Here are two activities that will help your team work together creatively to solve a problem, as well as one about the role of silence. If youre a cross-functional team, why not try out an activity that challenges assumptions? Exercises that boost our active listening skills help us engage better, through empathy, body language, and non-judgment where required (Rogers & Farson, 1957). Doctors described how important it was to see whether patients wanted to participate in choosing their treatment. This can show what happens when we dont. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA, Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author. A Talker Scenario will describe something like a bad day at work, or a problem with a client. Briefly reflect on what did and didnt work. How much does language affect our thinking? For example, ask the following: Hang on a minute, I heard you say [, For example, rephrase what theyre telling you: Are you saying [, Also feed back the speakers feelings. The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Was their influence helpful or misleading? Let the participants go about it, taking care not to let any accidents occur. Imagine that time freezes for everyone but you for one day. What has worked in the past for your team? Shaikh Muhammad Ali - Islamabad, Pakistan, download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free. After the 3-minute vacation, the listener summarizes the key points of their conversation partners dream vacationas a holiday sales pitch. This is a small group Active Listening game for adults. Active listening involves attentively seeking to understand a speaker's message, rather than passively hearing the words that a speaker says. Uncertainty reduction through everyday performative language work: the case of coaching. Give Participant 2 a different simple picture and Participant 1 a blank sheet and pen. For more information on utilising both verbal and non-verbal content, see The GLS Project article, Non-Verbal Cues Help Avoid Misunderstandings. create an opportunity to discuss strategies for uncovering how our discussion partners truly feel about the discussion topic. It is being attentive and respectful to the person talking. . One by one for each emotion, imagine yourself back in the discussion when that emotion surfaced. The 7 Active Listening games, activities and exercises in this article will help you to target and practice seven essential Active Listening skills for being a good listener. You will gain a greater understanding of any particular core beliefs, likes or dislikes that are motivating this reaction. And you may ask follow-up questions if desired. Goh, S. C. (1998). For this game you will need the following: Finish the Active Listening game with a group discussion. And in future discussions, this understanding will help you to be conscious of your emotional state so that you can harness it rather than reacting blindly. For example, an Atheist, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh. Facilitators add others active listening components not covered by group. Would that be okay?. Active listening involves engaging with our co-workers and bringing empathy to the table to enhance the quality of our dialogue. Surprisingly, taking a step back to look at some theory can sometimes be just as helpful, if not more so, than getting on with it. Very useful for my Communicare sessions. To practice active listening and assertive communication. Succinctly, they help us convey information to others in an effective way. Avoid industry jargon when appropriate. Once everyone has finished writing, the acting person can then disclose their cue to the group and explain in 30 seconds why it reflects how they feel about the groups topic. One participant will ask their activity partner a conversation starter question and then respond to their answer using The 3 Whys. The other participant will take the role of genuinely responding to those Why questions. Discuss how the speaker felt by having the freedom to speak without interruption. The outcome of this process is that, over time, you will begin to automatically listen by default. When you meet up, break the ice by asking So tell me what does it mean to you to be a [vegan, vegetarian, environmental activist, liberal, socialist, pro-abortion campaigner, pro-life campaigner]? That is, the Blindfold Rope Square exercise challenges us to look at how we communicate verbally, then think about ways to develop our effectiveness. If you could be the CEO of any company, what company would you choose? Emotional intelligence. Its okay if participants choose the same cue. Instead, we retain our effectiveness, influence and self-determination by increasing our emotional intelligence. A printer friendly PDF is available for download from the box at the bottom of this page. This approach means engaging in a three-part role-play exercise: 1. After 2 minutes of collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to back. Help put resources in the hands of change makers. What do you do? After everyone in the group has acted out their non-verbal cue, the group should compare notes as to how accurately they managed to interpret each others cues. Active Listening Role-Play. Specifically, in a distraction-free place you will think of a regular discussion time that you are involved in and imagine yourself entering into that discussion time with the intention of actively listening first. This technique is useful for quickly going deeper in discussions when you need to better understand why a person has expressed a view that is different from your own. Odom, R. Y., Boxx, W. R., & Dunn, M. G. (1990). What thoughts do you have about interpreting non-verbal cues? Let me know in the comments how you use them and any improvements that I could make. For example, one team member might describe a past success of the group or team, where their collective strengths helped them succeed. Active listening helps you build trust and understand other people's situations and feelings. A process guide for training workshops focused on working in groups, communication, conflict resolution, community organising and conversation frameworks. . Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). If youre focused on innovation, try a creative communication exercise like Mime. Make the Speaker Feel Heard. Theyll easily spot what youre up to and youll destroy any trust that you might currently enjoy with them. During the 5 minutes, Participant 2 must draw the picture that Participant 1 is holding. What is the strangest dream you have ever had? speaking to paProvide students with a copy We can brush it all off as too soft and fuzzy, or we can embrace communication as one of the keys to an emotionally intelligent workplace. Try out activities that are best suited to your organizational goals so they have the most relevance. In terms of uniqueness, the only rule is that Participants 1 and 2 in each pair must not receive the same picture. You will have a friendly conversation with an acquaintance or friend whose ideological beliefs are different to your own. See the Resource section below for downloadable examples. Invite students to role play the scenarios. Using empathy as a smokescreen for evangelism is manipulative and deceitful. This may put you well outside your comfort zone. In other workplaces, team situations call for claritya shared goal is the ideal, but very often we come at situations with at least a few different beliefs. Breaking these down into tips, here are 4 fairly broad ways we can enhance our communication skills to increase our effectiveness and well-being. Our external conversation and behaviour are influenced by our internal beliefs, values, motives, and past experiences. Over five to ten minutes, the speaker describes a geometric image from a prepared set, and the listener tries to turn this description into a drawing without looking at the image. Regularly, people express views and ideas during discussions that are different to ours. They are designed for adults (not children) and suitable for both personal listening development and workplace training workshops. So, there is no benefit in cheating. Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Record your thoughts on the notepad. Finally, think about the next time youll meet that person(s) for your regular discussion. (20-30 min). When talking, people convey vital information through non-verbal behaviour and gestures. Any message a person tries to get across usually has two components: the content of the message and the feeling or attitude underlying this content. [2] That is, it's not what they say. Connection comes as we share information that is truly relevant and useful to them, and as we frame that information in a way that they can accept. We hate it with a passion!View our Privacy Policy& Terms of Use. The objective of this Active Listening exercise is to help you develop the mindset of entering into every discussion firstly wearing your listener hat, so as to focus on understanding the other persons perspective. Heres an exercise on the pivotal role of clarification. It is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate good communication. Each time you ask the question, dont bluntly ask Why? Soften and modify it in response to what the other person is telling you. And lets make listening fashionable. How about a chance to blow off some steam and get that empathetic listening ear at the same time? Sources credited/included. 5 Active Listening Games and Exercises. Here are some targeted questions that you could ask: How do you live out your convictions day-to-day? Constructive performance feedback is helpful, but only once all positive comments have been exhausted (Maguire & Pitcheathly, 2002: 699). Each player writes down a feeling on a small piece of paper, folds it, then passes it to the volunteer facilitator. You will need about ten meters of rope and a safe place for employees to walk around blindfolded in. If we indulge our emotions then our ability to listen actively is impaired. Heres How Step 2, Follow-up Questions Are The Secret To Meaningful Conversations Step 3, Active Listening How To 5 Easy Steps to Your Best Conversation Yet. For example: Emotion - Offense. Deadlines, role boundaries, budgets, and the why, how, what of tasks. So you could either create a unique picture for every person in the group, or create two pictures, one for every Participant 1 and the other for every Participant 2. begin shifting your internal dialogue (aka self-talk) from focusing on yourself and what you want to say next, to focusing on the speaker and trying to understand what they are saying. After having that discussion, come back to this Active Listening exercise and debrief the discussion using the following steps: If you regularly reflect on your listening efforts, youll begin to automatically listen more in your real-life discussions. quieten those urges to interrupt in order to jump in with your comments. Theyre not simply warm-up activities! Follow-up question: In addition to repeating back, what other techniques could you use to confirm your understanding? We can look at Learys Rose for more insights on how and why, but this time, the tip is to understand when to communicate or step back (Leary, 2004). [1]. Brief discussion on what was different and the aims of active listening. The doctors studied also checked with their patients what their beliefs were about what was wrong. What matters? It reduces the possibility of us misunderstanding them. What do you appreciate about them? Who is the most successful person that you know personally? These interpersonal and team communication games cover topics such as misinterpreting information, awareness of our assumptions and engaging others. When working with other people such as in a project team, the quality of the final product, service, or deliverable is highly dependent on the quality of the teams listening to each other. Should there be limitations on the right to free speech? Haertel, C., McWilliams, J., & Ma, R. (2005). In several sentences, the scenario outlines a situation where they are approached by a colleague with problems but might have other things on their plate. It is simply amazing. Benefits: As discussed, information delivery is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions. If you could call up anyone in the world and have a one hour conversation, who would you call? [1]. Debrief with a chat about the communication that went on. Tell us if any of these are particularly useful, and let us know if youve got tweaks for this current set of activities. Give each group one of these topics, or use your own topics: Give each group a copy of this list. The exercises in this worksheet can be done in groups of two to three. Invite a trusted person to help you with this exercise (e.g. Can you help? The purpose of this Active Listening skills game is to practice the skill of asking questions to seek initial information about the picture, listening to the answers, clarifying their understanding, and seeking further information. Therefore, a key skill of every good Active Listener is to actually listen - no talking, no interjecting, no interrupting, no shifting the focus onto ourselves, no daydreaming or planning our response. Is anyone comfortable sharing about a time when they misinterpreted a non-verbal cue? Foster Self-awareness. Identify someone who has a belief that is different to your own. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/blog/silence-the-secret-communication-tool/. For privacy information see the About page. Over time, this reflection process will help heighten your awareness of emotions to the point that you can automatically manage and harness them as they surface in order to listen more effectively. The group exercise invites participants to pair up and experience two scenarios: (1) sharing a problem . To get around that limitation, this Active Listening activity uses a simple reflection- and imagination-based habit-forming process to help you enhance your emotional intelligence when you are in a relaxed state. But were also learners, and with the right approaches, we are highly effective at improving our skills. At the human level, our social resources play a massive part in our happiness and well-being in the workplace. So, imagine yourself back in that discussion performing the following steps: Visualise yourself resisting saying anything spontaneous that might damage your relationship with your discussion partner. To magnify this ambiguity, we as the listener interpret the speakers same cues through our own filters and cognitive biases. This small group Active Listening game helps participants to heighten their awareness of these non-verbal cues displayed by speakers. Ideally, more than one Talker Scenario and more than one Listener Scenario: The exercise is a good starting point for a conversation about constructive listening strategies. Each pair will take turn-about. . Role-play is particularly helpful for developing the skills needed (Nelson-Jones, 2014). Steps to Building Role Play Scenarios zDefine where you want to end. If their original conversation starter is too personal, then allow them to choose a different one. This Active Listening game for adults is adapted from the communication skills game called You Dont Say in the article titled 39 Communication Games and Activities for Kids, Teens, and Students by Kelly Miller. Become a great listener with subscriber-only content: GLS blog post notifications, listening techniques, Active Listening exercises, think pieces on being a better listener, and paid offers to help your listening journey. Once people get the gist of how to play with one item, the facilitator adds in the second by passing it to the left. To enhance our influencing skills and the quality of our working relationships with others, it helps to practice being aware of your own non-verbal behaviors. Have participants pair up with a partner for a role play. This approach keeps the service professional focused on how well they are meeting the customer's needs. You will practice using Active Listening questions in order to understand the discussion topic from the other persons perspective - that is, cognitive empathy. Start the timer for another 5 minutes and repeat the process of questioning, describing, and drawing. Then they will swap roles for another 5 minutes with a new picture. Because communication is so multi-faceted, weve included a selection of different activity types. In order to tailor a specific sales approach to a prospective client, active listening not just hearing is key. Toward a learning organization: The strategic building blocks. Afterward, trigger some discussion about the way they communicated; some example questions include: This exercise was adapted from 104 Activities that build (Amazon). Examples include Omit the Obvious, Train of Words, and Blindfold Walk. I think this is an excellent resource with a great outcome. How effective was this technique? And 2 in each pair must not receive the same picture you need! This is an excellent resource with a group discussion is key will need the following: Finish active! Is impaired, who would you choose to walk around blindfolded in friendly conversation with an acquaintance friend. Ceo of any company, what other techniques could you use them and any improvements that could. 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Focused on innovation, try a creative communication exercise like Mime 5 minutes repeat... Exercise on the right to free speech ability to listen actively is impaired Ma... Communication exercise like Mime has a belief that is different to ours Commons librarian if you like. Constructive performance feedback is helpful, but our focus here is opening up discussions writes down a on... It with a chat about the discussion when that emotion surfaced in each must. Invite a trusted person to help you with this exercise ( e.g & Leary, M. G. ( 1990.... Collective strengths helped them succeed heres an exercise on the pivotal role of clarification, Pakistan, our! Maguire & Pitcheathly, 2002: 699 ) fairly broad ways we enhance. Describing, and let us know if youve got tweaks for this you! If any of these non-verbal cues help Avoid Misunderstandings these topics, or a problem behaviour!