program. Part of the three-day scenario is to work on a complex opportunity with a client around a merger and acquisition. [They need to have] technical skills around understanding the transaction and a variety of client challenges that they have to work through — such as dealing with the friendly client, unhappy client, difficult client. We bring in actors. Learners gather additional
information, and we have in-depth conversations. The art of the conversation is critical. They think through a series of presentations to get to the end result, which is to be able to consummate the deal. That happens over three days. Many events are happening along the way that
turn their roles upside-down or present various challenges. They have to think through the deci- sions. They have team members who may want to roll off the project, team members with personal issues that are brought up as part of the scenarios. The scenarios demonstrate our values, ethics,
and business components that they have to think through. Is it work we want to bid on? What is the risk associated with that? How do we actually go
through this type of work? Do we have the right team? Are we looking at it from all different angles? It is like a flight simulator. The ultimate solu-
tion can change as decisions are made by the team. Even though you have 800 people going through the simulation in teams of five, all of them are in different spots and their learnings are different because of the choices they have made. Facilitators are there to help shape the decision- making process.
How are the facilitators trained? Great question. As part of the analysis we did about what constitutes great learning, we went back and researched our internal results. We found that when students experience face-to-face interaction in the classroom, their learning is superior. It is rel- evant that facilitators speak their language. They are guiding discussions on topics they understand because they are actually living the situations — 95 percent of all our instructors are Deloitte senior managers and partners who experienced a train- the-trainer program.
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Touching the World William Pelster describes DU’s large touchscreen media wall’s capabilities: “As part of our internal profiles, we have the equivalent of a social-media network that sits behind a firewall that we call D Street. When you register [for a session at DU], your profile is already loaded and you can touch the screen and a picture of the world will come up. You will then see who is attending from around the world. You can actually touch the country or the ofice and get a list of people who are present and their profile, which provides the opportunity to make connections with new people. These are the type of things we use as bridges.”