Issue 8 TOOL KIT Role Playing As a trainer or a performance consultant, you use a variety of interactive tools and strategies. Each month, the Tool Kit section explores a specific type of activity and presents practical suggestions and field-tested examples. Role playing involves participants taking on characteristics, personalities, and attitudes in order to achieve a variety of training and performance-improvement outcomes.
Participants act out a scenario in a spontaneous and realistic manner under imaginary conditions.
A Sample Role Play Imagine it is three o'clock in the afternoon of the second day of a workshop on handling customer complaints. You and ten other participants are being trained to work at the customer relations desk in a huge electronic products store. Earlier during the workshop, you went through training sessions on active listening, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills. You watched videotape demonstrations of a seven-step model for dealing with customer complaints. You now know how to apply these steps flexibly to suit the characteristics, personalities, and needs of each customer type.