It’s that time of the year. That interesting, frustrating, exciting, tormenting time of the year when the glorious hot days of summer start winding down and the realization that September and the rest of the year are just a couple of weeks away.

Traditionally (pre-pandemic), things tended to find their own nice rhythm and balance as a lot more planning for the fall, the rest of this year and then the following year were done much more methodically and with more openness in June and July. But as we try to figure out the new normal at the same time the “delta variant” enters the mainstream conversation of business planning, it seems that all bets are off, and most business professionals are stuck in the uncomfortable place of trying to have both patience and urgency at the same time.

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One of the realities of being a leader in 2021 and beyond is that direct reports and others that work with you on projects and processes don’t wake up every morning thinking to themselves that today is the day I am going to make myself more accountable.

In a recent virtual Fundamentals of Business Leadership simulation workshop there is a scenario where two of the central characters, David and Ellen are having a conflict over David’s lack of communications on a critical project and his unwillingness to take accountability for his mistakes and delays. Ellen is frustrated that the work David was supposed to have done wasn’t done (she’s the one who must tell the customer) and David is upset that he thinks Ellen is being too hard on him and that he thinks the client is being unreasonable by demanding the project be delivered on time.

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One of the hardest skills to develop in 2021 and beyond will be Business Acumen. In the new workplace where employees are working extremely hard in the hybrid work environment and the integration of work, life, and learning will become even more volatile, complex skills like Business Acumen will need new approaches in order to be addressed and learned.

One of the most effective ways of building Business Acumen skills is through business simulation-centric learning where participants learn-by-doing. A digital, cloud-based simulation is a case study that comes to life and presents learners with a chance to set a strategy, execute that strategy through operational decisions, and then measure success by reviewing financial reports.

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 It is the hardest questions that participants ask during a Business Acumen learning journey where we teach strategic thinking and financial management skills. “We just created our winning aspiration and strategy for our simulated company, but how do we know what financial metrics to choose and follow so we know if we are achieving success?”

The first and most obvious response is that it depends on the winning aspiration you are choosing to execute. In business, there are only three different aspirations or value propositions a company can choose and all the research shows that the most successful companies are the ones that choose one value proposition, stick with it, and execute it flawlessly.

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It’s August.

Where did the time go? Seriously. How is it August?

As we move into the heart of the 2^nd half of 2021, there is no playbook for what we just went through and where we are about to go. It is literally changing every day, every week, every month.

With this constant, chaotic, and intensive change, the skills of change leaders are being depleted and change leaders are desperate to gain new skills and tools to be effective.

Over the past few months, I have been privileged to be working on several new change leadership simulations including our new, Practical Change Leadership business simulation being created in conjunction with Dr. Elizabeth Moran who is writing a great new book on the topic.

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