The Add Venture Projekt®
The Add Venture Projekt® is a complex organisational simulation which portrays the requirements and structures similarly to those in everyday corporate life. The project, which largely takes place outside, is planned and also implemented by the participants. It provides a framework, which illuminates integrated thought and action and requires that the participants show a high degree of self-responsibility and initiative. The project goal consists of earning the maximal joint profits in several groups (comparable with various organisational units) in a designated timeframe.
As soon as the trainers have awarded the assignments, the participants organise themselves. In so doing, they run through all phases of a real project: They plan time, financial and personnel resources, negotiate loans, purchase materials, determine milestones, make any necessary changes in course and make an assessment at the end of the project.
Profits are generated through the calling in at stations and the completion of challenges. The requirements vary based on the training focus. These could be, for example:
Exercises and tasks with a management focus – like in our “Fit for Leadership” offering, practically-oriented team exercises and tasks – such as we use in team development or communication challenges as we use them in assignments which have as their goal an interface optimisation.
Costs for the project are incurred through the rental of materials which are needed for the solution to the challenges, through personnel costs, consulting, etc.
In the planning phase, the participating groups determine their joint corporate goals (turnover, costs, profits) and plan how they wish to attain these goals within the framework conditions (e.g., territory of 8 km2, timeframe of seven hours, communication via walkie talkie). In this phase, the participants can consult a map of the entire grounds. Later, each group will be provided merely with a map of the partial premises in which the respective other group is situated. In this case, the groups are required to maintain contact, to reciprocally support each other and to optimally use joint resources.
The implementation takes place in a self-guided fashion. In so doing, the groups work both “team-internally” as well as “across teams” on uncustomary challenges which lie outside of their area of technical expertise. This also means that they must deal with plan changes (e.g., time delays) and experiences gathered (e.g., the grounds are designed differently for an exercise/task than assumed).
In the subsequent reflection, experiences are evaluated and related to the situation in everyday corporate life. Parallels and similarities between Add Venture Projekt® and the professional context are discovered and reflected on by the participants. The transparency obtained provides the participants with a good basis for:
- Their future managerial style
- Their future cooperation
- Their future developmental challenges
Key data:
Reasons and goals for training can be:
- Developing a managerial style and an understanding of the role of management
- Making interface problems transparent and handling them
- Promoting self-responsibility and initiative
- Illuminating and dealing with communication models
- Improving cooperation in the team or between departments
- Support the introduction of new project management tools
- Addressing joint goals, commitment and support
Reflection and transfer
Starting from the respective target goals of the training, reflection and transfer are introduced by the trainers. Critical situations or even situations from the project which turned out very well are analysed. And because it concerns only situations from the Add Venture Projekt®, it is easier in this case to accept criticism than in everyday corporate life. Everybody can remember these concrete events. Everybody knows who reacted how. Starting from these experiences, ultimately parallels to comparable situations in everyday corporate life are produced and reflected on by the participants. Based on our experience, things, which are of relevance for the participating group, are discovered and discussed at the latest in the reflection stage and precisely this enables a very targeted transfer.
Implementation
As independent training or a tool in the course of a seminar regarding the topic of leadership link to the leadership page, team link to the team page or project management link to the organisation page
Duration
Ideally, a day on the premises plus preparatory work on the preceding evening and wrap-up work on the morning after.
Participants
Management personnel as well as teams or departments
Number of participants
Ideally, 12 – 14 participants, but at least 8 participants.
Larger groups are divided into several small groups.
Training site
We recommend a seminar hotel for this which is located no more than 100 km from your company and has suitable surrounding grounds.
