FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 7th November 2007

Experiential training - it’s not just role-playing

In any forward thinking company the challenge is to ensure that the skills and capabilities of its staff evolve ever faster in order to assimilate continuous change whilst preserving the culture of the organisation. Traditional training techniques, whilst improving skills, almost always fail to recognise the importance of helping delegates retain new knowledge in a way that supports the culture and ethos of the organisation. Debra Stevens, Director of Sold Out Trainers, a leading company in the creation of training programmes that fit the prevailing cultures and specific requirements of corporate and international companies, explores how experiential training is driving other traditional, staid training methods out of enlightened organisations for good.

Retaining a competitive edge involves re-skilling and refreshing staff. Existing people will be moved into new positions, sometimes from back office to customer facing roles. New people will join the organisation and need to be up-to-speed and delivering value as quickly as possible. Mergers and acquisitions are now common place. Through all of these changes maintaining a high degree of staff motivation is imperative. Added to this is the pressure of helping staff cope with an ever more demanding and even litigious society.

The chalk-and-talk wake up call

Successful people focused companies know that they must respond to these pressures and that the abilities of their staff play a vital role in their fight to remain competitive. Far too many businesses though have not woken up to the fact that it is their staple fare of “chalk-and-talk” style training where delegates sit in a room and are “presented to” that often leaves them trailing behind their competition.

Whilst such traditional styles of training may be able to convey some “nuts and bolts” technical skills to delegates, with the broader “soft” skills that modern organisations must develop as ever more sophisticated and skilled staff move into customer facing or people interaction roles, then “chalk-and-talk” simply fails to deliver the skills that delegates can quickly put into practice. Just as importantly, this style training can never convey any of the subtly of how new skills support the culture and ethos of the organisation – a culture that in many cases has taken years of hard work to build in the eyes of customers, suppliers and employees.

How many times have you heard about a merger or acquisition after which staff are herded through courses so that they learn how to “fit” into their new company? Or a major reorganisation in a business that demands staff must take up new roles that deliver “value” and so they are hurried through courses that enable them to “better manage” customers or suppliers? It doesn’t take long to realise that standard “off-the-peg” courses that organisations so readily rely on, but which have had little time or attention paid to structuring them around the fundamental principles of the business environment in which delegates will be working, actually deliver little or no long-term value.

Stena Line, one of the world’s leading ferry companies is an organisation that understands these points. Training Officer Jim Gaffney explains: “We wanted to implement a customer service training programme for our staff on the Stranraer to Belfast ferry line, but were looking for training and coaching techniques that could mimic specific real life situations so that the delegates understood how to represent the company in what can sometimes be difficult situations.”

The fear of role play

Modern technology has done nothing to help in this either. The ubiquitous Powerpoint presentations, often relied on in too many corporate training courses, may contain eye-catching graphics, slide changes and impressive multi media, but impart less to delegates than even the true “chalk-and-talk” style of presentation of a trainer with a whiteboard and pen.

There are a number of derivations of the traditional styles of training that organisations have used in an attempt to overcome some of these weaknesses. Role play is one such technique that is often incorporated. In principle, this allows delegates to try out new skills in a non-threatening situation. However, for many it is anything other than non-threatening. Work colleagues, maybe even their own boss, take on opposite roles. Testosterone and previous grudges come to the fore and the role play that is meant to practice skills often turns into a contest of dominance.

Role play scenarios are often rather false with the sparring partner playing out a role they don’t really understand and simply trying to “gain points”. The result is that little is actually gained and the personalities exhibited are unlikely to reinforce the desired culture the company wants to portray. In fact, mention in the joining instructions that there will be an opportunity for role play during a training course and wait for the rush of doctor’s notes as the first day of the looms large on the horizon!

Peoples’ attitude to life long learning is evolving though. Gone are the days when you would stay with the same company, sometimes even in the same job, from cradle to grave, and so individuals are seeking a new style of self discovery – developing deep skills that they can take with them to new roles or new companies. Organisations should not fear this change as it means that their staff are actually more aware of the need to raise their skills and so will be more receptive to challenging and thought provoking training that is structured around the realities of the issues they face in their day-to-day jobs. Building on this change in behaviour is the way forward.

The journey of self discovery

Experiential training is a relatively new technique that brings together an individual’s self discovery with the needs of an organisation to develop new skills in its staff that they can quickly apply to support the desired ethos and culture. Unlike “chalk-and-talk”, delegates do not sit in front of any presentations and unlike traditional role play, confrontation between colleagues is avoided. Delegates have the opportunity to develop awareness at their own pace working in familiar scenarios and situations.

The key to achieving this is through the use of specially trained actors. We are not talking here about the John Cleese type of training videos of the 1980’s that, although often entertaining, are in the main just another derivation of “chalk-and-talk”. Experiential training is about immersing the delegates into scenarios where they start and discover for themselves what works and what doesn’t work.

Actors are briefed with detailed scenarios based on the company and its culture and then “play out” roles in theatre workshops. Delegates “direct” the actors as to how to play those roles and so can experiment what the outcome will be using different approaches and personalities. There is no right and wrong, as in real life it is often unexpected compromises that deliver the desired result.

Jim Gaffney explains how this worked at Stena Line: “Delegates had the chance to ‘direct’ scenes, ‘pausing’ and ‘rewinding’ the live action and dictating to the actors how they should respond. Afterwards, delegates could ask the actors how they felt during a scene, what affected them, and why they acted in a certain way.”