A CLASSIFICATION OF STRUCTURED EXPERIENCES

The following listing reflects the classification of structured experiences in the Pfeiffer &
Company Handbook series and the Annual series. Each of the major categories has been divided
into subcategories. Of course, many structured experiences can be adapted for a variety of
training purposes. The learnings from a structured experience in any category will depend, in
part, on the participants: on their learning needs, their past experiences, their reactions to the
activity, and their (and the facilitator’s) ability to process their observations and reactions in such
a way that significant learning occurs. If the experiential learning cycle is completed thoroughly,
there will be the optimum potential for participants to transfer their learning.

1. Individual Development
These activities focus on the expansion of personal insight and awareness.

Sensory Awareness: Activities that focus on personal awareness and skills through the
exploration of the senses.

Self-Disclosure: Activities that teach the ability to reveal oneself to others.

Sex Roles: Activities that help a person to see assumptions he or she may have about sex roles
and the effects of these assumptions.

Diversity: Activities that expand awareness of personal stereotypes and prejudices and their
effects.

Life/Career Planning: Activities that allow a person to evaluate the present and the future of his
or her career or life.

2. Communication
These activities emphasize verbal, nonverbal, and metaverbal communication patterns and
enhance skills in these areas in both interpersonal and group situations.

Awareness: activities that illustrate what happens when people communicate, either verbally or
nonverbally.

Building Trust: activities to create trust and a climate of openness and learning.

Conflict: activities that develop skills to recognize and deal with interpersonal conflict
situations.

Feedback: activities that promote awareness of how others can help a person to understand the
impact of his or her behavior and that encourage acceptance of the opinions or feelings of others.
Listening: Skill-building activities that help people to listen actively.

Styles: activities that identify communication styles and deal with issues of style in interpersonal
interactions.

3. Problem Solving
These activities focus on the skills that constitute effective problem solving.

Generating Alternatives: activities that offer practice in this early step in problem solving.
Information Sharing: activities that demonstrate the importance of sharing information
effectively in problem solving.

Consensus/Synergy: activities to develop the group’s skills at reaching general agreement and
commitment to its decisions and goals.

Action Planning: activities that teach the skill of action planning.

4. Teams
These activities focus on how work teams organize and function to accomplish objectives.

How Groups Work: activities that help team members to develop skills in observing what is
taking place within their work team.

Roles: activities that identify and explore various roles played by members of a work team.
Problem Solving/Decision Making: activities that teach these necessary skills within a work
team.

Feedback: activities that encourage the exchange of effective feedback within a work team.

Conflict and Intergroup Issues: activities that develop skills to surface and handle conflicts
within a work team and between work groups.

5. Leadership
These activities emphasize the skills needed for effective leadership behavior.

Ethics: activities that allow individuals to examine the ethical implications of their assumptions
and behaviors.

Interviewing/Appraisal: activities to develop skills needed in interviewing and appraisal

Motivation: activities that deal with issues of motivation in interactions between leaders and
members of a group.
 Diversity/Stereotyping: activities that look at values and prejudices within personal and
organizational contexts and how these factors affect the functioning of a group or organization.
Styles: activities that identify leadership styles and deal with issues of style in interactions
between leaders and members of a group.

6. Consulting and Facilitating

Consulting: Awareness: activities that help people to be aware of the forces that affect the
functioning of their organizations.

Consulting: Diagnosing/Skills: activities that focus on diagnosing organizational problems that

Facilitating: Opening: activities designed to “warm up” members of a learning group that is
meeting for the first time; to recharge the group when energy is low; or to create a climate of
trust, openness, and learning within the group.

Facilitating: Blocks to Learning: activities developed to deal with situations in which learning
is blocked through the interference of other dynamics—conscious or unconscious—in the group.

Facilitating: Skills: activities designed to develop the facilitative abilities of trainers, group
leaders, and group facilitators.

Facilitating: Closing: activities to use at the end of a training event.

7. Groups
These activities focus on how individuals affect group functioning and how groups organize and
function to accomplish objectives.

How Groups Work: activities that help to develop skills in observing what is taking place
within a group.

Competition/Collaboration: activities that deal with both the competitive tendencies that emerge
within groups and the appropriateness of collaborative behavior.

Conflict: activities that develop skills to surface and handle conflicts in a group.

Negotiating/Bargaining: activities that deal with the effects of win-win and win lose approaches to
resolving differences.
Case Study Role Plays

Chapter 1 Role Play: The Case for Flexibility

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: Tom Jacobson meets with Walter Harrington to discuss offering flexible job
arrangements and training programs to the employees at TJE.

• Setting: The office of TJE President Tom Jacobson

• Goal: Tom Jacobson hopes to persuade Walter Harrington to implement flextime, part-time
jobs, job-sharing, family leaves, and a daycare center.

Chapter 2 Role Play: The Case for Going Global

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: Sergei Markov meets with Alexei Romantov to consider whether Phonetika should
go global.

• Setting: The Phonetika conference room in Moscow, Russia

• Goal: Alexei Romantov wants to arrive at an agreement with Sergei Markov that Phonetika
will become a global corporation.

Chapter 3 Role Play: The Case for Mergers

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: George Harris, Patrick Fitzgerald, and Paula Bergman meet to discuss the options
that International Airlines (IA) can choose to prevent a hostile takeover by Roland Crane.

• Setting: The IA conference room

• Goal: Patrick Fitzgerald wants to persuade George Harris and Paula Bergman to agree to a
merger with Worldwide Airlines. (WA)

Chapter 4 Role Play: The Case for Language

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: Luciana Saliba offers Rogerio de Almeida the opportunity, financed by Quantum SA,
to study for a graduate degree at the University of Texas.

• Setting: Luciana’s office at Quantum SA in Curitiba, Brazil.

Chapter 5 Role Play: The Case for Brand Names

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: Jorge Hernandez talks to Alejandra Santos about his assignment to choose a new
brand name for FMF.

• Setting: Jorge’s office at FMF in Mexico City, Mexico

• Goal: Jorge hopes to get Alejandra’s support for his choice of a new brand name

Chapter 6 Role Play: The Case for E-Commerce

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: The eight members of the Taitech corporate executive group meet to consider selling
new entertainment products.

• Setting: The executive conference room at Taitech in Taiwan

• Goal: Chen-Hao Hu wants to convince the executive group that Taitech should sell adult
entertainment products.

Chapter 7 Role Play: The Case for Computer Crime

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: David Burnside talks to Karen Hanley about her computer abuse at E&G Insurance.

• Setting: A cafe near Karen’s apartment in Toronto, Ontario.

• Goal: David intends to make Karen understand the possible legal consequences of her actions
and persuade her to close her business, Hanley Associates.

Chapter 8 Role Play: The Case for Cloning

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: Valerie and Michael O’Sullivan talk with Dr. Edgar Bellino about whether to adopt
a child or to use cloning.

• Setting: Dr. Bellino’s office in San Francisco, California

• Goal: Valerie hopes she can persuade Michael to have a baby through cloning after he listens
to Dr. Bellino’s explanation of the technique.
Chapter 9 Role Play: The Case for Longevity

After you plan and practice the following role play, perform it for the class.

• Scenario: Vijay Ramachandas talks with Eliot, the coordinator of the study, about the
discouraging results of the Imortale study.

• Setting: Vijay’s office in Madras, India

• Goal: Vijay and Eliot have to decide whether to stop the study of Imortale or to continue it.