Activity:- Role Play

Description:- Role-playing takes place between two or more people, who act out roles to
explore a particular scenario. It's most useful to help you or your team prepare for unfamiliar
or difficult situations. For example, you can use it to practice sales meetings, interviews,
presentations, or emotionally difficult conversations, such as when you're resolving conflict.

By acting scenarios like these out, you can explore how other people are likely to respond to
different approaches; and you can get a feel for approaches that are likely to work, and for
those that might be counter-productive. You can also get a sense of what other people are
likely to be thinking and feeling in the situation.

Also, by preparing for a situation using role-play, you build up experience and self-
confidence with handling the situation in real life, and you can develop quick and
instinctively correct reactions to situations. This means that you'll react effectively as
situations evolve, rather than making mistakes or becoming overwhelmed by events.

How to Use Role Play

It is easy to set up and run a role-playing session. It will help to follow the five steps below.

Step 1: Identify the Situation

To start the process, gather people together, introduce the problem, and encourage an open
discussion to uncover all of the relevant issues. This will help people to start thinking about
the problem before the role-play begins.

If you're in a group and people are unfamiliar with each other, consider doing some
icebreaker exercises beforehand.

Step 2: Add Details

Next, set up a scenario in enough detail for it to feel "real." Make sure that everyone is clear
about the problem that you're trying to work through, and that they know what you want to
achieve by the end of the session.

Step 3: Assign Roles

Once you've set the scene, identify the various fictional characters involved in the scenario.
Some of these may be people who have to deal with the situation when it actually happens
(for example, salespeople). Others will represent people who are supportive or hostile,
depending on the scenario (for example, an angry client).

Once you've identified these roles, allocate them to the people involved in your exercise; they
should use their imagination to put themselves inside the minds of the people that they're
representing. This involves trying to understand their perspectives, goals, motivations, and
feelings when they enter the situation. (You may find the Perceptual Positions technique
useful here.)

Step 4: Act Out the Scenario

Each person can then assume their role, and act out the situation, trying different approaches
where necessary.

It can be useful if the scenarios build up in intensity. For instance, if the aim of your role-play
is to practice a sales meeting, the person playing the role of the potential client could start as
an ideal client, and, through a series of scenarios, could become increasingly hostile and
difficult. You could then test and practice different approaches for handling situations, so that
you can give participants experience in handling them.

Step 5: Discuss What You Have Learned

When you finish the role-play, discuss what you've learned, so that you or the people
involved can learn from the experience.

Further Tips

Some people feel threatened or nervous when asked to role-play, because it involves acting.
This can make them feel silly, or that they've been put on the spot.

To make role-playing less threatening, start with a demonstration. Hand two "actors" a
prepared script, give them a few minutes to prepare, and have them act out the role-play in
front of the rest of the group. This approach is more likely to succeed if you choose two
outgoing people, or if you're one of the actors in the demonstration.

Another technique for helping people feel more comfortable is to allow them to coach you
during the demonstration. For instance, if you're playing the role of a customer service
representative who's dealing with an angry customer, people could suggest what you should
do to make things right.

Key Points
Role-playing happens when two or more people act out roles in a particular scenario. It's
most useful for helping you prepare for unfamiliar or difficult situations.

You can also use it to spark brainstorming sessions, improve communication between team
members, and see problems or situations from different perspectives.

To role-play:

a. Identify the situation.

Example role-play exercise 1 – The Angry Customer

“You are the sales manager of a small firm. You receive a telephone call from an angry
customer who bought a home security system from your company but is not happy with it.
They are now threatening to take their story to a consumer watchdog and to the trading
standards ombudsman. Your objective is to resolve the issue with the minimum damage to
the company (both financially & in terms of our reputation). Plan your response and prepare
to call the customer.”

Example role-play exercise 2 – Internal Negotiation

“You are a team member. The other role player is your manager. You have worked for this
company for 4 years, having worked for your Manager for the last 2 years. The work is very
enjoyable however you get very little development time from the boss, and you are very keen
to get on. The manager does the annual appraisal every February with you. Lots of promises
are made, however nothing seems to get done. There’s always an excuse.

Samantha, who does a similar job for a different boss, always seems to get plenty of time
with him – reviewing performance, action planning, different projects, extra responsibility.
She’s even spent some time in another part of the organisation for a couple of weeks on
secondment.

You are determined to tackle your manager about this. An opportunity has just cropped up to
sit down with him/ her. Your task is to influence your manager to give you more time to
develop you. Make sure you get a firm commitment such as the first ‘coaching’ session put in
the diary.”