We at Guided Star are a strong proponent of training, on so many levels.   Training makes people better at their jobs and reduces their stress level.   Training makes people feel invested in and helps organizations attain their potential.   But, there is training that is great and training that, unfortunately, mostly saps time. 

Meet training that is great – Simulation-based Training Workshops.   What makes it great training is that it is extraordinarily effective.   The body of knowledge on how we learn speaks of the phases we go through as we learn.   Skills taught don’t become truly “learned” until they are practiced.   And proficiency only comes with repetition and experience.   Traditional classroom training doesn’t get you very far in that process.   Management Simulation utilizes advanced Artificial Intelligence and Heuristics in the software and provides a safe environment for participants to practice skills and learn from mistakes.   Compressing six months of decision-making and its accompanying feedback provides “Accelerated Learning”.   Our point of view is that, indeed, no learning has taken place unless we are doing something different as a result.   A Simulation-based Workshop, through the experience of the Simulation, provides the confidence to use and apply the skills upon leaving the Workshop.

The Management Simulations create dynamic scenarios, taking the Cognitive learning process and adding the Experiential.   Putting the knowledge and techniques learned to work in a real life setting powers the learnings to a higher level.   The feedback loop of seeing the responses and reactions to your decisions, repeated on a weekly basis over 26 weeks in the Simulation, is the Holy Grail of learning.    Further, working through the Simulation becomes, by no mistake, an emotionally charged event.   Learning retention is extraordinarily high when that emotional component is present.   So a Simulation-based Training Workshop employs numerous facets of advanced learning theories, all designed to be the most powerful and charged learning environment possible.   It is the learning experience that delivers incredible results and will be talked about for years afterwards.

Guided Star is deeply partnered with ManSims, Inc. to provide multi-day Simulation Training Workshops.   ManSims provides Management Simulation Training Workshops in Project Management, Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance, and Leadership & Change Management.  

Guided Star resells individual seats to ManSims’ Workshops that travel around the country, or can schedule on-site Workshops in or near your facility.   Additionally, we have worked extensively with ManSims in the past to create custom-authored simulations for clients.   See more about specific simulations below or visit ManSims’ directly at www.ManSims.com.

All of this is intended to provide tools for organizations to maximize their return on their primary investment, their People.   Guided Star and ManSims helps People use their talents and abilities to their fullest, and everyday, they are helping visionary organizations achieve breakthrough results.

Simulation-based Project Management Workshops

Project Management skills are insanely under-utilized.   We regularly prescribe this course as a must-have, not only for managers but for individual contributors too.   All of us are Project Managers at some level on a daily basis, and this Workshop offers skill development for anyone with two feet.   There is no pre-requisite, but even advanced, career Project Managers consistently exit our Workshops with eyes opened to new understandings and an enhanced mastery of techniques.   The learning is immediate, lo ng-lasting and applies directly to your job.   We also offer an Advanced Project Management Workshop that is appropriate for those deeply experienced in the tools and concepts.

In the ManSims Project Management Workshop you not only learn, but practice, the best of Project Management lessons, including Control Measures, Risk Management, Resource Smoothing, and Teamwork skills.   Can you meet or beat the four objectives of project management — cost, schedule, quality and customer requirements — consistently?   Do you know how to use the five basic tools of project management   together?   In terms of human assets, do you know who's best at what?   Do you know how to lead a team without line authority — and have their full commitment?   There is no substitute for real life experience, but a ManSims Simulation-based Workshop comes remarkably close!            

The Three Day Workshop cost is $1,500 per Participant if you’re attending one of our Public Workshops.   We have traveling Workshops offered in a variety of cities.   Call for schedule information.   Have a whole Team you want trained, trained now, and want to save the travel costs?   Call us and we can schedule a Private or Semi-Private Workshop in your city or at your facility.

ManSims is a Registered Educational Provider (REP) Charter Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and this Workshop qualifies for 21 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for those Project Management Professionals or Professionals in Training.

Simulation-based Sarbanes-Oxley § 404 Compliancy Workshop

ManSims’ Sarbanes-Oxley § 404 Compliance Workshop is a unique offering in the market, and Guided Star is proud to have been involved in its development.   Now, through one intensive Workshop, you can participant in the only educational immersion that fuses the high-powered training environment of Business Management Simulation with the distilled knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley.   No matter if your initial compliancy effort has been completed, this experience will assure your ongoing compliancy maintenance gains a sophistication level or three.

With thousands of hours invested by dozens of experts across disciplines, ManSims extracted the most current body of knowledge on Sarbanes-Oxley § 404 Compliance.   Then, tightly integrating that knowledge base and its practical application into the Management Simulation software, they’ve birthed what we believe to be the highest impact SOX tool on the planet.

The Simulation has participants work through an actual SOX § 404 Compliancy Implementation, putting the knowledge, skills and techniques learned to work in a real life setting.   You don’t just learn What to do, you learn How and you Do it.   You’ll make mistakes, without them costing you your (real) job or the Company anything but its (virtual) success.   You’ll have managed a complete SOX § 404 Compliancy Project, and you’ll be infinitely more qualified to return to yours!

The Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Compliance Workshop, current with all the latest SEC and PCAOB updates, was born out of the Project Management Workshop, and in addition to the deep SOX-specific material, much of the Project Management learnings are in there too.   If a SOX implementation isn’t a project, we don’t know what is.   It would be our opinion that anyone with any significant role in a SOX compliancy maintenance effort is well served to have finely honed Project Management skills.   Our SOX Workshops are run by both an experienced simulation Guide and a SOX Subject Matter Expert with serious industry credentials.   The depth of the experience of the Guides and SMEs are reason enough to be there.  

The Three Day Workshop cost is $2,000 per Participant if you’re attending one of the traveling Public Workshops.   Call for schedule information.   Have a whole Team you want trained and want to save the travel costs?   Call us and we can schedule a Private or Semi-Private Workshop in your city or at your facility.

The unique nature of the Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Compliance Workshop allows it to convey certification training credits towards two professional development programs.   ManSims is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, or NASBA, which   manages a certification program that provides accreditation of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) classwork that is accepted by the State Boards of 38 States for CPAs to maintain active licenses.  The SOX Workshop provides 24 CPE credits.   ManSims is also a Registered Educational Provider (REP) Charter Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and this Workshop qualifies for 21 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for those Project Management Professionals or Professionals in Training.

Simulation-based Leadership & Change Management Workshop

Today’s Challenging Business Environment.    What a cliché, eh?   After decades of downsizing, rightsizing, acquisitions, buyouts, spin-offs, and off-shoring, who’s surprised that much of the American workforce is less than optimally motivated?   And if any part of your job involves trying to get the most out Employees, Co-Workers or Teams, well, we want to help.   It’s funny that with all of the upheaval we’ve been through, this is still the most overlooked Skill Development area for Managers.  

All of ManSims’ Simulation-based Workshops build-in Soft Skills, where participants learn how Interpersonal Relationships and their management can have equally important impacts on other aspects of business.   The Leadership and Change Management Workshop is centered in this Skill Development and offers the opportunity to really grow in this area.   And here, our Simulation works to set up dynamic environments that let you practice these skills.

Experience a leadership challenge where creating teams, leading people, and meeting goals are uniquely combined to help Leaders and Managers of all experience levels improve their Leadership and Change Management skills.

Can you be a better leader – motivate and build high performance teams – consistently?   Do you know your leadership strengths and weaknesses?   Are you aware of the impact your leadership has on the productivity of your team – and how to improve their productivity through your leadership actions?   In terms of human assets, do you know who's best at what?   Who works best with whom?   Do you know how to lead a team through a major change – and the associated transition?

In teams of four, participants actually lead a simulated real-life team through an unwanted change. They learn what it feels like as they make real decisions and get real feedback. They learn from their mistakes and their successes. The work is practical, engaging, intense and challenging.

Real leadership can be learned, but only through experience.   Books, tapes, and lectures can teach some of the accepted traits, but can only take you so far.   This workshop, featuring a simulated leadership challenge, is a realistic experience.  

This workshop is for anyone who must achieve results through Teamwork and Leadership.   It is uniquely valuable for Leaders and Managers and, because of the depth of the Soft Skills in Interpersonal Relationships, is equally useful to Individual Contributors and Team Leaders.   The learning is immediate, long-lasting and applies directly to your job.

The Two Day Workshop cost is $1,100 per Participant if you’re attending one of the traveling Public Workshops.   Call for schedule information.   Have a whole Team you want trained and want to save the travel costs?   Call us and we can schedule a Private or Semi-Private Workshop in your city or at your facility.

ManSims is a Registered Educational Provider (REP) Charter Member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and this Workshop qualifies for 14 Professional Development Units (PDUs) for those Project Management Professionals or Professionals in Training.

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