Rolestorming

Rolestorming

Skill descriptions: Oftentimes when students have ideas or questions, they may be too embarrassed to share their thoughts. Rolestorming gives students an opportunity to share their thoughts while acting as someone else. This procedure was developed by Rick Griggs.

Procedures: “Follow these steps to use Rolestorming with your group: 1.   Brainstorm Obvious Ideas First, conduct a regular brainstorming session with your group. Not only will this generate some good initial ideas, but it will also highlight more obvious ideas. This leaves you free to expand your thinking and push boundaries in later steps. 2. Identify Roles Next, decide which roles or identities you'll use. You can assign one role to each person in the group, or play the role collectively, moving on to another role when you're done. The person you choose can be anyone, so long as it's a person not in the current group. Consider people such as a colleague, your boss, a major competitor, someone in public life, a leader from the past, or a friend or family member. Ideally, you should know enough about them to take on their identity for a short time. (They don't necessarily have to be associated with the problem you're trying to solve.) 3. Get Into Character For each role, allow group members a few minutes to get into character. Use these questions to help with this: •   How does this person see the world? •   What is this person's personality or attitude likely to be? •   How would this person solve problems? •   What are this person's strengths and weaknesses? Make an effort to get into the persona of the character: the more deeply you understand this person's feelings, worldview, and motivations, the better you can use this perspective to generate good ideas. Note: If someone on your team chooses to become a person that everyone knows, such as your boss, a client, or a colleague, make sure that they avoid characterizations that could be harmful or disrespectful. 4. Brainstorm in Character When people have a good sense of the new identity they've taken on, start brainstorming ideas using these new perspectives. Encourage people to use phrases such as "My person..." or "My character..." when presenting ideas – this helps to create the distance that people need to speak freely. Make sure that everyone in the group has an opportunity to speak up and share ideas. (Techniques like Round-Robin Brainstorming can be useful here.) 5. Repeat as Required Repeat the exercise with as many different identities as you need, so that you can generate enough good ideas” (MindTools, 2012).

Lesson Activities: This activity can be used in all academic areas. It would encourage even my shyest students to propose ideas that they would never want to admit. The role the students take on creates security for the students. They should not feel inadequate when they express their ideas as someone else.

Reference: 2012., Rolestorming. MindTools. Retrieved on November 16, 2012 from                      http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/rolestorming.htm.