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Business Roleplaying: How Professionals Train Themselves Through Fictional Situations (Track This Article)

The importance of role play, especially in today’s corporate world cannot be underestimated. Several companies have felt the need to spend money, time and resources in conducting workshops, seminars, trips outside the office to boost employee productivity and improve interpersonal relationships both among employees and between employees and subordinates.

An important tool which is used by trainers and consultants at these workshops is the extensive use of role play .What this entails is that imaginary situations are suggested or described and teams which have been formed among employees present at these sessions are given instructions to act out those situations ;they are asked to take on the roles of people described for that particular situation .After this, both viewers and the actual participants are asked to analyze the roles of various “actors” and how successful or unsuccessful they were while playing those roles ;they are also asked to systematically point out the strengths of the various “actors” and the weaknesses also, so that when such situations actually transpire in day-to-day work situations ,staff are better equipped to handle those situations and hopefully, lesser customer complaints and therefore a better corporate image and presumably enhanced productivity.

Let us take the example of a leading international airline. On a fairly regular basis, they organize such workshops, retreats or seminars where deliberately, a consultant (not an employee of the Company) is called –this has two advantages;
A. Hopefully, the employees will feel freer to discuss and raise prickly and controversial issues.
B. The consultant or the professional trainer will have the necessary qualifications to conduct such sessions is a more systematic manner.

Such sessions are held for staff in various departments, such as Accounts, Administration, Finance, Reservations and Ticketing, Airport, Marketing, Cargo. A deliberate attempt is made to mix staff from all departments together so that staff get to know one another better in a nonoffice atmosphere and also staff from various departments could provide interesting insights as to how a particular situation could have been handled better-sometimes, a staff not from that particular department may be able to provide a more sensible solution, simply because he or she may be viewing it from a more larger perspective.

Some examples of role play given for staff:

1.A mother comes with 2 infants (airline policy generally does not permit one adult traveling with 2 infants unless they pay for a child fare for one infant and so, the second infant is given a seat),with excess baggage and close to closing time for the check in counters .

This can be a very delicate situation since the lady concerned could start crying out aloud and get very emotional on being told that she cannot take both infants on infant tickets or that she needs to please pay for excess baggage or that she has come quite late. This will entail a certain amount of firmness and empathy (as opposed to sympathy).The concerned staff handling her and the Manager on Duty, will have to keep in mind that her crying out loud could attract attention from other passengers on the same airline as well as passengers traveling on other airlines .At the same time, if too much time is devoted to her, this could delay the flight and that can also annoy other passengers and cause them to miss their onward connections .
The various staff selected to play the roles, say ,for e.g., the lady passengers, the staff directly handling the passenger, the staff who may be manning the adjacent counters, the passengers, who may be standing in line for the same flight and one or two passengers traveling by another airline, will have quite a challenging task; for one, they may never have enacted such roles or any other roles previously - so such role play can be a cause for much mirth among the participants and will assist in them shedding their inhibitions especially between Managers and subordinates. It is quite possible that some staff may do a better job at these role plays as compared to some Managers.

After the role play, first, the non”actors”or viewers will have to give their views or reactions as to how various staff performed during the role plays and also what were the things to be learned during the role play-what were the things that were done correctly or excellently and where mistakes were committed so that when such a situation transpires or a similar one at the airport, hopefully staff and the Manager on Duty will be in a better position to handle it.

The "actors" will also be given an opportunity to give their feelings, views and a chance for them to analyze how they performed and where they felt they could have done a better job.

Finally, the Trainer will give his/her professional comments and analysis of the role play and the lessons which could be derived from such a role play.

Playing such a role play, in a professional manner and can only help the Company on various fronts and will only improve the efficiency and proficiency of the staff.

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Riva Celso is an independent shareware author developing shareware games since 2003. The games developed are of various kind: from pc simulation games to pc rpg games.

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