Practicing Both Roles

Awareness
Ha-Ha
Intergroup Issues
An Intergroup Activity	An Intergroup Competition
Technology For Tomorrow	A Process Observation Activity
Building The Winning Team	Demonstrating Hidden Agendas
Effects of Differential Information	Empowerment Collection
Examing Competition and Collaboration	Examining Task Group Processes
Experiencing How Groups Function	Group Selling Advertising Group Value
How To Build A Team	Intergroup Competition part 2
Learning About Group Skills	Left Brain Right Brain Problem Solving
Need For Team Building	Preferences That Affect Group Work
Simulating Systems	Studying Group Dynamics
Team Building	Team Climate Survey
Team Development	The Search For Balance
Team Motivation	Team Quips And Quotes
Three Team Traps	What Is A Team?
What is Team Building
Problem-solving & Decision-making
A General Approach	Brainstorming Process
Build Quality Into Your Team	Conversation As Comunication
Groups That Work	Group Decision Making
Meeting Management	Multi-Way Tug-of-War
PersonaL Time Management	Planning A Project
Problem Solving	Problem Solving And Decision Making
Skills for Emergent Managers	The Art of Delegation
The Human Factor	The Most Common Decision-Making Mistakes
The Steps Of Delegation	What Makes A Great Manager
Roles
An Appraisal Role Play	A Firo Role Play
A Management Role Play	A Multiple Role Play
A Series Of Role Plays	Communication A Paired Role Play
Exploring Roles To Develop Staff	Not Listening A Paired Role Play
Organizational Rules	Power Personalities
Practicing Both Roles	Developing a Team Norm
Roles Impact Feeling	Role Efficacy
Role Stress	Steps in Changing One’s Own Behavior
Strategies Of Changing	The Supervisor's Changing Role
Tri-State A Multiple Role Play	Who Gets Hired

PRACTICING BOTH ROLES

Goals

? To give participants an opportunity to prepare for a personnel selection interview from the perspectives of both the interviewer and the applicant.

? To allow each participant to experience the roles of interviewer, applicant, and observer.

? To provide participants with an opportunity to give and receive feedback on their interview techniques.

Group Size

Any number of triads.

Time Required

Approximately two hours.

Materials

? One copy of the Selection Interview Interviewer’s Role Sheet for every participant.

? One copy of the Selection Interview Applicant’s Role Sheet for every participant.

? One copy of the Selection Interview Observer’s Role Sheet for every participant.

? Blank paper and a pencil for each participant.

? A writing surface for each participant.

? A newsprint flip chart and felt-tipped markers.

? Masking tape.

Physical Setting

A room large enough for triads to work without disturbing one another.

Process

1. Explain the goals of the activity. (Five minutes.)

2. Ask the participants to assemble into triads and give one member of each triad a copy of the Selection Interview Interviewer’s Role Sheet; another member of each triad a copy of the Selection Interview Applicant’s Role Sheet; and the third member a copy of the Selection Interview Observer’s Role Sheet. Give blank paper, a pencil, and a writing surface to every participant.

3. Instruct participants to read their sheets and to ask for clarification on any point they do not understand. Answer all questions and then tell participants that they have ten minutes to prepare for their interviews. (Ten minutes.)

4. After ten minutes, stop the preparation and ask interviewers to begin their interviews. Tell observers to take notes as the interview progresses. After ten minutes, announce that the interviews should come to a close. (Ten minutes.)

5. When all triads have finished, announce that each member of the triad should make notes silently for three minutes before the observers give their feedback. Feedback should take about five minutes. (Eight minutes.)

6. Announce that, in the next round, each participant will play a different role. Give participants sheets for roles they did not play during the last round.

7. Repeat Steps 3 through 6. Then repeat Steps 3 through 5 with participants receiving new instruction sheets. (Sixty minutes.)

8. Reassemble the total group and lead a discussion that includes the following questions:

? How did you feel when you played the interviewer role? Answers in the past have included the following:

? Confident, in control, empowered

? Preparation is important

? Practice is needed

? Important to be flexible

? Developing a natural flow is important

? Felt applicant could/could not be trusted

? Questions control the interview

? Silence is powerful

? Receive information only when applicant talks

? Listening is important

? How did you feel when you played the applicant role? Answers in the past have included the following:

Anxious or intimidated at first
Later, relaxed or cautious, depending on how interviewer acted
Felt better after opening up
Preparation helped
Practice needed
Role sheet helped me realize that interviews are not win/lose competitions
Friendly smile, eye contact, gestures relaxed me
Positive information being given made me comfortable
Negative information being given made me uncomfortable
Turned a negative to a positive by admitting a weakness and telling how I overcame the weakness
Applicants can use questions and silence too!

? When you were playing the observer role, what seemed to work well for interviewers? Past answers include:

? Make applicant comfortable

? Allow applicant to talk (listen)

? Establish flow by linking questions to applicant’s answers

? Pose hypothetical problems to the applicant

? Ask job-related questions

? Allow applicant to ask questions

? Wait for more after briefing responses

? What didn’t work well for interviewers? Past answers have included the following:

? Making applicants uncomfortable

? Doing all the talking

? Not listening

? Not probing for more detail

? Asking questions unrelated to the job

? Not inviting the applicant to ask questions

? Rushing; being impatient

? What worked well for applicants? Past answers have included the following:

? Eye contact

? Thinking before answering

? Preparation

? Relaxing

? Being friendly but not overly familiar

? Giving positive, upbeat answers

? Being open and honest

? What has not worked well? Answers in the past have included the following:

? Pretending to be perfect

? No preparation or practice

? Answering before thinking

? Being overly humorous or sarcastic

? Giving negative answers

? Being guarded or overly serious

? What did you learn from this experience? Answers should include:

? Practice at three roles

? A list of questions that could be used in the future

? Overcame anxiety about interviewing

? Desire to prepare and practice

Variations

? Have all participants bring a rйsumй for use during the interviews.

? Have job descriptions available for interviewers.

? Allow triads to decide the job for which the applicant is being interviewed.

? If the group is small, have all or some of the triads role play while the others observe.

? Interviews may be videotaped for later analysis and discussion.

Selection Interview Interviewer’s Role Sheet

Instructions: In this round, you will play a manager interviewing an applicant for the position of management trainee, an entry-level management position in a large bank. You are seeking to fill the position with a person who is intelligent, educated, and motivated and who can make decisions, communicate with people at all levels (managers, employees, and customers), and protect and use the bank’s assets efficiently.
A good interviewer uses three tools effectively:

1. Questions to probe for information (what, how, why),

2. Silence to be receptive to information and to prompt further comment by the interviewee, and

Observation to see things that are not verbally transmitted.

In addition, a good interviewer recognizes that an effective interview process has three stages: before the interview, during the interview, and after the interview. Several important activities are accomplished during each stage.
Before the interview, the effective interviewer reviews key job requirements, reviews the applicant’s resume or application if available, plans questions to ask based on the applicant’s apparent strengths and weaknesses compared to job requirements, and ensures compliance with equal employment opportunity guidelines.
During the interview, the interviewer uses an opener (statement or question) to relax the applicant. For example, “Let me tell you a little about the company” or “I see you’re from Albany. I used to live there, too.” When the applicant is relaxed, he or she uses lead-in statements to begin the interview. Something like, “What college did you attend?” works well. The interviewer should make statements and ask planned questions about relevant issues using lead-in questions followed by more in-depth probes such as, “Tell me more about that,” “When did that happen?” “Why?” “Who else was involved?” and “What did you learn from that?”
Relevant issues might include the following:

? Education and training

? Work experience and skills

? Job performance evaluations

? Career interests and work goals

? Interest in job and company

? Salary and benefits

? Self-assessment (if job related)

? What has led to your success to date?

? What motivates you?

? What are the important traits of a manager?

? What would be a good reason to fire an employee?

? What strengths do you have that would help you be successful in this job? Weaknesses?

As the interview progresses, the interviewer gives the applicant a chance to ask questions. He or she closes the interview with a “thank you” and a definite date, time, place, and method of next contact, for example, “We’ll call you at this number next Friday to let you know what comes next. We still have three people to interview.”
Ordinarily, a good interviewer waits until after all candidates have been interviewed, then reviews his or her notes on all applicants again before making a decision. The decision is then communicated as promised.
Remember, your goal is to determine whether the applicant has the necessary skills, knowledge, abilities, and motivation to perform the job well. The interview should last ten minutes. Afterward, you will be given time to take notes on what occurred during the interview and to hear feedback from the observer.

Selection Interview Applicant’s Role Sheet

Instructions: In this round, you will play the role of a recent college graduate interviewing for the position of management trainee, an entry-level management position in a large bank. The position requires a person who is intelligent, educated, and motivated and who can make decisions, communicate with people at all levels (managers, employees, and customers), and protect and use the bank’s assets efficiently.
As an applicant, you can prepare for the interview in three ways:

1. Learn all you can about the job and the organization before the interview;

2. Prepare a list of questions you would like to ask about the job, the organization, promotional opportunities, pay, and benefits; and

3. Prepare yourself mentally by relaxing.

Remember that the interview is not a competition. It is an activity that allows you to see whether there is a match between the job requirements and your qualifications. If the match does not exist, you don’t want the job. If the match does exist, the more relaxed you are, the more qualified you will appear. If you do not get the job, you are still a “good person.” There is nothing you can do in the short run to better qualify yourself for a job, and you do not want to get a job for which you are unqualified. This leads to dishonesty, failure, or both. Therefore, relax, be confident, and approach the interview as a fact-finding mission. Find out whether you can do the job, and also whether you want the job. You may want to ask questions such as the following:

? What would my duties and responsibilities be?

? Who would I be working with?

? If I do a good job, how will I be rewarded?

? What other jobs could I expect to do in the future?

? What do you like about being a manager in this organization? Dislike?

? What is the pay range for people in this job?

? What fringe benefits does the company offer?

As the interview progresses, you may be asked questions to determine your qualifications. Opening questions such as, “What college did you attend?” may be followed by probes such as, “In what subjects did you do well?” and “Why?” Try to be relaxed and honest.
As the interview comes to a close, try to find out when, where, and how you will be contacted again.
Remember, your goal is to determine whether this job is one for which you are qualified and one in which you will be satisfied and successful. The interview should last ten minutes. Afterward, you will have an opportunity to take notes on what occurred and then hear feedback from the observer.

Selection Interview Observer’s Role Sheet
Instructions: In this round, you will observe while a manager interviews an applicant for the position of management trainee, an entry-level management position in a large bank. The position requires a person who is intelligent, educated, and motivated and who can make decisions, communicate with people at all levels (managers, employees, and customers), and protect and use the bank’s assets efficiently.
As an observer, you should take notes on three things:

1. What worked well for the interviewer? This includes questions that elicited good information and actions, such as smiling, making eye contact, or using silence that led the applicant to share more information.

2. What worked well for the applicant? This could include questions, answers, or behavioral responses that resulted in positive responses by the interviewer.

3. What questions or behaviors did not work well for either party? How do you think that these less effective efforts could be redesigned to make them more effective?

The interviewer is trying to learn as much as possible about whether the applicant is qualified for the job based on what he or she knows about job requirements. The following is a list of some types of information that can be gained from the interview:

Ability to work in a group

Adaptability

Appearance

Attitudes toward achievement

Basic values and goals

Breadth and depth of knowledge

Cultural breadth

Diversity of interests

Emotional and social adjustment

Intellectual abilities

Interpersonal relations

Leadership

Level of accomplishment

Management of time, energy, and money

Maturity and judgment

Motivation

Reaction

Relevance of schooling

Relevance of work experience

Responsiveness

Self-expression

Self-image

Skill and competence

Social interests

Sufficiency of schooling

Sufficiency of work experience

Versatility

Vitality and energy

The interview should last ten minutes. After the interview is over, all three of you (you the observer, the interviewer, and the applicant) are to take three minutes to reflect, silently and in writing, any feelings, ideas, or comments you may wish to share during later discussion of the interview.
Only after the three minutes of silent note taking will you begin giving feedback to both the interviewer and applicant on the things that worked well or that could be improved. Be sure to let them discuss your comments and suggestions, their own notes, and anything else they want to discuss.
Remember, your goal as observer is to give positive feedback to both the interviewer and applicant and to make sure they have shared their feelings and knowledge in order to ensure that maximum learning occurs during the experience. Your feedback should take only about five minutes.

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PRACTICING BOTH ROLES