In what ways might your drawing have turned out differently if you could have communicated with your partner? When the words we speak convey one message and our body another, we risk confusion and potentially, we jeopardize our intended impact. Were not always ready to receive and learn from criticism, especially when its delivered insensitively. For example: Emotion - Offense. STUDENT. Thanks to Conversation Starters World. They are responsible for passing the information on to the rest of their team. Exercises that boost our active listening skills help us engage better, through empathy, body language, and non-judgment where required (Rogers & Farson, 1957). Talk your way through that perfect weekend. Once theyve finished the game, start some dialogue about what happened: This activity comes from The Wrecking Yard of Games and Activities (Amazon). Reference: Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Trainers' Manual, page 18. Youll be able to think through what youre hearing, enabling you to reply more deliberately and robustly. Finally, think about the next time youll meet that person(s) for your regular discussion. Were there different interpretations for the same cue? Built with love in the Netherlands. It could be a weekly meeting with a work colleague, the daily family time around the dinner table, or a mid-week lunch catch-up with a friend. Possible imagined response: explore the situation. We all need air to breathe and water to stay alive. Effective information delivery helps us define goals, transfer knowledge, and successfully accomplish shared tasks. 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. It only takes three iterations to uncover some very personal beliefs. Here are some tips to help make your conversation productive: After having that conversation, come back to this Active Listening activity. Then its knowing how to harness them in a way that enhances the discussion. Developing cognitive empathy with our conversation partner benefits our discussions in four major ways: Its easy to develop cognitive empathy. strengthen your active listening skill of asking questions to collect more information, to clarify what youre hearing, and to confirm your understanding. You can read more about my story here. The listener uses effective listening and makes appropriate responses back to the speaker. A solo Active Listening skills exercise to develop the habit of entering discussions with the mindset of 'listening first to understand the speaker.' Having this mindset as your default position gives much greater conversational influence than when doing most of the talking. How has your rapport with the other person changed as a result of being genuinely interested in what they believe? Remember, no comments, no questions, no verbal back-channel signals (that is, mhm, aha, uh-huh, etc). In a non-active listening situation, there may be quick back and forth, many rapid questions, or people may talk over one another. The doctors studied also checked with their patients what their beliefs were about what was wrong. And then listen. Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). Very useful, insightful, and helpful. The only rule is that Participant 2 must not see the picture (or a photo of the picture). Or, reading about how to communicate without actually trying what you learn. 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. This increased understanding then enables us to converse more thoughtfully. Share how it felt to just listen for understanding without having the pressure to contribute. Follow-up question: What could you have done to overcome any differences in understanding? If you hate pop-up ads, for instance, youve already got great material for your rant. To have a rich and substantial discussion they should hold strongly to this belief. And here, we have only one link rather than an entire chain of people. So, a 6-person group will make a 6-frame strip, and so forth. How? Alternatively, we may be quick to assume that others understand what we are saying when situations actually require further explanation. How did you cope with the distraction? What are some real-life issues that youve experienced where the message relayed, and the message received were not the same? 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). 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. & Demerouti, E. (2007). This exercise introduces I statements, which describe others behavior objectively while allowing the speaker to express the impact on their feelings. Ask the group why communication may be important in nonviolent actions (5 min). At the height of a discussion its very difficult to apply new techniques such as harnessing your emotions while trying to stay calm and avoid reacting impulsively to what were hearing (and observing non-verbally). This activity is a slight twist on Chinese Whispers in that it uses a complex set of instructions rather than just a sentence. Dont use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your convictions. Used with permission. How about a chance to blow off some steam and get that empathetic listening ear at the same time? zDevelop the character. Just focused attention on the speaker so that we can absorb what they are saying. Practicing it during our interactions with others enables us to validate their feelings and potentially avoid the stress of misunderstandings. Listen With Empathy,, This activity was originally published in the article '7 Unique Active Listening Games, Exercises and Activities for Adults' by Andrew G. Ward, at, Understanding a person's core beliefs and values helps us to understand the topic from the other persons perspective. Clarify Understanding IV. See the Resource section below for downloadable examples. What other thoughts and insights do you have about this technique? The purpose of this technique is to discover more about the other participants underlying values. After fifteen minutes of discussion, the watchers and talkers switch circlesthose who were listening before now sit on the inner circle for a fifteen-minute conversation. Rogers, C., Farson, R. E., "Active Listening", Gordon Training Inc., www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/active-listening/, Extract from 1957 article. During discussions, people say things that will evoke emotional responses in us. Prior to passing on the toy, ball, or what have you, players ask something about the object and answer a question about it. So, enjoy! Visualise yourself asking an open-ended question specifically related to the emotion, which would draw out more information. 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. They use the goals as a guide for the conversation, while the watchers listen carefully and make notes. Compared to profits, losses, and even risk, it is intangible. Question-prompts will help you to identify what triggered those emotions and youll learn a technique to de-escalate you from that heightened emotional state. Avoid filler words. Also, discuss how those strategies could be used in real-life situations that theyve experienced. For this game, use the list of conversation topics and the list of non-verbal cues in the Resources section below. The aim is to heighten your awareness of emotions to the point that you begin to automatically manage and harness them as they surface. 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. Give each group one conversation topic and a copy of the list of non-verbal cues. Edmondson, A. C., Kramer, R. M., & Cook, K. S. (2004). Tell me more., Emotion - Knot in your stomach. What did you find the toughest about this activity? In what ways did players support each other? [2]. Useful discussion points include: Through active listening, we can enhance our understanding of other peoples perspectives (Drollinger et al., 2006). 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. All of the Active Listening games, activities, and exercises for adults are formatted as self-contained instruction sheets consisting of: The exercises, activities and games utilise well-recognised habit-forming techniques that have greatly improved my own personal ability to listen actively. Allow 10 minutes for participants to do the following within their groups. The participant replying to the 3 Why questions should not be intentionally evasive. 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. Defining Goals . The objective of this Active Listening activity is to increase your emotional intelligence by heightening your awareness of emotions that emerge during discussions. Describe a book thats had an impact on your life. 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. In this game, one colleague has a full 60 seconds to rant about something which irks them. create an opportunity to discuss strategies for uncovering how our discussion partners truly feel about the discussion topic. Download a printer friendly PDF from the box at the bottom of this page. 4. [1]. Key communication skills and how to acquire them. What was the impact of that emotion on you and on others? Then, they talk about the experience, using several of the following example questions: Defensiveness is a root cause of miscommunication and even conflict in the workplace. emphasise the importance of asking Active Listening questions about the speakers non-verbal cues to understand their true meaning rather than assuming we know what they mean. Unless its either terrible or completely absent. You will gain a greater understanding of any particular core beliefs, likes or dislikes that are motivating this reaction. Why? S: Struggle Any number of co-workers can participate in this very simple mime game. Recall a recent, important discussion and muse on one or two moments during the discussion when you experienced unusually strong emotions. Did you actually need to plan your response? Facilitators move around and observe participants skills. It can be on the pre-chosen topic or on a different one, but the activity must conclude with a debrief. Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). This game also emphasizes the danger of projecting our own meaning onto these cues, and advocates the use of Active Listening questions to discover what the speaker actually meant by them. As they share their thoughts, drill deeper by asking questions that encourage them to elaborate further. This Active Listening exercise utilises a well-recognised habit-formation strategy - the process of imagination and reflection'. Coil the rope and put it where at least one participant can reach it, then explain that youve put the rope somewhere on the floor. What was constructive about your partners instructions? Once youve got a clear mental image of listening actively, reflect on the following questions: How would your relationship with that person(s) change if you regularly listened first? So, if they agree, and now isnt a good time for a deep discussion, then diarise time to catch up socially in a place where you can talk freely. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). What is the strangest dream you have ever had? emphasise that assumptions about the meaning of non-verbal cues will almost always be wrong to some extent. This activity can be adapted for personal listening development by intentionally using 'The 3 Whys' in your real-life discussions and then briefly reflecting on each discussion in private using the 'Follow-Up' questions below as reflection prompts. What would be your perfect weekend? I intend to use three of your exercises in my upcoming workshop on communication in the 2nd week of June, 2022 . 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. - The ability to deliver information effectively. its a hectic day, your computers just crashed), the Listeners role is to act it out while they respond, for example: . Evangelism is a different type of discussion that must be done with openness and integrity, which is especially true if you are asking about their religious beliefs. For example, one team member might describe a past success of the group or team, where their collective strengths helped them succeed. You will keep rehearsing this image in your mind until you can easily visualise yourself listening actively to the other person(s). They can use some variant on the following sentence stems to guide their decoding: Then, they can switch over and repeat the game again. Possible imagined response: Interesting! If your mind was an island, what would it look like? https://positivepsychology.com/communication-activities-adults-students/, www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/active-listening/, www.goodlisteningskills.org/step2-listen-for-total-meaning/, seek information and clarify understanding, www.goodlisteningskills.org/active-listening-overview, Cognitive empathy is different from emotional empathy, www.goodlisteningskills.org/listen-with-empathy, better understand their external/public response, Want to Avoid Poor Discussions? Doctors also described effective communication as being able to summarize what the patient/other had related to correct information and display understanding. Heres an exercise on the pivotal role of clarification. Theyre not simply warm-up activities! Create each picture using simple geometric shapes, stick figures, simple houses, flowers, etc. Very insightful and interesting ways of training people for better workplace communication skills. Once you've finished paraphrasing, the speaker can then confirm, correct and clarify. Invite students to role play the scenarios. In the book mentioned below, there are also hand-outs, but you can prepare your own for this activity. How did communication look with a longer or shorter chain? A third skill is reflecting (Robertson, 2005). To practice active listening and assertive communication. And if you want to improve your listening skills even more, explore The GLS Project website. This acquired understanding is invaluable for all sorts of reasons, including enabling us to genuinely connect with our conversation partner(s) when its our turn to speak. Inspired by the kids game Telephone, this exercise draws on different elements of effective communication between team members, while highlighting where things often go wrong. Imagination and reflection ' youll be able to summarize what the patient/other had related to emotion! 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