How to Debrief a Training Activity
BY SIVASAILAM THIAGARAJAN, PHD (THIAGI)
PART I: DEBRIEFING— WHY, WHAT, HOW, AND WHICH TYPE
Sorry to disillusion you, but people don’t learn from experience. If they do, how is it that I keep doing the same stupid things that upset me, and how is it that my friend gets married for the fourth time?
Why?
People don’t learn from experience; they learn from reflecting on their experience.
I firmly believe in this principle and keep preaching it to everyone. To me, all experiential learning activities merely provide an excuse for reflection.
What?
As a facilitator, you encourage this type of reflection by conducting a debriefing discussion. During this debriefing, your participants reflect on their experiences in the activity, relate them to the real world, discover useful insights, and share them with each other. Debriefing also helps you to wind down the activity, reduce negative reactions among the participants, and increase insights.
How?
A major dilemma in debriefing is maintaining a balance between structure and free flow. I suggest that you prepare several questions before the debriefing session. During actual debriefing, encourage and exploit spontaneous comments from your participants. If the conversation degenerates into a stream-of- consciousness meandering, fall back on your prepared list of questions.
Which Type?
You can conduct a debriefing session after any activity, but not all activities benefit from a debriefing session. It is all a question of focusing on the training objectives. For example, you can conduct a team-based activity to train your participants to design an experimental study. You can then debrief your participants about their personal reactions to mathematical topics and interpersonal concepts related to working in teams. However, if your goal is to train your participants on the systematic research procedure, the debriefing discussion that increases self-awareness and team awareness is totally superfluous. You should not be wasting the participants’ time in this touchy- feely dialogue.
What types of activities benefit from debriefing? Here are five characteristics of activities that require a debriefing discussion:
An activity in which the connection between the events and the real world are not clear-cut. In other words, activities that are metaphorical rather than direct.
An activity that generates intense feelings and emotions — either positive or negative — that distract participants from focusing on logical patterns and root causes.
An activity that happens so rapidly that the significance of the critical events is lost on the participants.
An activity whose significance is likely to be interpreted in different ways by different participants who experienced it.
An activity that focuses on principles, insights, feelings, and beliefs rather than on facts, procedures, and problem solving approaches.
Most training activities exhibit several of these characteristics. They all deserve to be debriefed. Failing to conduct a debriefing discussion will prevent participants from maximizing their learning. Worse yet, an activity without debriefing will leave participants in a confused state, wondering, “What was that all about?”
PART II: SIX QUESTIONS TO ASK DURING DEBRIEFING
QUESTION
WHY?
HOW?
HOW DO YOU FEEL?
This question invites participants to get in touch with their feelings about the activity and its outcomes. By getting strong feelings and emotions off their chest, participants are in a better state of mind to be objective during the latter phases of the debriefing discussion.
Begin this phase with a broad question about how they felt during and after the activity. Encourage participants to use single words and phrases and discourage them from lengthy analyses. Follow up with specific questions related to different elements of the activity.
WHAT HAPPENED?
This question invites participants to recall and share information about what happened during the activity. This prepares participants to analyze the information during the next stage.
Begin this phase with a broad question that asks participants to recall events during the activity. Use this information to create a chronological list. Ask questions about specific events.
HOW DOES THIS RELATE?
This question encourages participants to relate their experience in the activity with the events in the workplace. The responses enable participants to discuss the relevance of the activity to participants' real world experiences.
Begin this phase with a broad question about the connection between the activity and events in the workplace. Suggest that the activity is a metaphor and ask the participants to offer real-world analogues.
WHAT IF?
This question encourages participants to apply their insights to new contexts. It presents different scenarios and requires participants to speculate on how people’s behaviors would change under different contexts.
Begin this phase with several scenarios that require speculation on how the differences would have affected the process and the outcomes of the activity. Then invite participants to offer their own scenarios and discuss them.
WHAT NEXT?
This question encourages participants to undertake action planning. It encourages them to apply their insights from the activity to the real world.
Begin this phase by asking the participants to suggest strategies for use in future activities. Then ask the participants how they would change their workplace behaviors as a result of the insights they gained from the activity.
Structured Spontaneity
While it is important for you to have an organized sequence of debriefing questions, it is equally important to encourage spontaneous comments from the participants. You need to cultivate an oxymoronic mindset of structure and flexibility at the same time. Your approach should combine a freewheeling dialogue and the prepared structure when the conversation meanders in meaningless directions.
PART III: A SAMPLE ACTIVITY- THE $10 AUCTION
Purpose
To explore factors related to the escalation of addictive activities.
Learning Outcomes
Skills: predicting, cutting bait, and coalition formation
Concepts: escalation, addiction, audience effects, greed, momentum, and saving face
Contrasts: impulsive vs. reflective action, and achievement vs. affiliation motives
Time
20 minutes (5 minutes for briefing, 5 minutes for playing, and 10 minutes for debriefing)
Participants
Any number.
Supplies
A $10 bill
Briefing
Hold up a $10 bill and explain the rules of the auction. Use this suggested script:
This is just like a regular auction — almost.
If you want to be the first bidder, you have to bid $5.
All subsequent bids should be in $1 increments.
You should not skip any increment.
You should not bid twice in a row, bidding against yourself.
When the bidding stops, the top bidder pays the amount bid and receives this $10 bill.
Here is a special rule: the second highest bidder also pays the amount bid — and does not receive anything in return.
For example, if Diane bids $8 and Harold bids $9 and if the bidding stops there, then I will collect $9 from Harold and give him the $10 bill. I will also collect $8 from Diane and give her nothing.
Flow
Start the auction. Don’t let the participants ponder over the rules. Encourage them to enter the auction in a playful spirit.
Keep the bids coming. Initial bids tend to clump together. You will notice a slowing down around $8. The bidding will become limited to two participants around this time.
After the $9 bid, wait for a moment to see if the momentum carries the last two bidders forward. If there is a pause, remind the person who made the $8 bid that the rules do not prohibit bids of $10 or more.
Usually, the bidders will figure out the strategy (!) and continue bidding. If they don’t, turn to the second highest bidder (let’s assume he bid $8) and say something like this:
If you stop now, you lose $8. But if you bid $10, you lose nothing: you pay your $10 and get back $10. What would you like to do now?
Increase peer pressure. Appeal to people seated near the bidder to explain the economics behind your suggestion. Usually, without any major prompting, the bidding war continues. Whenever it slows down, repeat the same logical statement. From time to time, turn to the other members of the audience and say, “Everyone can participate in the auction. Don’t be shy. Feel free to jump in at any moment.”
Continue the auction. Stop when one bidder gives up. Collect the money from both bidders and give the $10 to the highest bidder (you will return the money to the bidders later, but for now maintain the illusion that you are serious).
Repeat the auction. If time permits, auction off another $10 immediately.
Variations
Nobody wants to bid? The best way to avoid this situation is to have a confederate in the crowd. Before the session, locate a trustworthy person, briefly explain the situation, give a dollar for seed money, and ask him or her to get the bidding started. You may try to enroll more than one confederate. If you don't have an opportunity to use this strategy, just trust your persuasion skills and peer pressure. In the unlikely event that nobody participates, describe what usually happens in this activity, proceed directly to debriefing, and ask participants to hypothesize what unique factors prevented them from getting into a bidding war.
Participants ganging up on you? A smart strategy for the participants is to stop after the first bid and split the profit. Fortunately, however, this situation seldom arises. After some initial hectic bidding, the two top bidders may decide to form a strategic alliance, stop the bidding, and split their losses. Prevent such collusion by maintaining a brisk pace. Keep moving among the participants and stand between the two bidders to prevent them from talking to each other.
Going on and on and on . . . ? Sometimes the two feuding parties may continuing outbidding each other while the others lose their interest. When the bidding reaches $15, modify the rules to permit any increase in the bid as long as it is in round dollar amounts.
Feel uncomfortable about using real money? Try to overcome your inhibitions — because the effect is not the same with play money. If absolutely impossible, have participants earn some play money in earlier activities. Auction off a book, or some such useful object, and have the participants use this play money.
Too many players? This should not present any major problems. Encourage participants to shout their bids. Move among participants to encourage bidding from different sections. As an alternative, divide participants into teams. Have representatives from each team do the bidding. This usually results in higher bids.
PART IV: $10 AUCTION DEBRIEFING
Here is a suggested list of debriefing questions based on the six-phase structure. Each phase contains several sample questions. It is important for you to be flexible during debriefing. Feel free to modify the sequence of the phases and the questions. Add more questions as needed. Encourage participants to come up with their own questions.
How Do You Feel?
Begin the debriefing with a few questions that provide an emotional outlet.
How do you feel about the auction right now?
How did you feel during the auction?
If you were the winner, how do you feel right now?
If you were the second highest bidder, how do you feel right now?
What Happened?
In this phase, ask questions to collect data. Encourage participants to recall and report their decisions, actions, and experiences. Help them discover similarities, differences, and patterns among their behaviors.
Begin with this open-ended question:
What interesting things happened during the activity?
Encourage participants to report their actions and decisions. Follow up with questions like these:
How many of you did not participate in the auction at all? Why?
What made the people start bidding initially?
Why did some of you drop out after a few rounds of bidding?
Why did some people keep bidding beyond a dollar?
What Did You Learn?
During this phase, ask a series of questions to encourage hypothesis generation and reality testing. Begin by offering some generalizations about what happened in the simulation, then ask participants to suggest similar generalizations of their own. Encourage participants to discuss each generalization, citing data from the simulation and from real life.
Some people bid because of their curiosity.
Some people bid because of the potential return on their investment
The auction eventually narrows down to just two people.
People bid beyond $10 because they believe that they can save their previous investment.
Some people bid beyond $10 because of their competitive nature.
Some people bid beyond $10 because of the sheer momentum of the bidding.
Men tend to bid more aggressively than women because men are conditioned to achieve and women are conditioned to affiliate.
The only person who profits financially from this activity is the auctioneer .
How Does This Relate?
In this phase, ask questions to relate the $10 AUCTION experience to real-world experiences. These questions should encourage participants to discuss analogues between what happened in the simulation and what happens in the workplace.
Begin with these open-ended questions:
Did the game remind you of any risk-taking incidents that have happened in your life?
If this game were a metaphor for something, what would this something be?
Follow up with specific concepts and principles, such as the following:
According to Peter Senge, escalation is a process that occurs between two people or two organizations. Whenever one side gets ahead, the other feels threatened and acts aggressively to reestablish its advantage. This threatens the first side, increasing its aggressiveness, and so on. Eventually, these actions result in a buildup that goes far beyond either side’s desires. In what ways does $10 AUCTION simulate the phenomenon of escalation?
Psychologists believe that people can be addicted to many things other than narcotic drugs. In what ways does $10 AUCTION simulate addiction?
In what ways does $10 AUCTION simulate the universal human tendency to take unnecessary and useless risks and continue in the risk-taking process even when it becomes clear that there is nothing to be gained?
What If?
In this phase, ask questions to encourage participants to extrapolate from their simulation experience. What would happen if the simulation’s rules or conditions were altered? Offer some “what-if” scenarios and ask participants about their possible impact on their behaviors. Encourage participants to make up their own “what-if” scenarios. Here are some suggested scenarios for you:
What if I auctioned $500 with $250 as the starting bid and $10 increments?
What if I auctioned some merchandise (such as a television set) instead of money?
What if the profit from the auction were contributed to a charity?
What if the auction were held among a group of strangers?
What if the participants were organized into teams, and these teams were encouraged to bid against each other?
What Would You Do Differently?
Ask participants these questions about alternative strategies:
Knowing what you know now, if you had another auction right now, how would you behave differently?
How would you change the way you behave in similar risk-taking situations in the real world?