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Training Game Joao Jacob Buchala English
Training Game Joao Jacob Buchala English
MEASURABLE OUTCOMES
A highly efficient tool, inspired on the principles of Behavioral Psychology, becomes a multiplier of
internal consultants and presents itself as means of a professional training and qualification with
surprising measurable outcomes.
JOO JACOB
INTRODUCTION
Group dynamics, expository class, video-conference, multimedia
production and theater are some of the methodologies and
resources used in business trainings.
The conventional training has serious limitations. Too much time
spent on too few results is one of them. Difficulty in measuring real
and practical progress is another. Return on the high investment it
requires is yet another question lacking a convincing answer.
As a psychology student, I glanced at such reality years before
actually entering college as my father is a corporate training
consultant. I have lived for over a decade with the ups and downs
of conventional trainings.
In face of this reality, I proposed a solution presented to the
business community in this article. I take as model a typical
example of employment training: the traineeship of a waiter.
I give special attention to a specific procedure in waiting tables in order to lay base to the idea I intend
to transmit to the reader. I refer to going over the order. In this step, the waiter must repeat, out loud,
the costumers choice of beverages and dishes so as to check the order and avoid mistakes.
Allow me, from now on, to explain the tool I have developed.
EXPOSITION
To begin with, the aspiring waiter receives a basic informative training about the step-by-step service
performed in the restaurant. Only then is he invited to take part in a virtual service experience, that is,
a game.
This is not a computer-based game. It involves people and focuses on interaction.
The participants are:
A guide, which can be the headwaiter, the manager or someone who, knowing the
service well enough, has been trained and certified by me on the principles that rule the
game and the training.
The three sit at the table over which there are three piles of cards and a ten-faced numbered dice.
The guide describes the scenario in this training. It must be rich in details and thought-provoking,
address the environment and the ways of the customer that has just arrived.
The trainee starts his service drill and performs each step. The first one is welcoming the customeractor who simulates his entrance into the restaurant, now role-playing his personality.
We get to the moment of choosing the dishes. Lets assume that the trainee gives the appropriate
visual attention to the customer-actor, however, he forgets to go over the order. He forwards his notes
to the kitchen just as he heard them.
When the dishes are ready, he takes them to the customer-actor in the usual manner.
The guide intervenes, letting him know that he did not go over the order at the moment he should have
done so and that this has consequences. What consequences? Whatever it is, it will be imposed by
the ten-faced dice. The guide then asks the trainee to roll the dice. The number returned was, lets say,
2.
At the end of the session, the guide will take notes in the trainees Assessment Card. Along with the
notes from the next training sessions, there is a performance profile strong and weak points,
successes and failures. This will allow for the definition of a strategy for the next trainings.
The main goal of the Training Game is met when the trainee shows increasingly better results in the
performance assessment and is then transferred to the actual scenario of his relation with the
customer. This will take place with the assurance of fully developing the observance of rules and the
ability to overcome crisis. The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war, master Tom Peters
has taught.
After the expected results have been reached in the training stage, the guide will be able to proceed
with the tutoring of the trainee using the Training Game in a more demanding way, proposing more
complex situations and, thus, producing continuous and lasting improvement. The trainee will be able
to take up the role of guide over new trainees as soon as he shows fluidity, knowledge and is certified
for doing so. This way, the Training Game will be acting as a multiplying agent of internal consulting
and as a provider of excellence.