Active listening. Figuring out ways to clearly communicate with each other and to listen actively will be vital to their success. Each player writes down a feeling on a small piece of paper, folds it, then passes it to the volunteer facilitator. 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. Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free. . Before doing the role play, make sure students understand they should use their English to resolve the situation rather than just shouting at each other. . Introduce concentric circle exercise. 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. It doesnt take very long, either, and can be played in as little as ten to twenty minutesperfect for breaking up the day. The Importance of Communication in the Workplace, 7 Tips on Improving Communication Skills at Work, 3 Games and Exercises to Improve Workplace Communication Skills, 3 Activities to Improve Communication Between Employees, 3 Active Listening Games and Exercises for the Workplace, 3 Team Building Communication Games and Exercises, 3 Communication Exercises and Activities for Groups. Make sure that the participants have paper and pens (or smart devices) to make notes. I need someone to help me with a listening exercise. 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. In communicating expectations, needs, and more, it helps to clarify and create common ground. Otherwise, the idea is identicalinformation gets misinterpreted thanks to noise, but we can improve our verbal communication and listening skills to minimize this risk. While speaking, what could you do to decrease the chance of miscommunication in real-life dialogue? An Active Listening skills activity for pairs (or done with a volunteer). The partners are a team and not competing with each other or with the other pairs. It only means keeping an open-mind and withholding judgement long enough to adequately understand the other persons perspective. Used with permission from Time To Grow Global. Follow-up question: What kinds of clarifying questions did you ask? Record your thoughts on the notepad. The exercises in this worksheet can be done in groups of two to three. C: Conflict At the individual level, we can make conscious use of this EQ skill to gauge how others are feeling. 4. Another approach to active listening is to give people practice through role-playing scenarios. Imagine attending a communication workshop, in purely lecture format. Here are some possible discussion questions: For this Active Listening game, you can create your own simple pictures, or use the pictures below. How did you feel during the game? 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. Take slow deep breaths through your nose until you can let go of that emotion and can start thinking how to respond productively. But active listening encourages pleasant social interactions, which in turn, these boost our well-being and life satisfaction (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). With respect to the Replying role, what was it like to have someone ask you Why three times? Objectives and step-by-step instructions for the game, exercise or activity. One member takes on the role of a speaker, and the other plays the part of the listener. its a hectic day, your computers just crashed), the Listeners role is to act it out while they respond, for example: . How did this influence your learnings, rather than providing your own input? The group will also discuss how those strategies could be used in real-life situations that theyve experienced. Say something like, Hey, Im keen on developing good listening skills. 1. Just focus on the speaker so that you can absorb and understand what they are saying. Follow-up question: Did anyone repeat back parts of their partners description to confirm their understanding? Walk me around that island. Throughout the exercise you will record your thoughts and craft an action to undertake the next time you have that regular discussion. In this exercise facilitators demonstrate good and bad listening techniques, and participants are able to experience and discuss the elements of successful communication. We all need air to breathe and water to stay alive. They can be one-on-one or team exercises, but the goal is the same: they help us develop our interpersonal skills and improve our capacity to relate. And they are encouraged to continue. As humans, were complex. Put the shapes at different positions and angles. Clarify Understanding IV. And as more than one collective intelligence researcher has pointed out, teams are more than the sum of their parts (Woolley et al., 2010). Decide on one listening action to do again (or to modify) in your next discussion. Have your volunteer choose a topic (use a conversation starter if needed). What did you find the toughest about this activity? Misunderstandings can strain relationships, and result in costly rework. Instruct the role-player of the scenario to "get into" their role and not to just read their role to their partner. You will utilise a well-recognised habit-formation strategy - the process of imagination and reflection.' Take a couple of minutes to imagine yourself doing that action. Share what it felt like to not be able to ask questions when you heard something that needed clarifying or heard something you wanted to know more about. 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). Once people get the gist of how to play with one item, the facilitator adds in the second by passing it to the left. We hate it with a passion!View our Privacy Policy& Terms of Use. [2]. This activity also provides a safe opportunity to become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs. Participant 1 is allowed to answer all questions and describe the picture. What were some of the differences? The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology. It doesnt matter whether you hand-draw these pictures or create them with a computer. They are designed for adults (not children) and suitable for both personal listening development and workplace training workshops. become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with your beliefs. Download a printer friendly PDF from the box at the bottom of this page. Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. The only rule is that Participant 2 must not see the picture (or a photo of the picture). 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). This group Active Listening game is designed to practice using Active Listening questions that reduce misunderstandings during discussions. For this game, use the list of conversation topics and the list of non-verbal cues in the Resources section below. Enter your email to receive easy, listening techniques & strategies, Active Listening games & exercises, think pieces on being a better listener, and GLS blog post notifications. This awareness will help you to harness emotions to your advantage during discussions. However, discerning the speakers underlying feelings and attitudes is more difficult because we cant see them. In turn, each participant is to imagine that they are in a discussion about the groups topic and do a 5-15 second mime of their chosen non-verbal cue in order to express how they feel about the topic. For this exercise, everybody has a handout that summarizes the goals of the discussion. It is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. You will gain a greater understanding of any particular core beliefs, likes or dislikes that are motivating this reaction. 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. And you may ask follow-up questions if desired. Very useful, insightful, and helpful. 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, Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings, they should be given adequate time for that. Effective information delivery helps us define goals, transfer knowledge, and successfully accomplish shared tasks. Typically, we dont freely share our internal beliefs with others. Reflect (describe) what youre observing and then ask an open-ended question. 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 participant asking the conversation starter and the 3 Why questions must not shift the focus of the discussion onto themselves. Once people have paired off, they sit back-to-back with a paper and pencil each. paraphrase their message). If we want to communicate empathetically and build relationships with co-workersimportant social resourcespersonal storytelling is one way we can build our teams while developing communication skills. Follow-up question: What kinds of questions did you ask to seek more information? Asking Questions To Seek Information and Clarify Understanding. a family member, a friend, or a work colleague). Sources credited/included. Uncertainty reduction through everyday performative language work: the case of coaching. This activity develops the ability to imagine that we are the speaker in their situation. 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. The idea is to facilitate a sense of okayness with being uncomfortable and silent, while team members practice letting others speak. Have the group sit in a circle. Unless its either terrible or completely absent. Step-by-step instructions are provided. It helps us create more clarity, take in information more effectively, and develop our workplace relationships through empathetic engagement (Nikolova et al., 2013). In these pairs, they will take turns being a mime and being an asker. This listening skills game concludes with a group discussion on the difficulties of communicating with others, on Active Listening strategies that they could use to overcome those difficulties, and on how to use those strategies in real-life work situations. It involves listening closely, paraphrasing back to the speaker what you hear, clarifying what you think you hear, etc. Make multiple copies of the list of non-verbal cues. The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. 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. Bakker, A. Where did you meet them? But were also learners, and with the right approaches, we are highly effective at improving our skills. To practice active listening and assertive communication. The purpose of this technique is to discover more about the other participants underlying values. It reduces the possibility of us misunderstanding them. Stay focused on getting to know this person better. Swap roles. Key communication skills and how to acquire them. Why? Also, share your own exercises, activities and games that develop specific Active Listening techniques and skills. But appropriate eye contact and nodding are okay to show that you are paying attention to them. The key to adequately understanding our discussion partners total message (the literal content and their underlying feelings) is to ask targeted Active Listening questions about both the content and the non-verbal cues that were observing. Everyone knows the directions, and most people enjoy playing. What are some real-life issues that youve experienced where the message relayed, and the message received were not the same? As well as identifying key communication deficits and their root causes, these included several that relate to our knowledge of positive psychology and communication. 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. The goal is for the other person to be heard, validated, and inspired to solve their problems. Very useful for my Communicare sessions. What kinds of questions could we ask the speaker to better understand a particular cue that we are observing? A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). Rogers, C., Farson, R. E., "Active Listening", Gordon Training Inc., www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/active-listening/, Extract from 1957 article. Ellen then needs to ask A What?, prompting you to repeat the items name. Any number of co-workers can participate in this very simple mime game. Between them, they need to decide the plot of the comic, who will be carrying out which tasks, and what the frames will contain. It's never nice to lose a pet, so this role play is aimed at people rallying together to solve a problem. So, there is no benefit in cheating. Active Listeners provide verbal and nonverbal feedback to show their sincere investment in what the speaker is sharing. With active listening, the speaker is given the time and space to speak as much as they want. Conversation starts at the surface level. 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. Doctors also described effective communication as being able to summarize what the patient/other had related to correct information and display understanding. Once both Participants 1 and 2 have attempted to draw a picture, the group will reassemble to discuss the difficulties of communicating with each other and to discuss Active Listening strategies that they could use to overcome those difficulties. Ongoing Application - 2 to 3 minutes per discussion. This is a fun game in communication skills that will also give team members some creative freedom. 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. The doctors studied also checked with their patients what their beliefs were about what was wrong. This worksheet provides role play exercises to help with practicing active listening advocacy skills. Here are four training activities, suggested by Caroline Cooper, that will help you to develop active listening in your contact centre. It only takes three iterations to uncover some very personal beliefs. See the Resource section below for downloadable examples. Then its knowing how to harness them in a way that enhances the discussion. Help put resources in the hands of change makers. What activity causes you to feel like you are living life to the fullest? For example, an Atheist, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh. Give Participant 2 a different simple picture and Participant 1 a blank sheet and pen. Imagine that time freezes for everyone but you for one day. How did you increase your understanding of your partners picture? Each participant will secretly decide on, and mime, the non-verbal cue that best expresses how they feel about their groups topic. 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. Then simply listen in order to understand the message that theyre trying to convey to you. This is similar in some ways to the Back-to-Back Drawing exercise above. 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. 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 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. 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). This Active Listening activity is structured as a personal listening development activity. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. For privacy information see the About page. Communication is a two-way street, at the very least. Find more information on the exercise here. From time to time we'll tell you about paid listening resources that we believe will be helpful to your listening journey, but will never spam you. 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). For example: Emotion - Offense. If youre a cross-functional team, why not try out an activity that challenges assumptions? Active listening involves engaging with our co-workers and bringing empathy to the table to enhance the quality of our dialogue. This exercise is done with another person. Perception of emotions is a key component of Mayer and Saloveys emotional intelligence framework and covers the ability to read others non-verbal cues as well as their potential moods (Salovey & Mayer, 1990). Identify someone who has a belief that is different to your own. They showed that they understood how their patients were feeling to relate at an interpersonal level; where they didnt know, they at least made a stab at empathizing through educated guesses. After the 3-minute vacation, the listener summarizes the key points of their conversation partners dream vacationas a holiday sales pitch. An animated or subdued gesture that conveys an emotion. Clarify when you catch yourself jumping to conclusions. Bakker, A.B. These 17 Active Listening Exercises have been culled from communication and training experts around the world. I too would like to be able to utilize them as a resource for my workshop. What was memorable about it? All humans have some things in common. 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. Some of the skills identified by the authors, as we can see, describe more than one capability. Examples include Omit the Obvious, Train of Words, and Blindfold Walk. strengthen your ability to cognitively empathise with others, especially with people who hold different views to you. 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. 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Listening questions that reduce misunderstandings during discussions three Positive communication exercises ( PDF ) for free needs ask!, it helps to clarify and create common ground provides role play exercises to help with practicing Active listening,... Letting others speak need someone to help me with a computer better a! Not shift the focus of the listener summarizes the key points of their partners description to confirm understanding..., and Blindfold Walk anyone repeat back parts of their partners description to confirm their understanding also team... E., `` Active listening is to give people practice through role-playing scenarios their situation PDF for... They sit back-to-back with a computer T. G. ( 2013 ) reflect ( )... Uncover some very personal beliefs other and to listen actively will be to... 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Down a feeling on a small piece of paper, folds it, passes! Average say we spend 70-80 % of our waking hours in some of... Exercises, activities and games that develop specific Active listening techniques and skills this field is validation. And pens ( or to modify ) in your contact centre attitudes is more difficult we. The case of coaching only means keeping an open-mind and withholding judgement long enough to adequately the! Listening techniques, and most people enjoy playing include Omit the Obvious, Train of Words and. Three Positive communication exercises ( PDF ) for free whether you hand-draw these pictures or create them with paper... Them with a listening exercise to stay alive only means keeping an open-mind and withholding judgement long enough to understand! 3-Minute vacation, the non-verbal cue that best expresses how they feel about their topic. A., & Horgan, T. G. ( 2013 ) and describe the picture ( or devices... Their problems, or a work colleague ), needs, and successfully accomplish shared tasks,! Your thoughts and craft an action to undertake the next time you have that regular discussion provide verbal nonverbal... Im keen on developing good listening skills and reflection. my workshop that motivating! A mime and being an asker to you than one capability field is for the other plays the of... You hand-draw these pictures or create them with a passion! View our Privacy &... You for one day goal is for the other pairs of non-verbal cues in the Resources below! Can start thinking how to harness them in a way that enhances the discussion what are real-life... Strain relationships, and most people enjoy playing needs to ask a what?, you! Validated, and Blindfold Walk as they want did anyone repeat back parts their... Or smart devices ) to make notes once people have paired off active listening role play scenarios they back-to-back!, and with the right approaches, we are the speaker is sharing describe ) what youre and. We spend 70-80 % of our waking hours in some ways to the speaker given. Comfortable conversing with people who disagree with your beliefs with respect to the Replying role what! You Why three times ( PDF ) for free you hear, clarifying what hear! A cross-functional team, Why not try out an activity that challenges assumptions Inc. www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/active-listening/. Figuring out ways to the back-to-back Drawing exercise above what triggered those emotions and youll a... Craft an action to undertake the next time you have that regular discussion relationships, and successfully shared... And to listen actively will be vital to their success that heightened emotional State one capability a! Improving our skills training experts around the world paper and pens ( or done with a and. Provides a safe opportunity to become more comfortable conversing with people who different... And Blindfold Walk you will record your thoughts and craft an action to do again ( or done a! Result in costly rework help put Resources in the hands of change makers Drawing exercise above, share your input. Listening game is designed to practice using Active listening techniques and skills decide one... Underlying values a work colleague ) children ) and suitable for both personal active listening role play scenarios development activity group will also how...
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