Innovate the world

What is Innovating Your World?

Innovating Your World is a business simulation designed to mimic the workplace. Individuals must address common workplace challenges -- personal goals sometimes conflict with team goals, teams conflict with each other and everyone must keep the key stake-holders in mind.

Innovating Your World creates authentic behavior from which individuals and teams can learn about themselves, how they work as an individual, a team member and as a leader.

What is the Goal of Innovating Your World?
The goal of each team is consistent: design, build and demonstrate a new factory prototype for the company called the F3 -- Fun Fluid Factory.

Teams are challenged to achieve actual business results -- they must maximize profit while minimizing cost, keeping safety and quality a priority. While there is no actual danger with colored water, the water is treated as hazardous materials so spillage and leakage will incur costs for cleanup.

How does Innovating Your World benefit its participants?
Through this powerful experience, participants understand how easily personal agendas and individual goals may conflict both with each other and with the team goals.

While this conflict may be inherent in the structure of business, individuals can choose to work as part of a team, temporarily setting aside egos and agendas and holding each and themselves accountable to the end goal.

What size groups can run Innovating Your World?
Participants are split into groups of 6 to 10 individuals and are given a set of instructions to create a new product prototype for the Company.

Innovating Your Word is completely scalable for small groups to large conferences.

MORE DETAILS

What, specifically, will each team be doing?
Teams form, and then select key roles for each team member.

Design
Next they must work together to come up with a design for the F3 with certain parameters.

The F3 must be capable of transporting colored fluids from three primary color sources as well as clear through the system, to a minimum number of designated targets, while minimizing waste. In addition to single color transport, bonuses may be awarded for the capability of making additional colors such as orange, green and purple.

Once a clear vision and design are completed, they are ready to begin the build phase.

Build
The delivery system will be left to each team to build out of inventory provided to them including clear tubing, stopcocks, valves and other lab-ware.

Deliver
Each team must come up with a marketing presentation about why
their prototype is the best, most fun fluid factory in the room.

Individual Goals vs. Team Goals
Each participant is given an individual agenda that must be achieved while accomplishing the team task. Other team members will not necessarily know what each individual’s agenda is and what is motivating them. For example, one person will be judged based upon using as little inventory as possible, while another person will be judged based upon creating a stable and well built delivery system.

Another person is responsible for the quality of each specialty color produced while another is responsible for keeping waste to a bare minimum.

Key Stakeholders
Teams must also consider the key stake-holders that are impacted by the F3. They will encounter obstacles they must overcome through compromise and clear communication.

Introducing the judges!
One common variation on Innovating Your World has members of the FBLA or Future Business Leaders of America, the ‘customers’ for the F3, come to the event to judge the participants work.

The students are given score cards to rate categories like aesthetics, environmental impact and profitability.

Participants will need to pitch their new company to these special guests to earn the most points.

During the pitch, the F3 is demonstrated and even tested to the participants and customers delight. The ‘fluid’ is actually Gatorade that can be consumed while listening to the pitch!

The students learn from the participants about business and are, perhaps for the very first time, the focus of attention by a group of adults in the corporate world. It is a marvelous blend of learning, appreciation and excitement.

As a thank you from the participants, each student will also leave with a backpack full of essential school supplies and possibly gift cards to education related retailers. The students do not keep these supplies but are charged to find the very best way to use them by giving them to a local elementary school. In this way, the students are also giving back to the community and thus, we are teaching the next generation of business leaders the value of philanthropy.

Life Application Content
Bringing the Life Application to this Emotional Experience is one of the cornerstones to an effective program.

We could not possibly know your people as well as you do. You also understand your desired outcomes -- what does success look like? What do you want the participants thinking as they leave the room?

We partner with you to create the specific content to fit your group as best possible while still using the original simulation framework.

Through working with you, we created the perfect simulation to mimic the work environment and create a format in which the participants can examine themselves and each other. This introspection provides for application back at work and in our personal lives.

Sustainability
Our greatest contribution to your group can actually occur AFTER the conference. Creating a 'sticky' message is only the first step. Sustaining the impact is critical. When you contact us for more information, we will tell you about sustaining this program and the many options you have to choose from.