• Maps, be they physical or conceptual, have dark spots - places that we don't know and probably should.

• Thousands of great new drugs and other technologies are possible, but not "found" yet.

• New business processes are being developed.

• Marketers have a phrase "you've never tasted your favorite cereal."

The concept of probing (alien encounters aside) involves diverting resources from a life-as-usual process-optimization strategy and taking a risk on finding something better.

In real life, we don't know what we don't know. We often think what we are doing is the only option. Sims can make this unknown space obvious, such as the blank idea bars in Virtual Leader. We can make the act of probing an obvious one, such as "press here to probe," or require a bit more of finessing typical in real life.

Regardless, a well designed sim in almost any Big Skill area should make people constantly think, what am I missing?