It certainly wasn’t where I expected to find inspiration for my next article. I didn’t even want to be there. It was at times uncomfortable. But in the end, a very worthwhile experience.
I was sitting on one of those really small primary school chairs with my knees in my ears. It would appear for the second time that week my daughter had “settled a score” in a manner which was “not acceptable within the school’s ethos”.
Someone called her a name, she bopped them. Her very intelligent, (although maybe a little too officious schoolteacher) shared with me some “tools” that we could use to “work through these challenging and multi-contextual scenarios….”.
“Mark, role-play is a great tool. Now, let me pretend that I am calling you a name….”. I got up and whacked him.
Apparently that wasn’t the intended reaction. “Use your words please…now lets try again”.
In the end I had to agree that role-play was very good. My 8 year old really had to think scenario’s through and later that week, it worked. Examining the granular detail of what “talking our way through the situation” actually entailed was very different from “don’t hit them”.
So often we only investigate after the drama has occurred. We regularly debrief after a rude phone call, a painful customer or a nasty experience that doesn’t have a win-win available.
But how often do we “pre-brief” and prepare ? Mostly, never. Most of us are reactive, not pro active. Role-play turns the unexpected to the predicted and has words ready for the situation.
Think about where someone says “but I can get that for $20 cheaper on a website”.
Do you tell them where that $20 might nicely fit or do you have something quirky to say like “Really, you spent a few hours online to do that?”.
OK, maybe you won’t be such a smarty-pants but you could opt for “Yes, we know some of the low cost carriers with long connection times will discount; I guess it depends on how valuable your time is.”
How’s about when they say “I know I didn’t ask for travel insurance but….”
Or
“I don’t want to speak to you I want to speak to your boss….”
Or
“You smell in your mum dresses you funny!”
(The answer to the last one is you smack them around the head, unless you are in grade 2 in which case, you just dob. You don’t smell, your hygiene is wonderful etc…)
It ‘s great to hear how things sound before you say them in context, economise words, ensure the inflection and delivery gets the desired result. You can try with friends, strangers or colleagues to see how they respond to your response.
In a psychology sense, you utilise your higher brain functions in planning and execution rather than reverting to “caveman brain” when you are under pressure. When buying a house the last thing you want to do is get over excited and bid $10,000 more than the bank will loan you…
But there are risks associated with role-play. A response of “well that was no good, what should we do differently” can sap someone’s confidence. However if you work through and ask “how did it sound, how did it make you feel saying it” can actually teach staff how to fish as opposed to handing over a snapper.
Travel agents will always have a significant advantage over OTA’s and that is the humanity.
Practice it, develop it, the more human and you will be ready for those very human scenarios.