Yoodli and The 100th Monkey, a dynamic consultancy and training company based in the UK, announce a strategic collaboration to enhance learning retention through AI-powered coaching. The 100th Monkey specializes in ensuring that training experiences lead to lasting change, and with Yoodli’s AI-driven technology, this process becomes even more effective. Introducing iMO, a cutting-edge practice and coaching tool designed to reinforce learning after training sessions.
Enhancing Learning Retention with AI-Powered Coaching
The 100th Monkey has long been recognized for delivering impactful training programs. Now, with iMO powered by Yoodli, learners can transition from knowledge acquisition to long-term skill mastery through interactive coaching.
iMO strengthens learning and development efforts by reinforcing training content, ensuring key takeaways translate into real-world improvements. Key features include:
Advanced Communication Coaching: iMO provides AI-generated insights on pacing, tone, filler words, word choice, and delivery to help professionals refine their speaking and presentation skills.
Simulated Workplace Conversations: Customizable roleplays allow individuals to engage in realistic scenarios, receiving private and data-driven coaching aligned with The 100th Monkey’s established frameworks. The platform can be customized to reflect each organization’s unique culture and real-world situations, ensuring relevance and practicality.
Sustained Skill Development: iMO delivers mini, personalized programs designed to focus on areas for improvement identified during training sessions, enabling learners to continuously apply and reinforce training insights, improving retention and effectiveness over time.
Data-Driven Progress Tracking: Personalized reports offer measurable insights into communication improvements, helping organizations track development and ROI.
Scalable Learning Solutions: Available on demand, iMO makes high-quality coaching accessible across teams and organizations, extending the impact of learning initiatives.
“At Yoodli, our mission is to make expert communication coaching accessible and results-driven,” said Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli. “By partnering with The 100th Monkey, we are equipping professionals with AI-driven tools to enhance confidence, master essential skills, and foster workplace success.”
Richard Edwards, Co-Founder of 100th Monkey, said: “We saw an instant impact with delegates ten years ago when we pioneered bringing data into our soft skills courses. They loved the objective feedback and tangible steps to progress their communication skills. Since then we have continued to seek ways to unlock the science of speaking, and it has been a long held desire to develop an AI tool that we trusted could generate accurate data, align to our frameworks, and complement our way of thinking. This is why we are so delighted to have found and partnered with the brilliant people of Yoodli. The platform really is a game changer for both delegate experience in-session, and critically, for continued learning, post training.”
About The 100th Monkey
The 100th Monkey is a consultancy and training firm based in Bristol, UK, serving clients globally. Their expertise spans:
Personal Development: Award-winning programs designed to enhance skillsets, mindsets, and overall professional effectiveness.
Team Effectiveness: Tailored workshops and offsites to strengthen team performance, decision-making, and strategic direction.
Leadership Consultancy: Partnering with organizations to refine strategies, improve communication, and operationalize business plans.
Yoodli is an AI-powered communication coaching platform that offers private, real-time, and judgment-free practice opportunities for professionals and GTM teams. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies, including Google, Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant technology enhances sales training, objection handling, leadership development, and more. The platform is used by Toastmasters International, top business schools, and professionals in over 150 countries.
Yoodli and The 100th Monkey share a vision of empowering professionals with the tools needed to succeed in today’s evolving workplace. iMO bridges the gap between learning and real-world application, delivering an innovative, scalable solution that fosters long-term growth and measurable success.
MindGym, a global leader in behavior change solutions, and Yoodli, an AI-powered roleplay and communication coaching platform, are excited to announce the launch of Lio, an innovative AI-driven performance conversation coach. This collaboration combines Yoodli’s cutting-edge GenAI technology with MindGym’s proven expertise in behavior change to transform how leaders and managers develop and refine critical workplace communication skills.
A New Standard for Leadership and Communication Coaching
For over 20 years, MindGym has partnered with the world’s leading organizations to improve performance through behavior change. Now, with Lio, powered by Yoodli, leaders can bridge the gap between learning and action by honing the skills they’ve developed in MindGym programs and practicing essential workplace conversations in a private, intuitive environment.
Lio empowers talent teams to guarantee a better return on investment, ensuring the learning from leadership and manager development programs will stick. Users will be able to:
Master Performance Conversations: Lio’s real-time feedback helps managers improve their ability to navigate challenging conversations, deliver feedback effectively, and foster stronger team relationships.
Practice What They’ve Learned: Lio reinforces the critical skills leaders develop through MindGym programs, including managing difficult conversations, delivering constructive feedback, holding others accountable, and conducting effective performance coaching.
Build Communication Confidence: Leaders can practice conversations in a safe, judgment-free space, receiving actionable insights to improve clarity, tone, and presence.
Deliver Measurable Results: Lio provides detailed feedback on individual progress, enabling organizations to connect leadership development directly to performance outcomes.
Scale Development Efforts: Available on demand, Lio enables organizations to extend high-quality coaching across teams, supporting leadership development at scale.
At Yoodli, we’re committed to making expert communication coaching accessible and actionable for everyone,” said Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli. “Lio, powered by Yoodli, combines our advanced AI technology with MindGym’s world-class behavior change expertise, giving leaders the tools they need to excel in today’s dynamic workplace.
We’re incredibly excited to introduce Lio and our partnership with Yoodli. The combination of MindGym’s science-based performance management solutions and Yoodli’s AI speech coaching technology has the potential to be transformative to performance and productivity across organizations,” said Christoffer Ellehuus,CEOat MindGym. “We know from our research that 40% of learning and development programs fail due to an inadequate focus on activating what you learn. With Lio we can now significantly reduce that risk by providing a safe space for leaders and managers to practice and refine their performance management and coaching skills.
About MindGym
MindGym is a global leader in behavior change, partnering with over 60% of the FTSE 100 and S&P 100 companies to transform business performance by changing the way people think, feel, and behave. MindGym’s science-based solutions empower organizations to tackle their most pressing challenges, from leadership development to cultural transformation. Learn more at themindgym.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is a generative AI roleplay and communication coaching platform that provides private, real-time, and judgment-free practice opportunities for professionals and GTM teams. Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant technology is trusted by Fortune 100 companies like Google for enhancing sales certifications, objection handling, leadership development, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
MindGym and Yoodli share a vision for enabling leaders to foster better workplaces through impactful conversations. With Lio, this partnership delivers an innovative solution to a critical business need, empowering leaders to drive meaningful change within their organizations.
SNP Communications, a trusted partner to industry-leading companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, SAP, Salesforce, and Spotify, and Yoodli, an AI-powered communication coaching platform, are excited to announce a strategic partnership.
This collaboration brings together SNP’s decades of expertise in leadership communication coaching and Yoodli’s cutting-edge AI technology, offering leaders real-time, personalized feedback to elevate their storytelling, executive presence, and overall communication impact.
SNP Communications has a proven history of supporting leaders at some of the world’s most innovative organizations in achieving their goals. Their unique approach to communication training focuses on helping leaders connect authentically and inspire their teams to action.
Through this partnership, Yoodli’s AI platform will seamlessly integrate into SNP’s coaching programs. Leaders will now have access to a safe, judgment-free environment to practice their communication skills. Yoodli’s instant analysis and tailored recommendations will help SNP clients refine their public speaking, conversational clarity, and ability to command attention in high-stakes moments.
Partnering with world-class organizations requires world-class communication. With Yoodli’s AI, we’re enhancing our ability to help leaders amplify their voices and make meaningful connections. said Danny Schultz, VP of Training and Coaching at SNP Communications.
At Yoodli, we’re passionate about transforming how people communicate. Collaborating with SNP Communications, a company trusted by global leaders, aligns perfectly with our mission to help individuals unlock their full potential, said Varun Puri, Yoodli CEO and Founder.
This partnership blends SNP’s leadership coaching expertise with Yoodli’s AI-driven insights to address the communication challenges faced by leaders in today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving business landscape.
About SNP Communications SNP Communications has worked with some of the world’s most iconic companies. With a focus on authentic storytelling and leadership communication, SNP equips leaders and teams with the tools to connect, inspire, and lead with purpose. For more information on SNP Communications, visit their website here.
About Yoodli Yoodli, a Seattle-based company, helps individuals improve their communication skills using AI. Users can get in-the-moment coaching during online meetings, or they can practice for an upcoming speech, conversation, or interview with AI. Yoodli will then generate feedback on their content, conciseness, and speaking attributes such as executive presence, reliance on filler words, and pacing. Yoodli has been rolled out in over 150 countries by Toastmasters International, leading business schools, and hundreds of thousands of leaders globally. For more information, visit Yoodli’s website.
It doesn’t matter what industry or field you work in: Upskilling is a crucial aspect of attracting and maintaining success in the modern workplace.
Our comprehensive overview will explain why upskilling is so essential these days, as well as its benefits, methods for investing in employee skill sets, and the best skills to hone in on.
What Is Upskilling?
Upskilling is a means of picking up new skills that helps folks grow in their career. By enhancing and expanding your existing skill sets, you’ll be able to make yourself more indispensable to your employer. Not only that, but growing your expertise in a field or industry will also inform any future roles you might have.
For managers, investing in upskilling with your employees comes with a whole host of benefits, from increased employee satisfaction and retention rates to better branding.
Upskilling vs. reskilling
Both upskilling and reskilling are terms used to describe acquiring more knowledge or skills within a particular industry. However, the difference between them is the type of skills acquired. With upskilling, the focus is expanding on existing knowledge or skills you already have within the same industry. Reskilling, on the other hand, emphasizes picking up totally new skills or knowledge during the transition to a new field or career path.
Why is upskilling important?
In a job market that’s constantly changing, upskilling is vital to stay relevant and gain a competitive edge. Investing in your employees this way will also boost employee retention rates, engagement, and satisfaction in your workforce. It can also improve your team’s overall job performance, skill sets, productivity, and innovation.
At the end of the day, investing in a few high-income skills can completely transform your professional life.
Top Upskilling Benefits to Know
Not surprisingly, investing in your skills and committing to expanding your knowledge in your area of expertise comes with tons of advantages. Here are just a few of the benefits of upskilling for employees and employers alike.
Better job satisfaction
Both employers and employees can look forward to increased job satisfaction when they invest in upskilling. Employers will notice better overall job performance from their team, as gaining new skills and abilities directly correlates to better productivity, efficiency, and satisfaction. Upskilling also boosts the confidence of employees, which can lead to better job performance, too.
A stronger brand identity
One of the lesser-known benefits of upskilling is developing a stronger brand identity. When employers invest in their employees in this way, they foster a better company reputation. Investing in the skill sets of employees shows others that the brand is committed to their employees and their well-being.
It also helps companies attract and keep top talent in an industry, even in the most competitive environments.
Boosted earning potential
For individuals, upskilling also leads to increased earning potential through multiple avenues. For example, expanding your existing skill set can lead to higher salaries and more pay. It can also open new doors for folks, both within and outside of an organization. People with more skills in their area of expertise get more promotions and job opportunities than those who remain stagnant in their skills and knowledge.
Plus, upskilling leads to better job security, both for the individual and for the employer in terms of retention rates.
How to Upskill With Yoodli
Regardless of what industry you work in, you’ll be able to invest in yourself and your team by upskilling with Yoodli.
Yoodli is a work enablement tool and communication coach that uses AI to enhance individual and team skills. Employees use Yoodli’s intelligent roleplay capabilities to build on their existing skills and develop a deeper expertise. Top brands like Google, Korn Ferry, and Dale Carnegie have all used Yoodli to invest in their workforce.
As an upskilling tool, Yoodli works like this. Its user-friendly platform offers a multitude of existing roleplay scenarios to choose from. Folks can practice engaging with clients, small talk, public speaking, and any other communication scenario to invest in their existing skills. Employees can even craft their own roleplay from scratch using the Builder tool to work on specific scenarios. No matter the exact scenario, employees will go back and forth with an AI-generated partner to participate in human-like conversation.
But Yoodli isn’t just an upskilling tool. It’s also an intelligent communication coach that highlights specific areas of improvement for people based on their existing skills. For example, your employees will get specific insights on your delivery, listening, and speech patterns to offer actionable feedback and tips for improvement.
Investing in yourself and your team through upskilling is much easier with Yoodli.
For team leads and admin, Yoodli offers personalization capabilities that allow brands to adapt the tool for their own needs based on their own company methodology. Plus, Yoodli provides enterprise-grade privacy, with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and more.
Learn more about how you can get started upskilling with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/.
7 Essential Upskilling Skills to Secure Your Future
Whether you’re an experienced sales rep or you’re new to the role, you need to have multiple strategies for prospecting in your arsenal. Here are seven of the most essential upskilling skills you should consider to secure your future career.
1. Problem-solving and critical thinking skills
One of the most useful upskilling skills to invest in is your problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Both skills are universally beneficial and can help you pinpoint problems as they come up, brainstorm better solutions, and make better decisions.
Investing in your team’s problem-solving skills can also help them improve their ability to think outside the box, explore more creative solutions, and be more resilient when faced with failure or setbacks.
2. Collaboration and teamwork skills
In a similar vein, teamwork and collaboration skills are other upskilling skills worth investing in, no matter what field you work in. Learning how to work efficiently in a team is essential for professional success. Most employers look for people with strong interpersonal skills. People who have solid teamwork skills are more likely to build and keep up positive relationships with other team members, which is important for brands that want high retention rates.
3. Communication skills
Of course, effective communication skills rank high with regard to the most valuable upskilling skills. Being able to communicate efficiently with people — your coworkers, team mates, clients, and others — is essential in any industry. For most people, this includes both written and verbal communication.
However, communication skills also include skills like active listening, which is key to a fruitful conversation.
4. Digital literacy skills
Although it’s not always top-of-mind for everyone, investing in some digital literacy skills can be a beneficial move. No matter what industry you work in, even the most basic digital literacy skills can set you apart from the competition. For example, data analysis and the ability to interpret data can benefit almost anyone. Learning how to efficiently use Excel is a great place to start.
Other digital literacy skills that can be worth investing in, depending on your exact role, include areas like:
Cybersecurity, including internet safety and best practices
Programming and coding
Cloud computing, including how to work in programs like Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS
5. Creativity skills
Some folks don’t automatically consider creativity and innovation to be upskilling skills worth investing in, but both skills give you a competitive edge over others. The ability to brainstorm and ideate creative solutions to problems that crop up is a true skill.
As an employer, be sure you’re fostering a positive work environment where your team members can feel comfortable developing their creativity and innovative skills to better problem-solve.
6. Emotional intelligence
Many people think emotional intelligence is a skill that comes naturally to people, but it can also be a learned skill for those who need to improve. Having a high level of emotional intelligence helps folks understand their own emotions as well as the emotions of others, and how this can affect behavior. Having this intimate understanding helps improve your emotional regulation, self-awareness, and social skills, too.
7. Adaptability skills
Lastly, investing in an upselling skill like adaptability can revolutionize the way you form and maintain relationships at work (among other benefits). Building your adaptability skills can improve your ability to empathize with others, embrace change instead of running from it, and successfully face challenges and unexpected situations head-on. It can also help employees be more resilient when they face failure and help them learn from it.
Best Methods for Upskilling to Consider
There are tons of reasons you might want to invest in you or your team’s skill sets. From improved employee satisfaction to stronger brand identity and higher earning potential, the benefits are endless. Here are some tried-and-true methods and strategies for upskilling, whether you’re an employer or an employee.
Training programs
Teams can tap into in-house and outside training to home in on upskilling for their employees. Many companies today provide activities like seminars, workshops, and training sessions to invest in their workforce. Depending on the brand, employee resource groups (ERGs) can also provide options for training and collaboration.
On-the-job training can also help employees upskill through opportunities like relevant projections, cross-training programs, and certification programs.
Coaching and mentorship
Both coaching and mentorship opportunities also help employees build their existing skill sets and knowledge. Some companies offer specific mentorship programs that employees can opt in to in order to build their skills. In general, an employee is paired with someone who has more experience who can support and guide them to grow their skills.
Job shadowing is another type of coaching and mentorship in which folks can watch how other people do their job to get new insights and pick up more skills.
Online learning platforms
One of the most accessible ways to start upskilling is by using online learning platforms. Options like Udemy, Coursera, Masterclass, LinkedIn Learning, and Khan Academy all provide massive libraries of classes on different topics. Depending on the actual platform, you can learn from actual professors from top universities to build on your existing knowledge.
These platforms are great for individuals and organizations alike and can help invest in you and your team’s abilities.
The Main Takeaway
Upskilling is a critical means of making yourself more valuable and less dispensable than others in the eyes of employers. It sets you apart from other employees, leads to higher salaries, and increases employee retention rates. Plus, when you use an upskilling tool like Yoodli, you can easily invest in yourself and your team members without the hassle.
Live-action roleplaying — often referred to as “LARPing” — is a popular form of roleplay that involves creativity and immersive experiences. LARP events can be a great source of community and collaboration, whether it’s your first event or your 50th.
In our beginner-friendly guide, we’ll tell you everything there is to know about live-action roleplay, from its common features to LARPing etiquette, and where to start if you’re brand new to this type of roleplay.
What Is Live-Action Roleplaying (LARPing)?
Live-action roleplaying — also called LARPing — is a community-based activity where participants dress up and act out the roles of their characters. LARPing is just one of the many types of roleplay out there. Even so, it holds its own as a versatile style of roleplay.
There are many common settings, scenarios, and genres for live-action roleplay. Historical reenactments are one example. Folks might meet at a historic Civil War site dressed in 1860s-appropriate attire for a Civil War battle reenactment. Other LARPers prefer more fantastical or creative settings, like Renaissance fairs.
While live-action roleplaying is versatile, there are some features many LARP experiences have in common. First and foremost, the immersive roleplaying environment is key in live-action roleplaying settings. Participants can leverage the real world around them, the atmosphere, and props to create an immersive environment in which folks can lose themselves in.
Similarly, in-character interactions are a must for LARPing. People who are participating in a live-action roleplay will dress up as their character and interact with others around them to play their part.
Like many other kinds of roleplay, LARPing also relies on:
Storytelling skills
The ability to ideate and develop characters
World-building
Problem-solving skills
The ability to make informed decisions
Why do people enjoy LARPing?
People enjoy live-action roleplaying and other forms of roleplay because it allows them to immerse themselves in another world. Folks can explore their most creative side in a safe space of like-minded people. LARPers can act out scenes, engage in on-the-spot roleplay, and work on their personal character development.
Where to Start If You’re New to LARPing
If you’re new to live-action roleplay but it’s something you’ve always wanted to explore, you’re not alone. You can start LARPing at any age, even if you’ve never roleplayed before. Still, it can feel overwhelming to start a new activity.
Here’s where you can start if you’re new to live-action roleplaying.
1. Get familiar with the ins and outs of LARPing.
Your first step on your live-action roleplay journey should be getting familiar with LARPing basics. Do a bit of research on LARPing etiquette (more on that below) and what it involves.
With live-action roleplay, you can expect costuming and props to be important components of many sessions. Cosplay — people dress up as their favorite characters — is closely tied to LARPing. The costume differences between the two boil down to their durability. When cosplayers make costumes, it’s OK if they’re fragile or pricey because they might only wear it once. However, a LARPer’s costume needs to be able to withstand lots of movement, since participants actively roleplay in their outfits.
What your character wears will depend on the roleplaying group, the setting, the atmosphere, and the location. Whatever the case, you’ll just want to make sure your character’s outfit of choice will withstand the LARPing session.
2. Find a group for live-action roleplaying.
If you’re brand new to live-action roleplay, it can be helpful to find a group that’s been roleplaying for a while. Participants can help you get the hang of live-action roleplay and steer you in the right direction.
You can find LARPing groups on apps like Facebook, Reddit, and other social media platforms. Local comic book shops or game stores can sometimes help folks find LARPing groups. If you happen to be in college, your campus might even have a live-action roleplay group of its own.
Alternatively, you and your friends could start your own LARP group.
3. Look for LARPing events near you.
Regardless of whether or not you have your own group, you can always look for LARPing events local to you. Many states host a Renaissance fair which involves levels of roleplaying. While some folks will just want to dress up like their character, others will commit and only respond in character instead of having out-of-character conversations.
When looking for LARPing events, check social media platforms like Facebook for posted events. You can also use a tool like LARPFinder to find nearby events based on your location.
4. Design a character for yourself.
Once you know what kind of LARPing event or group you’re delving into, you can start to build your character. Take your time brainstorming. Some groups prefer to use character sheets, especially in roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons, and those can give you a great start.
Think about their backstory and what events led them to be the character they are today. What’s their personality like? You can draw or describe their physical appearance, too. Some artists even specialize in bringing roleplay characters to life this way.
You can also consider what special abilities or skills they have. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Answering some of these more basic questions can help you really flesh out your character and role.
5. Get ready for your first live-action roleplaying experience.
If you’ve found a group or event and created your character, you’re ready to go. Don’t forget to pack some essentials in a go-bag before the event. Depending on the setting and environment, you might want to pack items like:
Your wallet, including cash, credit cards, and your ID
A phone charger
A notepad and pen
Make sure you understand the general guidelines before you go. A historical battle reenactment will have different rules than a more convention-esque setting, like a Renaissance fair.
Most importantly, embrace your first-ever LARPing experience with an open-minded, positive attitude.
Live-Action Roleplay Etiquette: What to Expect
The exact live-action roleplay etiquette that’ll be expected of you will depend on what kind of event you attend. Expectations will vary from event to event, but there are some general guidelines you can follow just to be safe. Here are some of the basics of LARPing etiquette to keep in mind.
Be safe.
Above all else, prioritize safety. This may be a given for most folks, but it’s important nonetheless. The majority of LARPing groups make safety a priority by including common-sense rules and guidelines.
In general, always make sure you stay aware of your surroundings. If you see something suspicious or dangerous behavior, report it. If the event includes alcoholic beverages, always watch your drink and never leave it unattended.
Aim to have an optimistic attitude.
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t plan to show up to a LARPing event with a bad attitude. Try to go into the event with a positive outlook, even if you’re feeling nervous. Being an engaged, enthusiastic participant makes for a more fulfilling roleplay experience.
Be sure to put your collaboration skills to the test by leveraging teamwork. Live-action roleplay is usually a collaborative experience, and it’s more fun when everyone works together. In the same vein, make sure you’re being a good sport.
Enjoy the immersive experience.
Arguably the biggest aspect of LARPing is the immersive roleplaying experience. As such, make sure you stay in character for the majority of the time. Participants who speak in and out of character can confuse others and muddle the roleplay experience. It can be tough to stay in character, especially if it’s your first event, but it’ll help if you surround yourself with other LARPers.
Because of all the improv that happens during LARP events, roleplayers can work on their adaptability skills, especially when it comes to thinking on thier feet. Adapt to surprising or otherwise unexpected situations and try to keep a flexible mindset.
Keep in mind that LARP events are for everyone and you’re not usually the main character of a single event. A successful LARPing session takes everyone’s effort, so make sure everyone is included.
Be respectful to everyone.
It’s also important to be respectful during live-action roleplay events. Follow the event guidelines and respect other LARPers’ boundaries. A good rule of thumb is to always ask for content before roleplay situations that could be uncomfortable for others, including physical contact.
Steer clear of power plays, where you intentionally or unintentionally dominate the LARP event. Remember that LARPing is a collaborative experience.
How to Improve Your LARPing Skills with Yoodli
Whether you’re totally new to live-action roleplaying or you’re just trying to brush up on your roleplaying skills, using a tool like Yoodli can make a difference.
Yoodli — a top roleplay platform and communication coach — uses AI to spark conversational roleplay opportunities. Users can experiment and practice their skills in tons of different types of roleplay, from simple small talk to sales call simulations and even in your romantic life.
You can use Yoodli for anything from interview preparation to live-action roleplay and dating conversation prep.
For example, top companies like Google and Dale Carnegie use Yoodli for their own use purposes, like work enablement, certification, and training. Here’s how it works.
Anyone can pick from a collection of existing roleplay scenarios from Yoodli’s bank or they can create their own with Yoodli’s Builder. That way, if you have a specific scenario in mind, they can tackle it head-on. LARPers, for example, might have group- or event-specific scenarios in mind that they’d like to practice. Whatever the scenario might be, Yoodli will provide an AI-generated partner that you can further customize.
You can use Yoodli to practice for any type of live-action roleplay and build your confidence in LARPing.
From there, you can start practicing your live-action roleplaying. Yoodli will help you hit your objectives and goals while sharpening your skills. Plus, as a roleplay coach, Yoodli gives folks customized, detailed evaluations of their roleplay conversation skills. Users can then use this instant, actionable feedback to improve their skills and reach their goals.
Whether you’re into LARPing or you just want to prepare for an upcoming presentation, find out how you can get started for free with Yoodli at https://yoodli.ai/.
4 Benefits of Live-Action Roleplaying
Although LARPing is appealing to many simply because it’s fun in nature, there are also tons of benefits that come with this kind of roleplay. Here are just four advantages that come with engaging in some live-action roleplay sessions.
1. There’s more room for creativity and creative thinking.
Not everyone gets to flex their creative muscles. Folks sometimes feel tied down to their education or their job and, as a result, don’t have tons of creative free time. For some people, live-action roleplaying provides that space for imaginative, creative thinking.
People who wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to be creative at school or work can dive into world-building. They can ideate detailed, immersive worlds that become the perfect backdrop for engaging, interesting characters. LARPing always involves an element of storytelling, so folks can really let their imagination run wild while creating compelling narratives and plot twists.
2. LARPing can be a fun way to get some physical activity.
There are even health benefits to live-action roleplay. Many LARP events involve outdoor settings and require spending time outside. Spending time in nature is good for a person’s physical and mental health. It can be a strong stress reliever and reduces anxiety for many. For some people, it provides an escape from their typical day-to-day life.
Depending on the actual event, LARPers might need to walk, run, or even engage in planned combat — all endeavors that can get your heart pumping. For some people, it’s a good form of exercise.
3. It can create a sense of community and social connection.
Because live-action roleplaying is such a collaborative activity, LARPing can create a sense of community and connection for participants. There’s always teamwork involved, and working toward shared objectives can make folks feel more connected. You’ll be able to put your empathy skills to the test as you interact with other LARPers.
Not only that, but it provides a safe space for you to practice your communication skills. One of the best roleplay tips is to use clear, concise language to avoid potential misunderstandings during a session or event.
4. It can improve your ability to think critically.
One of the best benefits of LARPing is that it can boost your critical thinking skills. Live-action roleplay events are a great environment for practicing your problem-solving skills. Most LARPing sessions involve plenty of brainstorming, considering solutions to problems that crop up, and thinking on your feet.
Even though these take place in a fictional setting, LARPers still get to practice informed decision-making and strategic thinking, which can benefit them in other areas of their life.
The Bottom Line
Live-action roleplaying is a popular form of roleplay that comes with its own unique benefits. Whether you’re a seasoned LARPer or you’re new to the scene, the live-action roleplay community is vast. There are tons of opportunities to meet new people, flex your creative muscles, and socialize with like-minded folks.
If you’re looking to brush up on your LARPing skills, an app like Yoodli can take your abilities to the next level. Just remember, everyone progresses at their own pace.
There are many unique use cases and benefits of roleplaying, whether you’re trying to improve your professional development, your personal social skills, or something else entirely.
In our comprehensive guide, we’ll give you everything you should know about the benefits of roleplay, including what you can use roleplaying for, the emotional, social, and cognitive advantages, and how you can improve your skills.
What Can Roleplay Be Helpful for?
No matter what stage of life you’re in, roleplay can be a helpful tool for almost anything. Have an upcoming presentation or interview? You can use roleplay to practice. Planning to ask for a raise at work? Roleplay with a friend to practice what you want to say. The possibilities for what roleplaying can be used for — especially with the emergence of AI roleplay — are endless.
In professional spaces, roleplay is used in workshops, courses, and trainings, especially in industries like customer service and healthcare. It’s also used in schools, from grade school to university, to help students better understand concepts. Roleplaying can even be used in therapy.
Regardless of how you use it, roleplaying comes with specific benefits that are well worth the effort.
Emotional and Social Benefits of Roleplay
When considering the overall benefits of roleplay, the emotional and social advantages are often first-of-mind. Roleplaying usually provides a safe, semi-controlled environment for folks to socialize and this comes with a whole host of benefits. Here’s what you should know.
Better relationships with others
First and foremost, roleplaying can help forge stronger bonds between people. On one hand, roleplaying games can provide social opportunities for people to meet and connect, leading to friendship. Many RPGs require collaboration skills and teamwork for success, and this helps people build better relationships, both in and outside of games. They can even provide a sense of community.
However, you can also leverage individual roleplay sessions to build stronger relationships with others. For example, practicing your social skills via roleplay can improve your ability to engage in small talk and listen empathetically (more on that below!)
Improved empathy and ability to empathize
Although some people are born with a natural ability to empathize, for others, empathy is a learned skill. Either way, one of the best benefits of roleplaying is that it can help you develop a stronger sense of empathy.
For example, RPGs often involve people filling the roles of various characters. This can give you a different perspective on how to better understand others. Roleplaying for social skills can also help you better relate to the perspectives and experiences of other people. All of this, coupled with knowing how to listen with empathy, can help roleplayers connect with other folks on a more significant level.
More self-confidence
Though it might come as a surprise to some folks, roleplaying can also improve your self-confidence. For people who aren’t confident, a lot of that stems from a sense of self-doubt. For people who roleplay — especially in social role plays or situations — gaining confidence in these social scenarios can make a world of difference.
For others, the ability to speak in public is a more significant issue. Many folks struggle with public speaking and lean into individual roleplay sessions as a means of practicing. People can practice their public speaking skills in a totally controlled, risk-free environment to build their confidence.
Roleplay and roleplay games also allow folks to express themselves differently than they would in more professional settings, like at school and work.
Better communication skills
Of course, one of the most recognized benefits of roleplaying is improved communication skills. Everyone from students to sales reps and language learners use roleplay to strengthen their ability to communicate. During a roleplay session for example, roleplayers can use their active listening skills to home in on what others have to say. This also helps them react and reply more thoughtfully than they might if they weren’t actually listening.
The more you roleplay (especially with others), the better you’ll be at expressing your thoughts, ideas, and beliefs clearly. You can also get practice in specific scenarios, like compromise, negotiation, or selling tactics, for example.
The Underrated Psychological Benefits of Roleplaying
Some of the lesser-known benefits of roleplaying are psychological. In other words, it benefits your mental health and wellbeing. Here are just a few of the psychological benefits of roleplay.
Less anxiety and stress
One of the most underrated psychological benefits of roleplaying is the decrease in stress and anxiety that often comes with it. Some folks leverage their roleplay sessions for mindfulness. They get so focused on their roleplay experience that they can let go of the daily stressors that might cause worry or anxiety.
For others, roleplay can be a form of escapism, especially when it comes to creative, social roleplaying. Some folks have creative roleplay sessions after work or school that serve as a temporary means of escape from their stress or stressful events of the day.
Increased emotional intelligence
Both solo and social roleplay can boost a person’s level of emotional intelligence, too. Roleplaying alone or in a group of friends can give you a more controlled environment to practice your social skills, for example. As mentioned above, it can also help you develop a better sense of empathy, which allows folks to understand how others may feel.
Boosted mood
Roleplay can even improve your mood. With roleplaying games, for example, people can focus on enjoying the gameplay instead of events earlier in the day that cause stress, anxiety, or worry. Plus, if it’s a tabletop roleplay game or a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG), people can connect with others to share the experience. Social interaction — even virtual interaction — is known to boost moods.
The Cognitive Benefits of Roleplay
Folks also tend to overlook the cognitive benefits of roleplay — AKA, the benefits to the way you think and process information. Here are some of the most essential cognitive advantages of engaging in a bit of roleplay.
Better problem-solving skills
Roleplaying can help folks develop better problem-solving skills, both individually and within groups of roleplayers. Specifically, people can practice making more informed decisions in a safe environment. In roleplaying games, for example, every action has a potential consequence. Playing these games can improve your ability to make sound decisions.
Not only that, but it helps with strategy and planning, too. Folks often have to think ahead or think on their feet to create strategies and tactics for success. Depending on the exact roleplay scenario, it can also help build your conflict resolution skills.
Improved critical thinking
Roleplayers can also improve their ability to think critically through roleplaying. For example, any kind of roleplay involves the ability to take in and evaluate information. In RPGs, before making decisions, players consider the available information, including how relevant and credible it is. Depending on the situation, it can sharpen your ability to identify trends or patterns that crop up, too.
Roleplaying — both educational and creative — helps people safely question their pre-existing assumptions or beliefs. People can consider alternative viewpoints and challenge what they think they know simply by roleplaying with others.
Boosted creativity
Although people often think of imagination and creativity as skills you’re born with, you can also develop and increase your capacity for creativity through roleplaying. With creative roleplay especially, such as with live action roleplaying or games like Dungeons & Dragons, people can stretch their creative muscles through storytelling, world-building, character development, and more.
Generally speaking, creative roleplay is a safe space for experimenting with different plot lines or narratives. In both RPGs and LARPing, you can let your imagination run wild and explore fictional worlds. The more you dive into your creative side, the easier it is to leverage those creative skills.
Better memory
A more surprising benefit of roleplay is the improvement in roleplayers’ memory. Roleplay can actually help beat the forgetting curve by building your active recall abilities. Depending on the exact kind of roleplay, you can even leverage immersive learning to get a better idea of a concept through simulations.
Even with games like D&D, the spaced repetition of reviewing information each session can boost your memory.
How to Reap the Benefits of Roleplay with Yoodli
If you’re looking to reap the benefits of roleplaying, you’re in the right place. There’s no better tool to do so than with Yoodli.
Yoodli is a roleplay platform and speech coach that leverages conversational, AI-powered roleplay to improve the user’s skills. Yoodli offers all different types of roleplay, from sales call simulations to realistic small talk and even dating.
Yoodli can help you reap all the benefits of roleplay, from sales call simulations to small talk and even in your dating life.
In fact, well-known companies like Google and Dale Carnegie have leveraged Yoodli for training, certification, and work enablement.
No matter what your use case is for roleplay, Yoodli’s got you covered. Folks can choose an existing roleplay scenario from Yoodli’s database or they can use Yoodli’s platform to build their own from scratch. Once they’re ready to go, users will engage in some back-and-forth conversation with their AI-generated partner. You can even tweak the personality of your AI partner so you’re able to practice with all sorts of personas, from frustrated to stressed and friendly.
Take advantage of the benefits of roleplaying with Yoodli’s expert platform.
Not only that, but Yoodli provides personalized, in-depth assessments of how your roleplay went. After the roleplay ends, users receive instant feedback on how the roleplay went so they’ll know exactly where they need to improve.
Learn how you can reap the benefits of roleplay and start for free with Yoodli at https://yoodli.ai/.
The Bottom Line
The potential benefits of roleplaying are essentially endless. From the cognitive advantages to the social perks, roleplay can be a versatile, practical tool for improvement. Using a tried-and-true roleplay platform like Yoodli will make all the difference.
AI language learning apps have begun to revolutionize the way we learn and pick up new languages. They offer unique advantages over traditional language learning environments and are well-worth checking out.
In our comprehensive explainer, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about these apps, including what makes them stand out, why they’re beneficial, and the best seven apps you should consider for learning languages.
What Are AI Language Learning Apps?
AI language learning apps are programs that leverage artificial intelligence to provide a more seamless, efficient language learning experience. The emergence of artificial intelligence has affected every sector, from manufacturing to services. Knowledge, learning, and education is no exception.
These AI language learning apps often have some features in common. For example, offering various levels of difficulty, conversation practice, and customized feedback are all common within the landscape of language learning apps. The field of AI roleplay in particular has grown exponentially to fill that void in language learning.
Why are AI language learning apps so useful?
Arguably the most useful thing about AI language learning apps is that they’re able to offer learning opportunities customized to the user instead of a broad, more generalized plan that’s not personalized. These apps are also useful because they can leverage AI to give users near-instant feedback and address individual users’ needs on a case-by-case basis.
If used correctly, AI language learning apps can help folks learn new languages more efficiently and quicker than more traditional classes.
Benefits of AI language learning apps
Not surprisingly, there are tons of benefits to using AI language learning apps. For example, one of the top advantages of these apps is the personalized learning experience. Folks can learn at their own pace instead of a typical, pre-determined pace set by a teacher or non-AI-powered apps.
The instant feedback learners get from AI language learning apps is also a huge plus. Instead of waiting for one-on-one attention or feedback from a traditional instructor, students can know where they need to improve immediately, especially with regard to grammar and pronunciation.
AI language learning apps — depending on the exact app — can also provide a more engaging experience using gamification. For example, some apps make use of leaderboards, points, badges, and other features to make the experience more fun.
7 Best AI Language Learning Apps
As the field of AI expands, so does its applications and implications. If you’re considering picking up a new language with the help of an AI-powered app, you’re not alone. It can be tough to narrow down your choices with so many options available. Here are seven of the best AI language learning apps out there, in no particular order.
1. Univerbal
First up on our list is Univerbal. Univerbal is an AI language learning app available for iPhone and Android that offers conversational practice in more than 20 different languages. With this app, users get an AI language tutor who crafts a personalized curriculum based on your abilities and progress. When you use the app for conversational practice, you’ll get instant feedback, recommendations, and suggestions so you learn at your own pace.
Univerbal offers users the first 7 days free of charge for language learning. After that trial period, there are two main monthly subscription tiers:
3-month subscription for $39.99 (or $13.13 per month)
12-month subscription for $119.99, which is the most cost effective tier at $9.99 per month
With over 100,000 downloads, this tried-and-true app is a great app for folks who want to learn a language and don’t mind paying for a subscription.
2. Duolingo
Even before integrating AI, Duolingo ranked as one of the most popular apps for language learning out there. In 2023, Duolingo tapped into OpenAI’s GPT-4 to provide an updated learning experience for Duo fans. Folks can use Duolingo Max’s AI-powered features, including “Explain My Answer” and “Roleplay.”
The “Explain My Answer” feature allows students to chat with Duolingo about why their response was right or wrong. Its “Roleplay” feature provides a space for folks to practice their conversation skills with a responsive, AI partner. This can make learning conversational languages much easier.
In terms of subscription options, folks can pay by the month for Duolingo Max at around $30 per month, or they can pay an annual subscription for $168 (or $14 per month). If you upgrade to a family plan with up to six users, you’re now looking at a yearly cost of $299.99.
3. Yoodli
Another great AI language learning app — especially when it comes to conversational roleplay — is Yoodli. Yoodli is an AI-powered speech coach that offers all different types of roleplay.
Choose from any of Yoodli’s available language to practice your speaking and listening comprehension skills.
Folks can use it for language learning by choosing one of its available languages, including:
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Italian
German
Hindi
Korean
Japanese
Using artificial intelligence people can engage in realistic roleplay scenarios in the language they’re learning to practice their skills. Users can choose from one of Yoodli’s existing scenarios or build a personalized roleplay scenario.
Folks can use Yoodli as an AI language learning app to practice conversational skills in their target language.
Unlike other AI language learning apps, users can also select an AI personality type, from friendly to stressed to professional and reserved, among others. This lets folks practice speaking their target language with all different types of people. During the roleplay, you and your AI partner will chat back and forth, just like any typical conversation. After the session ends, you’ll get instant feedback on how you did so you can improve your abilities for the next conversation.
Plus, you can get started learning a new language with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/.
4. Talkpal
Talkpal AI is an AI-powered language learning tutor that offers capabilities in over 52 different languages. Similarly to Duolingo Max, Talkpal uses Chat GPT to provide its next-level learning experiences. Users can work on everything from their speaking and pronunciation skills to listening and comprehension, and writing, too.
With immersive conversations, instant feedback, and customization options, it’s no surprise that Talkpal and Talkpal Premium have 1.5 million users worldwide.
For those interested, Talkpal offers a free subscription with some features. However, most of Talkpal’s AI-powered features come from Talkpal Premium, which has both monthly and yearly payment options. A monthly subscription costs $11.99 per month while the yearly subscription comes out to $5.99 a month or around $72 total for the year.
5. Babbel
Babbel uses AI-enhanced speech recognition to position itself as a worthwhile AI language learning app to explore. Plus, the “Everyday Features” is perfect for conversational practice. It creates short, engaging conversations between the user and the AI to boost their verbal skills.
As one of the top-selling language learning platforms, Babbel is a dependable option with 13 languages to choose from. This includes Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Indonesian, Norwegian, and more.
Babbel’s subscription prices fluctuate a bit during the holidays, like with its Cyber Monday deals, but the estimated costs are:
6-month subscription for $13.45 per month (about $80.70 total)
12-month subscription for $8.95 per month (around $107.40 total)
Lifetime subscription for $299 total
6. LanguaTalk
With 16 different languages to choose from, LanguaTalk stands out as a worthy choice when it comes to AI language learning apps. In particular, its AI capabilities offer intelligent roleplay and realistic conversation practice users can leverage for their target language. Folks who use this app get instant corrections and feedback based on their progress and abilities.
For many people, part of the allure of Langua is that you can practice your target language with AI without feeling the pressure of talking to native speakers. This can help build language learners’ confidence and skill level.
LanguaTalk has a free version that folks can use. However, it also offers a few subscription choices, including “Unlimited” and “Communicate.” The pricing for these plans varies and Langua requests that folks reach out for more cost information.
7. Memrise
Similar to AI language learning apps like Yoodli, Memrise provides users with an AI conversation partner. That way, people can practice conversing in their target language in a totally risk-free environment. Many new language learners are worried they’ll sound “silly” when speaking to native speakers in their target language, but that doesn’t have to hold learners back. The AI partner, called MemBot, uses GPT technology to provide people with a place to practice their comprehension and speaking skills.
In comparison to most of the other options on our list, Memrise’s subscription costs are higher. For example, the plans available include:
Monthly subscription at $59.99 per month
Annual subscription for $94.39 (about $7.87 per month)
Lifetime subscription for $324.99 total
Tips for Success Using AI Language Learning Apps
Learning a new language is a challenge, but practicing with an app like the ones above can make a huge difference. Here are a few tips and tricks for successfully using AI language learning apps to boost your skills.
1. Immerse yourself in your target language.
One of the best ways to learn a new language is to travel to that country and immerse yourself in the language. However, that’s not always realistic, for many reasons. Pairing immersion with AI language learning apps is the way to go. But it doesn’t mean you have to emigrate. You can easily immerse yourself in your target language at home by:
Reading news articles, books, and blog posts to build your vocabulary and boost reading comprehension
Watching your favorite TV shows and movies in your target language (or exploring new shows and films originally in your target language)
Listening to podcasts, vlogs, and music to practice your listening comprehension
2. Be consistent with your practice.
The top mistake language learners make when picking up a new language is failing to be consistent with their practice. In order to learn a new language with AI language learning apps, you need to make sure you’re keeping up with your daily practice. Consistency is a great way to beat the forgetting curve. As such, practice should be backed into your daily routine.
Setting realistic goals, such as SMART goals, can help you become more consistent with your practice, too. Checking out your progress as you go along can help you stay inspired and motivated to learn.
3. Make sure to get feedback and support from other speakers.
If you have the resources, aim to get feedback and supplemental support from other folks who speak your target language. You can join online communities and forums, practice with native speakers, find a tutor, or join in-person language learning groups for extra support.
This can also work to keep you motivated as you progress through your language learning journey.
The Bottom Line
Learning languages can be challenging, but you can streamline your efforts using AI language learning apps like Yoodli. Just remember to keep practicing, prioritize consistency, and immerse yourself in as much of the target language as you can.
There are tons of different types of roleplay, and each type is unique in its purpose and potential. From creative, social roleplays to educational roleplay, each kind comes with its own benefits and use cases.
In our beginner-friendly overview, we’ll give you everything you need to know about different types of roleplay, including how they’re useful, who can benefit from roleplay scenarios, the most common types, and examples of how you can leverage this interactive experience for your own benefit.
Understanding Different Types of Roleplay
Roleplay is such a useful tool in part because of all the different types of roleplay you can explore. Its versatility means you can use roleplay for everything from interview practice to educational roleplays to storyboarding and roleplaying games.
There are tons of types of roleplay genres too, especially when it comes to creative roleplay.
Roleplay types can also be categorized by format. Some of the most common formats include:
Experimenting with different types of roleplay comes with a whole host of benefits. It’s a valuable tool for encouraging critical thinking skills, creativity, and collaboration skills.
Because the majority of roleplay types are immersive, people can use them to further develop their social skills, communication skills, and anything else they’d like to work on.
Who can benefit from different types of roleplay?
Anyone can benefit from various types of roleplay. Young children, school-age kids, university students, and adults of all ages can all leverage roleplay to boost their creativity, enhance their understanding of specific topics, and build empathy.
4 Most Common Types of Roleplay
Because roleplay is so versatile, there are tons of different kinds worth exploring. Here are four of the most common types of roleplay, from educational roleplay to therapeutic roleplay.
Educational roleplays
One of the most useful types of roleplay is education roleplays. These are opportunities where teachers can use simulations of real-world situations to teach students a certain set of skills. For example, classroom roleplay can encourage students to think critically and see things from another perspective, which can help improve their open-mindedness.
Historical roleplay is another type of educational roleplay that teachers use with their students. This kind focuses on historical events and people. For example, a teacher might have students reenact certain historical events, like a famous court case, to better understand that event and how it informs our current society. Students might be expected to dress up like their character to make the roleplay more realistic. The possibilities are endless, and it’s a fun way to keep kids engaged with the lesson.
Older students, like those in high school or university, use educational roleplay for practicing professional skills like in a career roleplay. They can engage in realistic job interview simulations and practice for upcoming presentations.
Creative roleplay
With creative roleplay, folks lean into their creative side to create made-up scenarios. There are many creative roleplay games, and they all have similar elements. Most creative roleplays involve lots of storytelling and worldbuilding. People brainstorm narratives, plot twists, and storylines while creating entire worlds for their characters to exist in. Character development is another huge component of creative roleplay.
Social roleplay
Similar to creative roleplay, social roleplay shares some overlap. Social roleplay is community-focused and can take place in person or virtually, like in online forums. One of the most common examples of this type of roleplay is live action roleplay (LARP). It’s an especially immersive type that usually involves elements of creative roleplay in real-world environments.
Another type of social roleplay is tabletop roleplaying games. This also taps into the creative type since it involves storytelling and imagination. Dungeons & Dragons is the most well-known example of this type of roleplay.
Therapeutic roleplay
Some types of therapy feature a specific type of roleplay — therapeutic roleplay — as a tool to help people learn new skills and work through past trauma. It’s a particularly useful kind of roleplay that you might see during counseling or therapy sessions.
With kids, you might see therapeutic roleplay during a play therapy session. Because young children often process through play, clinicians will watch and observe to get important information about their wellbeing.
But it’s not just for kids. Therapeutic roleplay is helpful in adult sessions, too. Therapists might use it to explore scenarios to introduce effective coping strategies, for example. Social skills training is a type of therapeutic roleplay where folks can practice their social skills in a risk-free environment.
Types of Roleplay Formats to Explore
Not surprisingly, there are many different types of roleplay formats you can explore if you want to experiment with interactive scenarios. From solely text-based to LARPing and AI-generated roleplay, the possibilities are endless.
Here are the most common types of roleplay formats worth checking out.
Text-based roleplay
Although you might picture two people interacting in real time when you think of roleplaying, text-based roleplay is a popular type. This kind of roleplay is great for long-distance friends or folks who don’t like in-person roleplay.
Many social roleplay opportunities are text-based. For example, chat rooms, message boards, and online forums are all popular spaces for folks to roleplay via written text. People will often explore their creative side through collaborative world-building and storytelling.
Some folks even use email threads as a means of text-based roleplay.
Live action roleplaying (LARPing)
One of the most common formats of roleplay is live action roleplaying or LARPing. This type usually uses a real-world setting for an immersive roleplaying experience. Historical reenactments are a prime example.
Folks will often use costumes, props, and other tools to make the experience as realistic as possible while roleplaying. They might roleplay as a character in a historical setting (like a Civil War-era soldier) or as an actual historical figure (like Ulysses S. Grant).
Part of the fun of LARPing is adjusting your dialogue and behavior when other things come up unexpectedly. Improvising or “improv” is pretty common with live action roleplay.
Voice-only roleplay
Voice-only roleplay is a type of roleplay where there aren’t visuals or text. It’s not the most common type, but it can be especially useful for language learning. One example is roleplaying podcasts, where folks roleplay and post their session as a podcast episode.
Some people prefer to roleplay over the phone or use apps that are mainly voice-focused, like character.ai (although you can choose to include text, too).
AI roleplay
As you might guess, AI roleplay involves an AI-based element to typical roleplay. The above example, character.ai, is a tool that leverages artificial intelligence to interact with users during a roleplay. Yoodli is another example of AI-based roleplay apps.
Using Yoodli for Different Types of Roleplay
If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with different types of roleplay, you’re certainly not alone. It’s used as an educational tool, a creative outlet, and even a therapeutic source for folks of all ages. However, it can be tricky to find a tool that meets all your roleplay needs. Until now, that is. Enter, Yoodli.
Yoodli is an AI-based roleplay and communication coach that provides users with realistic, customizable roleplays to fulfill their specific needs. Well-known brands like Korn Ferry, Dale Carnegie, and Google have all used Yoodli’s roleplays for needs like training and certification.
Yoodli is a customizable tool where folks can practices all different types of roleplay.
In a nutshell, it works like this: Folks can choose from an existing roleplay scenario or completely build and customize their own. With Yoodli, people can experiment with all different types of roleplay, from sales roleplays to conversational roleplays and more. Once you choose or design what kind of roleplay you want to use, Yoodli provides an AI-generated conversation partner based on your roleplay needs and engages in conversation in real time.
Yoodli can help you practice different types of roleplay, from creative to educational.
With Yoodli’s Builder, you can feed the tool information about what you’d like to work on. Then, you can add goals you want to work on, like using the STAR method for interviews, hitting all your talking points, or just engaging in small talk. You can add more information, like specific talking points you’d like your AI partner to bring up, and choose your AI partner persona before diving into the roleplay. With Yoodli, the number of different types of roleplay you can explore is essentially endless.
No matter what type of roleplay you do, Yoodli will provide actionable tips for improvement based on your goals.
But Yoodli does so much more than provide a space for folks to engage in roleplay. It also gives you an in-depth analysis on your speaking patterns and provides actionable, detailed feedback for you to improve your communication. Whatever your roleplay needs are, Yoodli has you covered.
Find out more about how you can get started with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/.
The Bottom Line
Roleplay is an underrated tool for personal and professional development, and with the plethora of different types of roleplay, the possibilities are endless. Whether you’re looking to explore creative, social types of roleplay like LARPing or games like Dungeons & Dragons, or you’re just looking to improve your interview skills, roleplay tools like Yoodli can take you to the next level.
If you’ve ever wanted to perfect the art of delivering feedback, the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ feedback model — also called the SBI feedback model — is a framework worth exploring.
In our beginner-friendly guide, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about this approach, including what it is, how it works, tips for using it, its benefits, and the most common mistakes people make when using it.
What Is the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ Feedback Model?
The Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ feedback model — often shortened to the SBI feedback model — is a framework for giving feedback. It homes in on particular behaviors and their impact. Here’s how it works.
How does the SBI feedback model work?
The SBI feedback model works by focusing on three components: situation, behavior, and impact. For example, a team lead might use this framework to address an issue with a coworker. To do that, they’d describe the situation, pinpoint the problematic behavior, and then explain the impact (more on this later).
This approach can work for giving constructive feedback or for complimenting a job well done.
Why is using the SBI feedback model helpful?
Using the SBI feedback model is helpful in many ways but especially with regard to understanding intent vs. impact. Without meaning to, people form preconceived notions and make assumptions about others, usually completely unintentionally. Here’s an example.
Let’s say your coworker fails to turn something in on time. Without much consideration, you might immediately jump to the conclusion that they don’t take pride in their work, their work is sloppy, they’re not a team player, etc. All of these are assumptions, not facts.
In reality, there are tons of reasons for late work. Maybe they wrote down the wrong deadline or there was confusion about the exact deliverables. Regardless, that’s what makes the SBI feedback model so helpful.
Understanding the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ Framework
The Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ framework can revolutionize the way your team functions at work, including your team’s capacity for feedback reception. Here’s everything you should know about the SBI feedback model framework.
Situation
Although most people tend to home in on the behavior, like what went wrong or what caused an issue, with this approach, it’s necessary to provide context. The first component of the SBI feedback model, “situation,” refers to the importance of first understanding the context of what happened. Start by describing the scenario or situation to contextualize the behavior.
For example, if you have an employee who hasn’t come into the office all week and instead worked from home, your knee-jerk reaction might be focusing on the problematic behavior of not coming into the office. In this case, you wouldn’t want to start the conversation off with “I noticed you haven’t been coming into the office.” Instead, be a little more specific. You could say, “Last week, the week of [exact date], I noticed you didn’t come into work and didn’t let me know.”
This provides a few more relevant details, like the exact dates, and introduces the problematic behavior. Depending on your exact situation, you can include background info and concrete examples you can point to as a means of shedding more light on the situation.
Behavior
After you clarify the situation, you can focus more on the behavior you’ve noticed. Without droning on and on, describe the specific behavior that causes issues and be clear about what happened. Explain what you observed or heard in simple terms.
However, be careful not to use language that sounds accusatory or judgemental. This can cause folks to shut down completely and can make them less receptive to incoming feedback.
Using our above example of an employee working remotely without informing their boss, you could say something along the lines of: “I noticed you didn’t come into the office without letting anyone know. I didn’t see you at all last week.”
Impact
With the impact component, you’ll explain the negative (or positive!) outcomes of the behavior you noticed. Think about the effects the behavior in question would have on the team, the company, and even the person themselves.
So, with the above example, you could explain to your employee that not coming into the office as scheduled interrupts the team’s workflow, especially with regard to in-person meetings and team deadlines. It can also cause frustration amongst the team due to the unexpected absence.
Going forward, the employee should commit themselves to letting you know ahead of time if they need to work remotely instead of not coming into the office without warning.
Using Yoodli for SBI Feedback Model Coaching
If you’ve never used the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ feedback model before, it’s a good idea to review the approach and practice how you’d implement it. However, there aren’t many options when it comes to realistically practicing an approach like the SBI feedback model.
That’s where Yoodli comes in. Yoodli is an AI speech coach that uses realistic, customizable roleplays to help folks improve the way they communicate with their team, clients, coworkers, and anyone else. It’s a tried-and-true brand that well-known companies like Korn Ferry, Dale Carnegie, and Google use.
Practice using the SBI feedback model during crucial conversations with Yoodli.
Here’s how it works. Folks can practice conversational roleplay on any topic. For example, the topic could be “Speaking to an employee about problematic behavior.” Yoodli provides an AI-generated partner and interacts in real time as you practice using the SBI feedback model. It’s the most realistic way to practice delivering this kind of feedback.
You can give Yoodli a specific scenario and it’ll react in real time, allowing you to practice the SBI feedback model.
Not only does Yoodli help you practice the SBI feedback model, but it also gives you feedback on your performance in return. It evaluates how the conversation went and as a result, provides actionable and relevant feedback for you to improve. That way, you’ll be ready and prepared to use the SBI feedback model during conversations with your team. It’s the best way to practice an approach like Situation-Behavior-Impact™.
Learn more about how you can get started with Yoodli for free at https://yoodli.ai/.
5 Tips for Using the SBI Feedback Model
It takes a bit of practice and dedication before most folks feel confident using the Situation-Behavior-Impact™ approach. Here are five straightforward tips you can use when leveraging the SBI feedback model.
1. Pick the right time and place.
First and foremost, above all else, choose the right time and place before you use the SBI feedback model with your employees. You could be an expert in this approach, but picking an inopportune time or place can make your efforts moot as your employees won’t be as receptive.
For example, always use this approach in a private, quiet location. If your employee is remote, a one-on-one phone call or a video call works. Otherwise, a private meeting room would be best. You don’t want to call out one team member in front of everyone else — This is a conversation for just the two of you.
The same goes for timing. Choose a time when you think your employee will be most receptive. A Friday at 5 p.m., for example, might not be the best time. Also, think about how your employee is doing. If they’ve had a stressful week or they seem upset, it’s probably best to reschedule the conversation for a time when they feel level-headed and receptive to feedback.
2. Be an active listener.
Even though you’re initiating the conversation with the SBI feedback model, you need to practice active listening as the conversation progresses.
Active listening involves paying close attention to the other person when they’re talking. That includes avoiding any distractions, like phone notifications or interruptions from other team members — another reason why choosing the right time and place is so essential.
During the conversation, you can show you’re actively listening by repeating what the employee says to make sure you understand it. Saying something like, “You’re saying you feel unheard in team meetings which affects your ability to contribute. Have I got that right?” Paraphrasing can make sure you avoid any misunderstandings during the conversation.
If you don’t understand something, ask questions to clear things up. That shows that you’re listening and you care about understanding what they have to say.
3. Seek out information.
Before you sit down with your employee to have a conversation about their behavior, make sure you actively seek out information about the situation. That’ll make it much easier when it comes time to implement the SBI feedback model.
For example, closely pay attention to whatever behavior concerns you and take notes. You don’t have to take notes while the behavior is ongoing, but after you’ve witnessed the situation or behavior, jot down what you remember so you can refer to it later. Think about what effects that behavior has on you, the team, or the company overall, if applicable.
If appropriate, you can also get input from other people. Getting advice, feedback, or other perspectives from people who might’ve witnessed the behavior can shed more light on the situation. However, this might not always be appropriate depending on the exact situation.
4. Give constructive feedback.
Delivering constructive feedback through the SBI feedback model is half of the battle. You can know the approach through and through, but being unable to give constructive feedback can make this framework useless. That’s because your employees might not be as receptive if what you’re telling them isn’t constructive or solutions-oriented.
First and foremost, make sure you’re not using negative, offensive, or non-inclusive language when you give feedback. Home in on the solutions aspect of the conversation and keep the conversation positive, even if you’re dealing with behavior you think is problematic.
Even though the conversation will revolve around the person’s behavior and solutions for it, don’t focus on placing blame on the employee. That isn’t helpful. Use “I” statements to describe the situation, behavior, and impact. Instead of starting with, “You didn’t show up to work last week,” you can change that to, “I noticed you weren’t in the office last week.” It’s the same information conveyed slightly differently, and shifts the focus to you and what you noticed.
5. Don’t be afraid to get clarification.
During the conversation, there may be times when you want to ask questions or get more clarification. You can absolutely do so. Getting clarity while using the SBI feedback model is as simple as asking open-ended questions or prompting the employee to elaborate on what they’ve just said. This can clear up any lingering confusion you may have during the meeting.
Don’t forget to thank the employee after the conversation is finished. Showing your gratitude by thanking them shows your appreciation in a meaningful way and makes it more likely that the employee will be motivated to change their behavior.
Benefits of Using the SBI Feedback Model
There are tons of advantages to using the Situation-Behavior-Impact™ feedback model. From improved relationships at work to increased motivation, this useful approach can revolutionize the way you give feedback as a manager.
Here are the top benefits of using the SBI feedback model.
Better overall relationships
Using the SBI feedback model with your team can actually lead to better relationships. Delivering feedback in this way shows your employees that you’re honest and non-judgmental, and they can trust you to discuss things they might otherwise feel uncomfortable discussing, like behavior. Plus, if you can successfully give your team solid feedback, that in and of itself can enhance the team dynamic and their collaboration skills.
If you tweak the SBI feedback model to use in your personal life, the same results apply: stronger relationships overall.
Boosted motivation
Because you can also use this feedback model to describe positive behaviors you’ve noticed, you can leverage it for complimenting your team members. Positive feedback can increase a person’s motivation and morale, which benefits the team as a whole. There’s no drawback to higher levels of motivation on a team.
Better communication skills
The SBI feedback model is so clear and straightforward that implementing it for your team can improve everyone’s communication skills and emotional intelligence. The approach prioritizes clear, to-the-point feedback and reduces the chance of miscommunication and misunderstanding. There’s little room for misinterpretation when you’re focused on the situation, behavior, and impacts.
Improved performance
Once you start using the Situation-Behavior-Impact™ feedback model, chances are, you’ll notice better performance from your team members. That’s because this framework uses a targeted professional development approach, which means it highlights specific areas for improvement instead of leaving it up to the person to figure out how they need to change.
Done right, the SBI feedback model can help your team advance in their careers thanks to the efficient, actionable feedback it inspires.
4 Common Pitfalls to Avoid With the SBI Feedback Model
If you’re new to using the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ approach, there are some very common mistakes many people make that you should try to avoid. Here are the four most common pitfalls people face when using this model for the first time.
1. Being ambiguous and overgeneralizing
One of the best things about the SBI feedback model is that it emphasizes specificity, especially when it comes to describing the situation, behavior, and impact. Sometimes managers fall into the trap of overgeneralizing or being too ambiguous. Instead of giving vague statements, be specific. Give the person concrete examples of what you mean and home in on specific behavior instead of broad generalizations about their performance at work, for example.
2. Giving unhelpful, unsolicited advice
To some degree, if you start the conversation, the feedback you give is unsolicited. However, the mistake that team leads make is giving unhelpful, unsolicited advice. As a manager, you want to use the SBI feedback model to support and guide your employees through the conversation. Instead of giving them solutions, motivate them to explore solutions that work for them.
For example, if the problematic behavior was one of your employees consistently showing up to work late, it’s unhelpful to suggest they wake up earlier, catch the earlier bus, or similar recommendations. Instead, you might even ask them how you can support them better and if there are any solutions they’ve been considering.
3. Narrowing in on the person instead of the behavior
For folks new to the SBI model, it can be easy to focus on the person instead of their specific behaviors. However, doing so will make your feedback much less helpful. People are less receptive when they feel like they’re being attacked. If they think their character is in question, they might become defensive or otherwise shut down to any feedback.
To avoid this, home in on the actual behavior that you find problematic. Keep your tone objective, neutral, and calm for the best results.
4. Placing unnecessary blame and judgment on the person
Similarly, it’s common for team leaders to — usually unintentionally — place unnecessary blame and judgment on the other person. It’s human nature to want to blame others, especially in a conversation about problematic behavior, but it’s unprofessional at best and unhelpful and harmful at worst. Instead, reframe the feedback you want to give your employee in terms of what you yourself have seen, heard, witnessed, or felt.
The Bottom Line
Knowing how to successfully use the Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI)™ feedback model can transform the way your team functions. It can improve the team dynamic, boost productivity, and address problematic behaviors without placing blame on others. Plus, Yoodli can help you and your team practice leveraging the SBI feedback model in conversation to perfect their skills.
Although setting and achieving goals can be challenging, it’s much easier if you know how to write SMART goals.
In our introductory guide, we’ll explain everything you should know about setting these goals, including what the SMART acronym stands for, examples of professional and personal goals, how you can start drafting your own objectives, and a helpful app you can use to work on improving your skills.
What Are SMART Goals?
SMART goals are objectives that you aim to reach during a specific time frame. For example, in the corporate world, a manager might work with their employee to ideate and write goals for them to achieve over the calendar year. The word “SMART” in this case is actually an acronym of adjectives meant to guide folks into drafting more specific objectives.
Although they’re most common in professional settings, like at work, you can learn how to write SMART goals to achieve personal goals, too.
What does SMART stand for?
The “SMART” in SMART goals stands for: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. These five adjectives help people further define their goals so they’ll be more likely to achieve them.
Why is writing SMART goals important?
Learning how to write SMART goals is important because it helps folks narrow down what they want to achieve and how they plan to do it. For example, you might say, “My goal is to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering exam.” It’s a great goal but it isn’t very specific.
How you’ll achieve that goal is unclear. Using the SMART format, you might say, “I plan to pass the FE exam in the civil engineering discipline by January 20, 2026, by leveraging my personalized study plan that includes plenty of study time spread across four phases.”
That goal is now specific (you’ll pass the exam in civil engineering), measurable (you’ll get a passing score), achievable (you have your study plan), relevant (civil engineering is your discipline), and time-bound (you’ll achieve this goal by January 2026).
Let’s dig a little deeper into the SMART goal framework and how you can apply it in your personal and professional life.
Understanding the SMART Goal Framework
One of the advantages of learning how to write SMART goals is that the framework is so straightforward. If you’re new to the concept of SMART goals though, it might take a little time to get the hang of it. Here’s a deeper dive into those five specific SMART characteristics and what they mean for your goal writing.
Specific
The first component of the SMART goal framework is specifics. One of the biggest mistakes people make when writing goals is that they’re not specific enough. When goals are vague, it’s much harder to achieve them. To mitigate this, think about what you want to achieve and clearly define it. If you’re new to this framework, be as specific and detailed as you can. Consider the “who,” “what,” and “why” of your objective.
Depending on your exact goal, you might want to think about:
Who will be involved in helping you meet your goal
What you’re trying to achieve
Why you’re trying to achieve this goal
Measurable
Make sure your goal is also measurable in some way. This can be tricky depending on your exact goal, but generally, you can add a means of measuring to any goal. The reason it’s important to make your goal measurable is because it helps you track your progress over time. People who set quantifiable goals are also more likely to achieve them. You can use metrics like key performance indicators (KPIs) to see how you’re doing as you progress in your goal.
If you’re having trouble coming up with a measurable aspect for work-related SMART goals, discussing with your manager or getting feedback from peers might help steer you in the right direction. For example, a goal like “I want to improve my conflict resolution skills” might not seem that measurable, but it can be tweaked to include “I’ll sign up for, complete, and pass a conflict resolution workshop or by the end of Q4.”
Achievable
One of the reasons folks love SMART goals over more ambiguous, vague goals is that they’re achievable. They’re more realistic because of how specific they are. That being said, make sure your goal is actually feasible. Something like, “I’ll boost my website’s unique visits from 1,000 to 10,000 in one month’s time” might not be achievable. Consider what it is you want to accomplish and whether or not it’s reasonable. Really think about any potential limitations, resources, or needs.
It’ll also help to break down your overarching goal into smaller tasks so it’s less overwhelming and more realistic.
Relevant
Of course, your SMART goal also needs to be relevant. If your manager asks you to write goals for the upcoming business year and your role is in the field of SEO, writing goals about improving your public speaking skills might not be as relevant. Consider your overarching, long-term goals and whether or not it aligns with your SMART goal.
In the workplace, this might also mean checking to see if your goal aligns with the company’s objectives or business goals.
Time-bound
Lastly, ensure your SMART goal is time-bound. In other words, define a natural timeframe that’s realistic for you. This can include setting specific deadlines for those smaller tasks mentioned above. For example, you might aim to pass your FE exam by January of 2026, but you could focus on studying the basics by November 2025 and devoting attention to your weakest areas by December 2025.
This makes your goal easier to achieve.
SMART Goal Examples
Understanding the SMART goal framework can be a bit easier with examples. Here are some sample goals to give you a better idea of what professional and personal goals could look like.
Professional SMART goal examples
If you’ve been tasked with coming up with some solid professional development goals for the next business year, you’re not alone. It’s very common for employers to expect their employees to draft professional goals for the year. Here are some examples.
Let’s say your goal is to learn how to code in C#. To do this, you might aim to complete a C# course within six months and code three projects using this language after practicing every day for an hour. Instead of telling your employer you’d like to learn a new coding language, you have a fully fleshed-out plan of what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, and when you’ll do it.
Perhaps you’d like to be promoted to a more senior position at work. In that case, you might tell your manager that your goal is to be promoted to a senior editor role. To do that, you’ll earn a performance rating of 4 or higher on your annual performance review within the next year while also actively looking for leadership opportunities.
Because SMART goals are so useful, you can even leverage them in your personal life.
Personal SMART goal examples
Folks use personal SMART goals to facilitate reaching goals in their personal life, too. Financial matters, for example, can be stressful. You might have a loose goal to save up for a house. However, it’s not very specific and it’s a bit unhelpful when you’re facing such a huge objective. Luckily, we can use the SMART framework to make that goal more achievable.
For example, you might change your goal to save $20,000 for a down payment on a house within two years. To do that, you’ll budget and track your expenses to save around $840 per month and adjust as needed.
Fitness goals represent another area that benefits from more specific, realistic, and achievable objectives. If your general goal was, “I’d like to lose weight,” you could make it more specific by saying, “I’d like to lose 10 pounds in the next five months by increasing my activity by going on daily walks and eating less processed foods.”
How to Write SMART Goals in 4 Easy Steps
If you’ve never done it before, ideating and drafting goals can feel overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. Here’s how you can write worthwhile SMART goals in just four easy steps.
1. Find out what the core of your goal is.
The first step of learning how to write SMART goals is narrowing down your core goal. What is it that you’re trying to achieve? It helps to think long-term, like where you see yourself in the future and what you envision yourself to be doing. For some people, that might be being promoted to a more senior role. For others, it might include professional development in specific areas.
2. Divide your goal into sub-goals.
Next, split up your main goal into mini-goals. Breaking your core goal down into more manageable tasks makes it easier to achieve. It can help to create a separate plan including all the steps you’ll need to take to achieve your goal. This can help with prioritization. Once you have all your steps written down, you can see which are most pressing and pivot your attention to them.
This will show you what actions you need to take and when you should aim to complete them. You can even set actual deadlines for each step to keep yourself on target to reach your overall deadline.
3. Make sure you align your objectives with your overarching goal.
When writing SMART goals for work, it’s likely that your manager will ask you to write more than one. For example, you might be tasked with ideating three professional goals and one personal development goal. In this case, it’s important to make sure all your objectives align with your overall goal. If your long-term vision is to be promoted to a more senior role, you want to make sure all your goals point in that general direction.
4. Give yourself a manageable (and realistic) deadline.
Lastly, make sure you assign yourself a realistic, manageable deadline. Your manager might even set your deadline for you. It’s common in the corporate world to have professional and personal development goals for a business year, so your deadline might be “by the duration of Q4,” for example.
Whatever the case may be, make sure you have ample time to work toward and complete your goal by the deadline. Otherwise, trying to reach unrealistic goals in a short amount of time can lead to stress, employee burnout, and quiet quitting.
It’s also a good idea to bake in some flexibility in case anything unexpected pops up. That way, you can adjust your goals or timelines as needed.
How to Achieve Your SMART Goal Using Yoodli
Once you know how to write SMART goals, the next step is achieving them. Depending on your exact goals, you can take advantage of a tool like Yoodli to reach them even easier.
Yoodli is an AI-based speech coach that elevates your communication skills and provides you with an in-depth analysis of how you did and where you can improve. For example, you can record yourself giving a presentation or engage in conversational roleplay to put your skills to the test. These insights can help you make better, more specific SMART goals so you can skip the guesswork and go directly to improvement.
For example, if your goal involves building your emotional intelligence and confidence during public speaking situations, you can easily do both with Yoodli’s capabilities. Not only that, but you can actually track your own progress over time to see your improvements.
Learn more about how this speech coach can complement your SMART goals and help you achieve them for free at https://yoodli.ai/.
The Main Takeaway
Learning how to write SMART goals is a valuable skill for anyone, no matter what industry you work in. Goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound are much easier to reach than vague or ambiguous objectives. Plus, you can always tap into Yoodli to help you achieve those goals, especially if they revolve around things like communication, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, or other similar skills.
