Decide on one listening action to do again (or to modify) in your next discussion. This exercise comes from a Teambuilding Facilitation Manual: A Guide to Leading and Facilitating Teambuilding Activities, by Penn State University. Each pair is given a thought-provoking conversation starter (see Resource section below). Tell me more., Emotion - Knot in your stomach. So, a 6-person group will make a 6-frame strip, and so forth. Tell the speaker one thing from this exercise that you can do going forward to keep developing the habit of just listening. Explain first up that the goal of the task is effective verbal communication, and give each participant a blindfold. Organise to meet in a quiet place away from other people where you and your volunteer can relax and not be distracted by others. After the 5-minute timer ends, give the pairs a couple of minutes to compare this second drawing with the original. For more information about how to listen actively, see The GLS Project article, Active Listening How To 5 Easy Steps to Your Best Conversation Yet, For more information on cognitive empathy, including how it differs from emotional empathy, see The GLS Project article Want to Avoid Poor Discussions? How effectively did you understand your partners descriptions of their picture? Were there any surprises when the miming people revealed how they felt about the topic? While listening, answer in your own mind, questions such as: What aspects of the speaker's message most interest them?, What is the main theme(s) of their message?, What are the key takeaways from the speakers message?. Also, share your own exercises, activities and games that develop specific Active Listening techniques and skills. What do you do? Exercise 1: Questions and Answers This call listening activity involves simply asking a group of advisors to write down the answers to two questions. 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. What were some of the differences? 1. [3]. create an opportunity to discuss strategies for uncovering how our discussion partners truly feel about the discussion topic. I am a firm believer in the power of soft skills, especially listening and communication. What feelings do we understand the easiest, when only facial expressions are used? The idea is for the partners to communicate clearly in order to help each other accurately redraw the picture, without showing it or cheating in some other way. Our non-verbal behavior and the way we speak is critical. Follow-up question: What could you have done to overcome any differences in understanding? Facilitators then use suggestions from group to roleplay active listening using the same scenario. Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). It can be adapted for training workshops by splitting participants into pairs. This exercise is about listening, clarity and developing potential strategies when we communicate. What factors sometimes prevent us from asking questions when they might actually be useful? Peer feedback is also a useful job resource when it comes to work engagement; as a form of social support, it can help stimulate our learning and developmentthat includes communication skills (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Bakker et al., 2008). We gather insights from working with cutting edge startups and corporations in Silicon Valley and apply it for all our clients. Clarify when you catch yourself jumping to conclusions. What were you really into when you were a kid? Potential discussion questions will help you unpack this further: This exercise from The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games is about self-awareness. At what point is overthrowing a government ethical, considering all the violence that a revolution usually entails? Uncertainty reduction through everyday performative language work: the case of coaching. Or, reading about how to communicate without actually trying what you learn. Clarify Understanding IV. Make multiple copies of the list of non-verbal cues. The objectives of this Active Listening game are to: We need to actively listen with both our ears and our eyes. Dont use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your convictions. In what ways did being a watcher impact your perspectives of the talkers? Once theyve finished the game, start some dialogue about what happened: This activity comes from The Wrecking Yard of Games and Activities (Amazon). It can be on the pre-chosen topic or on a different one, but the activity must conclude with a debrief. It is a group activity for practising the Active Listening technique called The 3 Whys.. This exercise introduces I statements, which describe others behavior objectively while allowing the speaker to express the impact on their feelings. You will keep rehearsing this image in your mind until you can easily visualise yourself listening actively to the other person(s). Find a place free of distractions and sit down with a notepad and pen. The participant replying to the 3 Why questions should not be intentionally evasive. An 'In Brief' summary of the Active Listening games. What matters? This is the skill of repeating what . Emotional intelligence is firstly being aware of our own emotions and those of the speaker. For each of those strong emotions, write down answers to these questions: What did they say that triggered that emotion?, Was it triggered by any of their non-verbal gestures or expressions?. Thanks to Conversation Starters World. Reorganized information where required (e.g. It is not a method for creating opportunities to talk about themselves. 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. The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Tell them to let you know once theyve agreed that the job is done. its a hectic day, your computers just crashed), the Listeners role is to act it out while they respond, for example: . 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. It is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate good communication. Participants who sit in the middle are talkers while those in the outer ring are watchers, and these roles should be allocated prior to the exercise. Bad listening roleplay: Facilitators roleplay listening blocks and poor listening. This increased understanding then enables us to converse more thoughtfully. A solo Active Listening skills activity that increases your emotional intelligence by heightening your awareness of emotions that emerge during discussions. This activity also provides a safe opportunity to become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs. In a non-active listening situation, there may be quick back and forth, many rapid questions, or people may talk over one another. Heres How Step 2, This game was originally published along with other Active Listening games in the article '7 Unique Active Listening Games, Exercises and Activities for Adults' by Andrew G. Ward, at. Active listening is a system of opening and maintaining communications through the use of empathy, listening and body language. back to the Active Listening Skills. In a larger group of participants, this can be done multiple times as players pair up with different conversation partners. Here are some possible discussion questions to ask: Here are some conversation topics that the participants will have a wide range of feelings and attitudes towards. Its a cognitive limitation of the way our brains are wired. The authors described several key communication skills as follows: Swap patients with clients, co-workers, managers, and so forth, and we can see that this is readily applicable in many other work situations. And as more than one collective intelligence researcher has pointed out, teams are more than the sum of their parts (Woolley et al., 2010). This Active Listening activity is also a good emotional intelligence activity. [1]. Why might that be? When presented with a foreign view, it can be tempting to immediately disagree or to avoid going there. From your larger group of co-workers, let them form smaller groups of about 3-6 participants and tell them their task is to produce a unique comic strip, with one frame from each person. At the human level, our social resources play a massive part in our happiness and well-being in the workplace. Why?!. Thanks for putting this together. Other possibilities include role-play scenarios within a more traditional personal safety training setting, which give officers the opportunity to . Very useful for my Communicare sessions. 5 Active Listening Games and Exercises. It is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. 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. Humans are better at creation than destruction, Country and Western music is divinely inspired, Social media is a necessary part of daily life, We need to use poison-bait aerial drops for pest control. Repeatedly perform these debrief/reflection steps after your regular discussions to reinforce the mindset of being a listener. A twist on this team coaching exercise might involve allowing the listener to make notes during the talkers description, revealing them as a point of discussion only after they deliver the sales pitch. You can further enhance the impact of role-play in . Im Listening can be played with an even number of participants, as they will need to find a partner for this one-on-one game. Whiteboard, blackboard or butchers paper The world will be a better place once weve mastered them. Listen With Empathy, Non-Verbal Cues Help Avoid Misunderstandings. What might have contributed to this confusion? Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. Practice Makes Perfect V. Uncovering Assumptions By empathizing, we not only build better relationships, but we show that we are available as key job resources social support for those around us to reduce the negative impacts of our job demands (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). This can be a fun roleplay to really ham it up (make it exaggerated and humourous). Describe a controversial opinion that you have. Some of these activities will require a facilitator, and some just a group of colleagues. Benefits: We dont need to look too far to find sources of workplace stress that might be impacting our colleagues. Appreciative Inquiry, for example, is one type of positive psychology intervention that uses storytelling in a compelling way, as a means to share hopes and build on our shared strengths. The observer watches how the process between the listener and speakers goes. 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