Last week, an accounting professional whose career turned commercial told me how simple it was for him to speak with customers about the value he could bring, because he truly understood their numbers. He believes that gamified learning can increase even accounting and finance students’ understanding of why finance really matters.
His advice rings true! We recently had high demand for a virtual marketing event. The complimentary class was offered to human resource professionals and focused on finance in preparation for budget season. No doubt, these professionals see the value of speaking the all-important language of business: finance.
There are several ways to improve one’s career. For example, communication and emotional intelligence are key, and both take practice and continuous effort. However, understanding how a company makes money is paramount to supporting leaders, especially executives, in your organization. It is worth investing your time (pun intended)!
Brushing off your old college textbook is one way to remind yourself how to speak about finance. Taking an e-learning course is another. But these two methods can only get you so far. They are often dry and can cause stress if you think you must develop the skill as a lonely learner. Who do you ask when questions arise? How does your company’s financial terminology differ from what is given in these references? Are your assumptions correct? Most of us would benefit from taking that additional step and learning with others through a facilitated session.
The finance department’s minimal role in any organization is to report the firm’s success. They do this through quarterly financial statements required by law for public companies. Private companies report the news through internal financial documents, which may or may not be published widely within the organization. Either way, human resource professionals should review these documents for their own education. Executives provide a narrative to share their thoughts on why the numbers appear as they do. If it’s been a heavy investment year, operating profit may be down. Thus, the executive shares the purpose of the investments and adds a timeline for when these investments should pay off for the company.
Networking with someone in finance can support your growth and leverage within your role. Now, finance is not only “reporting the news,” they are helping you “make good news” through their consultation and your influence and application. If your trusted finance consultant understands the big picture of the organization, your shared interests can make an impact!
Gamification can help you understand the big picture of business from a financial and business strategy perspective. Running a simulated business that allows you to see how money flows through an organization from an aerial view is a game changer for many professionals. Recently, I spoke with a vice president of human resources in Wisconsin, who said, “I am 58 years old and hold many degrees. Why did I not truly understand finance until I played this game?”
Gamification helps professionals understand business finance and many other categories of business acumen for several reasons:
- Healthy competition in the game creates an emotional response that embeds learning into memory. This happens in the hippocampus and is a complex neurological response to the stimuli.
- Healthy competition in the game also creates motivation to learn thoroughly. If I want my team to win, I must understand and act accordingly.
- A game board, either a digital or physical board with an aerial view of a company, helps the learner visualize where their personal role is affected by moves in the game. This knowledge can be extrapolated into common, everyday decisions the learner or colleagues make.
- Team-based, gamified training allows colleagues to learn from one another. A human resources professional and a finance professional playing on the same team must share perspectives and come together to make a move on the board. Add someone from the commercial team and the operations team, and you have a well-rounded group who sees decisions very differently. Sharing knowledge and collaborating to come up with the best decision requires a wide breadth of learning and understanding to take place through play.
Communicating through the language of business, finance, is a skill that provides confidence and leverage in your everyday negotiations and consultation in your organization. It can seem complex at first. However, once you learn the basics, changes in economic conditions, technological advancements, strategy, and regulations only require you to seek updated information occasionally. Plus, now that you have gathered a network of seekers in financial prowess, you can reach back to your team and collaborate to keep up in our volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world!
