What's the difference between a business simulation that actually builds skills and one that just feels like a fancy spreadsheet? In this episode of our 17-part series on choosing the best business acumen simulation, we tackle a critical distinction: passive versus experiential learning.

Discover why the most effective simulations put participants in the driver's seat—making real decisions, seeing immediate consequences, and building cause-and-effect understanding they can carry into their actual work. We explore how hands-on gameplay creates lasting mental frameworks, while passive simulations that rely on pre-set paths and right-or-wrong answers fail to capture the variability of real business environments.

Learn the essential questions to ask when evaluating simulations: Is content embedded in gameplay or delivered through separate lectures? Do teams experience unique outcomes they truly own? Can facilitators pause for meaningful reflection?

Whether you're a learning and development professional, HR leader, or business educator, this episode will help you distinguish between simulations that truly build business acumen and those that simply keep participants busy. Because as Einstein understood, there's a profound difference between information and genuine understanding.

Read the full blog post.