free role playing games ideas and theory for employee training,
motivation, team building and development
Here are techniques, theory and ideas for designing and using your own
role playing games, exercises and activities, and for using the free role
playing games, exercises and activities available in this site (below and
here). Role playing games, exercises and
activities help build teams, develop employee motivation, improve
communications and are fun - for corporate organizations, groups of all sorts,
and even children's development. Role playing games, exercises and activities
improve training, learning development, and liven up conferences and workshops.
This free article about role playing ideas and rules has been provided by
Edward Harbour and Jill Connick of AIM Associates (Drama) Limited, a
London-based specialist consultancy using drama in learning and development.
will help you design and use games and exercises for training sessions,
meetings, workshops, seminars or conferences, for adults, young people and
children, in work, education or for clubs and social activities. Role playing
games, exercises and activities can also enhance business projects, giving
specific business outputs and organizational benefits. We cannot accept
responsibility for any liability which arises from the use of any of these free
role playing ideas or games - please see the disclaimer notice below. Always
ensure that you exercise caution and sensitivity when using any role playing
games or activities which might disturb or upset people, and take extra care
when working with younger people and children.
effective use of role playing in learning and
development
Role playing has been around as a learning tool for a long time. Without
defining it as such, many of us use role play as a basic tool of life. Whenever
we project into the future in a kind of 'what if' scenario we are indulging in
a role play of some sort, we are projecting ourselves into an imaginary
situation where, though we cannot control the outcome, we can anticipate some
or all of the conditions and 'rehearse' our performance in order to influence
the outcome. Much of the time we are better for it. By way of example, you
might wish to speak to your garage to raise the fact that they have still not
cured the oil leak. Before doing so you might well rehearse to yourself what
you intend to say. This would be a mini role play - we do it all the time
because it helps.
In a learning environment role play can be a very flexible and effective
tool. The tenet 'I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I
understand' is very applicable here. Role play is often used as a way of making
sense of the theory, of gathering together concepts into a practical
experience. And yet, it often goes wrong. Why? Because like so many things
which are simple on concept, it can become awfully complicated. If used badly
in a training environment the role play tool can be ineffective and sometimes
even damaging. One of the main complicating factors surrounding role play is
the attitude or emotional state of the people taking part. Quite frankly, many
people are nervous, even terrified, at the prospect of participating in a role
play; not surprising when you hear about some people's unfortunate role play
experiences.
For the purpose of this article, role play is defined as an experience
around a specific situation which contains two or more different viewpoints or
perspectives. The situation is usually written as a prepared brief and the
different perspectives on the same situation are handed out to the different
people who will come together to discuss the situation. Each person will have a
particular objective, or objectives they want to fulfil which may well be in
conflict with their fellow role player or role players. It is how each role
player handles the situation that forms the basis of skills practice,
assessment and development. The situations will be realistic and relevant to
the role players and the most successful ones will be focused on developing a
particular skill or skill set. If you consider a musical analogy, each 'player'
is involved in the same 'symphony' but has a different score - their
perspective and objective(s) - for their own 'instrument' - themselves as
individuals - their histories.
So, how can we take the fear out of the role play experience?
Here are some guidelines that you might like to think about when
planning your next session.
role play objectives
Be very clear about what you want people to get out of the role
playing experience. Muddy thinking at the outset will result in muddy outcomes.
Clear thinking and role play preparation result in clear outcomes.
Are you assessing skills or are you developing them? If you are
assessing people, they need to know the competency level expected of them and
the brief needs to have measurable outcomes. People also need to trust that the
role play will have the same level of challenge for them and their peers. So,
don't put people through an assessment role play until you know they have
reached a certain standard (through development activities and role plays).
Are you giving everyone the same level of challenge, or are you
flexing according to the level of skill demonstrated by each individual? The
former is more recommended for assessment, the latter for development (see
above).
role playing placement - where in the
agenda?
In skills development programmes, trainers and facilitators often
schedule a role play exercise at the end of a course, to gather in the
learning, and to assess how well the participants have understood the training.
Leaving it until last can cause 'the dreaded role play' to loom large in
people's minds, causing a negative distraction throughout the course. So
instead, introduce people to the role play experience gently by holding mini
role plays earlier and throughout the training. This serves a double purpose:
it de-mystifies the experience so that people become more comfortable with the
idea of 'performing' in public; and, it more fairly shows role playing to be a
very good tool for rehearsing life, which is its main function.
To illustrate the important value of role playing, here is a theatre
analogy: actors spend hours rehearsing a twenty minute scene. They do it again
and again to get it right; to get the behaviours and the relationships right,
to make sense of the scene and to understand the issues. They get feedback in
the form of notes from the director, which they will immediately apply to the
work in hand. They carry on in this way until it's perfect and the scene
becomes part of them. This is not to suggest that people in learning and
development situations should become actors and rehearse their life scenarios
for hours on end, but the principle is the same.
Be realistic in your ambitions for the role play. For instance, if
you are teaching a complex behavioural model, break it down, rather than have
people role play it in one huge chunk. Just as actors don't rehearse a play in
one huge lump, they break it down into (sometimes) tiny micro-units and
rehearse until they really feel confident with each bit, so the same principles
apply to any complex new skill to be learned. Being over-ambitious causes
people to lose confidence in themselves and in role playing as a tool. Like any
tool, role playing must be used properly or it won't work. If you don't have
time to eventually get the participants doing the whole thing properly, in
depth, with plenty of rehearsal and revisiting, then just do a part of it.
role play briefing
Role playing can become ineffective if people are unclear about what
they are supposed to do. The briefs for all sides of the role play should be
unambiguous and totally in line with the objectives. Here again, any muddy
thinking will have consequences. Be clear about the purpose. If you are
assessing skills in a certain situation then the brief must reflect this. If
you are assessing or developing behaviour, keep technicalities out of the
brief. Generally, remove technical content except for the very basic
information needed to particularise the culture. Otherwise, lots of technical
detail provides a bolt hole for people who are skilled or pre-occupied in
technicalities, when they should be focusing on structure, or process or
behaviour. The exercise will keep its point and value if it avoids technical
distractions.
Role playing briefs should contain enough information for both
parties to engage in a believable and relevant conversation, which should be in
line with the objectives. Give as much detail as is necessary - too little and
there won't be enough to sustain a conversation, too much and people will be
swamped with information, most of which they either won't need or won't
remember.
Avoid giving people the task of role playing attitudes alone. If you
want somebody to role play an angry customer give them something to be angry
about. Behaviour, like acting, is all about specifics. If you are angry with
your garage about a specific oil leak and their inability to cure it, there
will have been a specific chain of events that has led to your picking the
phone up and complaining. It is not a general anger at everything. Role players
can forget this in the heat of the moment if given open licence to just 'be
angry'; there needs to be a reason for it. A well written brief will help to
keep the role play focused and on track.
Adequate preparation time may seem obvious, but it is often
overlooked in the belief that it is best to get on with it. People can be
encouraged to share what they are trying to achieve with observers, so it
becomes a shared, facilitative exercise rather than a battle - this will also
defuse fear and tension. Again, sharing objectives will help and not 'spoil'
the role play.
In developmental role play, the option can be given to press the
pause button where people feel they are getting into difficulty. Although
building up a flow in a role play has advantages, it is not a scene from a TV
soap, it is a rehearsal tool. And in rehearsals, people stop and start. No-one
should be expected to give a 'performance'. Emphasising this too will dissipate
people's fear and concern.
role play observation and feedback
Allow the other participants to observe the role play and give their
comments afterwards. Observers are hugely beneficial to the participants'
learning. How often in life do we get the opportunity to gain from such focused
attention? We not only have our own response to the role play; we can also
benefit from our fellow role players' observations, and tutor's point of view,
and the feedback from the observers.
For the observers, explain clearly what you want them to look out
for. Again this should be in line with your objectives. The language of
feedback is also very important. Feedback should broadly follow
SMART principles (Specific, Measurable, Agreed,
Realistic, Time-bound). Role play feedback should describe specific things that
the observer saw and heard, relevant to the exercise and to the person(s) doing
the role playing. Role play feedback should not contain subjective judgements
or comments based on personal knowledge or assumptions. Feedback should be
meaningful and specific - something that the role player can act on. Role play
feedback isn't helpful if it suggests that the role player should 'get a new
personality' or 'be nicer'. Remind participants that the purpose of the role
play is for the development of the person or people doing the role play.
Objectivity facilitates learning.
The order of feedback should be participant or participants first
(that way it's untainted by others' views; it also recruits them into their own
learning experience - people 'buy in' more if they are themselves expressing
what happened and why). If others give feedback and participant(s), wait till
the end, they may feel they've been bombarded by a lot of 'tell', without
initial space to compose their expression of what it was like to be inside the
experience. It's best to hear from them without the pressure of someone else's
views first which may then colour their own. It's worth asking what went well
for them and why.
If there are professional role players involved, the role player(s)
can make their comments after the participant and observers have expressed
their observations. It often happens organically anyway (once you have set it
up) that once the participant has formulated out loud what happened for them,
the observers will start to offer their feedback and in the process will
include the professional role player. It is important though that the
(non-professional role player) person or persons involved in the role play go
first.
Role play rules are basically simple: role plays must be focused; the
objectives must be clear and understood; instructions must be clear and
understood; feedback needs to be specific, relevant, achievable and given
immediately. Crucial to learning and developing options of behaviour - knowing
what works, what doesn't work, the range of behaviour available to an
individual - is the opportunity to go back and have another go or several goes
at bits of the role play and/or the whole role play. This flexibility needs
judging and managing on each occasion, so as to provide a more comfortable
experience, and to double the learning value. Aside from which, when you plan
and run proper role play sessions, participants will often tell you they
actually enjoyed the experience; that they forgot it was a role play, and found
it the most powerful learning they've ever experienced!
This free article is aimed to help non-professional role play trainers
and facilitators (ie., those without an acting background) to create and
provide effective role playing for training and development, and includes the
same principles that professional role play facilitators use in designing,
writing, and delivering specialised role playing training activities.
This article is provided by Edward Harbour and Jill Connick of AIM
Associates (Drama) Limited, a London-based specialist consultancy using drama
in learning and development, and its contribution is gratefully acknowledged.
Please give similar acknowledgement when you use or pass on their methods.
The design, facilitation and training of role playing are at the core of
AIM's expertise. If you'd like more information or advice about role playing
please contact them: phone +44 (0)20 8829 8978, website:
www.aimass.com or email:
info@aimass.com.
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