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To give examples of how
to deal with difficult people, each group will choose two types of
difficult people from our
Winning with Difficult People book and then perform two skits in
front of the class to show how a group can successfully deal with each
type of difficult person. Remember, the outcome of the skit is that the
difficult person is no longer a problem. Your book gives you suggestions
on what to do about each type. You are strongly encouraged to use humor
or drama, but keep it clean.
Required length: 2-3
minutes per skit
General Guidelines:
- Two group members
will be chosen to play one of the difficult people each.
- Each group member
must contribute at least three full sentences to the performance.
One-word answers and non-verbal communication are not sufficient.
- Make sure that
each skit is truly a conversation and that ll group members speak
several times.
- The group member
playing the role of “difficult person” should be prepared to speak
more than anyone else.
- Although I
encourage you to use humor, this is not a rapid-fire comedy
routine—take your time. No need to rush through your performance and
talk as fast as you can.
- Speak up and
enunciate—the entire class must be able to hear you.
- You may use note
cards, but please do not read your lines from the paper—make the
presentation as natural as possible.
- Practice,
practice, practice.
As far as drafting the
skits, you have three basic choices:
- Let each group
member work independently on what he or she wants to say. After all,
you know the topic and the type of difficult person you will be or
will encounter. Then on the day of the presentation, you improvise.
This one is the least scripted and the most spontaneous approach,
but it includes the risk that some group members may not be prepared
or that everyone gets confused about who speaks when.
- Develop some
general sense of what each person will say and in which order you
will speak without writing a complete script. Group members then
fill in the blanks with their own words. This one preserves
creativity and spontaneity but minimizes the risk that group members
may be unprepared or confused.
- Write a complete
script like you would have for a TV show, a movie, or a theater
production. Group members then memorize their lines. This one
guarantees the best performance (provided everyone studies his or
her lines) but is also rather time consuming and might lead to
people reading their lines instead of speaking them.
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carsten@osu-okmulgee.edu
