Hoping for assistance from all you creative folks...

Welcome Lian,

Sounds a like a great creative project.

First thought I had is not all that different than yours.... but instead of a "coach", how about a friend giving advice to a brand new co-worker. Might be even less intimidating for some folks. This could also let you bring in bad behaviors without making them about your company. For example...

"So and so just said X to me. At my last company I faced a simillar situation and it made me feel Y....  Am I being over sensitive? What should I say here?"

The other thought that occurs to me is that sometimes when training topics like this, the take-away points can get lost. If you haven't already, consider boiling your points down to a couple of solid catch-phrases or axioms that you can bring up over and over as the learner solves each scenario. For example...

"People may forget what you say, but not how you made them feel" 

Then call back that point near the end of each scenario...

"Well Sally, I'm sorry that happened to you. After all, we can forget what someone said, but not how they made us feel right? So here is something you might try..."

Make sense?

Hope this helps and good luck,

Bob

(BTW - No biggie, but I think this forum is usually for techie-type issues, the other one is for more creative stuff)

I like the idea of using characters and I think you can use "cartoons" or drawings as long as the characters don't look humorous. You may also have more control over the cartoons, and have better luck finding multiple poses of the same characters.

You might also want to consider using silhouettes in some cases. It might allow the learner to focus on the situation instead of judging individual characters. Something to think about

Bob and Kristin -- thank you both. 

Bob:   Using "friends" vs "coaches"....love it...very clever.  The approach you propose will probably do exactly what we want...to keep the learner out of it....the "in my previous job..." would be perfect.   Thanks for the guidance on the forum....still too new to have that one figured out.  What is the name of the "other one" you suggest?  Want to make sure I do it right. 

Kristin: Excellent idea with using silhouettes....that will go great lengths to ensuring people stay focused on the msg and not get side tracked. 

Again...thx much. Feeling better already!  :-)

Glad that helps!! There are a lot of free silhouettes online as well. I've used all-silhouettes.com with good success in the past.

Best of luck!!

Glad to be of service.

The other forum is called "Building Better Coures" and is usually where questions like yours land  (we are in "Articulate Product Support").

Again, seriously no biggie at all... this group is soooo not stuffy or rigid about such things. Just mentioned so you might get even more responses next time.

Good luck with the project!

Bob