Role Plays: Whats the use?

Role plays can be the most trans-formative tool in a  training or coaching process.  But they have to be done right. While role plays are an effective way to engage people, when they lack guidance they can be lost time and a deterrent to engagement.

Why Role Play?  To practice a needed skill.  Needed is critical here and a skill that the participant wants or has some idea they want to master because there is a ready need.

How to do them right:

1. Allow plenty of time.
2. Use scenarios that are real, get them from the participants.
3. Set them up well, do some coaching of the role players. When using real scenarios this is fairly easy. (For example one real scenario is approaching an employee who has a body odor issue. A second is an employee who is simply not meeting expectation, wrong procedure, wrong format etc. and they do not seem to be getting it.) We use the whole class, all of the participants to set up the scenario, talk about the approach and style, what you will do and not do etc.
4. This is all dependent on  a model to follow for having effective discussions that achieve the desired outcome. We work the model, or whatever we are teaching.
5. Use the rest of the class as experts on how to intervene based on the training teaching and as people to critique.
6. Facilitate the role play by interrupting and stopping it when it goes awry. the skill builder must be able to call time and ask for help. Actively coach during the role play. The active coaching makes all the difference. This is where the skill builder corrects behavior, tries a new technique, adjusts their style to see what happens. The real time,  real issue impact is phenomenal. The other role player, the subject/object will go with the flow and respond to the skill builders change in style and direction.
7.  Debrief it but not too long. Role plays done this way take 20 to 40 minutes so the debrief is usually brief 5 to 10 minutes and very rich.
8. Everybody participates and does both sides of a role play, that is be a skill builder and an object employee.

When we do these best they will take whole day depending on the number of people and we rarely lose interest or engagement. People said they learned as much from seeing them as doing at times. Seeing others styles working was a great eye opener for people.

Thanks for reading.

Bob Sutton
513 260 9518

We teach people how to treat us!

I had a great conversation with my brother-in-law at family gathering. One of those discussions where we solve the worlds problems and then laugh at ourselves.  We were talking about landlords and bad neighbors and other people who can make our lives more difficult.  He had a recent experience where he had a very inappropriate neighbor whom he had numerous run ins with over loud music. He eventually told the gentleman, “You are teaching me how to treat you. I have tried to be cooperative and asking you to lower the music,  work with you, now I am telling you. You act this way I call the police no more requests, no more discussions.”.  This hit me like a ton of bricks when I think about how I am teaching people to treat me.  This give me pause. So when someone sends me a reminder of an appointment or task does that mean I have taught them that I am unreliable or non-committal? Possibly.

I will strive to pay more attention to this and be clearer with co-workers and others so that they treat me in the way that I desire and that I learn from them how to treat them.

Thanks Steve for the great insight and example from your neighbor. I hope the situation gets better.

Bob

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!