Having conducted hundreds of workshops throughout the length and breadth of Britain, I have usually found that there is always some form of resistance to the dreaded "role-play!"
"It's not real world!" "I wouldn't do it like that in real life!" "I hate role-plays!" These are just a few of the responses I have come across.
Let us just examine what role-play is.
Role-play is a form of a case study which is dramatised so participants can enact a human relations scenario under guidance of the trainer who will then elicit an evaluation of the performance in relation to previously taught principles and techniques.
Some guidelines for a succesful role-playing exercise:
- The scenario should be as realistic as possible
- It should be one that the participants can identify with; characters should be similar to those that exist in the organisation or represent typical customers (if it is a sales based role-play)
- Participants should live their parts
- The role-play should not be a threat for "timid" participants
- Trainer should play the "challenger" role
I prefer to refer to role-play as "real-play" or "simulation" as it is in fact, reality practice.
How would you feel if you had to have some major surgery and the surgeon told you that he / she had never done this before, but had "read the book?"
How confident would you feel in their ability?
I am sure that you would at least have wanted them to have had a practise or two, or may be more, wouldn't you?
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