Training programs / For learning and development leaders

For learning and development leaders: fitting practice into the program you already run

Where rehearsal fits your program, and what the positive duty and psychosocial codes say about training.

Your questions

The questions L&D and people leaders ask

Start from the program you run now and the duty it answers.

Enterprise and workplace. A leader briefing staff on a restructure: a headset-wearing leader addresses colleagues gathered in an office meeting space. — A leader briefs staff in an office.

A manager wearing a headset sits facing a simulated team member across a small table, rehearsing a performance feedback conversation. — A manager rehearses across a small table.

A team leader gives a colleague feedback. A VR training scenario for cross-sector. — A team leader gives a colleague feedback.

A facilitator turns over a feedback card. A VR training scenario for AI training and roleplay. — A facilitator turns over a feedback card.

How does practice fit a program we already run?

As a stage, not a new program. A session runs as a briefing, a live interaction, feedback and a debrief, the shape used in AI roleplay and practice. It sits between the content your program teaches and the follow-up your managers run.

A manager wearing a headset sits opposite a simulated employee who is speaking carefully, hands together, rehearsing a sensitive workplace concern in a private meeting room. — A manager hears a sensitive workplace concern.

What about the positive duty?

The Australian Human Rights Commission says: "Employers have a positive duty to eliminate, as far as possible, workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination, sexist conduct and related victimisation." The duty sits in the Sex Discrimination Act; the Commission’s Guidelines say what reasonable and proportionate measures mean, and a practised response to a sexist remark is a measure an employer can point to.

A team leader checks in with a colleague. A VR training scenario for workplace and enterprise. — A team leader checks in with a colleague.

Does the psychosocial code touch our training?

Safe Work Australia’s model Code of Practice says "Under WHS laws, PCBUs must eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable." State detail, including Queensland’s regulation, is in psychosocial hazards at work.

A man wearing a headset faces a colleague standing opposite on marked floor squares in a plain room. — A man in a headset faces a colleague.

Does the training have to be live and interactive?

In the United States the EEOC’s Promising Practices, which it says "are not legal requirements under federal employment discrimination laws", recommend harassment training "Conducted by qualified, live, interactive trainers, or, if live training is not feasible, designed to include active engagement by participants", and "Repeated and reinforced regularly". Rehearsal with a counterpart who answers back is active engagement by design.

A program shape

Brief, practise, debrief, follow up

Run the brief, practice and debrief together; managers own the follow up.

A leader confers with a colleague holding a mug in a plain office, a panel of choices floating beside them, seen through the headset. — A brief with choices floating in view.

Practising a hard conversation with a manager across a desk, replies floating in view. A first person AI roleplay scenario for applied AI in sensitive conversations, seen through the headset. — The other person, and replies to choose.

People stand in a plain room, a woman gesturing as she speaks, wooden stools beside them, comparing the choices they made in a scenario. — People talk it over in a plain room.

Feedback cards sorted on a table after a review round. — Feedback cards sorted after a review round.

What each stage holds

Brief: the scenario, the counterpart and the objective. Practise: the learner speaks or types, the character answers, and in a browser the scenario replays privately. Debrief: the Google paper’s authors report feedback that "supports the hypothesis that having a post session is critical to the success of VR DEI training". Follow up: the EEOC recommends training "Repeated and reinforced regularly"; a later scenario closes the loop.

How it runs

Run it the way your team already learns.

Workplace exchanges inside the VR Library.

Run it yourself Your facilitator runs PTR VR Library titles on standalone headsets.

Practice on a monitor, a laptop or a phone. An AI roleplay scenario for AI roleplay and practice.

In a browser Staff rehearse with an AI partner on a laptop, no headset.

A home-office video call from the Google DEI scenarios.

Facilitated over video A PTR facilitator runs the debrief by video, wherever teams sit.

Facilitators hand over an XR practice session in a workshop room.

With your trainer A trainer you already know runs it, licensed and prepared by PTR.

Programs & guides

Published work

What the published record covers

Each result with who measured it.

A performance and feedback scenario in the Google DEI training, shaped by bias and stereotyping between a manager and a report. — A feedback scenario from the Google training.

Google, peer reviewed (ACM CHI 2024)

PTR co-founder Leonie Sanderson led VR inclusion training at Google, built with Equal Reality, a subsidiary of People Tech Revolution. In the peer-reviewed paper, the 7 trainees who returned the optional survey gave 82% average agreement that it was better than Google’s standard DEI training, and 94% average satisfaction, measured by the paper’s authors.

Download the Google research paper PDF Download the Mater case study PDF

A lounge scenario for welcoming a traveller.

Etihad Airways and Metro Trains, facilitated programs

Everyday Inclusion from the PTR VR Library ran inside facilitated programs with Etihad Airways cabin crew and Metro Trains leaders, delivered by People Tech Revolution with a facilitation partner; participant feedback was gathered by PTR.

Inside the Mater build: an older patient sits up in a hospital bed, a meal tray across the blanket, curtains drawn beside him. — Inside the Mater build, at a bedside.

Mater Education and Mayo Clinic

In Mater Education’s own program evaluation of its speaking-up program in VR, over 96% of participants wanted more training in VR. People Tech Revolution built a DEI module for Mayo Clinic nurse leaders; the Mayo researchers published the results. Published results so far come from inclusion and speaking-up programs; a feedback program for another workplace is measured with the client against its brief.