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!
Monday, April 16, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Simulation Train the Trainer or Not?
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!
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!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Traits of a Sucessful Business Simulation Facilitator
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.
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.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Top 5 Throughts to Consider When Considering a Business Simulation
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 $$).
2. Decide if you need a custom simulation or an off the shelf simulation- Off the shelf is cheaper, but you'll be responsible for telling participants how this applies to them and their business. If you're teaching general concepts, go with a canned sim.
3. Start early! - Creating a custom business simulation or leadership development simulation takes time. If you call a sim provider to give just a couple weeks notice, you won't be happy with the results.
4. Do your homework - A business simulation training program is a complex animal. Take your time and do your homework. There are a lot of sim providers out there and we're all a little different. Give a few of us all a call and get to know us a little.
5. Do what's comfortable for you - In the end, if you pick a business simulation provider you can communicate with, you trust, and can count on, you'll be much happier. If you find a cheap provider that you have a hard time working with, you'll pay the price in time and frustration. Us crazy sim providers all have a different style and method. There is no one single best provider. Listen to your gut and work with a business simulation provider that you are comfortable working with. You'll be much happier!
We hope to do more postings now that we have our heads above simulation development water. Drop us a note if you want us to comment on something specific.
Have a great week!
Thinking of using a business simulation? Never used a business simulation? Well, maybe we can help. Here are 5 tips to think about when considering a business simulation for corporate training and development:
1. What am I trying to achieve- In this tip, we encourage you to start at the finish line and run backwards to the start. If you clearly define your metrics for success, you'll create a more efficient and focused business simulation program (you'll also save some $$).
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!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The Business Simulation Assistant Tool Is Live!
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!
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!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Tips and Tricks to Picking a Simulation Solution
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.
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.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Right Tools For The Right Job
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.
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.
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