Everyone Hates Role Playing
Posted on Monday, November 30, 2009 by Frank Roche
[Photo credit: Cinefrance]
Note to my friends in Learning & Development: No one, and I mean no one, likes role playing during training. Let me rephrase that — employees hate it.
I know, you were taught in your pedagogy class that experiential learning imprints the lesson. Lemme let you in a little secret — forget that. Employees cringe when they see there’s role playing during training. Do you ever wonder why your class participation drops off when it’s time for them to channel their inner Stanislavski?
Here’s an idea: Teach. But know you’re no Lee Strasberg and don’t have an aspiring Marlon Brando in your class.
laurie ruettimann
Nov 30th, 2009
You might as well say, “You be the chump. The guy sitting next to you will be the idiot. Now waste twenty minutes, we’ll regroup, and then I’ll ask you to report out on the very obvious lessons learned from this exercise. I’ll also use this incredibly patronizing voice when I talk to everyone.”
Frank Roche
Nov 30th, 2009
@Laurie, you know how to boil it down. LOL…that would be a great slide in training.
Deborah Exo
Nov 30th, 2009
Totally disagree! NOBODY learns through teaching – blasting facts/information at your brain (and then add slides/powerpoint – even more mind numbing_…only when you have a chance to practice, “be the chump”, make a mistake, does the body and mind actually learn. So the real question is why bother to attend the class?…to check it off your development plan or actually to try something and maybe learning enough skill that some of it will stick (at least temporarily as you will need to practice again, “be the chump” until you have mastered it).
Terrillific
Nov 30th, 2009
Some people do hate role playing and some love it. It depends on their personality types too whether they will be open to it and also the organizational environment as well. Most of our training involves improv exercises which requires participants to do some acting. They maybe reluctant at first but as long as you make it safe they start to get into it. You start with low gradient exercises and gradually increase the challenges later in the program. Learning new skills takes practice, practice, practice. The key to role playing is to make it interesting and fun. Check out Thiagi.com for great ideas, games and structured activities for training.
Frank Roche
Nov 30th, 2009
@Deborah I would suggest that most people learned a huge amount of what they know by teaching. For visual learners, they learned from reading.
I think doing matters, but role playing is consistently handled so poorly that it’s shocking. L&D people don’t like to hear that employees hate role playing because it doesn’t reconcile with what they think is right. I say, look at what’s in front of our eyes.
Frank Roche
Nov 30th, 2009
I like the idea of professionally handled exercises. Interesting approach and cool reference. Thanks for that.
Chitra Sen
Nov 30th, 2009
Thank you for starting the discussion on role playing and its role in employee learning & development. When we realize that employees hate role playing, we should break down and identify the following separately:
· Is role playing as a concept helpful for the employees?
· Do employees not like current role playing techniques in place?
To me role playing is like a NFL team playing a few pre-seasons game to get ready for the real games. In HR, when we deal with real human beings there is no second-chance and no guess work. Hence preparing and practicing is important.
Now let us dissect how employees perceive the current role playing techniques.
1. Is it that the current role playing, at times, insults the intelligence of an employee? Is it perceived to be too silly or game like?
2. Is it that employee is asked to get or start a role playing without understanding why he or she is doing it?
Understanding each of the above issues is important, as it help us develop an evolved set of role playing techniques that will effective. And to be effective, getting buy-in from employee before they do role playing is important.
In order for the role playing to be truly successful, here are some of my thoughts. Firstly, we should look at “really out there” solutions. For example, if we create a computer model where the employee can interact in different kinds of web/avatar personalities and practice in a virtual world, that would allow employees to feel safe and explore at their own pace. Secondly, instead of asking employees to participate in role playing, the supervisor could provide examples of how he/she uses role playing on regular basis to learn and develop and how to show case the benefits of the process in decision making and how one can be a better HR professional.
If anyone practicing any of these is “really out there”, would love to learn about your thoughts.
Chitra Sen, Dallas
Frank Roche
Dec 1st, 2009
Hi Chitra,
Good thoughts. I will talk from my own experience in my early to mid career, where I had to endure ill-conceived and poorly executed training “games.” My sense was that the trainers didn’t really know how to teach, but they knew that role playing should be part of the curriculum, so they used it. And did it badly.
I honestly don’t know anyone who could practice a performance review in training, for example, and then do a good job as a manager in a performance review. I’d say we should teach more introspection and more motivation theory…and not give people books with 2,600 Phrases to Say in Performance Reviews and its cousin, the single role play in training.
Secondly, people don’t like to be embarrassed. It’s embarrassing to have to turn to your “neighbor” and introduce yourself as a character. That worked great when we were 4 years old, but back then we didn’t have a trainer standing in front of us telling us how to play act.
Very interesting about the “really out there” approach. I’ll be interested to hear what other have experienced.
Benjamin McCall
Dec 1st, 2009
I agree that noone likes role play or simulations but I will have to but heads with you on this… I think for some skills it is essential. better to practice and hate it then be in a real situation with a real person/customer and they hate you.
I even hate role play but i think it has it’s place!
Chitra Sen
Dec 1st, 2009
Benjamin, your thoughts regarding role playing having its place is true and it is being practiced heavily by various organizations. Though role playing is not employee’s most favorite way of getting trained, it becomes imperative that trainers and coaches implement them properly keeping in mind that they themselves are adequately trained to use role playing properly. Perhaps preparing the employees well in advance and getting expert feedback could work?
Julie Kay
Dec 2nd, 2009
Have to disagree with the point that most people learn from teaching. They learn from real life experiences and reflection. I have never once seen a baby pick up a book on how to walk before giving it a try and then trying again and again. The research backs up the fact that 70% of our learning and development comes from experience, 20% from role models and 10% from courses and books. (centre for creative leadership)
As a trainer myself I leverage this is by using as many work based scenarios, story, examples as possible and follow up with work based projects, assignments and devlopment opportunities.
I also distinguish between role play (acting – not good) and real play (practicing real life scenarios – good)
Julie Kay
Dec 2nd, 2009
I have to disagree with your comments about teaching if by that you mean telliing, information giving, being presenter led. People learn by doing and reflecting. I have never yet seen a baby learn to walk by picking up and reading a book. They try it and then keep trying until they learn. Research consistantly finds variations on the theme of 70% of our learning comes from experience 20% from role models and 10% from training and books (Centre for Creative Leadership)
As a trainer I leverage that by using work related scenarios, examples and stories and following up with work based developmental assignments, projects etc.
I also want to distinguish between role play (acting – not good) and real play (real life scenario’s – good) People may hate that too (or the idea of it) but nobody learned to do anything differently without getting out of their comfort zones. The trainers job is to make the context safe to experiment. I hate exercise but it doesnt do me any good to avoid it.
Frank Roche
Dec 3rd, 2009
Hi Julie,
My take is that teaching involves a lot more than telling. I think we both know the academic research bears out that there are 3 distinct learning styles — visual, auditory and kinesthetic. That was a very clever red herring to say that babies don’t learn by picking up a book and reading it. I think you know that’s not what I was suggesting whatsoever, but it was a clever device. Here’s one from me: No one learned to be a manager by sitting in a training class.
I think the best trainers use all the techniques available to them. But ask around. Don’t cherry pick research. Ask people about their experiences with role playing. Perhaps you’re one of those one-in-a-thousand trainers who does it right. I bet you are. Many others are amateurs.
Re: Your example of exercising. Q.E.D. Role playing about exercising won’t work. You actually have to DO it.
Frank Roche
Dec 3rd, 2009
Benjamin, I think the practicing had better be super well done. There’s nothing like preparing and anticipating. Examining scenarios. I’m for that.
Frank Roche
Dec 3rd, 2009
Chitra, I think you hit the nail on the head. My sense from being in a lot of training classes is that many trainers are poorly trained. So, they do the role playing exercises poorly.
I’d imagine there are some good ones out there and I’d welcome a guest writer to describe how to really make them work if anyone wants to do that.
Chitra Sen
Dec 3rd, 2009
Thank you for your comments Frank, Benjamin and Julie. Great thoughts and opinions you have presented.
Julie, the research you shared reconfirms that past experience and learning from them is one of the best ways to improve; as “experiencing” and “learning from them” are the some of the best way to be on a path of “constant self improvement”. But, unfortunately, not all of us get a chance to experience situations before we have to deal with them. Isn’t that the reason one needs to use role playing to simulate the experience one does not have yet?
Let me ask you and the group two specific questions:
A customer service representative (CSR) getting on a phone first time, to deal with unhappy customers will not be able to experience different situations. Wouldn’t it help the CSR if he/she is made aware of challenges faced by other CSR’s and then practices role playing as to how to best respond? This will simulate experience and give them confidence to deal with real life situation.
This one is personal. Being a fresh Rutger’s University MA graduate in HR seeking an HR job in Dallas, I am regularly hitting a roadblock that I do not have necessary industry experience. We all know everybody starts somewhere without the first experience. For me, I am looking at the roadblock as a challenge and an opportunity. Hence to get ready and prepared for first job I am doing two things: First, learning from experienced professionals like yourselves (where I can get benefitted from your past experience) and second, role playing situations that I will face so that I am prepared and am confident.
Hence to me, it is all about being best prepared for situations on the job front, and being prepared could come from past experience, learning from other’s experience or role playing.
Thoughts?
Julie Kay
Dec 4th, 2009
Hi Chitra
Thanks for your questions. It must be very challenging for someone in your position fresh from University to leverage your experience when applying for jobs and I want to acknowledge your commitment and positivity in developing the necessary skills.
There are at least two areas of debate for me related to Franks original post. 1) How people learn best and 2) What role play is and whether it should be used or not because of how learners respond to it.
1. I think to learn we need both training and experience and the two most be intertwined. People can have been in a job 20 yrs and only learned for the first year. They might benefit from a framework to help them raise their awareness and draw out and apply their learning. Equally people can be addicted to attending courses, reading books etc. and never apply their learning in the workplace or their lives. For me the answer is to take blended learning approach and ensure any “classroom” learning is based on real work situations and re-inforced back on the job.
2. The second argument is around whether role play shouldnt be used because a. everyone hates it and b. they are not actors. I am not against role play but feel it should not involve acting. Take your CSR for example I would not use role play based on what experienced CSR’s say are the challenges as you may struggle to relate to those. I might ask you as the learner to use expamples of recent good and bad experiences you have had as a customer and have you “real play” those from both perspectives e customer and then CSR. Makes it more real and useful.
In your preparation for work you could consider what learning you are gaining of HR from your very real experience as a graduate looking for a job, and from seeing if you could shadow other HR people or volunteer to help on assessment centres etc.
Hope that clarifies my position and helps you a little?
All the best for your future.
Julie
Nathaniel
Dec 7th, 2009
Agreed! Can’t take it, I automatically shut off. It makes me feel like I’m in kindergarten.
Chitra Sen
Dec 7th, 2009
Thank you so much for making this discussion so interesting. Thank you for your good wishes Julie. Based on advises from peers, career-connections, etc, I am trying to get into volunteering. I am certain I will get an opportunity to serve my community before I embark on a professional career.
You included some great thoughts about blended learning and “real play” approaches. Yours and everyone’s experiences will prove to be a feather in my cap as I proceed with my job search.
Julie, I came across your website and saw that you have been sending your thoughts from UK. Can you perhaps shed some light about what kind of training approaches organizations practice in UK, as far as role play is concerned?