Summary of Findings (Green Team): Role Playing (4.5 out of 5 Stars)

Note: This post represents the synthesis of the thoughts, procedures and experiences of others as represented in the 12 articles read in advance (see previous posts) and the discussion among the students and instructor during the Advanced Analytic Techniques class at Mercyhurst College in March 2012 regarding Role Playing specifically. This technique was evaluated based on its overall validity, simplicity, flexibility, its ability to effectively use unstructured data and its ease of communication to a decision maker.

Description:
A technique where participants are given specific roles to follow in an exercise that depicts opposing perspectives of a given scenario.The goal of using role playing as a method is to take different standpoints in order to acknowledge new perspectives as well as minimize biases for forecasting. It can be used as a modifier in order to facilitate training and education. It may successfully forecast outcomes in some scenarios. The military, law, and business claim successful uses of role playing.

Strengths:

• Works in a number of different disciplines
• Helps in active learning in a controlled environment
• Helps users to perceive and acknowledge different points of view
• Provides an insight to understand behavioral patters of others
• Can be cost efficient tool for forecasting, training, and analysis
• Can be used in modeling and resolution of conflict situations

Weaknesses:

• Time consuming to prepare
• Highly dependent on the level of preparation
• Difficult to evaluate effectiveness
• Outcomes vary with the role players
• It is almost impossible to account for all factors in role playing than a real scenario

How-to:

• Begin by defining the objectives of the role-playing exercise
• Define participant roles and setting
• Assign each individual their own role to fulfill in the group setting
• Assign the setting to the entire group
• Enact the scene with time limits that encourage interactions, discussions, and conflicts which could develop given the specific setting.
• After the discussion, the group should discuss the results of the role-play, and possible findings from the experience.

Personal Application of Technique:
We performed a brief scenario of an oil company versus an environmental group on the topic of new drilling. Each group found a consensus on what arguments would most effectively argue their side. Then, we estimated what the other side would counter argue. In the exercise, the oil company group created three arguments, of which the environmental group accurately forecasted two of the arguments. On the other side, the oil company group accurately forecasted all points raised by the environmental group.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5