CentreStage and 3C Showcase the Power of Drama
CentreStage is supporting Henley-on-Thames based development consultancy 3C Associates, using forum theatre to enhance a whole range of training courses. 3C’s latest offering was showcased recently at a seminar at the Henley River & Rowing Museum to a large group of learning and development professionals.
Delegates at the seminar watched a short play designed to demonstrate customer service gone wrong. A lady has 30 minutes to board a plane, her ticket has been lost and the check-in assistant she ends up with is off-hand, inept and uncaring. The result is a rather negative, tempestuous encounter from which both protagonists emerge angry and jaded. But then the action is rewound, the characters begin the scene again, only the second time delegates can offer the clueless check-in assistant advice; how to stand, what to say, how to say it and what attitudes to adopt in order to make life easier not only for his customer but for him too.
CentreStage has been working with 3C Associates for over a year now, using forum theatre to support a number of development programmes on customer care and appraisal skills, but there are many applications for the use of drama, including diversity, performance management, coaching, assessment centres and conflict handling.
Forum theatre allows learners to understand how our attitudes and behaviours can affect an interaction far more that the words we use. It encourages involvement, provokes debate and demonstrates what ‘good’ really looks like without being patronising. And it’s also fun.
3C Associates is a development consultancy based in Henley-on-Thames, delivering programmes which include management development, customer service skills, consultative sales, telephone sales training, contact centre training and supervisor training, to name a few. 3C has also created the ROI Academy, which focuses on training evaluation, offering tools, processes, consulting, project implementation and open workshops to help customers model, maximise and measure the impact and value of their training.