Project Management and Project Team Success

A challenging business simulation for project managers and project team members

Countdown is a fast-paced, highly interactive classroom simulation that engages small teams of learners as project team members on a business-critical, high-pressure project. Given tight deadlines, conflicting sponsor demands, resource conflicts, vendor delays and changing customer expectations, teams analyze information and make decisions using a variety of project management tools and techniques. In the process, learners discover the importance of these tools as well as the processes and project team behaviors required for a successful outcome.

Following the challenging and competitive simulation, learners connect the learning to their organization's project management issues and to their own project team's effectiveness.

For project team members, Countdown provides a realistic experience in using project management tools, processes and behaviors. For project managers, Countdown reinforces the use of effective project management skills to drive teams to achieve results.

Developed in collaboration with project management experts, Countdown can be customized to your project team needs.

Business acumen training for managers, employees and sales professionals

Zodiak is a one-day, classroom-based discovery learning experience that enhances the business acumen of project managers and project team members who must work within a budget. This high-energy business simulation — disguised as a fast-paced game — engages participants as the new owners of a struggling company. Over the course of three simulated years, they handle chance events and make critical decisions around strategic issues such as capital investments, staffing, pricing, new products and more.

Very quickly, learners develop new insights — not just about how the numbers work, but also about the bottom-line consequences of business strategies, decisions and actions. With these new insights, project managers and team members are better able to tie the goals of their projects — and the measures of success—to the company's financial and strategic drivers.

Strategic communication + employee engagement = organizational alignment

Discovery Maps® are fully customized educational sessions designed to align employees around corporate vision, strategies and new initiatives. These sessions develop the kind of business acumen and organizational literacy needed in today's complex and competitive business environment. Colorful table-sized maps create the visual foundation for a one- to three-hour learning experience that transfers knowledge with unrivaled clarity using discovery learning techniques.

In a classroom setting, teams of learners work together to explore the map's content, discuss issues, draw conclusions and develop new insights. Customized competitive games, challenge scenarios, realistic simulations, videos and online activities enhance the overall discovery learning experience, encourage new behaviors on the job, and build long-term knowledge retention.

Your critical business issues, our unique learning designs

We work with our clients to create communication and educational programs from scratch, using our unique discovery learning methodology and high-impact learning and retention techniques. We start with your issues and content, and build powerful business games, simulations, Discovery Maps® and other learning experiences that are fun, fast and focused... and, most important, effective.

Consider working with us to develop a business game, simulation or other discovery learning activity that educates and energizes your employees. Our innovative learning approach will help them understand how your organization works and how they contribute to the bottom line every day.