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Games & Simulations: Stimulating Simulations
October 20, 2008
See how four companies are successfully using simulations, and discover how their lessons learned may apply to your simulation strategy.
By Holly Doelzalek
You can tell simulations finally have arrived: Executives no longer automatically discount them by saying, "We're not here to play games." But that acceptance hasn't automatically translated to investment. "Clients are asking questions, but they're not always ready to pay," says Jonas Akerman, president of the North American division of BTS, a simulations provider headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. But, he says, executives understand its worth, and their interest is in training high-level leaders and in cascading to all levels of the company.
The reasons for employing simulations fall into three rough categories, according to Todd Norris, chief simulation strategist for Simulations International, a simulations provider in Annapolis, MD. The first is one of the oldest uses of simulations: high-risk situations that have such a high cost of failure that it makes sense to practice before it's real.
The second is the area of execution. At times, certain skills don't combine well even if they're solid on their own, and a simulation environment can help to better integrate those skills. For example, a business acumen simulation can help employees better understand how the business works as a whole and how they contribute.
Finally, some companies use simulation because their learners—especially Gen X and Yers—are more in tune with that mode than with PowerPoint and other static methods.
Following are four case studies of companies successfully using simulations, plus lessons learned that can be applied to your simulation strategy.
Humana Connects Customers to Knowledge
When the time came to educate some of its leaders in working across functions, Humana chose BTS to create the Commissioning Simulator.
NAEYC Learns to Administer School Programs
With an active membership and a network of state, local, and regional affiliates, the NAEYC organization has a national reach.
Convergys' Improves Call Center Performance
Convergys is a customer service and HR software company based in Cincinnati, OH. One of its biggest lines of business is training call center agents to provide customer service, sales, and technical support to Convergys' clients, such as T-Mobile and Wachovia Financial Services.
Compuware Strengthens Situational Leadership
For the last two years, Compuware has been using a simulation from Ninth House (a learning technology provider in San Francisco) to teach skills in situational leadership. Managers from all levels start with e-learning modules that include content knowledge on situational leadership, and they encounter a simulation in the context of that e-learning.
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