June/July 2025 – Simple Line Charts Taped to a Wall Can Make Leaders Act Like Schoolkids
Behold the power of a simple line chart drawn on white paper and taped up on the wall. With blue tape… That’s all you need to get leaders and managers in a business simulation class excited like schoolkids.
During PriSim’s business simulation classes, we post simple line charts and plot the teams’ results after each competitive year, typically 4 simulated years in each class. We’re talking super-simple – a separate 13”x19” sheet of white paper for each team with x and y-axes and lines drawn with a marker showing the team’s results. And stuck up with blue painters tape.
We track 2-3 metrics that companies in the specific real world industry pay attention to:
- Combined Ratio and Return on Equity for insurance carriers.
- Broker Profit Margin and Customer Retention for insurance brokers.
- Backlog, Net Margin, and Estimate At Complete for aerospace and defense.
- Return on Sales and Inventory Days for manufacturing.
We also use our client’s metrics if preferred. Profit margin, CSI, and stock price at one client for example – the same metrics that the participants’ actual performance bonuses are tied to.
And everyone gazes upon these simple charts with wonder, from newbie high-potentials to 30-year veterans. The lines don’t even have to be drawn straight and the blue tape can be showing; they’ll still crowd around – and the taunting and mockery will begin. But more importantly, the participants will be drawn in and the metrics will come alive because they’re creating the numbers themselves through their actions and decisions in the simulation.
In fact, tape the charts to the wall outside of the classroom to get even better reactions as passersby stop and gawk – and either register to join the next class (extroverts) or avoid it like the plague (introverts). Or start firing the people on the low performing teams if it’s an executive that happens to walk by…
After all, these are raw, real numbers. Well, simulated numbers actually, but you’d never know it by the participants’ reactions when they see them: trepidation, shock, excitement, awe, giddiness, horror. And it could all change in the next simulated year – just look up at the newly updated charts, from which there is no refuge, no hiding, and no do-overs. Hey, there’s always next year! Except at the end of the 4th year, which is the end of the line (chart)…
And going “off the charts” is OK, whether negative or positive. Just add a sheet of paper above or below and continue the line. Negative trajectories offer the most melodrama; consider adding a note such as “To negative-infinity and beyond!” to help amplify the laughs – and the dirty looks.
In the age of AI, sometimes going low tech and just grabbing a piece of paper and a marker can work wonders. In your next business simulation class, try drawing some simple line charts of results and watch them line up to see.