| Judy is the Chief Administrative Officer in a medical center. As is true with virtually every medical center, change is the new normal. So are seemingly unsolvable challenges.
Recently, Judy promoted several individual contributors into management roles. They were each struggling, their direct reports were complaining, things were not going smoothly, but Judy couldn’t quite identify the source of the problem. It didn’t help that they each worked in different locations and had never come together as team. Judy felt some teambuilding might be just the right medicine.
She asked me what we could do and I suggested a business simulation. I’ve found I can count on FreshBiz business simulation games to surface real challenges in a way that is safe and fun, yet sets up the important conversations that people need to work together effectively.
“Most important,” I told Judy, “is that you participate, but not in your leadership role. Your main job is to be an observer. Watch your managers play and see what you can learn.”
She was shocked by what showed up.
One of the new managers wasn’t listening to other players. Under the time pressure of the simulation, Judy could see clearly that her new Controller stopped thinking critically in his rush to reach the finish. Another manager was jumping into risky solutions without being clear on how they connected to accomplishing the goals of the game.
Judy realized that each of these approaches perfectly mimicked what was going on in their work. She suddenly had perfect clarity on why each of these valuable team members were struggling. More important, she now knew exactly what she needed to do to support them.
“Not only that,” she told me later, “I realized I, myself, can get going so fast that I miss critical information. I’ve already made changes in my own habits that are paying off.”
This is just one aspect of the walk-away value of a FreshBiz business simulation experience. In less than one day, Judy and her management team were able to gain a much deeper understanding of team behaviors contributing to frustrating performance challenges — and put in place clear next steps to immediately address their concerns.
Experience accelerates clarity. |
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