The game engendered enthusiasm in the students and it taught them about the complexity of planning and decision making. The students also learned valuable lessons about organising teams of people. I was concerned, however, about some aspects of the student experience. As an educator I began to think closely about what the business policy game had really taught those students. In the computer driven business policy game students had also learned how to analyse information, a lesson well learned through other teaching tools such as case analysis.
Universities are the worst, with an almost total obsession with analysis.
I realised that while I had talked to my students about right and left brain ways of knowing, the very basis of my assessment encouraged their competence in analysis but not in synthesis. I was not rewarding holistic and creative thinking. I realised too, that as long as I gave students quantities of information they would continue to analyse it. The Industry Simulation idea had emerged. I developed the Industry Simulation with clear learning goals in mind.