When we named our business back in 2019, we thought the concept of an ‘online practice room’ was relatively obvious - it does what it says on the tin!
But with work habits changing so much over the past few years and new virtual concepts appearing all the time, we thought it might be worth defining what we mean by an ‘online practice room’ and how it all works.
Online practice rooms – the opportunity to practise
At its core, an ‘online practice room’ is a virtual room – in Zoom or Google Meet for example – where you get the opportunity to practise a typical work conversation.
Our sessions here at PRO are exactly this, delivered via our own online video call technology that’s like Zoom, only much clearer! They’re usually a one-hour session, and they’re done 121 with a trained and experienced Practice Coach.
In that hour, you get to practise whatever conversation or topic you need to have. And here’s the magic – not only do you get the chance to practice that conversation at least twice, with feedback in between each go, but you also get to try out different approaches.
“I was drawn to the idea of learners getting a real opportunity to practise in a safe space and to gain feedback from an external expert. It’s a fantastic learning experience.”
Tovah Wilde, Talent Development Manager, New Balance
What is a Practice Coach and why do we use them?
At PRO, we’ve very particular about who we use as our Practice Coaches. First and foremost, they are actors, who are trained in becoming any character or persona you need them to be. If you’ve not worked with an actor before, this can take a few minutes to get used to – but that’s their job! To put you at ease and make you 100% feel like you’re talking to your boss, or your team member, whomever it is!
Actors are also really great at describing behaviours and emotions, which comes into play when they’re giving you feedback on how you made them feel and how you can improve in the next go.
We also train our Practice Coaches on how to ask you powerful coaching questions that will help you think of and apply new approaches.
Fancy watching a Practice Coach session in action?
What are some typical practice room conversations?
An online practice room is designed entirely around you and the conversation you need to practice. Whether you’re a new manager running a performance review for the first time, or a seasoned manager needing to deal with absence issues or the like, our Practice Coaches will take on the role you need them to and let you practise, practise and practise again!
Here are some of the typical conversations we see team members wanting to practise:
- How to give great feedback
- Coaching a team member on how to develop themselves
- Asking a team member, “How are you really?”
- Managing someone’s performance
- How to communicate ‘upwards’ to a senior stakeholder
- How to influence and negotiate a sale
- Asking for a pay rise
- Giving the boss some feedback!
Whatever the topic or conversation you want to have, there’s a Practice Coach at PRO who can help you. Not only that, but all our sessions can be recorded so you can watch them back in your own time for a feedback refresher!
