Business leaders are looking for a strategic advantage over the competition. This is done every day in such key areas as new product development, superior market intelligence, targeted resource allocation or most significantly through investment in key people that drive organizational culture and productivity. Successful business leaders understand their most important resource is their "human resource" and are constantly looking for ways to enhance and develop their people. Business simulations together with a complete assessment and coaching process can provide this development and strategic edge.

What is a business simulation?

Business simulations are learning situations that focus on key organizational competencies such as strategic thinking, execution, problem solving, judgment and people development. Executives are provided with a number of key business situations that test their ability to act decisively and with business acumen. They are required to focus under pressure, on teams and under the observation of professional coaches who provide real-time feedback during the entire process. 

The business situation usually takes the executives outside of their typical operational day-to-day and places them into the unknown. These business cases challenge them in critical skill areas of change management, personal drive, group dynamics, project management and inquisitiveness as they try to solve the problems at hand. Roles are assigned that require out of the box thinking and stretches them beyond their usual role back home. A great deal of work goes into the development of these simulations as they are very well researched and validated by colleges and  universities who specialize in organizational development strategies. They are reliable and predictive for use back home.

How do they work?

Business simulations bridge that gap by focusing on transferable learning opportunities that are connected to real business issues that can be easily translated to the executive's present work situation. For instance, a business simulation is often designed to reinforce the company key skills (competencies) and values (beliefs). Prior to coming to the day event, each person is given a personal assessment. For instance, the assessment may measure the individual's professional skills and beliefs. As an example, the capacity to be strategic (skill) and degree of power (belief). These assessments are pre-work and are woven within the simulation throughout the day by the coaches becoming a part of the learning experience.

Once everyone arrives, they are divided into two teams. Each person is given a distinct role to play which mirrors the role they have back at the office or may be quite different to challenge the thinking process and develop new perspectives. 

The day begins with the executives doing a general overview of the materials to become familiar with the business case and their challenges. They then move into pairs with colleagues from the same company to discuss the business issues from their role and begin to formulate a strategy to handle issues in the business case. These discussions are monitored by a coach for feedback purposes and further learning. 

Once the executives have had the time to understand their role and form a position on the issues, they move into cross-functional groups with members of the competing company again monitored by coaches. This is an interesting stage for the simulation as each participant must now move out of their "comfort zone" and persuade/influence members of the other company to their position. The group goes through the stages of forming, storming, norming and performing as they struggle with the issues of the business case.

Storming is encouraged as the internal tension causes the competencies and values to emerge. Again, there is a debrief by the coaches to provide an objective view of how the members of both companies worked together. The final stage is a presentation with the company CEO where the executives are asked to present their strategy and implementation plans for merging the two companies or going it alone.  This is done one-to-one with the coach acting as the CEO. Again, the executives are given real-time feedback after this session. 

The business simulation provides a rich learning experience comprised of personal assessments, dyads with another executive, group learning and finally a senior level presentation all monitored by a coach for feedback purposes. The business simulation is very flexible in that it can be designed for very senior-level executives or up and coming future leaders. As with any executive development process, the design phase is important and is conducted on-site with the company before the simulation begins.

Effectiveness of business simulations back home

The beauty of using business simulations with the executive team is transferable learning. Often times when executives go to seminars or training off-site they appreciate the time way; however, do not utilize the learning they received. This is due to the gap that is created between what is being taught and the applicability to the issues the executives face back at home. Business case learning transfers the subject knowledge to the executives in real time. In other words, learning applied to actual workplace situations is retained. This is where business simulations can add real value.

Reinforcement is key

People learn through repetition and the business simulation provides this reinforcement throughout the day. Repetition of good practices provides for excellent performance and poor practice reaps poor results. So, during the simulation if executives are reinforcing the expected competencies and values, the coaches will recognize and support these behaviors. When the coaches are not seeing these patterns, they will provide immediate feedback for awareness and change. In this way, the executives are able to understand and learn during the simulation.
 
Coaches will do this in the following way:

• Recognize first what the person is saying and validate it.
• Show respect for their perspective and recognize its importance.
• Suggest a different, more positive perspective on the same issue.
• Show them that this perspective is real with evidence in the actual work environment.
• Get them to try this new approach for the next week, to try it on.
• Review with them at the end of the week to register any change in their perspective.