The Accelerated Experience Method™ recognizes, however, that managers can learn what experience would teach them, only if they learn the way  managers learn on the job.  As its second feature, therefore, the method recreates all five steps in the learning process managers experience on the job. 

These five steps require managers to 1) analyze each problem and opportunity presented to them; 2) decide on a course of action to deal with each of these situations; 3) obtain immediate feedback regarding the outcome of their decisions; 4) live with the consequences of their actions; and 5) evaluate the impact of each decision on results—a process called Decision Analysis. 

It is important to note that most of the situations presented in the situations presented in these programs are interactive.  The action participants take in dealing with one problem, for instance, may make another problem more difficult to handle or may prevent the manager from taking advantage of an opportunity that offers great promise. 

The first two steps in an Accelerated Experience Program™ provide largely  the same type of learning that one experiences through the case study method— namely problem analysis and decision making. 

However, conventional management training programs rarely hold managers accountable for their decisions or make them “live” with the consequences of their mistakes.  If managers fail to handle a problem effectively. In an Accelerated Experience Program™, however, they cannot escape the consequences and must continue to deal with that problem until they solve it one way or another. 

The specific learning experience managers get in Accelerated Experience Programs™ depends on the decisions they make, just as it does on the job.  If, for instance, the situation requires them to select a subordinate from several candidates who are available, the kind of experience they subsequently get in developing, motivating, and supervising that individual will depend on whom they select.  Their experience will be very different, for instance, if they select an employee who resists supervision, or one who is a slow learner on the job, or one who is motivated by factors outside the job.

The computer serves to “remember” the decisions participants make and to keep track of their paths through the complex “decision trees” on which these programs are based.  The computer also gives participants  “feedback” on the outcome of their decisions and makes them deal with the consequences of the actions taken. 

Perhaps most important of all, it keeps track of the results they achieve and gives them monthly and quarterly statements of their performance, using the same reports and forms as are used to record results on the job.