Using Simulations to Upskill Employees
Using Simulations to Upskill Employees
Using Simulations to Upskill Employees
By Frank V. Cespedes, Trond Aas, Alex Hunt, and Huw Newton-Hill
November 15, 2022
Summary
One approach is simulation training: putting people in immersive, true-to-life scenarios where they practice skills acquisition in situations that replicate job conditions.
A study of laparoscopic surgery found that surgeons who trained using simulations had a 29% increase in speed, a 9 times lower likelihood of experiencing a stall during surgery, and they were five times less likely to cause patient injury.
The simulations outperformed any previous classroom training.
The simulations are played on managers' laptops, and each takes place in a realistic setting like a doctor's office, conference room, office environment, or on a train.
The dialogues change based on how managers respond to each scenario, which determines their unique journey through the simulation - a contrast to the lowest-common-denominator approach in much traditional leadership training and itself an important motivator.
Compared to training in a classroom setting, Buaria says this new approach "Reduced the training time by 70%, saving over 2,000 working days of frontline managers' time." That's important in professional development, especially in functions like sales.
A simulation approach recognizes a key facet of adult learning: Professionals tend to pay attention to information when they need it, not weeks earlier or later in a training seminar.
Reference
Cespedes, F. V., Newton-Hill, H., Hunt, A., &; Aas, T. (2022, November 16). Using simulations to Upskill employees. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2022/11/using-simulations-to-upskill-employees