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With our reality training, we make change tangible. Changes are usually defined and communicated in abstract terms. The actual impact on the company's culture, processes and employees remains vague.
As role models for change, managers and project managers in particular need a clear personal assessment of where they stand in order to lead their employees through the change process.
To this end, we have developed unique experience formats in which more than 10,000 managers and experts have now taken part.
01 Reality training for managers
Reality training is to management what the flight simulator is to pilots. All aspects of an organization are reproduced 1:1, including offices, products, company history and, of course, employees. In this risk-free training environment, managers are given the opportunity to experience and try out change with all their senses before implementation. The goal and task of reality training can be
- Shaping the new corporate culture, making it understandable to employees and setting an example as a role model
- Practice new sales processes, develop more confidence in dealing with customers and improve sales performance.
- perfect the management of challenging projects
- internalize the new service orientation and culture and act as a role model in this context
The participants experience personally and up close the points in which their behavior corresponds or contradicts the targeted objective and the effect they create with employees, customers and suppliers. This emotional experience and the open feedback from the coaches and employees of the virtual company lead to an effective change impulse within a very short time and thus to sustainable learning effects.
02 Reality training for project managers
Which pilot would you choose? Pilot A with 700 hours of theory lessons who has never sat in a flight simulator or Pilot B with 400 hours of theory lessons who has also trained 100 hours in a flight simulator?
This is the question we ask decision-makers who want to improve the performance of their project managers. More than 99% would trust Pilot B, because it is the application under real conditions that creates sustainable competence. Reality training for project managers is the "classic" among our formats. And right from the start: the more experienced a project manager is, the more outstanding the feedback after the training. Several thousand project managers from more than a third of DAX companies have come to appreciate the benefits of our format in recent years. This is because the topic of project management is ideally suited to this type of training format. Reality training is the flight simulator for project managers.
Billions have been invested in the theoretical training of project managers over the last two decades in Germany alone. However, in addition to PMI or Scrum certificates, a lot of practical experience is required for a project manager to work successfully. The experience is gained in one's own company or with customers, on a living organism, so to speak. This leads to project delays, loss of customers, etc. So what could be more obvious than building a flight simulator for project managers in which new behaviors can be tried out, limits tested and known skills perfected?
Your virtual company and your project
In consultation with you, we develop a virtual company you can touch, with real buildings and offices, website, company history, products - and of course, above all, authentic employees who go about their daily work there.
A project theme is anchored in the company. This is not just a realistic and complex case. The project story, scenarios, storylines and "stumbling blocks" are developed precisely on the basis of the participants' qualification needs. Some of our clients, for example, have chosen a project that is about to start in real life as their topic and have therefore already gained valuable experience and results before the project starts.
The participants act as a task force
- As a participant in a reality training course, you find yourself in a company in which all aspects of a real company are reproduced in a 1:1 ratio.
- The participants compete in 6-8 project teams of 4-6 employees each. The teams have no points of contact and experience the same setting at different times. In total, 24-48 participants can be trained per reality training.
- The teams are given a challenging project assignment with only 2-3 days to complete it. Together with key players from the virtual company, the project topic is to be set up, coordinated, presented and decided on as well as possible.
- As is typical for challenging projects, there are also difficult characters among the stakeholders. In addition, all specialist departments want to have a say, the key players are only superficially in agreement about the project's objectives - and daily business tasks make it difficult to concentrate 100% on the project. The clients are tense and exert a lot of pressure right from the start.
- To solve the mission, the team interacts with the company's employees ...
The employees of the virtual company
- The employees of the virtual company are embodied by so-called "actors"
- The actors are not actors, but experts in their field in real life.
- The actor characters and their relationships with each other and with the participants can be chosen to suit your challenges
- Situations with employees do not take place in isolation. Participants experience the full practice - seamlessly and without interruption.
The coaches
The teams are accompanied by an experienced coach. The coach does not provide coaching on content, but rather feedback on situations and behavior. The coach is "invisible" in interviews and meetings and does not intervene in what is happening.
The feedback
- In the evening, participants can request feedback from the actors with whom they have interacted.
- The actors remain in their roles during the feedback discussion.
- The feedback can be implemented directly in the further course of the training.
- At the end of the reality training, participants receive final, personal feedback from all actors.
- The participants receive unvarnished feedback that they "normally" don't get in everyday life: in terms of positive impact, confidence-building discussions, outstanding presentation aspects, but also lost orders and lost trust.
What participants say about CPC Reality training for project managers
- "I really saw it as an opportunity to try something out and push myself to my limits, which I would never dare to do in normal everyday life."
- "You don't normally have the opportunity to receive real and honest feedback on your behavior and impact so clearly and promptly."
- "I learned a lot and for the first time I gave a presentation in a completely different way than usual. I was fascinated by the fact that it can work to address decision-makers on an emotional level and not overwhelm them with facts, as we usually do."
- "During the reality training, I was impressed not only by the excellent support and organization on site, but also by the performance of the participants."
- "The realism and active participation make this a unique format."
- "Where else do you get the chance to experience complex processes and structures objectively and actively in such a condensed and holistic form? The most important insight from the training was that social competence is the decisive factor alongside professional competence. This is highly relevant for me."
- "The fact that the training courses can also be individually adapted to companies or sectors opens up completely new learning opportunities for this area."
- "The reality training has a lasting effect on me, the insights are really sustainable."
- "You don't normally get the chance to change your behavior towards partners and colleagues the very next day and in the same environment. The best personal development training I've ever taken part in."
- "So well done - I meet people like this every day and now I understand them a little better."
This is typical feedback, of which we have received thousands over the course of CPC's history. We are very happy about this, because when we first launched the format in 2000, many people thought we were crazy. To this day, there is a lot of effort, passion and dedication behind every event. But over the years, we have learned that there is no better advertising for Change Management advice:
We are the only provider in Germany for the best experience format! We are happy to establish personal contacts with decision-makers and participants from other companies.
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03 Reality Training Culture Change
The continuous development of the corporate culture plays a central role in the success of a company. Nowadays, nobody can afford to stand still. However, culture change is sometimes more difficult than expected for both managers and employees.
In order to bring about the desired behavioral changes in employees, it is not enough to formulate well-sounding corporate mission statements. In the course of restructuring, mergers or takeovers, employees must be able to orient themselves to their superiors. This presupposes that managers themselves internalize the required standards and live them in their day-to-day work. This is where CPC comes in: with the Reality Training Culture Change.
By culture change, we mean all inward-looking strategic developments or realignments of companies. This can affect the respective management style, cooperation within the company, the service orientation of employees or corporate values.
As soon as top management has made the decision to change the corporate culture, the change must be precisely defined - for example in the form of a concrete mission statement. The second step is to implement the mission statement - the far greater challenge. This is because the cultural change must now be exemplified top-down and made comprehensible to employees. Upper, middle and lower management take on the role of role models here.
Implementing change projects - making plans tangible
Managers often initially lack an understanding of the new direction. They do not even realize that there is a discrepancy between the new guidelines and their own behavior. Their habitus is not questioned.
It has happened, for example, that top management has developed a new leadership model, but senior employees have not even considered changing their principles.
But if change targets are not implemented, nothing will change in the company. Even the top-down approach has no effect in such cases. In order to get the ball rolling, companies must therefore make their plans understandable to upper, middle and lower management in particular. Each individual manager must personally experience the points in which their behavior contradicts the planned change and the effect this has on employees.
The Reality Training Culture Change makes these connections clear and paves the way for the implementation of the new mission statement.
The advantages at a glance
In Reality Training Culture Change, participants recognize under real conditions why change is necessary. Participants from all management levels use the format to develop a real understanding of their employer's change measures and become competent change agents.
During the training, our consultants confront the participants with a fictitious but challenging task. The task may be to implement culture change in an acquired company. CPC creates a completely realistic representation of the new unit - including employees and working environment.
The aim of the Reality Training participants is to convince the various stakeholders of the new section of the culture change in the long term within three days. It is not enough to sell the realignment well: Interacting with those involved is about credibly living the innovations.
During the reality training, participants directly experience contradictions between company guidelines and their own behavior. This experience and regular feedback from stakeholders and coaches generate effective learning effects within a very short time.
Experience shows: Most managers not only develop the ambition to eliminate their own deficits, they are also spurred on by actively applying the new mission statement and the resulting positive experiences. The stone rolls ...
The Reality Training Culture Change offers the following benefits:
- Managers experience realistically how their measures affect employees and whether their actions are in line with the change plan.
- Reality training leads to an increased willingness to change on the part of those involved.
- Participants receive honest feedback and the opportunity to immediately apply the findings based on iterative learning processes.
- Managers are convinced that the planned change can be implemented well and that there is a need for change in the entire team.
- External players and coaches reflect the current situation and identify the need for action.
- The training forces the participants to leave their comfort zones and gives them completely new learning experiences.
The Reality Training Culture Change has proven to be an effective and alternative-free means of initiating change among a critical mass - for example, the entire management team. Based on the experience gained, measures for the sustainable implementation of culture change can be defined and implemented.
Reality training provides participants with the knowledge they need to implement cultural change projects. In addition, those affected become convinced advocates of the Change Management measures and drive change in the company in an exemplary manner.
SUCCESS STORY: Culture change for 2200 top executives
New business models often require a new culture. Achieving this is one of the most exciting change tasks of all: creating awareness of the need for cultural change and a new management culture is not something that can be "conjured up". How do you get 2,200 top managers to internalize service orientation and act as role models? This is the challenge facing our client, a leading international telecommunications company.
In order to make managers fit for their tasks as quickly and sustainably as possible, we decide to make change tangible through experience. To do this, we set up a fictitious company with its own offices, employees and products and conducted more than 80 reality training sessions.
Managers act in this setting and can experience first-hand the contradictions between the targeted cultural change and their own behavior. These experiences - supported by regular feedback - generate effective learning effects within a very short time.
The results are impressive: Because the decision-makers are leading the way and tackling the issue of service in their daily business, the culture is beginning to change. The new service-oriented focus enables a positive differentiation from the competition. Since the reality training sessions, our client's "Service Excellence" stone has been rolling.
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04 Reality Training Sales Excellence for sales staff
Sales employees play a decisive role in sales, as they are the figurehead of their company. In addition, other employee groups are also in direct contact with customers or are entrusted with sales activities.
In the course of submitting an offer, for example, project managers provide information about their approach or have to identify new business potential with the customer. Managers are therefore required to form and continuously develop a strong sales and customer-oriented team.
In addition to the employees, the company's internal sales structures and methods are fundamental to sales success. As the requirements in this context are constantly changing, sales is subject to permanent pressure to change. For example, distributed sales units are required to network with each other. The merging or restructuring of company divisions, the operation of new sales channels and the introduction of new products pose further challenges. In all these cases, it must be ensured that the employees concerned are confident in dealing with the sales structures and methods.
For companies with ambitious goals and strong competition, it is therefore of immense importance to ensure that all (!) employees involved in the sales process are permanently highly qualified. This applies to the core sales team as well as employees whose main focus is not on sales. Even experienced sales professionals can be wrong in some situations or fall "short" - no one is ever "fully trained". Because what worked yesterday may be obsolete today.
Exploit competence - train skills in real life
Our experience shows: To increase sales performance, it is crucial to question existing patterns and behaviors and build new skills. It is therefore important to set different priorities in training with regard to the following skills, depending on the target group:
Sales skills
- The competence to build and maintain customer relationships
- The ability to bring about customer decisions
- Assessing customer situations and needs
- Choosing the right tactics for confident customer and negotiation management - a challenge even for sales professionals
- Self-motivation and frustration tolerance
Distribution methods
- Employees must be able to understand and successfully apply market development structures and methods.
- This applies not least to the effective interaction between company divisions (e.g. internal and external sales). Only in this way can the entire internal potential be tapped - from the identification of sales opportunities to sales-compatible behavior and extended acquisition.
But how can these skills be tested and developed in a real-life environment? CPC has the right answer - the Reality Training Sales Excellence.
Increase sales performance
In Reality Training Sales Excellence, participants experience real sales challenges under real conditions. As a result, employees with different levels of experience and from different areas of the company develop increased sales expertise and improve their own performance at a high level.
In order to ensure that the reality training takes the customer's specific sales challenges into account, experienced CPC consultants clarify the exact requirements and the target group, including their development goals, in advance. On this basis, we design or use a fictitious company with its own offices, employees, products and customers for the reality training.
The participants then have to prove themselves in real sales situations. To this end, we confront them with challenging tasks along the sales cycle. The objective may be to acquire new customers, maintain relationships, compete against competitors, recognize sales opportunities, conduct customer negotiations, market new products or solve critical customer situations.
Interaction with the stakeholders involved - for example customers and internal stakeholders such as superiors, colleagues, controlling or legal - is primarily about persuasion and credibility in pressure situations. It also reveals whether the existing sales structures are being applied successfully. In this challenging environment, the participants act both on their own and as part of a team.
Reality Training Sales Excellence generates effective learning effects within a very short time: Because employees constantly experience real customer situations and receive ongoing feedback from the various stakeholders and coaches, they question existing behavioral structures and develop the ambition to implement what they have learned. Sales performance increases demonstrably.
The advantages at a glance
The Reality Training Sales Excellence teaches the skills that have an immediate impact on sales performance in operational business. The format can be customized and is suitable for the entire range of the sales team - both beginners and sales professionals benefit. In addition, employees whose main task is not sales build up valuable sales expertise.
The real-life setting leads to a high level of sensitivity and willingness to learn among the participants, as they are constantly confronted with real customer situations, unlike in classroom training:
- Participants experience how their behavior affects customers and whether their sales activities are successful. This makes them aware of their inner attitude, unrecognized weaknesses and patterns of success.
- Participants receive a personal assessment of where they stand: because experienced experts slip into the roles of customers, superiors or colleagues in reality training and thus demonstrate different stakeholder perspectives, employees receive valuable feedback. They can apply new insights immediately.
- Participants develop more confidence in dealing with customers. They also develop a heightened awareness of hidden opportunities.
This promotes the personal development of each individual participant. In addition, internal interaction within the company is improved.
Contact us if you would like your company to benefit from our reality training courses. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Change Management .
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