In Advantexe’s innovative new business leadership simulation, Fundamentals of Business Leadership, one of the central characters (Ellen Astor) rips into one of her coworkers and then her boss about her frustration of working with a team that just wants to get by instead of becoming awesome.  In the simulation, her personality style is aggressive and she pushes herself and her people to achieve beyond expectations.  A little bit later in the simulation, Harold, a capable, yet core performer takes it upon himself to step up his game and tries to lead a change initiative as a result of Ellen’s pushing.  Harold is in way over his head, and as we know from situational leadership, Strong Will with Limited Skill can lead to disaster; which it does in the simulation!

The driverless classroom is here.  What is the driverless classroom?  It is a live learning experience that enables participants to enjoy the benefits of interactivity, socialization of learning, and immediate application of learning back to their jobs without the need of a “driver” (full-time instructor).

How Business Simulations Can Help Ensure that Participants Pay Attention

A decade ago when other professional trainers would share their horror stories about participants zoning out, falling asleep, doodling for 8 hours, or doing work on their computers during their live training sessions, I’d quietly smile and pat myself on the back for never having any issues with participants paying attention during my sessions.  At the time, I thought the primary reason why our participants were so engaged was the use of our computer-based business simulations that provided the chance for participants to learn-by-doing and to learn by competing in an interactive and dynamic learning environment.  I also used to think that a small part of the reason for them paying attention was my awesome facilitation skills and informative, interactive training style in presenting business acumen related topics.

One of the most important concepts participants learn about when going through an Advantexe Business Acumen skill-building workshop is that differentiation of products/services is how you execute a strategy and attract customers.  Differentiation through product development is a controllable investment that companies can make and typically focus on such as enhanced:

This week’s travels took me to several different states for deliveries and meetings with clients regarding their business challenges.  One of the things that I try to do as a time and project management discipline – and also as fodder for my blogs – is to review my notes and observations from these interactions with clients to look for patterns and weak signals of potential disruption.