Small Talk Learning Experience

Project Overview

Audience

Professionals in China in hospitality, media, finance & industry who travel frequently & have many international business dealings.

Tools

PowerPoint & Photoshop

Responsibilities

As the Instructional Designer of this learning experience, I was responsible for all aspects from the initial needs analysis to development, iteration & delivery of the content.

The Problem

As the Head Foreign Trainer for a large, international English language training center catering to over 120,000 adult leaners enrolled in more than 70 centers throughout China, I conducted ongoing surveys and interviews to find out what they were struggling with. And small talk proved to be right up there. These learners traveled a lot and worked with Westerners, and were mostly of the mind that small talk is one of the more mysterious "foreigner" practices they didn't understand, like, or know how to engage in. Which negatively affected their business dealings.

The Solution

I created an in-person seminar made up of two parts.

1. I created a PowerPoint presentation of a number of different social situation. For each one, I selected a volunteer from the participants to role play with me. After having them guess what I did "wrong," the appropriate response was revealed. I then had learners partner up and practice what they had just learned. First one person would play the role of the foreigner, and then they would switch.

   Then the next scenario role play was presented, and they again practiced with each other and in small groups.-

   In all, I covered about 10 typical social situations involving small talk, from how to do a proper handshake when you first meet someone, to what to say when you see them again, how to deal with Europeans who air kiss, and topics to avoid.

2. I then put the participants into groups of 4-6 and provided them with a Snakes & Ladders game board, a fun oversized dice, game pieces, and a Scenario Sheet which corresponded with the numbers on the game board. For example, when someone rolled the die and landed on square 9, they would follow the instructions for square 9 on the Scenario Sheet. Every scenario on the Scenario Sheet was pulled from what we covered during the first part of the learning experience. Typically, the learner would have to ask the person to their right a small talk question...and the most friendly and fascinating small talk resulted!

   My personal favorite was when someone would land on 15, and have to stand up, wave at the next table and ask: What's new? The enthusiasm and resulting gales of laughter seriously made my heart swell.

I also provided the participants a single-sheet PDF that they could easily refer to when they knew they would need to be making small talk.

The Result

As a result of this Learning Experience, learner satisfaction scores rose, and requests for refunds fell dramatically. Anecdotally, learners continued to report back to both me and their account rep that they were finding it really fun to putting their new skills at making small talk to the test when they traveled, in negotiations, and with their Western co-workers.