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Branching Scenario Lab

Healthcare · pharmacy leadership coaching · open conversation

The Pickup Counter

You're Priya, a new manager. A technician has been rushing customers. Find out why before you decide what it means.

You are Priya Nair

Reluctant first-time manager. Doesn't believe she has permission to ask without knowing the answer first.

Gap: Conceptual. She hasn't built the mental model that asking is the work.

Support: A hint appears after moves that don't help. Hints are recorded.

Objective

After completing the module, explain in a written reflection why asking an open GROW question, rather than telling the employee what to do, surfaces information that observation alone cannot provide, using at least one specific example from her own team.

What is GROW? (recommended for Priya Nair)

A four-stage structure for a coaching conversation. The manager asks. The employee does most of the thinking.

  1. Goal

    Agree on what a good outcome looks like, for this conversation and for the work.

  2. Reality

    Find out what is actually happening before you decide what it means.

  3. Options

    Ask the employee what could work. Their ideas come before yours.

  4. Way forward

    Agree on a first step, who owns it and when you will check in. Some versions call this Will.

Naming the stages earns no credit here. The criteria score the questions you ask and when you ask them.

Before you start

  • This is a fictional coaching conversation at a fictional pharmacy. Dev is not a real person.
  • There are no scripted choices. Type or say what you would actually say. You don't need to know the answer before you ask.
  • It is not clinical decision support. It won't answer medication, dosing or patient-care questions.
  • Do not enter real employee, patient or customer information.
  • You have about 12 turns. Nothing is timed. Support appears after moves that don't help, and it's recorded. You can pause or end at any point.
  • Each reply goes to an AI model (Anthropic's Claude, through the Anthropic API) up to three times: once to label what you did, once to write Dev's answer, and once to check that answer doesn't give away something you haven't asked about. This app keeps no transcript, no account and no analytics. What happens to your data
For designers: how this scenario was scoped

Three questions came before any dialogue: how long the practice should take, the moment the skill breaks down on the job, and what learners already know. Each answer set a limit on what the scenario tries to do.

How long should this be?
10 to 15 minutes, up to 12 turns. One idea: asking finds what watching can't.
When does the skill break down?
A customer complained that a technician was curt and rushed them at pickup. What a manager sees points one way. The reason only comes out if she asks.
What's the learner's experience level?
A first-time manager who knows the work but feels she has to have the answer before she speaks. She needs to experience a question doing the work.