Calm, clear and humane under pressure
At the passenger lane, security staff meet passengers who are in a hurry, have questions or struggle with the instructions. Staff must guard the process and, at the same time, communicate calmly, clearly and humanely.
These conversations are hard to practise often and realistically. Role-play training with an actor needs preparation and planning, and has recurring costs. Trigion wanted practice that is real enough to feel involved in, and safe enough to try out different responses.
Four security processes to practise
The role-play is modular. The participant chooses one of four recognisable processes:
- allocating passengers to a lane;
- placing hand luggage;
- frisking;
- searching a bag.
Free conversation instead of answer menus
The participant then talks freely with a virtual passenger, without clicking through answer menus.
The passenger reacts to the approach. A calm explanation, a clear boundary or a clumsy reaction each send the conversation in a different direction. Scenes include contact with a wheelchair user and dealing with language differences.
Hearing your own words as a non-native passenger hears them
In the scenario with a non-native passenger, the perspective switches. The participant sees themselves as the security officer and hears their own voice, but the words are no longer understandable.
The switch is designed to let staff feel straight away what clear communication is worth.
Reflect, then try another approach
After each scene there is a short reflection with feedback. Then the participant plays the same process again with a different approach.
If a conversation escalates, the participant experiences what their approach does to the situation, without putting a real passenger under pressure. The headset is kept ready on site, so no training actor needs to be scheduled.
Planning something similar for your own learners? You can talk to us about a project like this.
