Manual and CD ROM

There are four simulations in this collection, designed to provide a wide choice of settings for your training or assessment activities:

The Dubchinzaneth Building Project
Your participants are briefed to imagine they work as part of the management group of a charity, tasked with providing help following a major international disaster. Which of the reconstruction projects will they choose? How will they plan the construction? What unexpected problems will they face as the project goes live and how will the team tackle them?

The Nasmullin Product Development Project
Nasmullin Enterprises is an established multinational manufacturer of food, toys and clothing. As members of the management team, your participants are tasked with championing a new product development project. Which project will the team pick and how will they plan and manage the development of the product overseas in the face of threats to financial stability, sabotage and legal action?

The Valleys Local Authorities Merger
Your participants are asked to imagine that they are managers in a Local Authority. They need to select a project team to make the merger with their neighbouring authority run successfully. How will they convince their colleagues of their choices for the team and how then will they plan and run the merger, collectively, in the face of human, not to mention external problems that they could never have foreseen in their planning?

The Brabent Hospital Trusts Merger
Participants are faced with a Government decision to merge their Hospital Trust with a neighbouring Trust. Their job is to choose a merger project team and convince their colleagues of their choices. Then, working together, they need to plan the merger and as the plan unfolds, tackle the problems as they arise, some human, some technical and some so unexpected that there's no way they can have anticipated them.

Part One of the manual includes a complete set of guidance materials for running the simulations for an assessment or a development centre. There's everything you need to administer the simulations, brief the assessors and the candidates. And you can choose whether to run a linked sequence of activities or to mix and match across the four settings.

Part Two includes guidance materials for using the simulations to train and develop the members of a team, or alternatively, team leaders and managers. Use them before, during or after the training, to identify needs, check learning, or let them practice applying the lessons.

Part Three contains copies of all materials for running the simulations, for participants, centre managers and trainers. Copies of all these materials are also available on the accompanying CD ROM in two versions: one carrying the coding system for ease of administration when you run a centre; the other version without codes so you can use them as training handouts in whatever way you choose.

Choose a simulation with a storyline that is familiar to the participants, if you want to keep your training or assessing close to home. On the other hand, choose a simulation with a context outside the participants' experience if you want them to demonstrate potential rather than simply following custom or mimicking (possibly bad) practice.

Whichever option you choose, the complexity of these simulations makes them a perfect way to assess and/or develop a wide range of core skills, including planning, communication, decision-making, teamworking, leadership and, importantly, all of the nuances associated with them. And you can decide your own list of factors to assess against or use those provided in the pack, for managers or for professionals.

• Contents: Introduction; Using the simulations within assessment and development centres; Using the simulations for training purposes. Part One Assessment and Development Centre Documentation: The coding system; Observer record: group discussion; Observer record: individual; Assessment sheet; Assessment factors: professionals; Assessment factors: management; Programme management notes: the Dubchinzaneth Building Project: Recommendation and combined; Planning and combined; Contingency and combined; Programme management notes: the Nasmullin Product Development Project: Recommendation and combined; Planning and combined; Contingency and combined; Programme management notes: the Valleys Local Authorities Merger: Recommendation and combined; Planning and combined; Contingency and combined; Programme management notes: the Brabent Hospital Trusts Merger: Recommendation and combined; Planning and combined; Contingency and combined; Assessor guidelines: Management factors: recommendation; Management factors: planning; Management factors: contingency (group); Management factors: contingency (individual); Professional factors: recommendation; Professional factors: planning; Professional factors: contingency (group); Professional factors: contingency (individual); Participant reports: Recommendation; Planning; Contingency. Part Two Training Documentation: Facilitation notes: The Dubchinzaneth Building Project; The Nasmullin Product Development Project; The Valleys Local Authorities Merger; The Brabent Hospital Trusts Merger; Simulation briefings: Team simulation briefing; Management simulation briefing; Simulation reviews; Team simulation reviews; Management simulation reviews. Part Three Participant and Assessor/Facilitator Briefs: The Dubchinzaneth Building Project: participant briefs: Part 1 recommendation and combined; Part 2 planning and combined; Part 3 contingency and combined; The Dubchinzaneth Building Project: assessor/facilitator briefs; The Nasmullin Product Development Project: participant briefs: Part 1 recommendation and combined; Part 2 planning and combined; Part 3 contingency and combined; The Nasmullin Product Development Project: assessor/facilitator briefs; The Valleys Local Authorities Merger: participant briefs: Part 1 recommendation and combined; Part 2 planning and combined; Part 3 contingency and combined; The Valleys Local Authorities Merger: assessor/facilitator briefs; The Brabent Hospital Trusts Merger: participant briefs: Part 1 recommendation and combined; Part 2 planning and combined; Part 3 contingency and combined; The Brabent Hospital Trusts Merger: assessor/facilitator briefs.

About the Author: Julie Hay is Chief Executive of Psychological Intelligence Ltd, training consultancy A D International and specialist publisher Sherwood Publishing. She has over 40 years' experience in the public and private sectors as a manager, trainer and consultant. In addition to her work as a trainer, Julie has been researching competencies and designing assessment and development centres since 1979, across a wide range of sectors such as a major airline, engineering construction, merchant banking, insurance, the NHS, the police and probation services and a couple of large government agencies.

Julie is author of The Gower Assessment and Development Centre, a three-volume collection of materials for assessment centres which can also be used in conjunction with this current publication, and co-author of Mission to Enernova, a board game also designed for training and assessment centre use. She wrote Getting the Best out of Development Centres for the Cabinet Office, who circulated it throughout the Civil Service, and is also a prolific author on topics unrelated to simulations, having produced books, packages and audiotape sets on organisational applications of transactional analysis, NLP, and transformational and developmental coach/mentoring.

For prices and to order please click here to go to the Gower website