Leadership Simulations

www.wizerize.comContact Gritt [email protected] +1 (917) 488 5115

WHICH LEADERSHIP SKILL IS

TOP OF YOUR AGENDA?

LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESSImprove balance and effectiveness of individual leaders and leadership teams

STRATEGIC SELLINGHow to sell strategically and build strategic partnerships

COLLABORATIONImproving cross-cultural collaboration and conscious decision-making

Players are divided into teams of three to a laptop.

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New people will call and new action options will emerge.

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During the simulation, information is provided via video calls (100 available), e-mail inbox and document files.

The overall team performance is benchmarked against other groups who have played the simulation.

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A colleague introduces the scenario and the three challenges which require attention (internal, project, opportunity).

During the debriefing, each team receives extensive feedback on eight performance indicators.

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Players need to make decisions and act, and all decisions influence how the game progresses…

The debriefing flow includes strong learning points and time for reflections and discussions.

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EXAMPLES

TOP MANAGEMENT CONFERENCEA global corporation used What a Day to make discus-sions and reflections about leadership behaviour concrete and tangible. 300 players in teams of 3.

NEW MANAGERS PROGRAMAnother global corporation uses What a Day as a key element in their New Managers‘ Programme. In this case, new leaders play individually online and are debriefed in virtual meetings. Target: > 1000/year

MBA PROGRAMMEWhat a Day is regularly played at Business Schools as part of MBA and other leadership programmes.

DIVISION STRATEGY MEETINGA group of 20 leaders spiced up a quarterly strategy meet-ing with What a Day.

DEVELOPMENT PARTNER

Professor Albert Angehrn, Director of CALT (Centre of Advanced Learning Technologies) & INSEAD Business School (Paris, France)

LEARNING OBjECTIVE:

THE SIMULATIONParticipants must manage three competing challenges in a fictitious scenario (coming home from a great holiday).Information about the challenges can be found via e-mails, documents and dialogue with colleagues (via pre-recorded video calls). Participants are forced to make decisions and there is not enough time (sound familiar?). Every decision influences how the game progresses. During the game, each team’s behaviour is analysed and reported back in the form of eight per-formance indicators in three categories:

Time & Attention mgt. Problem & Opportunity mgt.People & Motivation mgt.

The debriefing is combined with strong learning points focusing on how to get better at balancing priorities in an intense everyday work situation, providing food for thought about how we, as a company, spend our time and effort.

LEARNING OUTCOMEFor individuals: Feedback, inspiration and tools to improve personal leadership balance.For teams: An intense team experience and new insights into how different people experience identical situations in very different ways.For full group: Feedback on the overall group leadership profile and inspiration to improve overall effectiveness by balancing different profiles better.

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONCan be played in teams with between 12 and 1,000 people (interactive technology ensures that each person/team has an intense experience).Minimum time for What a Day is 3 hours – but ½ day is recommended (including company-specific reflections and actions).What a Day is also available in a version where the game is played individually before the conference, and where the use of interactive technology is replaced by a printed report for each player.

www.wizerize.comContact Gritt Loschenkohl

[email protected]

Improve balance and effectiveness of individual leaders and leadership teams

Players are divided into teams of 5-7 sharing a laptop. In larger groups, each player also gets an individual voting device.

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Step 2-4 repeated for the second and third dilemma – but with new dilemmas and learning points.

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Players make their call. First as individuals, then as a group.

Reflection across the experience – and learning points about building collaborative cultures.

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The first episode is shown on the main screen: the cast and situation are established, ending with the first dilemma…

Sharing of the overall results for the group – and for teams (Eagle Racing has eight possible endings).

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Results and learning points from the round are shared. The next dilemma video reflecting the vote is then shown.

Company-specific reflections: What to do differently, starting tomorrow.

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EXAMPLES

TOP MANAGEMENT CONFERENCEGlobal corporation used Eagle Racing as a team-buildingexercise and to improve cross-company collaboration. 150 players in teams of five or six.

MBA PROGRAMMEEagle Racing is regularly played at Business Schools as part of MBA and other leadership programmes.

BUILDING CULTURE UNDERSTANDINGAlthough this was not the intended purpose of the game, a large US organisation uses Eagle Racing to stimulate discussions about cultural aspects of leadership

EPISODICAL GAME…A business school professor uses Eagle Racing as a “virtual training tool”. Each week, players receive a newepisode and they can only use digital media to reach a consensus.

DEVELOPMENT PARTNER

Professor Albert Angehrn, Director of CALT (Centre of Advanced Learning Technologies) & INSEAD Business School (Paris, France)

LEARNING OBjECTIVE:

THE SIMULATIONParticipants follow the key decision-makers for Eagle Racing (a fictitious Racing Company) as they try to sign up a new main sponsor. The story develops the way the participants choose. The story is established through short videos which, from time to time, stop in the middle of a disagreement, prompting participants to help commercial director Gianluca Paranelli make a tough decision.All participants (seated in groups) share their intuitive choices regarding each decision point, and must then agree as a team. The story continues according to how the majority votes. Each decision is combined with specific learning points concerning collaboration and col-lective decision-making (with examples from behavioural economics/psychology).The story has eight possible endings, depending on what decisions are taken along the way, resulting in different overall learning points.

LEARNING OUTCOMEFor individuals: Improved understanding of own tendencies and shortcomings in collaborative decision-making and tools to improve.For teams: A fun and engaging team experience, giving deeper insights into how different people experi-ence identical situations in very different ways.For full group: Feedback on overall decision behaviour and inspiration to improve collaboration by using simple decision tools.

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONCan be played in teams with between 12 and 1,000 people (interactive technology ensures that each person/team has an intense experience).Minimum time for Eagle Racing is 2 hours, but 3 hours is recommended, plus time for company-specific reflections and actions.

Improving cross-cultural collaboration and conscious decision-making


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The customer (fictitious or real) briefs teams about a strategic opportunity and observes the process.

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Customers also observe other inter-actions with the teams and make comments and ratings on their iPads.

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Proposals are delivered as a one pager and as a 90 second elevator pitch on video.

Winners are announced and celebrated.

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Teams (of 6) have to uncover “hidden facts” to solve the task and come up with a convincing strategic positioning.

During the debriefing, each team receives extensive feedback on both formal tasks AND relationship factors.

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Proposals are evaluated by other teams and by customers, who provide ratings and comments.

The extra debriefing flow includes time for reflection and discussions

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EXAMPLES

TOP MANAGEMENT CONFERENCEA large global corporation used The Way We Win to accelerate a deeper understanding of what it takes to develop a strategic partnership with a client. The game took place with real customer scenarios and real customers present. 400 players in teams of 6-8.

STRATEGIC SELLINGA pharmaceutical company could base a version of What a Day on a fictitious, but highly realistic, scenario tailored to the company. The simulation can be played out in a series of sessions with 20-50 participants in each.

LEARNING OBjECTIVE:

THE SIMULATIONTeams (6-8 people) compete to win a scenario (fictitious or real) presented by a customer team. Each team needs to cooperate to truly understand the situation and reveal hidden facts. All teams submit a final proposal which is evaluated on “Customer Value” and “Strategic Partnering” by competitors and the customer team. In real life, “Relationship Factors” such as communica-tion skills are just as important as the formal proposal. Consequently, all interactions with the customer team are observed during the simulation and rated on customer iPads. Teams receive detailed feedback on both their proposal and their behaviour, and the process also encourages reflection about teamwork.The overall learning points centre on the different aspects of gaining customer insight, strategic selling and building strategic partnerships.

PRACTICAL INFORMATIONCan be played in teams with upwards of 24 people. Minimum time is 4 hours – but a full day allows for a more profound experience with room for more organisational context and perspective.The case can be 100% customised to the organisation and its specific challenges. It can be based on a realistic fictitious case or involve actual customer representatives.

LEARNING OUTCOMEFor individuals: Feedback, inspiration and tools to im-prove customer understanding and strategic selling skills.For teams: An intense team experience and new insights into how strategic partnerships work.For full group: Shared experience of what customer value and strategic partnering means in the specific organisational context.

How to sell strategically and build strategic partnerships


[email protected]

LEARNING OBjECTIVE:

With experience of hundreds of workshops and conferences and over twenty-five customised Lead-ership Simulations in our portfolio, we are more than capable of developing an effective solution for pretty much any learning objective. The odds are that we can tailor elements of tried and tested solutions to meet your specific challenge.

Below are three “game archetypes” that have been implemented in different ways in different organisa-tions. One may be close to your need, but even if this is not the case, put us to the test!

The bid is about winning an important contract.The game is based on videos, where we see ficti-tious colleagues fighting to win the bid. From time to time, the video and players must decide how to tackle a tough dilemma. Some choices are right; others are wrong. This is revealed after the voting. Typically, 30-35% fail on each dilemma, meaning that around 80% fail on at least one dilemma. The direct feedback and tough competition help bring attention and provide insight into some of the critical phases in a bidding process.

When companies go through massive transforma-tions, it can sometimes be hard to share common references about the future. This often causes uncer-tainty and slows down change. We have vast experience in creating “Envisionings” talking about “a cold and stormy Tuesday” in a not so distant future (3-5 years from now) where things play out in new ways. Using videos, we tell how the or-ganisation solves challenges in new ways. This fuels very concrete discussions about the future, removes uncertainty and engages people in influencing their own future. Starting tomorrow!

“The Voldavian Challenge” is a game framework which can be adapted to many different purposes. “Voldavia” is a fictitious country where the former dictator has just died. The country now wants to catch up with the rest of the world by looking for “public-private partnerships”. Teams compete to be the partner of choice. However, whether they are competing to reduce heart disease, improve service standards or replace the national car fleet depends entirely on the target audience.

>INSERT YOUR LEARNING OBJECTIVE<

Tailor-made leadership simUlaTioNs





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BRAIN- EFFICIENT mEETINGS

BRAIN PERSPECTIVELeadership simuLations reach parts of the brain that other learning methods cannot reach

Leadership simulations provide an immersive environment that requires our attention and brings all of our resources into play. They are by nature motivating, as we all want to do well, and this engages our very powerful emotional sys-tems. In addition, the realistic scenarios activate pathways in the brain that process meaningful material, providing a strong foundation for mem-ory. The additional element of learning by doing brings the information into our entire brain and body, with representation in a great many brain regions. These pathways cement the learning in ways that conceptual knowledgedoes not. Simulations also spark creativity, as the rules

for achieving the goals force us out of familiar ways of thinking and we must draw forth intui-tive resources to navigate the unfamiliar waters. Novelty, uncertainty, anticipation, and a sense of urgency produce neurotransmitters, notably dopamine, which enhance both motivation and learning. In short, they are a wonderful way to provide an effective and engaging mode for gaining competencies and improving on-the-job performance.

Brain expert, Andrea Sullivan, M.A.Brainstrength.net

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

To be effective in a challenging business world, we depend on tried and tested patterns. These patterns allow us to make a lot of decisions in a very short time span – with almost no real thinking involved. However, this extremely human way of acting also comes at a price: it makes it hard for us to change.Even when we agree with guiding principles, new strategies or new information that we want to implement, it can be very hard to change our behaviour. In a Leadership Simulation, we work with a realistic scenario where the situations we manage and the people we relate to are similar to our own experiences. Best of all, the entire situation, the people around us, the competitive elements and the learning environment allow us to experiment without any real risk.

Simulation is only part of the experience. Each par-ticipant is given individual feedback and a chance to relate the experience to their own working life. The key to learning and changing behaviour comes during the reflection points and debriefing, which provide a chance to stop and analyse our own behaviour. A simulation experience challenges us deeper than a normal meeting or interaction, and helps us to reach a more profound understanding of what we need to change and why. Due to the fact that they actually learned something, participants remember a powerful Leader Simulation experience five or even ten years later.

#1 Focus on leadership challenges#2 Clear learning objectives#3 Working with realistic scenarios#4 Engaging conflicts and dilemmas#5 Strong competitive elements#6 Direct feedback and reflections#7 Direct debriefings (rights!/wrongs!)

OUR SIMULATIONSFORmULA


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Leadership Simulations