New simulator helps business people practice sustainability management

Description: Green&Great – simulation game intended for sustainable business training, developed by the Centre for Systems Solutions and ISIS Academy – is now available for purchase.

The Centre for Systems Solutions and the ISIS Academy are proud to introduce Green&Great – a simulation game that brings sustainability to life in a business context. Green&Great combines an advanced management simulator with the thrill of team competition. It is intended for leaders, managers, consultants, business schools and civic organizations, both as a part of bigger seminars and trainings, or as standalone learning tool.

“This new training tool helps you to experience the reality ‘sustainable business’ and to see that it’s not just public relations,” says Piotr Magnuszewski, one of the game’s creators. “It’s about better management, that produces real returns, in economic, social, environmental, and work wellbeing terms.”

Green&Great responds to an increasing need for companies to integrate sustainability management into “normal” management. “Companies have to be more sustainable these days — that’s the lesson we learned from our research into recent business trends,” says Magnuszewski. “Good companies attract more clients and more customers. Your employees are happier, more devoted, and more effective. That’s why so many of the big business players have already implemented sustainability programs into their corporate strategies.

But it’s still hard to change people’s mindsets, Magnuszewski continues. “Even if the cause is good, the reasons solid, they have a hard time making the jump into this new reality. Green&Great is like bridge that helps them to cross this divide.”

“We are very excited about Green&Great,” says Alan AtKisson, co-founder of ISIS Academy, “because our clients have been excited about it. Participants come away very happy from these training experiences, and some report significant aha! experiences.” AtKisson and ISIS Academy CEO Axel Klimek worked closely with Magnuszewski and the CSS team to design the game, based on the needs identified by an ISIS Academy client, a large global company.

“We convinced them that a systems-based simulation game was the most effective way to train their senior executives in sustainable business management,” says Klimek. “And judging from the evaluations that come back, I think that was a wise decision on their part.”

Simulations and other “serious games” are becoming an increasingly important tool for helping people learn and adjust to complex, emerging realities — confirmed by the fact that even the US White House has a “games adviser” on staff. Energy issues, global warming, fair trade, or even strategies to help the victims of conflict in Darfur are all examples of problems that have been addressed successfully by serious games in recent years.

The new ‘game rush’ is being fueled by the realization that simulations and serious games are not like other training exercises. Immersion in a real-feeling experience has real power to illuminate and change attitudes. Players gain a much deeper understanding of how to manage complex processes and situations — and they gain that understanding much more quickly.

In Green&Great, the players assume the role of managers in large consulting firms. Their companies compete for clients and seek to make a profit, while achieving social goals and reducing environmental impacts. By facing the consequences of their own decisions, players learn and experience the importance of business sustainability as a source of competitive advantage. The simulation closely matches emerging business realities, and the contents of the game can be modified to match a group’s specific situation and training needs.

Green&Great is available for demonstration and purchase at greenandgreat.games4sustainability.com.

Centre for Systems Solutions promotes and applies systems approach in research, education and practice helping to solve complex real world problems. Find about us more at http://www.crs.org.pl/en

ISIS Academy provides high-level professional development, training, and coaching services to help leaders, managers, and other “change agents” accelerate a transition to sustainability. Find about us more at
http://www.isisacademy.com/

Contact:
Lukasz Jarzabek
lukasz.jarzabek@crs.org.pl
Centre for Systems Solutions
Podwale 75
50-449 Wroclaw
Poland

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