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 | Using Technology to Develop and Enhance Business-Related Interpersonal Skills© 2002 Contexxa Corporation. All rights reserved. | BackIntroduction The dynamics of our marketplace frequently create situations whereby the business person must successfully interface with one or more individuals in order to achieve the desired outcome in a business situation. Examples of such interfacing include, but are not limited to, sales presentations, business proposals and marketing demonstrations. Further examples can be found in a wide variety of both formal and informal business-related interactions between individuals. It is widely acknowledged that the outcome of such business transactions are strongly influenced by the interpersonal communication skills of the individual, regardless of other factors that might affect the transaction. Simply stated, a sales person possessing superior interpersonal skills will, in general, experience more success selling an inferior product than a sales person with inferior interpersonal skills will experience selling a superior product. Given this understanding of the importance of interpersonal skills in business transactions, it is easy to understand why many organizations invest a great deal of effort in attempts to develop the interpersonal skills of their employees. These development efforts may be concentrated solely on individuals who are directly involved in selling the organization's products and services (i.e., sales and marketing staff) but frequently involve all employees who may have occasion to interface with the company's customers. This effort to develop the business-related interpersonal skills of employees can represent a significant investment on the part of the organization. Overview of Traditional Role-Play Methods Interpersonal skill development efforts typically involve a technique known as the "role playing scenario." With this technique, a fictional scenario is used to simulate a "real-world" business transaction -- for example, a sales presentation. The subject of the development effort takes on the role of the protagonist in the scenario (i.e., the sales person, customer service person, etc.) while another individual takes on the role of the antagonist (i.e., the customer). Typically, a script is followed as the two individuals interact in a simulation of an actual business transaction, with the protagonist attempting to achieve a specific goal (i.e, close the sale) and the antagonist presenting various obstacles which the protagonist must overcome. During the interaction, the antagonist in the role-play (or a third individual) closely observes the behavior of the protagonist. This observation may also be augmented by video or audio recording. When the scenario is concluded, the antagonist or observer provides feedback regarding the observed behavior, and may offer suggestions for alternative actions. The protagonist then (hopefully) incorporates this feedback into his/her presentation and the scenario is repeated or extended until the desired outcome is achieved. Drawbacks of Traditional Role-Play Methods The role-play method described above takes many forms and may be administered by in-house staff, or by consultants specializing in the field. While this role-play method can be effective in developing the business-related interpersonal skills of an employee, it also has several inherent drawbacks. First, the traditional role-play method demands the involvement of a second (and possibly third) individual who participates in the scenario as the antagonist and provides feedback to the subject. In order for this participation to be meaningful, the person playing the role of the antagonist must be a knowlegable and experienced employee. In the case of a sales training scenario, this means a highly compensated sales person must be removed from productive selling activity in order to participate in a training activity for a less experienced colleauge. The role-play method may take many forms, but if in-house employees are used in the antagonist role, it generally requires that highly-valued, experienced employees must be removed from productive tasks in order to participate in the training of less valued, less experienced employees. This situation may be alleviated by engaging a consulting organization to participate in the role-play scenarios, but this represents a costly solution. A second drawback of the traditional role-play method involves it's lack of effectiveness in actually achieving a change in the subject's interpersonal behavior. All individuals harbor, as a part of their basic personality structure, a set of strongly held beliefs regarding their understanding of how they are outwardly perceived by others. This perception of "self-image" is strongly adhered to by the individual, regardless of whether or not it is based in actual, objective fact. For example, an individual may cling faithfully to the belief that he is a charming and interesting conversationalist, when in fact most friends and associates regard him as pompous and boring, and have repeatedly informed him of this fact. This "self-image" is an integral part of the individual's personality and is therefore not easily influenced or changed. The subject may acknowledge undesirable behavior when informed of it during a role-play exercise but will not internally accept information that conflicts with the existing self-image. Therefore, the mere act of informing the subject of a needed change in behavior frequently does not result in an actual, long term change. Thus, we often see subjects returning to their undesirable interpersonal behavior shortly after participating in traditional role-play scenarios. The third drawback of traditional role-play methods involves the lack of consistency. The evaluation and feedback must be delivered by the individual playing the part of the protagonist in the role-play, or by some other third-party observer. In either case, the quality of the feedback is directly dependent upon the nature and circumstances of the person providing the feedback. If the feedback provider is experienced, competent, and focused on the task at hand, the quality of the feedback is likely to be good. If, on the other hand, the feedback provider is inexperienced, incompetent, or distracted by business or personal pressures, the quality of the feedback is likely to be poor. Thus, we see that the quality of this extremely important employee skill development effort can vary widely, depending upon circumstances which are difficult to identify and control. It's clear that while the traditional role-playing method can be very effective in developing business-related interpersonal skills, there exists considerable room for improvement. The electronic skill enhancement solution offered by WBT Corporation is described in detail below. Applying Technology to Interpersonal Skills Development WBT Corporation's InterviewConnect!® Interpersonal Skill Enhancement (ISE) system offers an effective and powerful solution to any organization seeking to develop the business-related interpersonal skills of it's employees. The ISE system allows employers to create any number of business-related interpersonal scenarios using streaming media and computer interaction. The result is a powerful and compelling "virtual role-play" application which can be delivered, via the Web, to end-users located anywhere in the world. WBT's InterviewConnect!® ISE solution overcomes the three major drawbacks inherent in traditional role-play training techniques. First, the ISE system uses streaming media to create the role-play scenario, thus freeing up the experienced employee who would otherwise be required to participate in the training exercise. Second, InterviewConnect!'s® VirtualCoach technology confronts the user with a compelling "instant playback" of his or her interpersonal behavior. This direct confrontation overcomes the subject's inherent defenses and leads to the opportunity for real change in the individual's behavior. Finally, the ISE system provides the organization with a cost-effective means to deliver critical interpersonal behavorial training to end-users located anywhere in the world, while maintaining a consistent level of quality. InterviewConnect!® ISE System Overview The InterviewConnect!® ISE system consists of a number of web-based, enterprise-enabled software modules which allow the organization to create, present and review electronic "virtual role-play" scenarios. These modules all store and retrieve data from a centrally hosted relational database. Scenario Builder Module The ISE Scenario Builder module provides the complete set of tools required to build, preview, and distribute electronic role-play scenarios. The scenarios are built from a collection of streaming media files which are stored in the central ISE system database. Any authorized ISE user can access these files to build a sequence of role-play interactions which are custom-tailored to the specific requirements of the scenario. The module provides the individual creating the role-play with the ability to include any available media file in the scenario and to specify the order in which the interactions will be presented to the individual undergoing the role-play. Scenario Presentation Module The Scenario Presentation Module of the ISE system presents the virtual role-play scenario to the individual undergoing the training and provides a means for electronically capturing, encoding, and playing back the user’s responses. The VirtualCoach technology incorporated into the ISE system provides the user with an "instant playback" of the interpersonal behavior arising out of his or her response to the role-play scenario. By confronting the user directly with evidence of his or her behavior, a compelling opportunity for real behavioral change is created. This opportunity is then maximized by presenting additional role-modeling content to the user. After the user has completed the virtual role-play session, the system automatically organizes the media files representing the electronically encoded candidate responses and transmits the files to a relational database hosted at a centralized data storage facility. This data can be hosted at the customer's data center, or at a facility managed by WBT. These files can then be accessed by any authorized user on the ISE system. Scenario Evaluation Module Once the media and data files representing the user's behavioral responses have been received and stored, the Evaluation Module of the ESS system allows members of the organization to review these files in a variety of ways. Media files representing the user’s responses may be played, repeated, paused, or closed at will. The review of the user's responses can be used as an additional opportunity to develop the interpersonal skills of the user. Conclusion WBT Corporation's InterviewConnect!® Interpersonal Skills Enhancement system may be used in any role-play activity that is intended to develop or enhance the business-related interpersonal skills of an organization's employees. WBT's ISE solution can deliver an unprecedented savings of time and effort to the employee development effort, while concurrently offering a significant increase in the overall quality of the process. The organization also benefits from the enhanced flexibility that is provided by the ISE solution. For these reasons, WBT Corporation recommends that any organization involved in the effort of developing the interpersonal skills of it's employees consider implementing our Interpersonal Skills Enhancement solution. © 2002 Contexxa Corporation. All rights reserved. | Back |