8. Individual & Team Play
8.1 Individual Play
Simulation Competitions can be created to allow one player to run a business on their own, or multiple players to run the same business together as a team.
It is best to have students play an individual simulation before playing a team simulation. This provides students the opportunity and responsibility to learn how to play on their own without relying on others. The benefit of doing so is that when the team simulation begins, all students will have a common baseline knowledge and confidence that enables them to better contribute to team collaboration and dynamics.
8.2 Team Play
Simulation Competitions can be created to allow for more than one player to run the same business together as a team.
To set this up, choose the team option when creating a Simulation Competition.
The instructor decides who will play on which team. Teams can be of any size and they all do not have to be the same size.
You will be provided with multiple Simulation Numbers, one for each team. Players on the same team should all join the same Simulation Number. The last two digits of the Simulation Number identify the team number (1234567-01 means team 01). This process will automatically connect students to their teams — the instructor does not have to input anything into GoVenture about whose on what team.
If a student joins the wrong team, the instructor should use the Troubleshooting > Remove Player option on your dashboard.
Casual Team Play — Useful when you want students to play in teams but are not necessarily focused on heavy assessment of team collaboration and evidence-based decision making.Serious Team PlayUseful when team collaboration and evidence-based decision making are the primary instructional objectives. The experience is similar to being part of a real executive team. Find out more here — Team Play | Best Practices
It is best to have students play an individual simulation before playing a team simulation. This provides students the opportunity and responsibility to learn how to play on their own without relying on others. The benefit of doing so is that when the team simulation begins, all students will have a common baseline knowledge and confidence that enables them to better contribute to team collaboration and dynamics.
Additional information on how teams work (included in the User Guide for students):
Players in teams can log in to the same business at any time and from different locations. All players have access to all decisions in their business, so teammates must work together.
SAVING DECISIONS: Players on the same team should designate one person to make and save decisions. WARNING: Be careful not to overwrite decisions made by a teammate. If one teammate makes and saves decisions and then another teammate makes and saves decisions, whoever saved last will overwrite the previous decisions. This is why it is important to designate one teammate to make and save decisions.
Business decisions can be changed (and Saved) any number of times, up until the decision deadline.
Players on the same team can communicate asynchronously (not real time) using the built-in Strategy Journal Notes (similar to a Blog). For real-time collaboration, players should consider using their preferred text messaging service or other app.
8.3 Casual Versus Serious Team Play
There are two approaches to team play that instructors can apply with GoVenture CEO:
Casual Team Play Useful when you want students to play in teams but are not necessarily focused on heavy assessment of team collaboration and evidence-based decision making.
Serious Team Play Useful when team collaboration and evidence-based decision making are the primary instructional objectives. The experience is similar to being part of a real executive team — very realistic and requires students to invest more time and attention.
8.3.1 Casual Team Play
Works with teams of any size. Teams do not all have to be the same size.
Students may or may not be assigned specific roles in the company.
Requires students to communicate with each other to make business decisions.
8.3.2 Serious Team Play
Setup
Works best for teams of 3 to 5 students. Teams do not all have to be the same size.
Students are assigned specific roles in the company.
Requires students to communicate with each other in writing and to provide evidence for all business recommendations.
Business Roles
Students are assigned specific roles in the company. Students may keep the same roles for the duration of the simulation or may rotate through these roles each period so that everyone gets to experience each role.
- CEO — makes and saves decisions on behalf of the team in that period.
- Vice President (VP) — other team members are VPs who offer written advice to the CEO about what should be done with their business functions. VPs can be responsible for one or more of the following business functions that correspond to different modules in GoVenture CEO:
- Price and Production
- Research & Development
- Sales & Marketing
- Human Resources
- Finance
- CEO — makes and saves decisions on behalf of the team in that period.
With smaller teams, some students may need to manage more than one business function.
Team Communications
Team members must collaborate to make business decisions. VPs must offer specific evidence-based advice to the CEO about what decisions should be made for their business function in a given period.
Team members must document all conclusions and recommendations in writing. The instructors can monitor these communications to offer feedback, request more documented evidence to support a decision, or to conduct assessments.
Students may choose to meet in person or online, but conclusions and recommendations must be documented.
There are several ways to implement this feature:
- Use the Strategy Journal Notes feature built in GoVenture CEO. This feature allows team members to communicate asynchronously with text. The amount of text is purposely limited to a small amount of text. Instructors can monitor correspondence but cannot offer feedback. This option is ideal for Casual Team Play but may be too limiting for Serious Team Play.
~or~ - The instructor can create a private meeting space for each team/business in your school’s Learning Management System (LMS). Your LMS may allow you to monitor and assess this correspondence and to offer feedback. Using your own LMS may be more convenient and offer more features than the Strategy Journal Notes feature in GoVenture CEO, such as sharing documents, videos, slide decks, etc.
~or~ - Use collaboration tools like Google Docs or other options.
- Use the Strategy Journal Notes feature built in GoVenture CEO. This feature allows team members to communicate asynchronously with text. The amount of text is purposely limited to a small amount of text. Instructors can monitor correspondence but cannot offer feedback. This option is ideal for Casual Team Play but may be too limiting for Serious Team Play.
Business Data
GoVenture CEO allows all team members to access all data for their business and the option to purchase business reports.
Team members should agree on a protocol for the purchase of business reports. They may choose to allow any VP to purchase their own reports or the CEO may hold this responsibility.
Illustrative Example
The VP of Price and Production advises that the price this period should be lowered from $150 to $125, as that would make the company more price competitive than its direct competitor who has been priced at $130.
And that production should be increased from 175,000 units last period to 200,000 units this period because the Performance Report indicates that the company could have sold another 25,000 units last period based on current competitive position.
The CEO is required to follow the advice of the Vice Presidents or provide rationale with supporting evidence in writing that explains why they chose a different direction.
In the example above, the CEO might respond as follows: We will only produce 175,000 units again this period because that is all we can afford after our other investments. Also, because we seem to have a strong competitive position, I will increase our price to $160 to try and earn an additional $10 x 175,000 unit sales = $1.75M in revenue, which will mostly be new profit.
Next period the roles change so that each team member gets a chance to be the CEO, and everyone rotates through the various VP roles.
Assessment
The Serious Team Play option should carry a significant grade, given the effort needed for collaboration and writing.
The grade should be a combination of one or more of the following measures:
- Participation — Contributing to the decision-making-process each period.
- Qualitative Analysis — Quality of VP advice and CEO decisions, based on clarity of communications and quality of evidence.
- Quantitative Scoring — GoVenture CEO Rubric Report that provides a holistic measure of business results.
- Peer Evaluation — GoVenture CEO Team Evaluation where students assess their teammates.
- Participation — Contributing to the decision-making-process each period.