Scenario 2D: Negotiating A Smooth Transition to Retirement

1. Organise participants into groups of 3 and allocate roles (FutureSelf Employee Christine, FutureSelf HR Manager Easton, observer)
2. Each role has a separate role-play brief. Ensure participants only read their role brief
3. Suggested role-play time is 50 minutes
   • Preparation time: 10 minutes
   • Role play time: 20 minutes
   • Debrief time (observer to also provide feedback to role players): 10 minutes
   • Group debrief time: 10 minutes

This brief should only be read by the person playing the role of Christine.   

Read through the following brief to provide context to the scenario you are role-playing as Christine.

You have been working at FutureSelf for 20 years. During your career, you have received many accolades for your success and have enjoyed managing a team of 10. You feel you have reached many heights in your career and have been pondering retirement for some time. After careful consideration, you have decided that you want to retire by the end of the year. Whilst you are excited about the thought of endless travel and spending quality time with family and friends, you are quite nervous about retiring as you enjoy the challenges associated with your work and have made long-life friends at FutureSelf. You enjoy mentoring new employees and you love mentoring your colleagues to help them thrive. Whilst this is your last year before retiring, you are not keen on going from working five days a week to nothing. You arrange to have a meeting with the HR Manager Easton to negotiate your transition to retirement.

This brief should only be read by the person playing the role of Easton.  

Read through the following brief to provide context to the scenario you are role-playing as Easton.

Christine has asked to meet with you as the HR Manager at FutureSelf. Christine has recently expressed interest in retiring at the end of the year. Christine has been working at FutureSelf for 20 years and manages a team of 10. She is a phenomenal employee, a top performer and a great mentor. She is a strong part of FutureSelf culture and always set a positive tone amongst others. Having Christine retire will be a huge loss to FutureSelf, but she deserves it! After an exceptional career, she desires all the freedom that retiring has to offer. You have heard that Christine is a little apprehensive about retiring and is keen to ensure she has a smooth transition to retirement. The next few months are predicted to be very busy and you have initiated a large recruitment campaign of which you were hoping Christine would help with mentoring the new staff. You ponder whether she would be interested in working part-time to assist with the transition. You are now meeting with Christine to negotiate what her transition to retirement looks like.

As the observer, your role in the scenario is to observe the relationship and conversation between the two players in the negotiation. Part of your role is not to make judgments or interrupt the role play, but rather take notes on the negotiation. Taking observation notes will be a critical part of the debrief, where you are able to provide the role players with your perspective on how the negotiation went. To assist with taking observational notes, here are some questions to consider:

1. Were non-verbal cues utilised? If so, what and by whom?
2. Were any negotiation tactics utilised? If so, what and how did the other party respond?
3. What negotiation skills were evident?
4. Did one/both parties need to compromise and if so, explain what and how?
5. Was an agreement reached? What was it?
6. What could the role players do differently in the negotiation?

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. It is also important for the observer to provide the role players with feedback on what they observed in the relationship and conversation between the two players in the negotiation. 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 negotiation process and/or skills in accordance with your curriculum.

1. How did you find the role-play exercise?
2. What went well in the role-play?
3. What did you find difficult about the role play?
4. What would have helped improve your experience in the role play?
5. What would you do differently next time you negotiate?
6. What skills were evident in the role play?