Skills Taught During Strategy Lab Exercises
Throughout this section we will highlight features and concepts designed into the Lab's structure to teach specific Sustainability Leadership skills.

This is not a "one size fits all" game, simulation or exercise, but a rich laboratory for developing necessary business acumen and skills.

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Systems Thinking One central premise of systems thinking is that performance is greatly influenced by design and structure. Thus, markets, organizations and processes are likely to behave according to the way they are put together - whether the current design is intentional or not! By asking questions about how things actually work, we gain tremendous insight into reshaping our systems to produce the performance we want - instead of always trying to remedy what we get! Participants become more alert to: the value of seeing and working with the big picture the challenge of reversing the momentum of past practices the value of focusing on what is important, rather than just what is measurable the need to maintain a long-term view, even while solving short-term dilemmas how today's solutions can become tomorrow's problems

Team Building and Collaboration Reflecting the real world, participants often find they are working with incomplete, changing or conflicting information. They are encouraged to identify and evaluate their data to identify information deficiencies. In some cases teammates will have the information needed, in others, they may gather information from external sources via the Lab Instructor/facilitator, who plays the role of stakeholders, and provides the requested information in character. To achieve our objectives in teaching teamwork, participants reflect on and discuss how their teams performed in term of: Developing team goals and objectives Distributing and using information Sharing leadership roles Making decisions that realize objectives

Strategic Thinking A core Lab session objective is the teaching of strategic thinking. We use sustainability issues as a lens to view changes in the technology-driven and information-driven global economy. A Lab session provides participants with a chance to explore new ideas and practice skills required to position their company in the context of contemporary issues. The challenges teams face require them to: Reflect on the trends shaping the future of business Articulate a mission and vision of their company's role in that future Discuss how to maximize their present capabilities while developing new one for the future Develop and implement a plan for achieving success for today and viability for the future