How To Get Participants Involved In Training Sessions?

Dear Friends,
I have recently got a new group of employees for the hospitality industry. The problem is that despite repeated attempts and acitivities, I am unable to bring them out of their shell.
All the participants are from Manipur, but they understand English quite well. However, the moment I start asking something, they either lower their heads, or stare blank.
Kindly suggest of some ways to help them interact better. Being in the hotel industry, it becomes very important for them to interact and be friendly with the guests. How do I get them to do that?
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Warm Regards,
Divya

HI Divya,
You have not given enoguh info as to what the activities involve. I would suggest that you prepare some short case studies and form them into groups and ask them to discuss the cases, and elect a spokes person to give feedback. Make the teams rotate the spokes person.
Or you could try even role plays, where a worker has to act like a customer and the other person should deal with the customer.
Have a nice day.
Simhan

Dear Simhan,
Thank you for the response.
I have already tried case studies n role play. During case studies, they will not speak. They just stand n look at the floor.
In case of a role play, they don't do anything except stand, and if I tell them to do anything, they tell me, they don't know how to act.
Kindly suggest some other activities.
Warm Regards,
Divya

Dear Divya,
If they are from hospitality industry then please train them on "Presentation Skills". Once they master this skill, they will be able to get away with their nervousness.
But above all, trainability of the staff is also important. While recruiting them was any IQ test conducted? Lack of responsiveness results out of either nervousness or low IQ.
Thanks,
Dinesh V Divekar
+ 91
dineshdivekar(at)yahoo.com

Hello Divya,
I can understand your frustration. I had similar problems with some Chinese and foreign students not taking active part during the MBA course. That was mainly on account of their deficiency in spoken English. Could that be the same case with your students (!!)?
Without knowing students' backgrounds and their age, etc., it is not easy to advice you. One idea may be to appoint individuals to take over the session, leave the room, and ask them to generate responses to key questions that you want answered, and write it up on a flip chart or a board. This step may remove the fear of exposing their weakness to the trainer.
I have successfully tried thismethod with mature students. Hope this works for you, too.
Have a nice day.
Simhan

Dear Divy,
Try the magic tricks at Bar Tricks: How to Make Customers Happy and Boost your Tips! and see if the participants wil open up. The item of turning water to ice should be easy to perform.
Have a nice day.
Simhan

hi Divya,
im from Manipur. Im a corporate training manager based in New Delhi. Ive been traveling all over India training diverse group of people. People from North east r generally shy and less talkative by nature. U'll find there s heaven and earth difference between personal behaviours and culture with the mainland India. Less exposure is one main issue. They'll also stick to the aged old believe that less talk is a virtue.
For complete solution u contact me at [Login to view]. do let me knw in more details about what kind of training, main concern with these people, and where r u based?