Some thoughts if you are designing role-plays, commissioning people to do this for you...or just interested in knowing more. There are more points that could be added...but this might be a useful starting point.

1. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
The Essential Guide to Role-play Writing and Usage
The use of role-playing as a learning technique has been around for a long time. We often
forget that rehearsing what we want to say to someone or imagining a ‘what if’ scenario is a
type of role-play.
In a learning environment role-play can be a very flexible and effective tool. The old Chinese
saying of 'Tell me and I forget, Show me and I remember, Involve me and I understand' is
very applicable here.
Role-play is often used as a way of putting theory into practical application and can be a
very powerful learning experience, yet role-plays can also go wrong if they are badly
written, positioned, executed of debriefed. The consequences of role-plays going wrong can
range from mild frustration on behalf of the participant through to fear, anxiety,
embarrassment or even damaged future performance.
One of the main factors surrounding role-play success is the attitude or emotional state of
the people taking part. Many participants are nervous, even scared, at the thought of doing
a role-play – often due to previous poor experiences.
Role-play is defined as an experience around a specific situation which contains two or more
different viewpoints or perspectives. The situation is usually written as a prepared brief and
the different perspectives on the same situation are handed out to the different people who
will come together to discuss the situation.
Each person usually has an objective they want to meet, sometimes these objectives are in
conflict with one another. It is how each role-player handles the situation that forms the
basis of skills practice, assessment and development. The situations will be realistic and
relevant to the role-players and the most successful ones will be focused on developing a
particular skill or skill set.
Here are some guidelines that you might like to think about when planning your next
session.
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2. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
Role-play objectives
• Be clear about what you want people to get out of the role-playing experience. Vague
expectations or objectives will result in poor or unclear outcomes that are hard to debrief
or link to the skill or knowledge development you are expecting participants to
demonstrate.
• Be clear whether you are assessing skills or developing them? If assessing people, they
need to know the competency level expected of them. The role-play brief also needs to
have measurable outcomes.
• Be clear whether you intend to give everyone the same level of challenge, or flex the
role-play according the level of skill demonstrated by each individual? The former is more
recommended for assessment, the latter for development.
Types of Role-Play
There are many variations for role-plays and these are explored below. Each has advantages
and disadvantages and they need to be balanced with; the time available, the desired
outcome you want participants to achieve / experience, the link to real-life situations and
your ability as a facilitator to manage the role-play and debrief.
A paired role-play (for example a customer role and a buyer role, or a coach and a coachee).
In these situations, the following may also be variations;
• The trainer / facilitator plays one of the roles – usually the role that does NOT require
the demonstration of the skills being practiced (this is for the participant to practice).
• The trainer plays the role that DOES require a demonstration of the skills – this is used
as a ‘role-model’ demonstration – usually to show the participants what is expected.
• The role-play is conducted in front of the whole class (with the remaining participants
being observers)
• The role-play is completed in private (with the trainer circulating and playing the role
of observer. This has a number of disadvantages, particularly if many role-plays are
being conducted at the same time because the trainer cannot see all aspects of every
role-play).
• Switching – this is where the roles are swapped to ensure BOTH or ALL parties have the
opportunity to play EACH role. This has negative time implications but also positive
aspects by allowing each person a chance to experience all aspects of the situation
(often resulting in very powerful learning experiences).
Trio role-plays (as above but with the addition of an observer). The advantages include
more detailed feedback whereas disadvantages revolve around the ability of the observer to
give accurate, helpful and constructive feedback as a ‘expert’
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3. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
Group Role-plays (also known as ‘goldfish bowl or grasshopper role-plays). This is often
where the trainer will play a role (usually the ‘buyer, coachee, customer, employee etc.) and
the ENTIRE class each take it in turn to role-play with the trainer. The trainer will often
‘jump’ from one participant to the next to ensure everyone has the chance to interact. The
advantage of this is that the trainer can control participation and stop/start to uncover and
highlight good and poor examples from the group. The trainer can also spontaneously do a
role-reversal and ask a participant to take their role, whilst the trainer demonstrates what
he/she expects the participants to be able to do.
Role-playing placement - where in the programme?
• In skills development programmes, trainers often place a role-play exercise at the end of
a course, to gather in the learning, and to assess how well the participants have
understood the training. Leaving it until the end can cause anxiety in people's minds,
causing a distraction throughout the programme. So instead, introduce people to the
role-play experience by holding mini role-plays earlier and throughout the programme.
This has multiple benefits: it de-mystifies the experience so people become more
comfortable with the idea; and, it more shows role-playing to be a good tool for
rehearsing life, which is its main function.
• Be realistic in your ambitions for the role-play. For instance, if you are teaching a complex
behavioural model, break it down, rather than have people role-play it in one huge
chunk. Being over-ambitious causes people to lose confidence in themselves and in role-
playing as a tool. If you don't have time doing the whole thing, then just do a part of it.
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4. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
Role-play briefing
• Role-playing becomes ineffective if people are unclear about what they are supposed to
do. The brief should be unambiguous and totally in line with the objectives. Be clear
about the purpose. If you are assessing skills in a certain situation, then the brief must
state this.
• If you are assessing or developing behaviour, keep technicalities out of the brief.
Generally, remove technical content except for the very basic information needed to
express their reality or culture. Otherwise, lots of technical detail provides an easy escape
for those who are skilled or pre-occupied in technicalities, when they should be focusing
on structure, or process or behaviour. The exercise will keep its integrity and value if it
avoids technical distractions.
• Role-playing briefs should contain enough information for both parties to engage in a
believable and realistic conversation. Give as much detail as is necessary - too little and
there won't be enough to sustain a conversation, too much and people will be confused
or distracted with information.
• Avoid giving people the task of role-playing attitudes alone. If you want somebody to
role-play an angry customer give them something to be angry about. Behaviour, like
acting, is all about specifics and there will have been a specific chain of events that has
led to your behaviour. Role-players can forget this and in the heat of the moment tend to
get wrapped up in the emotion and over-use it. A well written brief will help to keep the
role-play focused and on track.
• Adequate preparation time may seem obvious, but is often overlooked in the belief that
it is best to ‘get on with it’. People can be encouraged to share what they are trying to
achieve with the observers, so it becomes a shared, facilitative exercise - this will also
reduce fear and tension.
• In developmental role-play, the option can be given to press the ‘pause button’ where
people feel they are getting into difficulty. Remember that in rehearsals, people stop and
start. No-one should be expected to give a 'performance'. Emphasising this too will help
to reduce people's fear and concern.
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5. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
Role-play observation and feedback
• Allow other participants to observe the role-play and give their comments afterwards.
Observers are hugely beneficial to the learning. We not only have our own response to
the role-play; we can also benefit from our role-players' observations, and tutor's point
of view, and the feedback from the observers.
• For the observers, explain clearly what you want them to look out for. Again this should
be in line with your objectives. The language of feedback is also very important. Feedback
should broadly follow SMART principles;
o Specific
o Measurable
o Agreed
o Realistic
o Time-bound
• Role-play feedback should describe specific things that the observer saw and heard,
relevant to the exercise and to the person(s) doing the role-playing.
• Role-play feedback should not contain subjective judgements or comments based on
personal knowledge or assumptions.
• Feedback should be meaningful and specific - something the role-player can act on. Role-
play feedback isn't helpful if it suggests that the role-player should 'get a new personality'
or 'be nicer'. Remind participants that the purpose of the role-play is for the
development of the person or people doing the role-play.
The order of feedback should be;
1. Participant or participants first – both what went well and what they might do differently
the next time. Also ask for their REASONS for these views and WHY they thought things
went well or not so well (that way it's untainted by others' views; it also recruits them
into their own learning experience - people 'buy in' more if they are themselves
expressing what happened and why). It's best to hear from them without the pressure of
someone else's views first which may then colour their own.
2. The observers can then feedback what they saw or heard – and it is essential that the
facilitator keeps these comments focussed, specific and relevant.
3. Then ask the participant for their reactions / thoughts based on what they have heard.
Ask if the feedback is what they were expecting, does it alter their view of their
performance? Would they change their view on action they might take next time?
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6. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
4. If there are professional role-players involved, the role-player(s) can make their
comments after the participant and observers have expressed their observations.
5. Then again ask the participant for their reactions...as above
6. The facilitator can then give their feedback – ensuring it does not repeat lots of what has
already been covered before. Often the facilitator will summarise and emphasise the key
points, often no more than two or three strengths and two or three areas for further
focus or change.
7. Finally the facilitator should ask the participant for their final reactions and what they
intend to try / do as a result of the entire experience. It can be helpful to ask the
participant HOW these changes would be displayed / noticed.
Role-play rules
Role-play rules are fundamentally straightforward – the following items must be CLEAR and
UNDERSTOOD;
• Role-plays must be; focused, relevant, realistic and objective. Participant must have
absolute clarity regarding what ‘good’ looks or sounds like – so that a clear benchmark
for expectations has been set.
• The intent must be clear to all those taking part, is it an assessment or developmental?
• Role-play instructions must avoid any ambiguity and reduce confusion.
• Feedback needs to be specific, relevant, achievable and given immediately.
• Flexibility is important – there may be occasions where you need to make an adjustment,
change the focus or have the participants re-run the role-play.
You Can always add technology to any role-play such as; Video or audio recording. The
advantages and disadvantages of these should be obvious.
Remember that once complete participants will often tell you they actually enjoyed the
experience; that they forgot it was a role-play, and found it the most powerful learning
they've experienced!
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7. The Essential Guide to Role-Play Writing and Usage
4. If there are professional role-players involved, the role-player(s) can make their
comments after the participant and observers have expressed their observations.
5. Then again ask the participant for their reactions...as above
6. The facilitator can then give their feedback – ensuring it does not repeat lots of what has
already been covered before. Often the facilitator will summarise and emphasise the key
points, often no more than two or three strengths and two or three areas for further
focus or change.
7. Finally the facilitator should ask the participant for their final reactions and what they
intend to try / do as a result of the entire experience. It can be helpful to ask the
participant HOW these changes would be displayed / noticed.
Role-play rules
Role-play rules are fundamentally straightforward – the following items must be CLEAR and
UNDERSTOOD;
• Role-plays must be; focused, relevant, realistic and objective. Participant must have
absolute clarity regarding what ‘good’ looks or sounds like – so that a clear benchmark
for expectations has been set.
• The intent must be clear to all those taking part, is it an assessment or developmental?
• Role-play instructions must avoid any ambiguity and reduce confusion.
• Feedback needs to be specific, relevant, achievable and given immediately.
• Flexibility is important – there may be occasions where you need to make an adjustment,
change the focus or have the participants re-run the role-play.
You Can always add technology to any role-play such as; Video or audio recording. The
advantages and disadvantages of these should be obvious.
Remember that once complete participants will often tell you they actually enjoyed the
experience; that they forgot it was a role-play, and found it the most powerful learning
they've experienced!
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