Asda is embarking on a major company-wide leadership programme – the Asda Leadership Event – in partnership with leadership development specialist Cirrus, supported by interactive learning experts, Impromptu. The programme is closely aligned to Asda’s strategy and core purpose and will engage 10,000 leaders and managers across the UK.
Asda sees effective leadership as central to supporting its strategic aims by helping colleagues across the business to bring strategy to life, and build on recent successes to improve performance.

Following a series of launch events, the programme will be rolled out across the organisation throughout 2011.
The launch process uses a range of innovative techniques including specially designed activities and role-play to engage leaders and managers with Asda’s vision, purpose and values. Cirrus has also created a toolkit of activities to enable Asda leaders to deliver the leadership framework internally and embed learning across the organisation.
“The Cirrus team have worked closely in partnership with us to co-create a programme which will have an impact on everything our leaders do, every day,” says Amanda Cox, head of learning & development at Asda. “We value the expertise Cirrus brings, which has blended well with our own skills and experience.”

‘Steve Harvey, Impromptu Director, is excited about the opportunity to engage with both Asda and Cirrus: “Impromptu has worked in close partnership with Cirrus to deliver the interactive elements of the Asda Leadership Event. This is a very exciting programme for us, and a chance to stretch our talents into new territory. We have employed a range of techniques, fusing various performance approaches, improvisation, forum theatre and participant interaction to help ensure that each, tailored event has maximum impact, relevance and energy.”

Cirrus managing partner Simon Hayward, comments: “It is exciting to be working so closely with such a forward-thinking and people-focused organisation. Asda wanted a programme which would become ingrained in the Asda culture, ensuring that everyday leadership behaviours make a big difference to performance. Impromptu have helped us to make it real for Asda leaders through demonstration and great interaction.”

In November 2010 Asda announced it will create more than 7,500 new jobs in 2011. Over the past five years the retailer has increased its sales by more than a third from around £15bn a year to around £20bn, creating more than 30,000 jobs across the UK in the process. In that time it has opened more than 70 new stores and rolled out its home shopping service nationwide.

Impromptu has recently had an opportunity to launch a brand new interactive business simulation, aimed at developing Consultants’ client relationship management skills. The simulation is flexible in design and can be tailored to fit with the context of any leading consulting organisation. The journey through the simulation takes Consultants through a realistic and appropriately demanding client engagement and introduces both team and individual challenges each of which can be adjusted on the day to ensure that the learning is personalised.

Learning focus can similarly be flexed to suit different consulting organisation needs and priorities and may include in addition to core consulting and account development skills, stakeholder management, decision making, conflict resolution, influencing, expectation management and negotiation. The length of the simulation can also be adjusted to fit with specific client preferences and would typically run for between half and one day.

A half day version of this simulation was recently very successfully piloted with a team of Consultants from a leading management school and centre of executive development, who fully engaged with, learned from and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, to the extent that they are keen to extend this opportunity to a wider faculty development event.

For further information on this business simulation, please contact Steve Harvey on 01785 221820.

By Dr. Connie Wiskin

Connie is the founder and Managing Director of Impromptu Ltd and has over 20 years experience in the application of interactive learning methodologies. Connie is also a Senior Lecturer in clinical communication at Birmingham Medical School where she specialises in the use of role play in vocational training and as a methodology for communication assessment.

As the use of role play has become more widespread and the choice of providers grown, selecting a role play company is a task of increasing importance to ensure that your needs are being met. There are now a significant number of role play companies in the market who initially appear to be offering a similar range of services so the following may be useful as a guide:

Your Needs
Before contacting any role play organisation, it is worth reminding yourselves of what your needs are. Are you looking to communicate some key messages with impact or support individual learning on a training programme? Do you need someone who can role play, teach or both? Whatever your need, the company you choose to work with must work closely with you to establish your requirements, understand your business and, and here’s the key, provide you with appropriately trained, experienced and credible staff.

If you decide that credibility and experience are the key qualities you require, then the professional role player must be able to work intensively with you to ensure that learning outcomes are met. To do this they will need to acquire an understanding of the values, culture, processes, language, internal structure and business objectives of your organisation to provide the right level of service.

If you like personal relationships you might seek a company offering regular contact with a project relationship manager who can adapt, be flexible and adapt between the various role play methodologies to suit the learning objectives.

Education:
Educational considerations are an important factor when researching any provider who will be involved in people development. Ensure that you are able to see their demonstrable abilities/qualifications; are their methodologies well researched; do they dovetail with current educational initiatives and theories? Who are their role players; how are they recruited and trained; do they have experience and/or qualifications in performance, business, training or education? Do they have role players that can be credible in the role I would like them to portray?

Role Players:
Not every training requirement will demand the use of a role player who can also facilitate, but some do, and for those it is safe to invest in a company who can promise that skill in their team. It is worth considering that acting and role playing are not necessarily interchangeable functions too. Culturally, role playing is associated with acting, but this can result in misconceptions.

Role playing at its best requires a range of skills and attributes from the role player that are not solely provided by acting and experience; credibility in the character, understanding of the learning objectives and business context, the ability to flex the character to suit the individual participant and the ability to give supportive and appropriately challenging feedback to support learning are just some of the key skills that not all role play providers are equipped to handle. If you have an educational agenda remember that acting and role playing require some complimentary and some different skill-sets.

Feedback:
The feedback dimension is what gives the role play methodology high impact. It’s the combination of authentic experience with constructive feedback that facilitates personal change. Role players who have worked as teachers, workshop leaders or people developers have extra to offer, and are likely to be skilled in managing group dynamics and handling sensitive situations. Some companies will be able to offer role players who have varied professional experience, e.g. a teaching qualification, business, finance or counselling experience and so on.

Logistics:
Expenses and geography are considerations too, so do have a consultative discussion up front about your expectations. Ensure in general that what you are being offered is viable and will not cause logistic stress. Although ‘Travel on the day’ can save you accommodation expenses, please ensure that you allow time for the role players best suited for your work, are able to get to the venue in plenty of time to be fresh and ready for work. It’s important to stress that it’s more important to get the right team to your location than compromising on your team just because they live around the corner.

Values:
Like most businesses, role play companies have personal and professional values. If you have a strong environmental commitment, you may prefer a company that has a transparent environmental policy. If you have a strong preference for professional attitudes and confidentiality then you will need to ensure that who you choose will be able to demonstrate these qualities and approaches to your satisfaction.

Good luck with your search, and we wish you well with your current and future training activities. If you wish to discuss this article or would like advice relating to it, then please call 01785 221820.

Impromptu is delighted to be involved in the Podium 2012 initiative from Peugeot Motor Co. to improve customer service levels throughout its dealer network and in comparison with other leading manufacturers. This is a global initiative from the brand following hot on the heels of the recent launch of the exciting 3008, 5008 and RCZ models, as well as a brand refresh (including the excellent new tag line ‘Motion & Emotion’) and improvement work throughout the dealer network to premises.

Impromptu was invited by The Academy to design and deliver, for new dealership recruits, a one-day event based on their huge conference events delivered during April-May this year. The focus of this event is very much on improving customer satisfaction through the effective use of simple behavioural techniques, and the application of consistent standards. Using a combination of direct delivery, and theatre-style practical activities, participants engage with the Podium 2012 initiative very quickly, and (at the time of writing) feedback on the initial pilot courses has been very positive.

Impromptu Director
Phil Croft
phil@impromptultd.com

Nine months ago, Impromptu commissioned a piece of independent research into the efficacy of role play. We have just taken delivery of the results. The study was led by the Department of Psychology and Mental Health at Staffordshire University and was set up to answer key questions about the learning impact of professional role play. The project received fantastic support from the learning and development team and facilitators from Peugeot Motor Company who allowed one of their long running customer service training programmes to be used as the focus of the study.

This triangulated research project collected data from 49 participants across 5 workshops. Several qualitative and quantitative data collection methods were used and exposed to rigorous analysis. The results demonstrate, conclusively, not only that Impromptu role play has a positive impact on learners, but, moreover, that there is a significant positive impact on perceptions and attitudes toward this powerful learning method.

Read the full report from Staffordshire University.

“It was great to read this piece of research which has fully endorsed information I have known for years… that using Impromptu role players to help participants embed the learning helps build confidence and expertise, as well as being really well received.”

Paul Copper FIMI AlfL
858 Training Limited
paulcopper858@aol.com
07855 858708