Rehearsals for Success is a versatile and unique format for training, developed by Paul Jackson Associates, for use in customer care, launching new products/services or managerial initiatives, or for practising new skills - such as negotiating, leading a team or selling.

• Explore winning behaviours
• Communicate with instant feedback
• Concentrate on the moments that matter
• Practice making perfect

Organisations are increasingly appreciating the benefits of rehearsal and practice. Leaders realize that people do not learn simply by doing. Doing is just one part of a learning process that also includes instruction, reflection and opportunities to experiment.

Achieve more - by practising the changes you want before facing the 'real world'.

Dramatic improvements

For the participant, rehearsal:

• Helps build familiarity
• Provides an opportunity to iron out mistakes
• Allows time and space to try new actions at a manageable pace
• Helps build confidence by mastering new skills

For the organization, rehearsal:

Reduces the chances of expensive and damaging mistakes in the field:

• Shows who looks most capable
• Provides an opportunity to analyse and correct what might be going wrong and what could be done better
• Allows discussion, comment and influence in (relative) privacy - this being an under-rated, yet effective and quiet way of achieving rapid changes

Rehearsal is familiar from theatre, and the idea of practice is readily accepted in sport. 'You cannot learn football by playing matches,' says the Manchester United championship-winning manager Alex Ferguson. 'Playing matches doesn't make great footballers, practice does.'

Role play or real play?

‘Rehearsing’ ranges from short, simple role-plays to complex, elaborate simulations.

A good rehearsal simulates the critical aspects of a performance as realistically as possible.

When to use a Rehearsal and what it can achieve

A rehearsal reaches the heart of training and organizational issues, stretching beyond traditional role-play by:

• Allowing performers to play themselves
• Following a structure in which contributions for improvement are solicited during the action from highly-involved spectators

You can use these methods to lead groups through any stepped process such as:

• Launching a new product, service, or initiative
• Developing new skills - including negotiating, leading and customer care
• Creating and exploring new strategies for teams or entire organizations

Set up a Rehearsal for Success when you particularly want to:

• Explore winning behaviours
• Communicate with instant feedback
• Concentrate on the moments that matter
• Practise making perfect

Rehearsal for Success is appropriate when you have a good idea of the outcomes you want, and human beings are the key players in reaching those outcomes.

What happens during the session?

We create a live case study, with a safe environment for exploring behaviour, suggesting improvements, hearing arguments and experimenting with new approaches. You discover how to overcome inhibitions, obstacles and objections.

Participants show - rather than tell.

The heart of the format is a drama: explanations, justifications, excuses and theorizing are kept to a minimum. We watch the players – whether they are professional actors or members of the organisation – enact situations to illustrate key behaviours.

Team members are usually brilliant at playing recognisable characters, and 'unreality' is rarely an issue.

We seek better ideas, and invite the holder of the alternative idea to demonstrate.

If someone in a scene seems to be falling short of the best possible way of handling a situation (and it is one which matters) we ask for a better idea. Everyone is welcome to make suggestions, which are tested in an atmosphere of experimentation, honest inquiry and discovery.

And everyone has the opportunity to get involved, whether as a performer or in discussions and debriefings. You get coaching as you go along and the action moves swiftly, with fast-forwarding to the next meeting, telephone call or whatever.

Variations

Rehearsal is a flexible format with many variations: you choose whether to play scenes in real time or allow time-outs for consultation. We can bring in our experienced professional actors as role-players. You can run a rehearsal with an audience. Given space, we can play more than one scene at a time, creating a more complex simulation.

Whatever the format, rehearsals are about creating and experiencing new realities. You learn to enjoy the beliefs, emotions and images that arise, and select those you want to see happen in the outside world.

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