Business Games, Business Simulations and Discovery Maps^®

AREA OF EXPERTISE > Financial Literacy and Business Acumen

Zodiak®: The Working Capital Fund Game
Government Version

Managers and employees in federal, state and local government agencies are challenged with operating efficiently and effectively while dealing with the realities of deficits, budget cuts and tight cash flow. Just like their counterparts in business and industry, they need to understand the financial and strategic issues that impact success — including their own day-to-day decisions and actions. Financial literacy and business acumen are a musts in today’s complex and ever-changing government landscape.

Zodiak: The Working Capital Fund Game for Government, a one-day classroom simulation, was developed in collaboration with the US Air Force to provide a fun, fast and high-impact way to educate managers and employees about the “big picture” of using a Working Capital/Revolving Fund to operate an agency, unit or department.

Call it a sophisticated business simulation…an exercise in experiential learning…or a board game. Whatever you call it, it will make a difference in the way your people think and act.

Overview

The Business Simulation

Zodiak:The Working Capital Fund is a four- to five-hour classroom business simulation, which quickly immerses participants in the challenge of managing the financial and strategic operations of Zodiak, a critical municipal department. They must immediately address these issues:

• Demands for services that exceed appropriations
• Looming deficits and budget cuts
• Inventory turnover issues
• Vendor relationships and purchasing impacts
• Tight cash flow
• Disgruntled personnel

Over three years of play, learners review budgets, determine labor and supply needs, make difficult decisions and experience the ups and downs of using a Working Capital Revolving Fund. By the end of the game, strategies pay off, costs are under control and learners have discovered what it takes to run a financially sound and operationally effective “business.”

Connections — Bridging to Your Organization

Connections exercises create a bridge from the classroom simulation to the participants’ real-world challenges. As they explore operational strategies, financial terms, concepts and critical success metrics, learners develop a “big picture” understanding of the department or agency and realize how their everyday decisions affect the Working Capital Fund.

Use the exercises provided with the program, or work with Paradigm Learning to customize Connections for an even closer fit with your issues and your audience. A high-impact visual modeled on the Zodiak game board can highlight your agency’s financial operations. Laser-focused exercises can deal with such specific business challenges as budgets, project overruns, regulatory requirements and personnel issues.

Connections exercises help guide your personnel toward discovery of their personal impact and toward a commitment to action.

Uses

Consider using Zodiak:

• As part of a leadership curriculum for managers and supervisors
• As a “finance for nonfinancial managers” course
• To accelerate major change efforts by developing a “big picture” perspective
• As a department or agency-wide initiative to establish a common foundation of business understanding
• At a departmental or agency event to improve business literacy
• And more

Target Audience

• Managers and supervisors
• Individual contributors/employees

Time Frame

• One day: four- to five-hour Zodiak game; 1½- to 2½-hour Connections session

Training Delivery

Paradigm Learning can train your own in-house facilitators or provide experienced  discovery learning facilitators to conduct your sessions. It’s your choice!

Maximize the Results of Zodiak in Your Organization

Z Plus provides online access to ideas and ready-to-use materials to help spread the word about the power of the Zodiak program to your employees and managers, provide you with tips on how to make Zodiak more effective, and offer ideas to help maximize your investment in the program. The collection of tools will continually grow and develop, and access to Z Plus is available at no charge to all Zodiak customers. Click here to learn more.