Role Plays

Role Plays

Role play can be defined as a technique in which people are presented wit a real or artificial environment and they are exposed with some find of case or situation and they need to exhibit the same in form of roles.

It is a spontaneous human interaction involving realistic human behavior under artificial or stimulated environment.It consists of interviews or series of interview in which the participants or the trainees are provided with a role brief and a s et of circumstances which they need to enact.

The trainee develops a strategy to how should he react or think in a particular situation and possible suggestive solutions for resolving the problem or analyzing the situation.He also learns and forecasts what the other party or as per the case may be what can be the other reaction.

This technique thus not only leads to self learning about expected job outcome or to create a fit in the job but also helps in understanding others perception about the task or issue.

Objectives of Role play as a training technique-

It helps in developing a better understanding of the job

It helps in understanding how to handle a particular situation.

It helps in developing better understanding of the issue an better decision making

It helps in anticipating reaction of other party

It helps in developing communication, management development and leadership quality.

It helps in improvement of interpersonal relationship

It helps in providing an insight to understanding behavioral patterns of others

Salient Features of Role play as a training method for learning

Learning by doing- Since in this the participant plays role as per the given circumstances he learns practically and understands the demand or requirement of skill set to resolve or get the task done.

Learning through imitation – while playing the new or the expected role the participant gets the feelings about the other persona and tries his best to include and accrue all traits of the given role. Thus he gets an opportunity to understand, analyze and reflect the other person perception and behavior.

Learning through observation and feedback – This method helps in dual learning. The trainee not only learns and reinforces the concepts by self learning but also develops an understanding about a new role. This approach helps in building good decision making ability, management capacity and leadership overall.

Learning though analysis and conceptualization – The role played by the trainee helps in analyzing the various skills involve din he role right from domain, conceptual, design or human skills and thus helps in designing a broader understanding and clear outlook towards task.

Reasons and areas for selecting role play as training technique –

The trainer or the facilitator should be very logical and clear about the purpose of using this as a training technique.The success of role play depends on the role brief, set circumstances and the utility expected from he technique.

The areas where the trainer and get the trainees benefited with this method includes –

To practice behavior where new role needs to be assigned to individual or as on anticipated problem situation.

To analyze the problem situation and develop approach and technique to resolve it

To learn insight into motivation and roles of others

To develop new skills and insight on resolving problems

To develop a holistic understanding of the job for present as well as future

Benefits or outcome of role play as a training technique

It helps in both cognitive and effective development of trainees and better learning by doing.

It permits practice by repetition and helps in better reinforcement

It also helps in improving human relation since it helps I developing empathy

It helps in making people sensitive towards others

It helps in better SWOT analysis of individuals and thus the feedback given helps in identifying and overcoming the deficiencies.

It enables the role player to control his behavior and enact as if he is enacting in a real life situation

It helps in bringing attitudinal changes in the employees as trainees

It is a more practical approach than other technique since in this the learning by doing and feedback that whether a behavior reflected is acceptable or requires change can be given.

Reverse Role Plays

Reverse role-plays are helpful methods for gaining understanding of another person’s view point. It works equally well when the objective is to see how oneself is perceived by others. Reverse role-playing requires sensitive monitoring by the instructors.

Rotation Role Plays

Rotation in role plays is just slight variation on doubling.

In this the learners are in greater control of the content and process. The advantage of rotation is that the participative base can be spread throughout the class. Role playing also permits added dimensions to the analysis of the situation or to the motivation of the characters.

Simulation

Simulations somewhat like action mazes being role-played.

simulation are training techniques that attempt to bring realistic decision making situations to the trainee. Likely problems and alternative solutions are presented for discussion. The adage there is no better trainer than experience is exemplified with this type of training. Experienced employees can describe real world experiences, and can help in and learn from developing the solutions to these simulations. This method is cost effective and is used in marketing and management training.

Games

T & D specialties feel that the gamed simulations increase the energy and commitment of the participants. When people participate in games, may behaviors manifest themselves.

Some of these behaviors may be defined as contributive to or counterproductive to group goals. Thus games are sometimes used in organization development programs as both diagnostic and training tools.

Games can be used to develop specific skills also.

Clinics

Clinics, in learning designs, are session in which learners devote their angry to solving a given problem. Clinics thus use given problem. They are helpful in developing problem-solving, decision making or team membership skills.

Critical Incidents

Critical incident method also identifies and analysis actual participant experiences as a basis for better understanding real problems, or expanding insights by analyzing the critical incidents in the career of the participants.

The critical incident method varies slightly from the clinic or from just having participants write up their own case studies.

This method is used extensively in upper management or executive development programs.

Fishbowl

A useful way to study group processes is the fishbowl method. It is carried out with two teams. Team A is assigned a topic which is to say, for 30 minutes. The task is unstructured and the team can elect a leader or it can cover the topic in a free discussion. Team B seated around team A and observes the process. Its members are not free to interrupt the discussion, but when it is finished they are given about 15 minutes in which to criticize and comment on Team A’s performance in process terms only. Team A does not have the right to reply or even to comment on any criticisms at this stage.

The roles of the two teams are then reversed, team B being given the topic to discuss and Team a taking up positions around team B as observers. After Team A has given its judgment, the two teams come together in a full group session and notes are exchanged on the processes which were observed in the two parts of the exercise.

Computer-Based Training

CBT- adds a valuable dimension in speeding up decision-making and also compressing the training time-scale. As the cost of computer hardware has gone up, micro-technology promotes its use in the training area. Time-sharing requires a link-up of the terminal to a remote computer by telephone line. The micro-computer can be accommodated in a limited office space and the complete system is under the user’s control. Computers are used for the teaching and training program

T-Groups

The T-group provides participants with an opportunity to learn about themselves, their impact on others and how to function more effectively in group and interpersonal situations. It facilitates this learning by bringing together a small group of people for the express purpose of studying their own behavior when they interact within a small group.

In the beginning of a T-Group participants are usually focused on what they experience as a need for structure, individual emotional safety, predictability, and something to do in common. These needs are what amount to the tip of the iceberg in most groups in their back home situation. By not filling the group’s time with answers to these needs, the T-Group eventually begins to notice what is under the tip of the iceberg. It is what is always there in any group but often unseen and not responsibly engaged. So, participants experience anxiety about authority and power, being include and accepted in the group, and intimacy.