Aligning Students’ Actions and Values Through Business Simulations
More than two-thirds of prospective MBA students say it’s important that they attend a school that actively supports and incorporates sustainability into the academic experience. However, those same students often struggle when it comes to practicing sustainability in the business world.
Teaching fellows Mike Pezet and Emma Watton have seen this dynamic many times while facilitating the Conscious Capitalism simulation by Marketplace® at Lancaster University.
The Conscious Capitalism simulation is an immersive business-building game for advanced undergraduate and masters level students. Student teams compete against each other to win market share and turn a profit while also benefiting all of the stakeholders in their companies.
“We get a lot of the teams saying, ‘Oh, yes, we’re really focused on the conscious capitalism,’” Pezet says. However, when it’s time for students to give presentations on their businesses, “they’ll have the words, but they don’t back it up [with actions].”
Taking Students Beyond ‘Survival of the Fittest’
Like many schools, Lancaster University is working to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals into its MBA curriculum. Pezet sees the Conscious Capitalism simulation as a way to help students wrestle with these issues.
Students face realistic challenges and temptations as they build their businesses, which creates meaningful teaching moments. When students’ professed values don’t align with their actions, for example, Pezet gets an opening to talk about the harms of greenwashing.
One of the most common conflicts between values and actions is revealed when students build their employee compensation packages.
“They generally pay their production staff too little money,” Pezet says. “They treat them as minions, and then they wonder why they’re not getting production numbers.”
Many students learn the hard way that underpaying employees not only leads to lower productivity, but it also increases turnover rates, decreases sustainability, and harms their reputation.
While many students focus primarily on financial success, Pezet hopes these practical lessons will plant seeds of responsible practices and help students think beyond “survival of the fittest.”
However, it’s not enough for students to learn how to align their own values and actions. They also must learn how to persuade others to do the same.
Shaping Collaborative Leaders
Students in Pezet’s class play the simulation on teams of five or six members. This means that no student is able to act on their values, hunches, or strategies without the other students’ buy-in. If they have a daring plan for success, they have to persuade their teammates of its viability before they can execute it.
After Pezet assigns teams, each student fills out an online questionnaire and individual profile. Students have to answer questions about structure and leadership, as well as what kind of role they want to perform in the simulation.
This thought process helps students build a cohesive team quickly. Pezet only allows one week for the simulation, meaning that students don’t have time for drawn-out debates or meandering strategies. They need to establish their goals and unify early in the game.
This time crunch can bring out both the good and the bad in students.
“At the really, really bad end, I’ve watched leaders where the team’s made a decision, and then the leaders sneak in later and change everyone’s decision,” Pezet says.
On the other end of the spectrum, Pezet shares a story about a multicultural team with one student whose English skills were limited. She often withdrew from the rest of the group’s discussions, not knowing how to make herself useful.
The rest of the team asked Pezet for help. Pezet asked his own questions in return: What were their ethics? What were they trying to achieve? After processing these things, the students began working to pull in their wayward teammate.
“Over the week, I watched her become more engaged,” Pezet says. “That team was really impressive.”
Attracting Students with Immersive Business Learning
Pezet’s students become deeply engaged in their simulated companies and the market they’ve built together.
After students submit their final decisions, Pezet lets the excitement build. He gives his last lectures while his students anxiously wonder if their actions in the simulation were enough to win more market share and do right by their stakeholders.
When Pezet reveals the final results, he says, “The room just explodes. It’s unbelievable.”
The simulation has earned high ratings for Pezet’s modules—and it’s become a major draw for incoming students.
That’s because the game not only gives students a fun, realistic business experience, but it also puts the spotlight on students themselves. Who are they as entrepreneurs? Do their values align with their actions? Are they the kind of leaders who empower and compel their colleagues to action?
The Conscious Capitalism simulation pushes students to reckon with these questions and lets them choose who they will be as they enter the business world.
Let your students see who they really are as business leaders. Sign up for your free demo of the Conscious Capitalism simulation today!
