Stimulating Simulations: Humana Connects Customers to Knowledge
October 20, 2008
By Holly Dolezalek
Humana is a Fortune 500 health-care company based in Louisville, KY. Aside from health insurance, the company also is involved in dental insurance, military health care, Medicare plans, and venture capital investing. With offices in most U.S. states, Humana is starting to explore relationships in other parts of the world. And since it has been using business simulations for approximately four years, when the time came to educate some of its leaders in working across functions, it chose BTS to create the Commissioning Simulator.
The simulation teaches leaders in the United Kingdom's national health service how to think about health care from a community perspective. "We believe in using learning as a tool to connect customers to knowledge about the health system so as to empower them, and this was a natural extension of that philosophy," says Ray Vigil, chief learning officer for Humana.
The Commissioning Simulator is an environment that simplifies the interactions of employers, consumers, and health-care providers so a participant can see how all stakeholders work together in the delivery of health care. It's a computer-based simulation in which teams of five compete in three annual rounds of competition to have the best results from their decisions.
For example, one competition focuses on the issue of obesity. "Each scenario gives objectives for improving health and the delivery of services, sets a budget, and asks participants to try to achieve the best outcomes," Vigil says. "We model the community, health conditions, budget, and any resources available."
Vigil says the element of competition brings a certain suspension of disbelief for participants. The pressure of time and the need to make decisions that have positive impacts on the bottom line make the simulation feel less like traditional learning and more like real life. The simulation also includes "wobblers," or abrupt changes in the given environment, such as a sudden drop in stock price or an organization boycotting the company's offices.
"We take advantage of people's natural competitive desires and of teamwork's ability to change the way people act," Vigil says. "Experiential learning has the power to transform people, not only in the short term but in the long term."
Tom Noland, communications director for Humana, has participated in three of Humana's simulations during his career there, and he explains that the experience has made a big difference in his work life. Each participant takes a role in the simulation that is unfamiliar to them, and in Noland's experience, he was the CEO of the company. "It forced me to think like the CEO instead of the head of communications, and to apply different priorities to my decisions," he says. "Also, the metrics by which my group is measured are much more business-line oriented than they were before, such as increasing company growth or market capitalization instead of impressions and ad equivalency."
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