Friday 1 July 2011

Business Communication Training Game: Creating a Company

This blog enstry is a very illustrative: it contains a number of snaps taken in the class during the gameflow of training. This blog entry and other pages are specifically shared to increase the potential creativity and phantasmagory of the training class YOU can conduct.

On the second of May 2011 in Incisive Indore head office (A.B.Road, near Press Complex, Indore) I’ve started a new batch of LSPT, Leadership & Verbal Skills & Personality Transformation training program. The group included several students from on-going LSPT training, upgraded students from the EST (basic English Speaking Training program) and several newly joined students. As a regular trainer of the HR training enterprise I was really excited to have exactly this kind of group because of the following reasons:

1.    Higher than average English knowledge.
2.    Various levels of fluency, interpersonal and communication skills of participants.
3.    Professionals, students with some working experience, students with no working experience and schoolchildren.
4.    Age diversity.
5.    Both men and women of various backgrounds.
6.    Students’ willingness to learn through analyzing practical experience.

At 7:30 on Monday morning I started the class with no usual opening. The task introduced to the class was simple: to create a company. After presenting a basic structure of a company we’ve launched the game activity:

Right now we are starting a company. Please decide on your place of the company and together with other students form company departments in small groups. After choosing the leader of the group delegate him / her to the initiation board meeting to make major decisions on the company’s operations.

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The initial stage has been completed amazingly fast: most students had ideas of their positions. Four groups-company-departments had been formed, including Human Resource Dept, Research and Development Dept, Marketing Dept, Inventory Dept. Dept Heads had been delegated to the board meeting near the whiteboard. The board decided:

-    Proprietorship form
-    Field of operations
-    Name
-    Emphasis to HR.

After that department heads announced major decisions they returned back to their departments in order to start strategic planning and actual work. The initiative had been totally overtaken by HR department partly because I’ve given an extra task to them: apart from their natural activities to try and evaluate every student’s English fluency level, vocabulary relevancy, speaking confidence, as well as interpersonal skills, communication skills, relevancy of education and experience to the position and department. This evaluation was supposed to be helpful for interviewees in terms of their knowledge of personal strengths and weaknesses. The results had been shared individually after the class and proved to be really influential as a friendly consultancy and a mid-term testing of students’ skills.

HR executives are conducting interviews and on-site observation.

R&D, Research and Development department of the company: software development and hardware manufacturing. From the very start a manager, a student and an experienced java programmer from Impetus (international software development company with a branch in Indore) had been appointed. Executives immediately started product design. Although constantly interrupted by HR ladies, the group had really advanced in that! R&D department has become one of the most vibrating parts of the classroom with energetic discussions.

Marketing department started with the marketing plan, advertising strategies and branding discussions.

Inventory department group had shown less vibration, but the head of the department turned to be the actual inventory executive with over twenty years of experience. He guided wisely and managed with respect.
The class is boiling with ideas and passion for implementation.
Unfortunately, we had to proceed towards closure as the duration of daily training class is only one hour and a half. I called the staff to the general meeting to hear the results announcements and the experiences learnt.
After the board took its places near the whiteboard it turned out that the Marketing department manager had left (the student needed to leave earlier to give an interview in the city). Three board members.
The word is given to the R&D Manager to present success of the company in creating product line, implementing innovations and breakthrough technologies. Totally technical speech, very professional but too long and descriptive, we needed to listen to other department representatives also during the general meeting of the company.
One by one managers and executives are sharing achievements and completed work, mapping ideas, pointing out problems.
HR department chairperson played a major role in the company’s activities.
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HR execs took interviews of all company employees!

Marketing manager is presenting The Marketing Plan. Closure and follow-up: what has just happened in the classroom during this one hour and a half? Personal feedback, likes / dislikes, satisfaction with oneself and the others. General feeling after the class: awesome!

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