Giving and receiving feedback - role play exercise

Abstract

Drawing inspiration from one element of a management development programme at a large, international airline the author had helped co-design, this role play exercise was utilised in its current form as part of an experiential, two-week long MBA professional development skills induction programme. It was designed to help accelerate the formation of strong ties amongst a group of international, post-experience business school Master’s students. However, it was later also successfully deployed as an ice breaker/team building exercise for the School of Management’s group of Undergraduate Student Ambassadors, who were employed part-time during applicant visit and open days to represent the department. It might also be deployed as part of a personal tutoring or career development programme, or even within a vocationally oriented management and leadership module. The session is designed to encourage extensive student participation, and much of the 60 to 90 minutes required to successfully run this intervention should see students working in pairs or discussing their reflections in small groups. This exercise requires no prior preparation from students, and the concise role play scenarios are simultaneously both succinct and sufficiently rich, the material can be quickly absorbed and embodied in a relatively short period of time. In an increasingly competitive environment where students often identify feedback as the lowest rated satisfaction measure (see: Ferguson, 2011; Canning, 2018), this instructional guide provides university tutors with an additional, rich tool that has been shown, over many iterations, to help develop important soft skills (Ritter, Small, Mortimer & Doll, 2018).