Discussion and Role Play

Getting Teams to Discuss/Role Play

The research is really clear, the best training method is role-playing. The research is in, team members hate role play.  We are going to talk about what we are going to say to the client and we are going to practice what we say.         

1. Set the mood – turn the music up
2. Seating arrangement – shuffle people around
3. Start small – simple questions with obvious answers and low stakes answers
4. Give introverts time to write – everyone participates
5. Collect written responses from groups
6. Prime the meeting – ask for help getting people talking ahead of time from your people who know the topic or who are forces of positivity
7. Call on people – after people have time to write their thoughts down
8. Stall them out – you have to be willing to sit in the silence and wait for them to respond
9. Collect everything and promise nothing
10. Celebrate those who respond 

• Thanks
• Praise for the idea/input
• MAKE IT SAFE!!!
• Never turn it back on them or penalize them for sticking their neck out