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Top 3 Tactics for Business Simulation Exercise Time Management
I am a time freak. My colleagues know it, as do my kids and family/friends. It’s a problem. During our courses there are many moving parts, all of which need to be coordinated and orchestrated to create an effective learning experience. As the facilitator, if you’re not “on top” of all these moving parts, things…
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Customer Experience: From Warmth to Competence in 7 Seconds
You have 7 seconds to stop apologizing and fix the problem. That’s what new research in customer experience shows. If there’s a problem, warmth and empathy help (for 7 seconds) but then you need to jump in and brainstorm solutions with the customer. And even if the outcome is not ideal, the fact that you…
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Buffett Gives Us An Excuse to Say NO to almost everything…
Ever wanted to just cross off everything on your to-do list? Well, Warren Buffett may have given you the perfect excuse to do so. Buffett has observed that, “…really successful people say no to almost everything.” Saying no means you’ll free up your time and resources to focus on the remaining handful of things that…
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Memo-Engine – Unexpected business challenges/disruptors
There are times when a business simulation exercise should be customized to fulfill a specific learning objective (e.g. strategy change, focus on new business metrics, etc…). We have found that companies often believe the best way to customize an exercise is by modifying the business simulation software itself. However, in most cases the software doesn’t…
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Organizing Teams that can Actually Accomplish Things
Despite advancements in technology, most of the professional-work done at companies is still accomplished by people working together in teams. But being part of a team of fallible and imperfect humans (unlike you) can be challenging. And if that’s not hard enough, what about when you have to lead a team made up of fallible…
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Some Business Acumen is Timeless
PriSim is in it’s 21st year of creating and conducting business simulation-based courses. A lot has changed over the years, but it’s interesting to note the consistency in learnings that come out of our exercises. At the conclusion of all of our courses we ask competing teams to present a final debrief, or After-Action Review. They answer…
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Message to Startups – Ditch the “Business Plan”
If you’re considering a startup business, you might want to invest the time to listen to this video featuring Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur, author of The Startup Owner’s Manual, and Professor at UC Berkeley and Stanford. Here are the top-10 lessons we got from the video: There are no facts inside your building –…
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Boost Knowledge Retention by Adding Some “White-Space”
Want to turbo-charge the amount of knowledge that your students take away from your training classes and actually apply in the real world? Try providing “white-space” for reflection during each training day. Research has shown that people in training sessions who spend time at the end of the day actively thinking and reflecting on what…
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Global Tax Avoidance 101 (courtesy of Nike)
We’ve all read about overseas entities and the impact of taxation. Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and many others all creatively (but legally) trying to minimize the bite of the taxman. Here’s an insightful play-by-play analysis of Nike’s global tax strategy. Predicted by The Beatles in their song The Taxman? (“If you take a walk, I’ll tax…
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Leaders Should Lead, not just Execute
16 years ago John Kotter wrote an article in Harvard Business Review titled What Leaders Really Do. In the article, he makes the point that Leadership is about coping with change, and that Management is about coping with complexity. Great leaders make sure they’re doing both. A Stanford professor has recently written an eye-opening article…