Using simulations in executive education and corporate workshops

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Why incorporate a business simulation into your executive education sessions?

Many experienced professors and coaches have adopted simulations to support their executive education workshops. There are several reasons why you might consider doing this.

Increase the appeal of your offering 

Selling workshops is hard work. Simulations can help you make a compelling proposal by creating concreteness and helping you outline the content of your offering. By picking the right simulation, you can demonstrate a match between your offering and client needs, even in areas where you don't have a track record. For example, if your client is in healthcare, you may want to incorporate a simulation in that setting. 
Simulations also enable your training programs to be scaled up, something that clients often care about. Engaging participants in team-based simulation exercises allows you to run bigger group sizes without losing engagement. If your client is happy with the training, you can also suggest them to run the simulation with a larger group of middle managers, with you providing the debriefing sessions remotely. 
  

Improve the customer experience

Simulations can create high-intensity interactions among participants and stimulate discussion. This is particularly useful when the workshop brings together managers from different divisions and levels of hierarchy. Sometimes internal politics can make executive education sessions difficult to run, as participants are reluctant to engage in open discussions. 
Busy executives do not always prepare sufficiently for sessions, making the use of case studies and pre-readings impractical. Using simulations instead of case studies reduces the need for participants to prepare and sidesteps related problems.  

 

 

Two ways to get started

The easiest way to get started is to look at simulations that fit your existing content and can help replace some of the case studies you have used. There are excellent story-driven simulations in themes ranging from negotiations and sales to strategy and marketing. 

An alternative way is to keep Business Simulation Hub at hand when you have a specific customer in mind. You can easily find simulations based on themes and industry contexts to extend your existing offering to better match client needs.