Business simulation
Business simulations have been used by organisations for decades because they create something that's difficult to achieve in almost any other learning environment. Participants make decisions. They experience the consequences of those decisions. They reflect on what happened. Over time, their understanding improves. That's why business simulations are such powerful learning tools. But over the years we've also learnt something else.
A good business simulation doesn't automatically create a great learning experience.
Just as commercial acumen comes from understanding how the different parts of a business work together, a great learning experience comes from understanding how the different parts of a learning programme work together.
Like a business, a successful learning programme is a connected system.
The simulation is often its largest component, but it's rarely the whole programme. The structure of the programme, commercial realism, supporting activities, facilitation and structured reflection all contribute to the learning experience. Individually they all matter. More importantly, they influence one another.
Over the last fifty years we've continually refined each of these elements. After every programme we've asked ourselves, "How could that be better?" We've always taken the view that if it ain't broke, you're probably not looking hard enough.
Together, these improvements, breakthroughs and the inevitable wrong turns have shaped how we think about designing business simulation programmes.
Below, we'd like to share some of the conclusions we've gradually reached.
1. Start with the learning, not the simulation.
Every programme begins with three questions.
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What are we trying to achieve?
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What do participants need to experience?
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What are the commercial issues that the simulation programme should reflect?
Only then do we think about the simulation. Sometimes an existing simulation is exactly right. Often it needs a little tweaking. Occasionally a simulation needs to be designed from scratch.
More often than not, however, the simulation is only one part of the learning experience. Role plays, customer negotiations, finance inputs, scenarios and reviews are often just as important in creating the commercial experiences participants need.
2. Commercial realism matters more than industry realism.
While industry realism creates familiarity, we take the view that participants don't need to recognise their products, terminology or organisational structure.
Instead, they need to recognise the commercial decisions, tensions and trade-offs they face every day. Commercial realism creates relevance and this is important.
We’ve found that a well-designed simulation with a flexible structure can be tweaked to accommodate organisations as diverse as: law firms and FMCG (our exploration includes these two examples). Although the industries are different, they share certain fundamentals. Tailoring the simulation and integrating role plays, scenarios, or other activities can ensure participants experience something that feels like their commercial world.
When those commercial dynamics really are different, as in say commercial property, the simulation itself needs to change and a bespoke simulations should be developed.
Explore commercial realism →
3. The simulation creates the experience. Facilitation creates the learning.
A business simulation isn't the learning.
It's the environment in which participants make decisions, experience consequences and explore how organisations work. The learning comes through structured reflection that helps participants make sense of those experiences.
The facilitator isn't primarily there to explain the business. They're there to help participants explain the business to themselves.
Explore facilitation →
4. The simulation creates the experience. Facilitation creates the learning.
While we don’t really believe there's such a thing as the perfect business simulation programme.
…we’ll keep trying to find it. Each programme teaches us something. Often it’s a better understanding of the client’s business and how their people think and behave. And each piece of improved understanding allows us to look with fresh eyes at the programme design and how the sessions are facilitated.
Where next?
These are the principles that now shape every business simulation programme we design.
Each one links to a more detailed article exploring the thinking behind it, together with practical examples from fifty years of designing and facilitating business simulations.
Or, if you'd like to explore how business simulations could support learning within your own organisation, we'd be delighted to hear from you.
