Play a Simulation Modeled After Your Business or a Different Business?
This is a question that must be addressed when you are considering adopting a business simulation for your company —
Should you use a simulation that models your business or a different business?
To answer this question, we must consider the objective for playing the simulation and the profile of the participants.
Common objectives for playing a business simulation are for training purposes, as a customer empathy tool, or as a team-building activity.
Same Business
Use a simulation that models your business when you want participants to learn concepts, processes, KPIs, or other factors specific to your business.
For example, a bank engaged my team to create a simulation that modeled the job of a branch manager. They wanted bank managers to practice making realistic decisions and experience the consequences of those decisions on the corporate KPIs measuring their success.
Similarly, we had a Call Center engage us to create a simulation that modeled the job of a manager, using realistic challenges and KPIs. The simulation was included in the company's talent development for aspiring leaders.
These examples illustrate that when you want to train people on a specific job or role, then modeling that job makes the most sense.
Different Business
When your objective is to train people on broader or soft-skills concepts, rather than specific decisions or processes, using a business simulation that is not modeled after your business often makes sense.
One reason is that some participants may be distracted if the simulated business does not perfectly represent their real business. They may misunderstand the purpose of the simulation experience. They may attempt to make decisions in the simulation that are too closely tied to the real business, rather than focus on the task at hand.
Another reason to use a different business is when modeling your business is not feasible — due to complexity, cost, or other factor.
For example, our team was engaged to create a leadership training simulation for the back-office operations of a bank. Leadership training is particularly challenging for this group as there are a wide variety of roles within the organization. Modeling the operations of a single role or business unit would not work. So instead, we modeled the common challenges that leaders experience in their roles across the organization. As part of this process, we had to identify a type of business with similar challenges — in this case, we chose a national courier business. This type of business has similar challenges with the time pressure of keeping up with daily tasks (deliveries) while not ignoring medium and long-term responsibilities for keeping data secure and adopting innovations for an efficient future.
When adopting a business simulation, consider the factors described in this article.
To see examples of leadership training simulations, check out GoVenture.net/leadership
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I'm Mathew Georghiou and I write about how games are transforming education and learning. I also share my experience as an entrepreneur inventing products and designing educational resources used by millions around the world. More about me at Georghiou.com