Scenario 3B: Project Disagreement
This scenario involves two employees who are facing issues working together so they decide to ask their manager to assist with mediating their disagreement.
Role-Play Scenario
Jane and Kim are sales executives at Jetwing retail company. The head of the sales department recently asked Jane and Kim to work together on a project to develop a sales plan and budget for the next quarter. The project is due in 2 weeks’ time. Jane has been working at Jetwing retail company for five years and has extensive experience in the sales department. Kim joined Jetwing retail company two years ago and has an accounting background. Although Jane and Kim are both from the sales department, they have never worked together. They both decided to arrange a meeting to discuss how to work on this project of developing the sales plan and budget for the next quarter. The initial meeting went quite well, and Jane and Kim decided on who was doing what and when to complete each task. Since Jane has extensive experience working in the sales department, she agreed to draw the draft sales plan, and Kim agreed to work on the draft for the budget. 
Both agreed to complete these tasks by the end of the first week. During the week, Jane asked for Kim’s help in conducting some research for the sales plan. At the end of the week, Jane and Kim decided to meet again, and in the meeting, they started having disagreements regarding the workload. Jane thinks she does most of the work while Kim is only responsible for a minor part of the project. On the other hand, Kim accused Jane of being too bossy and delegating some of her tasks to Kim. After several hours of arguments and disagreements, Jane and Kim decided to approach their manager, Lee, to mediate their dispute.
Role-Play Instructions
- Organise participants into groups of 3 and allocate roles (Jane, Kim, and Lee as the mediator)
- Read the role-play scenario information
- Suggested role-play time is 50 minutes
- Preparation time: 10 minutes
- Role play time: 20 minutes
- Debrief time : 10 minute
- Group debrief time: 10 minutes
At the conclusion of the role-play, it is imperative that the participants are given the opportunity to debrief with each other and other role-playing groups. The debrief should be prefaced by first outlining the importance of feedback in the spirit of learning through action and reflection and not seen as the opportunity to highlight weaknesses or communicate criticism. The following questions can be utilised to guide the debrief process, with the ability to include further content-specific questions on the mediation process and/or skills in accordance with your curriculum.
- How did you find the role-play exercise?
- What went well in the role-play?
- What did you find difficult about the role-play?
- What would have helped improve your experience in the role-play?
- Were all parties satisfied with the outcome of the mediation?
- What would you do differently next time you engage in a similar conversation?
- What skills were evident in the role-play?
