Home Other articles Other resources Contact John

Roll Over Role Players

Don’t you just hate role plays? There you are stuck at the front of the class with everyone else in the room watching intently waiting for you to make a big mistake. Or worse still, stuck in the back of the room watching one of the worst acting performances since Tabatha Clearskin beat you for the role of Sandy in the high school production of Grease.

There has to be an alternative.

And there is.

Here are just some of them:

Change the name:

Call it skill practice. This places the emphasis on the skill rather than on the acting. It seem semantic, because it is – but it works.

Calling the activity a structured rehearsal reinforces the message that we are doing here is getting ready to apply the knowledge in the real world.

Share The load

Instead of one pair acting out the scenario to the whole class, divide the class into groups of three.

One plays the customer, one the customer servant and the third has a checklist to make sure that all of the points are covered. It is important that the checklist is well constructed, so that the observer is providing accurate feedback, relative to the learning points.

Instead of bombing in front of the whole class, you have only one live witness.

Of course there are less people to see your Oscar deserving performance, but that might just mean that you will focus on the content rather than trying to entertain.

To gather valuable perspectives, seek feedback from volunteers about important insights that were generated during the discussion.

Even though the role playing is in small groups, the learning can be passed on to the whole group.

Action Replay

After Sharing The Load, seek volunteers to replay any scenario that provided a meaningful insight. This moves the selection from imposed, unrehearsed to Voluntary, rehearsed.

Use an expert panel

For a session that I organized for an urban transport organization I called in a panel of experts. One from operations, one from sales, one from customer service, one from security and so on. The trainees put situations to the experts.

That way the session only contained accurate information. The situations were real ones that the participants had encountered.

The responses were official ones that the corporation wanted implemented. This had a by product of reacquainting the expert panel with the way things were at the front line, and also highlighted some grey areas where problems were falling between the cracks.

Put it in writing

Ask participants to write out caller queries that may arise from the new information on 6x4 cards. Collect the cards, shuffle them, then deal them out. Ask participants to respond to the query raised. Still a role play of sorts, but less staged.

Design a job aid

Ask participants to design the content of a help screen or other job aid that would deal with the query. This moves from a vocal response to a written one. Still confirming the knowledge, but taking the emphasis off getting it right first time.

Collect the knowledge

Do a class brainstorm of the contents of a help screen This will take the focus off one or two individuals

Roll Play

Limit the role play to two exchanges each - rather than a full call. Then change participants - a Roll Play - it rolls around the room, with the conversation continuing. You may even find participants volunteering to go next.

Bingo

Create bingo cards with key words that should be included in the response. Pose the question. Those with the keyword mark it off. When it is time to check the winners' card, ask the questions again and ask the whole class to respond with the key word.

Cross pollinate

Asking members of a class to role play aggressive or difficult customers or employees usually fails to produce the required degree of credibility.

On one occasion a colleague and I ran two classes in parallel, until it was time for the difficult customer routine. Then we paired a member of class A with a member from class B. The lack of preconceived notions enhanced the interaction considerably.

A final word

When debriefing any of these activities or any role play, oooppps skill practise, always ask the participants first:

If you were doing it again, would you do it any differently? Only after they have had a chance to reply open it up to the class for review.

John Sleigh has been applying adult learning principles to training design and workplace communication projects since 1988.

These resources are provided for your personal use. For permission to include them in your published materials, contact John. Permission is usually given for fair use, but please ask first. I like to receive feedback on how you think the materials can be used to stimulate ideas for further development.