They can ask any questions they like, and Participant 1 is to describe the picture as prompted by those questions. Rogers, C., Farson, R. E., "Active Listening", Gordon Training Inc., www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/active-listening/, Extract from 1957 article. Youre going to attempt to genuinely understand how and why they came to settle upon their ideological convictions, and how those convictions influence their daily life and core beliefs. Smith, K. (2018). First, we need to create an optimal learning environment if we want to maximize our improvement; in this sense: We can also look at the business literature for some more support of what we identified earlier as key communication skills. Dealing with resistance. It will take no more than 25 minutes.. How did this influence your learnings, rather than providing your own input? Ask the group to each prepare a reading that they will share. It is being attentive and respectful to the person talking. Depaulo, B. M., & Friedman, H. S. (1998). Where was the weakest link, and why? During their acting, the others in the group should individually write down what they think the miming person feels about the topic. This is a fun game in communication skills that will also give team members some creative freedom. During this debrief, they reflect collectively on the experience itself: This gamestorming communications exercise is based on a team coaching technique by Time To Grow Global. zDevelop the environment. 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). While the asker can pose questions, the mime can only act out their answers. With active listening, the speaker is given the time and space to speak as much as they want. Used with permission. Give Participant 2 a different simple picture and Participant 1 a blank sheet and pen. Each group will receive one topic. It reduces the possibility of us misunderstanding them. 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. Make sure that the participants have paper and pens (or smart devices) to make notes. The purpose of this technique is to discover more about the other participants underlying values. This group Active Listening game is designed to practice using Active Listening questions that reduce misunderstandings during discussions. Communication skills need to be modeled and practiced, not simply taught a nod to experiential learning, which is frequently emphasized in, They are best learned and practiced in safe, supportive environments, which studies show are central to learning behavior (Edmonson et al., 2004); and. 5 Active Listening Games and Exercises. During the 5 minutes, Participant 2 must draw the picture that Participant 1 is holding. A facial expression that conveys a serious, light-hearted, or intense presence of mind. Defining Goals . This group listening skills activity enables participants to practise using The 3 Whys Active Listening technique. Step 2: After the five-minute role play is completed, the speaker spends two minutes giving feedback to the listening partner on the effective listener skills used. The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Employees can pair off or work alone, in either case, they will need a worksheet of imaginary scenarios like this one. Role-playing is a classic method for teaching communication skills. 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. In this article, you will find 15 communication exercises, games, and tips to help you improve teamwork and collaboration in your workplace. None of them require professional facilitation per se, and any participant can easily volunteer to keep the process on track. In what ways did players support each other? Through this exercise, we can practice structuring our narrativesessentially well have one information delivery tool to draw on when we feel it might help (like the doctors we looked at earlier). Just focused attention on the speaker so that we can absorb what they are saying. Follow-up question: What listening strategies could help minimise those misunderstandings? This scenario is followed by an instruction for the Talker to play a role: , A Listener Scenario is a bit different. Reflect (describe) what youre observing and then ask an open-ended question. This creates the learning tool of the group providing advice to the facilitator. The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. A time when I dealt with a difficult conflict well. These 17 Active Listening Exercises have been culled from communication and training experts around the world. Identify someone who has a belief that is different to your own. Unless its either terrible or completely absent. Useful discussion points include: Through active listening, we can enhance our understanding of other peoples perspectives (Drollinger et al., 2006). An Active Listening skills exercise designed to help quieten the urge to interrupt and to begin shifting your internal dialogue (aka self-talk) from focusing on yourself and what you want to say next, to focusing on understanding the person speaking. Ensure that Participant 2 does not see it. This large group exercise works best when you already have a topic for discussion. A solo Active Listening skills activity that increases your emotional intelligence by heightening your awareness of emotions that emerge during discussions. What is one practical action that you can take at the start of your next discussion in order to listen to them first and allow them to speak? Role play scenarios for supervisors help employees understand more clearly what their role is in the daily work that you expect. Possible imagined response: explore the situation. Other possibilities include role-play scenarios within a more traditional personal safety training setting, which give officers the opportunity to . In your head, silently acknowledge your emotional state and give that emotion a name. Find more information on the exercise here. II. So, enjoy! For example: Emotion - Offense. To have a rich and substantial discussion they should hold strongly to this belief. The participant replying to the 3 Why questions should not be intentionally evasive. Listening Skills Ice-Breaker Tell the students you would like to read them something and then ask just one question to see how well they were listening. The Struggle might be something like geographical distance between team members, and the Goal would be just that: their objective or success. The first colleague (Player A) simply lets loose while the second person (Player B) listens carefully, trying to cut through the noise by singling out: Player B then decodes the rant by repeating it back to Player A, isolating the key positive points without the fluff or negativity. Built with love in the Netherlands. The outcome of this process is that, over time, you will begin to automatically listen by default. How much does language affect our thinking? Click each image to download an A4 PDF version of the picture. Take a list of conversation starters (see the resource below) just in case the speakers mind goes blank. Toward a learning organization: The strategic building blocks. Avoid industry jargon when appropriate. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA, Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author. Card Pieces. Our intended messages arent always interpreted as we mean them to be. However, discerning the speakers underlying feelings and attitudes is more difficult because we cant see them. This is a small group Active Listening game for adults. In the book mentioned below, there are also hand-outs, but you can prepare your own for this activity. Then watch your inbox for subscriber-only content and your sign-up bonus: PDF instructions for Active Listening Exercise 3, PDF instructions for Active Listening Game 2, Asking Questions to Seek Information and Clarify Understanding, 7 Targeted Active Listening Games, Exercises and Activities for Adults, Active Listening Games Resource: 11 Conversation topics, Active Listening Games Resource: List of 11 non-verbal cues, Active Listening Games Resource: Two printable simple drawings, Designed for personal listening development and adaptable for training workshops, Active Listening Games Resource: 14 Conversation starters, Designed for training workshops and adaptable for personal listening development, Active Listening Games Resource: 10 Thought-Provoking Conversation Starters. 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. 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. Topics to speak on could include: What kinds of questions could we ask the speaker to better understand a particular cue that we are observing? Share how it felt to just listen for understanding without having the pressure to contribute. Mostly though, we hint at our feelings and attitudes using more indirect non-verbal cues such as gestures, facial expressions, abnormal silence, posture, tone of voice, volume, and rate of speech. 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). Find a place free of distractions and sit down with a notepad and pen. Paraphrase in your own words the main points that you think you heard the speaker say - they should remain quiet while you're paraphrasing. 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. Was their influence helpful or misleading? 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 increased understanding then enables us to converse more thoughtfully. Asking Questions To Seek Information and Clarify Understanding. Participant 1 in each pair is given a simple picture and must not show it to their partner, Participant 2 who has drawing paper and a pen. Whats noise and whats a message? Is there something specific that you like about them?, Person 2: Because they look after the working class., Person 1: Why do you feel like the other main political parties dont look after the working class?, Person 2: Because[and they opened up with some rather passionate views!]. But because the way we get along is so fundamental to organizational success and human flourishing, many more companies are focusing on the latter. They will need to communicate those creative ideas to one another, but also engage in joint decision-making for the activity to be a success. Each time you ask the question, dont bluntly ask Why? Soften and modify it in response to what the other person is telling you. Listener has to practice active listening skills - listening attentively to what is being said and what is not quite being said, and demonstrating their listening to the talker by their behaviour. This facilitator simply keeps the game on track and gets the discussion going afterward. Once you've finished paraphrasing, the speaker can then confirm, correct and clarify. Why?!. How did your questioning skills help you comprehend what was going on? After reading the scenario of their context (e.g. 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. 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. Printable step-by-step instructions (including resources). I might be able to add them to the article. You can further enhance the impact of role-play in . Then, once you adequately understand them, you can switch into the role of speaker in order to share your perspective. With each asking of the Why? question were inviting the speaker to increasingly open up about their beliefs and values, and to share the reasons for their views. Very useful for my Communicare sessions. 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. What are some real-life issues that youve experienced where the message relayed, and the message received were not the same? Communication in the presence of noise. Benefits: In an objective sense, we need to extract information so we can channel our efforts accordingly. Describe a controversial opinion that you have. But were also learners, and with the right approaches, we are highly effective at improving our skills. Hello, Im Andrew Ward and Im the Kiwi guy writing most of the stuff on this website. That applies both to our language and the extent to which we empathize. Goulston, Mark, Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone, New York: American Management Association, 2010. Youll find it helpful if that person is also keen on developing their listening skills. It is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate good communication. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Then they will swap roles for another 5 minutes with a new picture. In order to tailor a specific sales approach to a prospective client, active listening not just hearing is key. Talk your way through that perfect weekend. Rogers, C. R., & Farson, R. E. (1957). It also promotes collaboration. Ellen then needs to ask A What?, prompting you to repeat the items name. 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 Active Listening exercise utilises a well-recognised habit-formation strategy - the process of imagination and reflection'. They might be up to their ears in work, or their colleagues complaints might seem trivial. To practice active listening and assertive communication. Then, let them share the story of what they did with it; When onboarding new people, invite the group to bring in an object which symbolizes their wishes for the new team member. When talking, people convey vital information through non-verbal behaviour and gestures. This can show what happens when we dont. Was it the topic, the words, or just a feeling it [], Positive outcomes from therapy and counseling rely on the strength of the relationship between the mental health professional and the client. Listen to Remember and Listen for Underlying Meanings III. Positive messages go a long way toward solving communication problems. Would that be okay?. How did you feel about the feedback you received? Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. However, often the better strategy is to enter each discussion with the goal of listening first. Discuss how the speaker felt to have your full attention. The mime reads the card, then attempts to act out whats on it (youll first need to decide on a theme, like weather, activities, or what have you). It can be on the pre-chosen topic or on a different one, but the activity must conclude with a debrief. 7.8) Difficult Customer Role Play. 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. Happily ever after: The use of stories to promote positive interventions. Youll need more than 9 participants for this activity, as well as paper, drawing, and coloring materials for each colleague. So, you will need to enlist a volunteer. Where did you meet them? Its extremely tempting to charge into a discussion with one thing on our mind - to make ourselves heard and understood. What steps did you take to ensure your instructions were clear? Give Participant 2 a blank sheet of paper and a pen for drawing. In what ways can facial expressions influence our ability to deal with misunderstandings? Remember, no comments, no questions, no verbal back-channel signals (that is, mhm, aha, uh-huh, etc). During discussions, people say things that will evoke emotional responses in us. Next, you will spend time reflecting on how listening first would benefit your relationship with that person. Who is your longest friend? Active Listening as Advocacy online course. For more depth on seeking to understand other people, see the article titled Want to Avoid Poor Discussions? Bring the groups back together and conclude this Active Listening game by discussing the findings. This is the perfect opportunity to congratulate them or start a discussion about what they might do differently the next time around. If you could be the CEO of any company, what company would you choose? Sometimes it gives us a chance to reflect, in others it creates a space for others to take the floor. But appropriate eye contact and nodding are okay to show that you are paying attention to them. Storytelling is an engaging way to convey information; when its positive information, narratives are also highly effective means of motivating and inspiring others (Tomasulo & Pawelski, 2012). 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. This activity is a slight twist on Chinese Whispers in that it uses a complex set of instructions rather than just a sentence. Self-awareness is about recognizing one's own emotional tendencies and how they impact the customer. 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. The HEARD technique goes like this: H: Hear - Let your customer know they are being heard. It is not a method for creating opportunities to talk about themselves. Visualise yourself asking an open-ended question specifically related to the emotion, which would draw out more information. It only means keeping an open-mind and withholding judgement long enough to adequately understand the other persons perspective. Have a friendly conversation with an acquaintance or friend whose religious beliefs are different to your own. Some of these activities will require a facilitator, and some just a group of colleagues. When someone repeats or interrupts another group member, they start again from one. zThe remaining team members sitting in the We live in an information-driven society, where communication determines how fast we learn. Drawing on empirical literature on communication skills in the workplace, we can look at Maguire and Pitcheathlys (2002) study of doctors for a good example. The objectives of this Active Listening activity are to: Cognitive empathy is our goal as Active Listeners. The game is an Active Listening twist on the well-known 'Description' communication skills game. E: Empathize - Having empathy in business pays off in all relationshipspractice understanding and compassion when listening to your customer's grievances. Tomasulo, D. J., & Pawelski, J. O. Active listening is a system of opening and maintaining communications through the use of empathy, listening and body language. 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. There is no limit to the group size for this game, which requires only enough pens and paper for everybody. Active listening involves attentively seeking to understand a speaker's message, rather than passively hearing the words that a speaker says. You will need a volunteer for this exercise. Describe some contexts where facial expressions play a particularly important role in communication? Psychological safety, trust, and learning in organizations: A group-level lens. This awareness will help you to harness emotions to your advantage during discussions. What happened? Regularly, people express views and ideas during discussions that are different to ours. Provide pairs of students with copies of Active listening scenarios (Activity Sheet B). Doctors described how important it was to see whether patients wanted to participate in choosing their treatment. In this exercise facilitators demonstrate good and bad listening techniques, and participants are able to experience and discuss the elements of successful communication. The doctors studied also checked with their patients what their beliefs were about what was wrong. I am a firm believer in the power of soft skills, especially listening and communication. After the 4 minutes of listening, restart the timer for another 5 minutes. We all need air to breathe and water to stay alive. This exercise is about listening, clarity and developing potential strategies when we communicate. - The ability to deliver information effectively. If your mind was an island, what would it look like? The world will be a better place once weve mastered them. Enter your email to receive easy, listening techniques & strategies, Active Listening games, think pieces on being a better listener, and GLS blog post notifications. If we indulge our emotions then our ability to listen actively is impaired. They determined their perspectives before decision-making; in other settings, this is inviting participation and engagement. Bakker, A. Only speak in order to ask genuine questions. Is your colleague overwhelmed, perhaps? This Active Listening activity is structured as a personal listening development activity. How has your life changed because of them? Role-play. Whiteboard, blackboard or butchers paper Did others help them? Woolley, A. W., Chabris, C. F., Pentland, A., Hashmi, N., & Malone, T. W. (2010). And in each pair, of course, team members will take turns being listener and talker. But they must not say how they feel. A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). They are responsible for passing the information on to the rest of their team. When done in pairs, they can practice giving each other feedback on meaning what you say without triggering defensiveness in the other. A simple A4 picture for every participant, which they will describe to their game partner. Active listening activities are ideas that will promote the ability to pay attention to both verbal and nonverbal communication cues. Briefly reflect on what did and didnt work. Can you help? Tell me more., Emotion - Knot in your stomach. 4. With 2+ co-workers, pick one person (a speaker) to whom youll explain the instructions. Subscribe to the newsletter for new resources every month. What other thoughts and insights do you have about this technique? [3]. Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. Imagine that time freezes for everyone but you for one day. Communication is a whole lot more than just talkingalthough, that is a fundamental part of relationship-building and knowledge-transfer. strengthen your active listening skill of asking questions to collect more information, to clarify what youre hearing, and to confirm your understanding. How might you create some listening and feedback approaches based on this? Name things that you noticed they did well. In these pairs, they will take turns being a mime and being an asker. 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. In what ways might your drawing have turned out differently if you could have communicated with your partner? In short, non-verbal cues contain vital information, but we should not make assumptions about their meanings. 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. Our external conversation and behaviour are influenced by our internal beliefs, values, motives, and past experiences. Dont use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your convictions. Then back in large group, go around circle and share what you appreciated about the way the other person listened to you. Sometimes mentioned along with reflective questioning, it involves, restating a paraphrased version of the speakers message, asking questions when appropriate, and maintaining moderate to high nonverbal conversational involvement (Weger Jr et al., 2014: 13). As well as identifying key communication deficits and their root causes, these included several that relate to our knowledge of positive psychology and communication. 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. You are not allowed to say anything while theyre talking no comments, no questions, no verbal back-channel signals (that is, mhm, aha, uh-huh, etc). Compared to profits, losses, and even risk, it is intangible. Active listening is not planning your response to what the person is saying. 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? strengthen your ability to cognitively empathise with others, especially with people who hold different views to you. Role Play Activities and Tips for Trainers WorkSMART: Tips for a happier, more engaged workplace Call Us: 800-299-3770Fax: 508-651-2674 Home Recent Posts Shop About Get in Touch We want Learning and Work to be Innovative, Some of the skills identified by the authors, as we can see, describe more than one capability. Active listening. Its okay if participants choose the same cue. Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings, they should be given adequate time for that. Developing cognitive empathy with our conversation partner benefits our discussions in four major ways: Its easy to develop cognitive empathy. Nikolova, N., Clegg, S., Fox, S., Bjrkeng, K., & Pitsis, T. (2013). listening and not solving the issue or problem. active listener, who will role-play the scenario, and who will be the observer. Used with permission from Time To Grow Global. Dont interrupt or try to share your beliefs. When we give attention to our relationships as well as the task(s) at hand, we create trust and collaborate more effectively. Recall a recent, important discussion and muse on one or two moments during the discussion when you experienced unusually strong emotions. Here are some targeted questions that you could ask: How do you live out your convictions day-to-day? Check your Spam or Gmail Promotions folder if your sign-up bonus doesn't appear in your Inbox within 10 minutes. Possible imagined response: How does your idea solve our situation? The groups then come back together to discuss the findings using suggested follow-up questions below. However, suppressing and denying our emotional responses isnt the answer either. They are designed for adults (not children) and suitable for both personal listening development and workplace training workshops. Essentially, the message will change as the object gets passed along, and players will need to stay sharp to remember who they are passing and talking to. 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. What were some of the differences? In medical professions, its particularly critical not just to extract and interpret informationoften, from conversation partners who lack crucial information themselvesbut to convey it empathetically and with clarity. If you could call up anyone in the world and have a one hour conversation, who would you call? It only takes three iterations to uncover some very personal beliefs. Invite students to role play the scenarios. Exercises that boost our active listening skills help us engage better, through empathy, body language, and non-judgment where required (Rogers & Farson, 1957). It doesnt take very long, either, and can be played in as little as ten to twenty minutesperfect for breaking up the day. The job demands-resources model: State of the art. https://positivepsychology.com/communication-activities-adults-students/.