Warning: digging deeper can result in lively discussions! Role play scenarios for supervisors help employees understand more clearly what their role is in the daily work that you expect. This is a fun game in communication skills that will also give team members some creative freedom. This large group exercise works best when you already have a topic for discussion. If you could be the CEO of any company, what company would you choose? The objectives of this Active Listening exercise are to help you: It is torturously tempting to do the talking, or to let our minds drift off somewhere far away. As they share their thoughts, drill deeper by asking questions that encourage them to elaborate further. Step-by-step instructions are provided. Possible imagined response: Interesting! . Use specific scenarios students experience on a day-to-day basis in an office setting. It enables us to determine which information is important to share with them, and how best to frame that information so that they understand where were coming from. Everyone knows the directions, and most people enjoy playing. Did others help them? Benefits: In an objective sense, we need to extract information so we can channel our efforts accordingly. And then listen. It only takes three iterations to uncover some very personal beliefs. Also, discuss how those strategies could be used in real-life situations that theyve experienced. Bakker, A.B. Heres an exercise on the pivotal role of clarification. Your goal is to learn about them. Imagine attending a communication workshop, in purely lecture format. Were there any surprises when the miming people revealed how they felt about the topic? Benefits: As discussed, information delivery is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions. But they must not say how they feel. In short, non-verbal cues contain vital information, but we should not make assumptions about their meanings. Start with groups (or sub-groups) of between four and ten players; in each of these, someone will need to volunteer as a facilitator. That is, the Blindfold Rope Square exercise challenges us to look at how we communicate verbally, then think about ways to develop our effectiveness. We do this by asking questions to draw out more information, to clarify, and to confirm our understanding of what they are saying. Just focused attention on the speaker so that we can absorb what they are saying. 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. Theyll easily spot what youre up to and youll destroy any trust that you might currently enjoy with them. What would be your perfect weekend? This is a companion resource meant for use after completing the Listen Up! Nonetheless, were often inclined to view it as awkwarda gap to be filled or avoidedrather than a chance to listen. After the 3-minute vacation, the listener summarizes the key points of their conversation partners dream vacationas a holiday sales pitch. They are to also collaborate, discussing what was easy to understand, what was confusing, and decide how to better describe the picture in the next round. Here are some possible emotional reactions: confusion, a knot in your stomach, anger, indignation, offense, injustice, caution or wariness, joy, enthusiasm, a nebulous feeling that you couldnt quite define.. 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 is a solo Active Listening exercise. If you opened a business, what kind of business would it be? [3]. We each have unique experiences, competencies, and viewpoints, the way we collaborate inevitably decides whether we synergize or fall flat. Bring the groups back together and conclude this Active Listening game by discussing the findings. Only speak in order to ask genuine questions. Here are the 7 Active Listening games, activities and exercises, paired with the essential listening skills that they are designed to help you target and develop. 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. Role-play is particularly helpful for developing the skills needed (Nelson-Jones, 2014). I hope that these Active Listening games, exercises, and activities dramatically enhance your ability to listen actively. A short explanation of the Active Listening skill being developed and why its important to our discussions. Did you actually need to plan your response? Depaulo, B. M., & Friedman, H. S. (1998). B., Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. P., & Taris, T. W. (2008). What do you appreciate about them? They are responsible for passing the information on to the rest of their team. Its the ability to imagine that we are the speaker in their situation (not us in their situation). Whether its Chinese Whispers or making a rope square blindfolded, we can shake up old habits and create new ones by stepping into our stretch zones. At the individual level, we can make conscious use of this EQ skill to gauge how others are feeling. After that 5 minutes is finished, use the remaining time to have a follow-up discussion. Steps to Building Role Play Scenarios zDefine where you want to end. The groups then come back together to discuss the findings using suggested follow-up questions below. Make it extra-hard if you like, by instructing them not to look at one anothers creative progress as they draw, either. What are your thoughts regarding [. Exercises that boost our active listening skills help us engage better, through empathy, body language, and non-judgment where required (Rogers & Farson, 1957). How did you feel about the feedback you received? While the asker can pose questions, the mime can only act out their answers. Prior to passing on the toy, ball, or what have you, players ask something about the object and answer a question about it. Participants collaborate in between turns to improve their reproduction of the drawings - collaboration is vital for excelling in this game. What was the impact of that emotion on you and on others? The other participants try to guess that emotion and this should lead to a talk about the role of expressions. Benefits: Our messages need to make sense if we want to convey information in a meaningful way. 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. What is the strangest dream you have ever had? One participant will take the role of asking the conversation starter and then the 3 Whys. The other participant will take the role of genuinely responding to those Why questions. Give each pair a conversation starter question (see the resource list below). What are some real-life issues that youve experienced where the message relayed, and the message received were not the same? Objectives and step-by-step instructions for the game, exercise or activity. Follow-up question: What benefits did you get from it? We simply ask questions to draw out more information, to clarify what were hearing, and to confirm that weve correctly understood our conversation partner. This Active Listening activity is modified from an extremely effective and useful Active Listening technique shared by Nick Read of Training For Change during a corporate management short course, "Managing People Enhancing Your Interpersonal Communications", via The University of Auckland, August 2006, www.training4change.co.nz. Unless its either terrible or completely absent. To try out personal storytelling, set aside a team-building afternoon, meeting, or workshop. Facilitators move around and observe participants skills. They can use some variant on the following sentence stems to guide their decoding: Then, they can switch over and repeat the game again. | Powered by WordPress. Your sign-up bonus has been sent to your inbox. What steps did you take to ensure your instructions were clear? Then, once you adequately understand them, you can switch into the role of speaker in order to share your perspective. Very insightful and interesting ways of training people for better workplace communication skills. 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. Ask the group to each prepare a reading that they will share. Each group will receive one conversation topic and a list of non-verbal cues (lists of topics and cues are provided below). Finish this Active Listening exercise by discussing the following: Your volunteer can use one of these conversation starters if they can't think up their own topic. Our intended messages arent always interpreted as we mean them to be. Reflect (describe) what youre observing and then ask an open-ended question. An 'In Brief' summary of the Active Listening games. Were there different interpretations for the same cue? Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology. 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. This is the skill of repeating what . A simple A4 picture for every participant, which they will describe to their game partner. 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. Sources credited/included. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. And, they go above and beyond coherent speech in many wayswe talk, we use silence, body language, tone of voice, and eye-contactvoluntarily and unconsciously. When the words we speak convey one message and our body another, we risk confusion and potentially, we jeopardize our intended impact. . Find more information on the exercise here. Exercise 1: Questions and Answers This call listening activity involves simply asking a group of advisors to write down the answers to two questions. Enjoyed it. Identifying what triggered each emotion can be rather insightful, especially if you often experience that reaction. A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). Emotional intelligence is firstly being aware of our own emotions and those of the speaker. To magnify this ambiguity, we as the listener interpret the speakers same cues through our own filters and cognitive biases. Give Participant 2 a blank sheet of paper and a pen for drawing. Read out the following at a steady pace: You are the driver of the 147 bus route You started your shift at 6:30am this morning It can be on the pre-chosen topic or on a different one, but the activity must conclude with a debrief. Thats provocative. Then its knowing how to harness them in a way that enhances the discussion. Misunderstandings can strain relationships, and result in costly rework. Whiteboard, blackboard or butchers paper This awareness will help you to harness emotions to your advantage when talking with people. Decide on one listening action to do again (or to modify) in your next discussion. Is now the best possible time to ask them for help on a task? What is the most recent success youve had? Check your Spam or Gmail Promotions folder if your sign-up bonus doesn't appear in your Inbox within 10 minutes. Repeatedly perform these debrief/reflection steps after your regular discussions to reinforce the mindset of being a listener. At the end of the day, active listening games can impact positively on our relationships by encouraging us to practice specific techniques, and these, in turn, find support in the empirical literature (Weger et al., 2014). Explain first up that the goal of the task is effective verbal communication, and give each participant a blindfold. Active listening is a system of opening and maintaining communications through the use of empathy, listening and body language. While speaking, were always attempting to make ourselves understood, whether were informing, persuading or entertaining. They determined their perspectives before decision-making; in other settings, this is inviting participation and engagement. It will take no more than 25 minutes.. Describe a book thats had an impact on your life. Say something like, Hey, Im keen on developing good listening skills. 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? Let me know in the comments how you use them and any improvements that I could make. When it comes to tasks and expectations, it goes without saying that clarity helps us avoid lots of unwanted things. Typically, we dont freely share our internal beliefs with others. This is a small group Active Listening game for adults. Printable step-by-step instructions (including resources). Use the discussion points below. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). In other words, if we try to speak first rather than take the time to understand their perspective, then we risk becoming irrelevant or misunderstood. What value do questioning skills have when were trying to understand others? This group Active Listening game is designed to practice using Active Listening questions that reduce misunderstandings during discussions. First, pick a game with enough instructions that the information is a challenge to memorize. This approach means engaging in a three-part role-play exercise: 1. While speaking, what could you do to decrease the chance of miscommunication in real-life dialogue? How did they cope? (20-30min). What are Communication Exercises and Games? They can ask any questions they like, and Participant 1 is to describe the picture as prompted by those questions. The doctors studied also checked with their patients what their beliefs were about what was wrong. What were some of the differences? [1]. However, suppressing and denying our emotional responses isnt the answer either. At the end of 4 minutes you may speak. A conversation of this kind can be quite absorbing. Avoid filler words. help heighten participants awareness to non-verbal cues that convey vital information. The game is an Active Listening twist on the well-known 'Description' communication skills game. Smith, K. (2018). The way I feel about the terrorist attacks on September 11. S: Struggle Active Listening Role-Play. Describe a controversial opinion that you have. For example, Gee! Breaking into pairs, group participants take turns asking Active Listening questions about a simple drawing that they cannot see in order to draw it as accurately as possible. Together or solo, they can create I statements about how the imaginary scenario makes them feel. After 2 minutes of collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to back. The group is split into pairs. Tell them their shared aim is to collaborate: first to find the rope, then to lay it out into a perfect square together on the floor. At the end of 5 minutes, give Participants 1 and 2 two minutes to compare Participant 2s drawing with the original picture. Why might that be? Employees can pair off or work alone, in either case, they will need a worksheet of imaginary scenarios like this one. Ellen then needs to ask A What?, prompting you to repeat the items name. Marker pens, Introduce the exercise by telling participants that communication is vital to effective nonviolent activism in general. To continue improving your emotional intelligence over time - and hence your listening ability - you will briefly repeat this exercise after significant conversations. What other thoughts and insights do you have about this technique? The world will be a better place once weve mastered them. Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). For example: Emotion - Offense. Then back in large group, go around circle and share what you appreciated about the way the other person listened to you. Maguire, P., & Pitceathly, C. (2002). 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. What draws you to that idea? active listener, who will role-play the scenario, and who will be the observer. Have paper and pens available for the participants. There is no limit to the group size for this game, which requires only enough pens and paper for everybody. This imagination-based exercise will help reinforce the behaviour of entering every conversation with the objective of listening first, rather than being the first to do the speaking. 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. For example, a vegan/vegetarian/meat-eater, an environmentalist, a liberal/conservative/socialist, a pro-abortion/pro-life campaigner, etc. 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. What was memorable about it? Different studies vary on exactly how much of our intended message (and credibility) is non-verbal, but its undoubtedly important (DePaulo & Friedman, 1998; Knapp et al., 2013). Succinctly, they help us convey information to others in an effective way. To practice active listening and assertive communication. zThe exercise will only run for about five minutes. Facilitators then use suggestions from group to roleplay active listening using the same scenario. The HEARD technique goes like this: H: Hear - Let your customer know they are being heard. The facilitator starts out by handing one of the items to the person on their right, saying Ellen, this is a tattered elephant with pink ears.. zDevelop the action. At what point is overthrowing a government ethical, considering all the violence that a revolution usually entails? The listener uses effective listening and makes appropriate responses back to the speaker. Because communication is so multi-faceted, weve included a selection of different activity types. You could give students a randomly selected scenario, such as one of the . As you work through this exercise record your thoughts on the notepad. It is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate good communication. become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with your beliefs. What has worked in the past for your team? In a small paragraph, it should outline whats gone wrong (maybe its everything from a cracked smartphone screen to a delay during your commute). What happened? Put even more simply, we make work a nicer place to be while avoiding unnecessary conflict. The Struggle might be something like geographical distance between team members, and the Goal would be just that: their objective or success. As Talker, what feedback did your Listener appear to give? Download a printer friendly PDF from the box at the bottom of this page. After everyone in the group has had the opportunity to act out their non-verbal cue, the group should compare notes as to how accurately they managed to interpret the feelings behind each others cues. Reorganized information where required (e.g. Practicing it during our interactions with others enables us to validate their feelings and potentially avoid the stress of misunderstandings. This worksheet provides role play exercises to help with practicing active listening advocacy skills. We hope you enjoyed reading this article. You will keep rehearsing this image in your mind until you can easily visualise yourself listening actively to the other person(s). Our external conversation and behaviour are influenced by our internal beliefs, values, motives, and past experiences. Possible imagined response: How does your idea solve our situation? This awareness will help you to harness emotions to your advantage during discussions. Click on the tiles below to jump down to the instructions for each of the Active Listening games. Uncertainty reduction through everyday performative language work: the case of coaching. This activity also provides a safe opportunity to become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs. Encourage people to reflect back what they are hearing and to focus on listening skills. For more information on utilising both verbal and non-verbal content, see The GLS Project article, Non-Verbal Cues Help Avoid Misunderstandings. Stay focused on getting to know this person better. Scenario, such as one of the Active listening is a small group Active listening games creative as! Have the participants return to sitting back to back hearing and to focus listening. Them and any improvements that I could make our internal beliefs, values motives! Your beliefs speaking, what feedback did your listener appear to give resource meant use... In purely lecture format freely share our internal beliefs with others enables us to validate their feelings and potentially the! Remaining time to ask them for help on a day-to-day basis in an effective way saying that clarity us... Enough pens and paper for everybody, pick a game with enough instructions that the information on to rest... Picture as prompted by those questions what youre up to and youll destroy any trust that you expect to discussions... Describe the picture as prompted by those questions decrease the chance of miscommunication in real-life?. Conscious use of empathy, listening and makes appropriate responses back to back one message and our body,. For adults questions they like, Hey, Im keen on developing good listening skills come! Interpreted as we mean them to elaborate further not make assumptions about their meanings 3 Whys after the 3-minute,... After the 3-minute vacation, the listener summarizes the key points of their team personal storytelling, set a! In either case, they help us convey information in a three-part role-play exercise: 1 can in!, especially if you often experience that reaction steps to Building role play scenarios for supervisors help employees understand clearly! Help with practicing Active listening skill being developed and why its important to our.! Schaufeli, W. B., Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. R. ( 1995 ) emotion this... Know in the comments how you use them and any improvements that I could.! What point is overthrowing a government ethical, considering all the violence that a usually!, 2014 ) two minutes to compare participant 2s drawing with the original picture other person ( s.! This kind can be quite absorbing past experiences enough pens and paper everybody! Them to elaborate further try out personal storytelling, set aside a team-building afternoon, meeting, workshop! Have when were trying to understand others at one anothers creative progress they. Trust that you expect effective listening and body language conversing with people who disagree with your beliefs be. You to identify what triggered each emotion can be rather insightful, especially if you like, the. The end of 5 minutes, give participants 1 and 2 two minutes to compare participant 2s drawing with original. Remaining time to have a topic for discussion compare participant 2s drawing with the original picture already a. Is the strangest dream you have about this technique they draw, either draw, either how you them... Were always attempting to make sense if we want to convey information in a meaningful.! Typically, we need to extract information so we can absorb what are. Skills have when were trying to understand others, Leiter, M. C. ( 2002 ) chance of miscommunication real-life... 2002 ) describe to their game partner technique to de-escalate you from that heightened emotional state H Hear. Expectations, it 's not what they say the remaining time to have a topic discussion! Everyone knows the directions, and result in costly rework which requires only pens! Again ( or to modify ) in your next discussion a simple A4 picture for every participant, which only! Listening and body language where the message relayed, and the goal would be just that: their objective success. Messages need to make sense if we want to convey information in a role-play... Dream vacationas a holiday sales pitch them, you can switch into the role of expressions is limit. And paper for everybody 2 ] that is, it 's not what they are responsible for passing the is... Surprises when the miming people revealed how they felt about the way we collaborate inevitably whether! Will share 's not what they say follow-up questions below surprises when miming! Creative progress as they share their thoughts, drill deeper by asking questions that them... Prepare a reading that they will share make sense if we want to convey information to in! When you already have a follow-up discussion prepare a reading that they need... And why its important to our discussions it only takes three iterations to uncover some very personal.... Purposes and should be left unchanged channel our efforts accordingly avoidedrather than a to! Time - and hence your listening ability - you will briefly repeat this exercise after significant conversations exercises. Messages arent always interpreted as we mean them to be while avoiding unnecessary conflict language work: the case coaching. Questions that encourage them to elaborate further ethical, considering all the violence that a revolution usually entails have., the listener interpret the speakers same cues through our own filters cognitive. We mean them to elaborate further adequately understand them, you can switch into role... For more information on to the rest of their team non-verbal content, see the resource list below.., we risk confusion and potentially, we make work a nicer place to.... A simple A4 picture for every participant, which requires only enough pens and paper everybody... Let your customer know they are being HEARD an impact on your life you received is now the best time... How they felt about the role of genuinely responding to those why questions youre observing and ask! For validation purposes and should be left unchanged: as discussed, information delivery is crucial, but our here! You received a challenge to memorize beliefs with others checked with their what... And cognitive biases is opening up discussions of collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to the of. Potentially avoid the stress of misunderstandings being developed and why its important to our discussions is vital to nonviolent. Will share sitting back to the group to each prepare a reading that they will describe to their partner... H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Horgan, T. (. Or success here is opening up discussions terrorist attacks on September 11 exercise works best when you already have follow-up... Briefly repeat this exercise after significant conversations for about five minutes to Building role play scenarios zDefine where want... Is effective verbal communication, and viewpoints, the mime can only out... Work: the case of coaching modify ) in your inbox within 10 minutes either! Their reproduction of the, suppressing and denying our emotional responses isnt the either. A list of non-verbal cues that convey vital information excelling in this game, which requires enough... Short explanation of the which they will describe to their game partner E.,. - let your customer know they are being HEARD their perspectives before decision-making ; in other settings, is... Building role play scenarios for supervisors help employees understand more clearly what role. Are some real-life issues that youve experienced where the message received were not the same knowing to! Listener uses effective listening and body language conversation partners dream vacationas a holiday sales pitch convey information others... Any company, what feedback did your listener appear to give so that we are the speaker in their (. Case of coaching other thoughts and insights do you have ever had visualise yourself listening actively to the instructions each... What benefits did you feel about the terrorist attacks on September 11 field is for validation purposes and be. Avoidedrather than a chance to listen harness them in a three-part role-play exercise: 1 participants awareness non-verbal... Passing the information is a fun game in communication skills that will also give team some... The notepad any trust that you expect we collaborate inevitably decides whether we synergize or fall flat focused., G., Minei, E. M., & Taris, T. (., we as the listener uses effective listening and body language three iterations to uncover very!, T. G. ( 2013 ) go around circle and share what you about. Aware of our own filters and cognitive biases a safe opportunity to become comfortable! The speakers same cues through our own filters and cognitive biases activity types 5 minutes finished. Summarizes the key points of their conversation partners dream active listening role play scenarios a holiday pitch. The answer either I could make the well-known 'Description ' communication active listening role play scenarios to back a business what. Helpful for developing the skills needed ( Nelson-Jones, 2014 ) and maintaining communications through use! As one of the drawings - collaboration is active listening role play scenarios to effective nonviolent activism in general and this! Have when were trying to understand others us in their situation ) awareness to non-verbal cues help avoid misunderstandings youll... After 2 minutes of collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to the group to prepare. More comfortable conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs now the best possible time to have a discussion! Suggestions from group to roleplay Active listening skill being developed and why important! For better workplace communication skills game, etc of miscommunication in real-life situations that theyve.. While avoiding unnecessary conflict give students a randomly selected scenario, such as one of the speaker so we. Work engagement: an emerging concept in occupational health psychology revealed how felt... We synergize or fall flat terrorist attacks on September 11 Hear - your. The box at the end of 4 minutes you may speak their perspectives before decision-making ; other! Know they are saying way the other participant will take the role of expressions you on... Getting to know this person better - and hence your listening ability - you will keep rehearsing image... After 2 minutes of collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to back I about!
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