Business Simulation Blog

Business Simulation Facilitation Skills

2012-04-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

We just helped a customer begin the process of self facilitation. They did great! While one of the trainers was facilitating, the manager of the program asked me, "What does it usually take for someone to facilitate a business simulation." The answer is very simple: Strong business acumen, strong technology acumen, strong training acumen, and a flare for entertainment." No problem, right? We know its a lot. But the point of this post is to remind you that it is indeed done and can be done very well.

Have a great weekend.

Not A Business Simulation, But Still Amazing

2012-04-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

This isn't a business simulation article, but it really is still amazing to read. Its about the upcoming revolutionary version of SimCity. For those that remember the black and white grid, you will be shocked. We love Maxis. They inspired many of us to get into modeling and simulations.

Happy Reading! http://www.computerandvideogames.com/344432/previews/simcity-the-legendary-city-simulator-returns-to-its-hardcore-roots/

Have a great weekend!

Forbes: Serious Games and Simulations

2012-04-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Interesting article available online about the outward use of serious games or business simulations posted yesterday. Mostly focused on sales, but still interesting.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/2012/04/19/the-serious-business-of-games/

Enjoy!

Do You Own Your Business Simulation?

2012-04-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

We have noticed a funny thing: As the economy has improved, we have been receiving more interest in a full ownership business simulation. Why is this funny, well, this is because full ownership means full responsibility. Full responsibility means more resources. More resources means that corporations are investing in their employees once again. This is great news! It is great to see trends moving back towards more investment in training and development. It's even greater to see companies self facilitating their own business simulation or leadership development simulation.

We'd like to hear your opinion... Do you see more investment in corporate learning or in training development/leadership development? From our close contact with our customers, there is a resounding yes. But this is a bad sample because most of the companies we work with invest very heavily and very carefully in their training and development programs. We hope to see more self facilitation of a corporate business simulation. We like to see self sufficiency!

Have a great week!

Simulation Train the Trainer or Not?

2012-04-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Are you thinking of utilizing a train the trainer solution in order to facilitate your very own business simulation? Great! Go for it! We have a couple things to think about when taking on this project.

1. Allow an extra 20%. What? Hu? What do we mean by this? Well... When it comes to facilitating a business simulation, give yourself about 20% extra runway to get it off the ground (in time and effort).
2. Pick trainers or teachers that have a nice balance of business acumen, facilitation, and technology skills. You don't need rockstars in any one, but a nice balance of all three.
3. Keep the business simulation small. Chances are, your appetite is bigger than your stomach and your stomach doesn't need much to do the job. We can't emphasize this one enough.

In summary: To facilitate a business simulation, you should plan for extra effort, find the right person, and keep it simple. If you remember these three simple concepts, you'll thank yourself later.

Hope this helps!

Traits of a Sucessful Business Simulation Facilitator

2012-04-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

What are successful traits of a business simulation facilitator? This is a question we often get and a great one. It's very tough to nail down, but here are some critical traits:
1. Quick thinking- Ability to quickly look at data, present it, and respond to participant's questions on the fly.
2. Quantitative, Analytical, and Qualitative- Yup! All those things combined. Yikes! We know, its a lot.
3. Entertaining- The training facilitator must entertain the group. To be more specific, someone who provokes deep thought, knowledge discovery, and laughter. Yikes! We know, its a lot.

That's it. Just a quick post to talk about what usually makes a business simulation facilitator more successful. Of course, there's more to it, but these are our top three (for today :) ).

Hope this helps! Have a good afternoon.

Top 5 Throughts to Consider When Considering a Business Simulation

2012-04-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Thinking of using a business simulation? Never used a business simulation? Well, maybe we can help. Here are 5 tips to think about when considering a business simulation for corporate training and development:

1. What am I trying to achieve- In this tip, we encourage you to start at the finish line and run backwards to the start. If you clearly define your metrics for success, you'll create a more efficient and focused business simulation program (you'll also save some $$).
2. Decide if you need a custom simulation or an off the shelf simulation- Off the shelf is cheaper, but you'll be responsible for telling participants how this applies to them and their business. If you're teaching general concepts, go with a canned sim.
3. Start early! - Creating a custom business simulation or leadership development simulation takes time. If you call a sim provider to give just a couple weeks notice, you won't be happy with the results.
4. Do your homework - A business simulation training program is a complex animal. Take your time and do your homework. There are a lot of sim providers out there and we're all a little different. Give a few of us all a call and get to know us a little.
5. Do what's comfortable for you - In the end, if you pick a business simulation provider you can communicate with, you trust, and can count on, you'll be much happier. If you find a cheap provider that you have a hard time working with, you'll pay the price in time and frustration. Us crazy sim providers all have a different style and method. There is no one single best provider. Listen to your gut and work with a business simulation provider that you are comfortable working with. You'll be much happier!

We hope to do more postings now that we have our heads above simulation development water. Drop us a note if you want us to comment on something specific.

Have a great week!

The Business Simulation Assistant Tool Is Live!

2012-03-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

We hope you are well. For years, the single biggest question we get is, "Should I use a custom business simulation or an off the shelf business simulation?" We can answer this in just a few questions. So, we decided to proactively help people choose. Granted, this is just a broad attempt, but in our testing, it's actually worked out pretty well. We went ahead and took it live last night. You can play with it by going to the home page and clicking the little guy in the middle standing in front of a question mark. For the geeks out there, its totally written HTML5. For those that don't have a modern browser, it will fall back to Javascript. For those that don't support Javascript, well, just give us a call.

We're pretty excited about the business simulation assistant tool. Keep in mind, its pretty rough around the edges for now, but hey, its just 1.0.

Enjoy and we hope this helps!

Tips and Tricks to Picking a Simulation Solution

2012-03-16T15:44:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

The first time most all the companies we work with call us, they say something along the lines of, "Well, I'm just learning about using a business simulation." We're always more than happy to talk about things to think about when choosing a business simulation for training and development. Here are some tips:

1. Do you need off the shelf or custom business simulation- This may seem like a big question to answer, but you'll pretty quickly see what you need most. If the subject matter has very little to do with any specifics to your company, then an off the shelf solution may be the easiest way to go. If your training program is specific to your organization or company, then a custom solution will probably be best.

2. Should you build or buy- This is a tough question to answer. One which we can't easily answer. In our experience, it will usually come down to time, resources, and expertise. If you have a team that is exceptionally good as statistical modeling, software development, and business acumen, then build inside. If you only have an instructional design team, then go outside. There is a huge difference between building a training program and building a business simulation.

3. Should you self facilitate or outsource facilitation- Again, take a look at your internal capabilities first. If your facilitators either have strong business acumen or have the capacity to learn it very quickly, then explore self facilitation. But if your team is scared of the three financial statements and concerned with being "caught", then take a look outside. There is nothing worse for a facilitator than being run over by participants.

4. Should I build new, or reuse existing training program(s)- This is actually pretty simple: A business simulation should not replace your existing training content. So don't feel that the simulation will render your existing content obsolete. Just ask this simple question, "Is my existing training program still relevant?" If it is, then definitely continue to use it. If the content is out of date or irrelevant, then its time to throw it out or update it anyway. No matter the case, the simulation is not the training, it is simply a tool for more effective training. A good business simulation should fit nicely into an existing training program.

5. Should I pay a ton for a business simulation?- No. The simulation should not cost too much. If its too much of your budget, don't risk other programs spending everything on a shiny new simulation. Chances are, those dollars could be used better if its really that big of a percentage. Spend your money like investment advisors advise their clients: Diversity!

We hope this helps. Have a great weekend.

Right Tools For The Right Job

2012-03-12T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Have you taken time to think about what tools you're using for your business training or leadership development programs? If not, we actually think this is good. Why? Because most people think heavily about getting the right training tools well before they have clearly defined the job. To take a step even further back, have you taken a look at the core set of business training program needs? Where did your training program come from? Did it come from a program that has been around for awhile, built up over a series of annual need changes? If so, we're guessing you have a few training barnacles. What are we getting at?

We recommend you take an hour or so, look at your most important business training or leadership development program and look at the following: The training program need, the training program goals, and then the training tools. If you instantly look at the latter two, you will wind up with an unfocused training program that is trying to fix too many needs (some of which may no longer be relevant).

This brings us to the final point... what training tools are you using? Are you using a little bit of a lot of things? If so, you're going to get the same results... a little of this, a little of that, and not a lot of focus. This is especially the case when it comes to creating a business simulation for training and development or leadership development.

We bring this up because we just completed a very long and painful exercise of really looking at our backend office systems (which are very complex due to software development). We took a hard and focused look at the tools we use to create business training simulations and/or leadership development simulation software. In the end, we cut out roughly 30% of our development tools. This created an amazing amount of focus and we felt like our development systems went through a very much overdue car wash. Feels great and productivity is already much better and with less complaining. We just decided to apply the same concept to business training and leadership development. Hope the idea got you thinking about how and where your current training and development program come from.

We'll be writing more specifically about business simulations soon.

Almost Above Business Simulation Water!

2012-02-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community!

Ok... Some good news for those that have been working with us... We're almost above the Business Simulation water line! Yes!

Again, I know we've apologized quite a bit, but we promise, we're just about to get our heads above water. We've really been buried trying to get custom business simulations for either learning and development (general) or leadership development programs out the door and in our customers hands. We had a sudden rush starting in December and one project in particular came in as a huge, "can you do us a favor and get this done really quick" manner. We aren't good at saying no when it comes to creating business simulations or leadership simulations. Thus, this put us back a few months.

Sooo.... if you have any questions, or topics you'd like us to touch on, drop us a note. We'll be happy to take a look.

Hope to write again soon!

SimDevGroup Business Update

2012-02-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

Hello SimDevGroup Community-

Once again, as we've said many time lately, we very much apologize for the lack (and quality) of recent posts. We know we've said it many times, but we're just so totally swamped. This is great, and we're really excited, but we're all putting in over 14-18 hour days and working on weekends. We're also pretty much booked up for 2012, but this depends on the size and type of new business. We say this cautiously because we're not very good at saying no to things.

So, why do we bring this up? Because we pride ourselves on doing our best to try to consistently communicate useful information. We have failed at this in the past 3 months or so. We promise... We're going to improve starting the end of this month. Typically Q1 for us is always slammed and this year is off the charts. We hope to be back very soon to talk more about business training simulations and leadership development simulations.

In the meantime, if there's a specific question you have for us, please feel free to reach out to us. We don't bite!

Thanks for your patience!

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!