadership development simulations. We'll keep trying but until we get through this perfect storm of simulation programs, they might be a bit thin. :) Stay tuned.

Thanks!

Business Training Simulation Facilitation- Give Yourself Some Time!

2011-05-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community!

We are entering the tail end of the mass business training simulation facilitation season. This includes business simulations, leadership development simulation, or just the generic business training simulation types. We have noticed a trend that is worrying us. People new to facilitation are giving themselves very little time to facilitate the simulation. This is not a good idea. We very highly urgently recommend you give yourself plenty of time to facilitate a business training simulation. Think we feel strongly about this :) ? We certainly do.

If you give yourself just a little bit of time to facilitate a business training simulation, you will make mistakes and your prep work will be just adequate at absolute best. Net Net: Give yourself more time than you think you need. We can promise you, its more stressful than we make it look. Why? Because we have been facilitating business training and leadership training simulations for a long time. Thus, we can do it in our sleep.

Please, please... give yourself plenty of time to work with the simulation, look at the results, and build a learning story around the simulation. You will be much happier with your results and your participants will learn a lot more.

We hope this helps!

Mobile Site for Business Simulations

2011-04-21T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community-

Last week, Simulation Development Group launched it's mobile site. We're pretty excited. You can now view business training simulations and leadership development simulation related information on the go. The site is optimized for most any mobile device and adjusts on its own. Thus, if you're looking to get information on business training simulation, learning simulations, or leadership development simulations from a desktop or any type of mobile device, the site will automagically adjust.

This is something that is long overdue and we just simply fell behind. But, its up and running. By no means is this final. Its just a starting point. We're going to continue to work on this and refine it over the the next couple of weeks.

To view the site, just to go simdevgroup.com with a mobile device and it will automatically adjust for you.

Enjoy!
SimDevGroup Team

Leadership Development Simulations and "Business"

2011-04-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDev Community-

We have written extensively on utilizing a business simulation for leadership development. This is a fantastic solution for your leadership development program. Interestingly, over the past few months, we have had an unusually high number of inquireries regarding the business side of the leadership development simulation. Remember, when we say business, we are speaking generally. Every organization, from education to not for profits has a "business" side to it somewhere. Maybe your "business" is measured in the number of people you make smile. Great! We love it. But then you're in the business of smile development.

We post this note because you shouldn't feel like your organization (or sub-organization) needs to be in "business" because it doesn't. It just needs to have some sort of organization to it where somebody can learn something to better it's desired outcomes.

So, when you think of a business simulation, don't think briefcase, big glass building, and cubes. Think "me!".

Have a great weekend!