TopTalk

How top companies get
the best out of roleplay

Hello

As so much of the work we do at RoleplayUK is about communication, it seemed only right we stepped up our own levels of communication with you!  With that in mind, welcome to the first issue of our e-newsletter, TopTalk, designed to help you get the best out of roleplay.

We'd love to hear your comments – good or bad – and if there’s anything in particular you'd like to know more about please call us on 01780 761960 or get us to contact you.

And may we take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and we look forward to speaking to you in the New Year.

Best wishes

The RoleplayUK Team

In response to demand, RoleplayUK has introduced Behaviour Engineering.

Behaviour Engineering is a process to achieve behavioural change.

The Be approach is a series of interactive training modules which Engage, Explore and Embed behaviours that will benefit the individual and the organisation. "The response from participants never fails to remind me of how effective and important this experience is for them" says Helen Goldwyn, creative consultant at RoleplayUK.

Don’t just take our word for it – this is what former participants have said;

‘A chance to get it wrong when it didn’t matter’

‘Situations that I could identify with’

‘Actually participating and observing others was very beneficial and demonstrated more clearly the learning points’

‘It showed me just how much my behaviour affects other people’

‘The warmth and humour from the actors helped to relax and engage us all’

‘It was well structured and paced – excellent’

Be inspired and get in touch to find out how Be can help you and your organisation.

Over the last few years, we have seen a substantial increase in work coming from right across the globe.  This year alone we have worked in New York, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Mumbai, Istanbul, Geneva, and throughout Germany, France and Spain.

We have developed excellent partnerships with agents in South East Asia, South America and Australia, enabling us to provide our clients with high standard local actors with good cultural knowledge and language skills.

Our actors work around the globe delivering a variety of work for assessment and development centres, through to medical roleplays, forum theatre and seminars.

Our database includes a large pool of fluent non-English language speakers and we have the processes in place to cast and train actors very quickly for generic or specific programmes.

To find out how RoleplayUK can help your business internationally, read our Case Studies or get in touch.

How to write the perfect brief

Preparation is everything in delivering an effective assessment or development centre – and one of the key tools is a comprehensive set of instructions for the actors. Actors need an understanding of the client’s desired outcomes as well as the context of the roleplay, a breakdown of the scenarios to be played out and the culture of the company.

"All that information should be contained within a good actor’s brief," explains Andrew Blair, RoleplayUK’s creative director. "We have developed a briefing template to help get the most from the actors by creating a common terminology between us, our clients and our actors."

RoleplayUK has also developed a series of information sheets to help clients understand more about working with actors in an organisational context, which are available to download here.

"The briefing template from RoleplayUK was an absolute godsend. It saved me at least a days work and the actors were all thrilled to receive such clear instructions for once." Don Wiid, Contact Edge CRM

Mark Wainwright

When it comes to assignments in Paris, Mark is exactly the actor you will want to work with.

He is not only a fluent French speaker, with a degree from Bristol, he also began his career in the City as a banker.  Maybe he had a premonition, or maybe he just had a calling, but he changed tack and spent two years training as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

In addition to his work as an actor, Mark works with RoleplayUK as a roleplayer, a forum theatre facilitator and a trainer and has worked at all levels of seniority including assessment and development centres for board level positions of FTSE 100 companies.

He rows, he skis, he dives, he rides and he fences!

For more information on actors with language skills, get in touch.

The actors used by RoleplayUK don’t just roleplay. Some regularly tread the boards, some pop up on television.

Predictably – for the time of year – some of our actors are spending the next few weeks in panto.

Leamington Spa: Jonathan Owen will be at the Royal Spa Centre playing in Mother Goose

Salisbury: Michael Hobbs will be appearing in Aladdin

Hayes: The Beck Theatre is showing Sleeping Beauty starring Tim Hudson

Ballymena: Stephen Kelly is in Hansel and Gretel

Dumfries: Paul Harper Swan will be at DG One over the festive season, in Cinderella

An hilarious account of life as a jobbing actor. Read more about Ben and Sophie.

"RoleplayUK’s creative director Andy Blair has an amazing capacity to engage and energise the learning process and then give feedback that is constructive and enthuses participants to get on with the job."

 Unilever’s programme director in India.

Read how we’ve helped other clients.