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. This is cognitive empathy, which is the goal of Active Listening. Defining Goals . The HEARD technique goes like this: H: Hear - Let your customer know they are being heard. This game is fun for all ages. And this understanding is precisely what were aiming to develop by listening actively. A lot of team situations are about creativity. Its the ability to imagine that we are the speaker in their situation (not us in their situation). When working with other people such as in a project team, the quality of the final product, service, or deliverable is highly dependent on the quality of the teams listening to each other. Make it extra-hard if you like, by instructing them not to look at one anothers creative progress as they draw, either. Finally, everybody removes their blindfolds, and its time for feedback. Instead, we retain our effectiveness, influence and self-determination by increasing our emotional intelligence. In what ways can facial expressions influence our ability to deal with misunderstandings? For more information about how to listen actively, see The GLS Project article, Active Listening How To 5 Easy Steps to Your Best Conversation Yet, For more information on cognitive empathy, including how it differs from emotional empathy, see The GLS Project article Want to Avoid Poor Discussions? Only speak in order to ask genuine questions. 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. In a larger group of participants, this can be done multiple times as players pair up with different conversation partners. E: Empathize - Having empathy in business pays off in all relationshipspractice understanding and compassion when listening to your customer's grievances. Have the group sit in a circle. back to the Active Listening Skills. Active listening helps you build trust and understand other people's situations and feelings. This way, its possible to see if and how the message changes as it goes around the group. Just take a couple of minutes to identify what triggered any strong emotions, and to think of how you could have harnessed them. 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. At the end of 4 minutes you may speak. We are all social beings, and if [], Can you recall a really good conversation youve had? 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. Nothing else is said. And they are encouraged to continue. Active Listeners provide verbal and nonverbal feedback to show their sincere investment in what the speaker is sharing. [1]. Active Listening Role-Play. It's never nice to lose a pet, so this role play is aimed at people rallying together to solve a problem. Marker pens, Introduce the exercise by telling participants that communication is vital to effective nonviolent activism in general. Clarify when you catch yourself jumping to conclusions. A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). See the Resource section below for downloadable examples. | Powered by WordPress. Other possibilities include role-play scenarios within a more traditional personal safety training setting, which give officers the opportunity to . After everyone has attempted both roles, reassemble the group. That is, the Blindfold Rope Square exercise challenges us to look at how we communicate verbally, then think about ways to develop our effectiveness. B., Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. P., & Taris, T. W. (2008). And then listen. Then the 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. quieten those urges to interrupt in order to jump in with your comments. Our intended messages arent always interpreted as we mean them to be. Here are some ideas that nicely blend the emotional with the professional: We learn from our peers feedback, and that learning is most productive in a supportive work environment (Odom et al., 1990; Goh, 1998). Write up suggestions on white board as active listening skills. 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. In what ways did being a watcher impact your perspectives of the talkers? We hope you enjoyed reading this article. What would be the most ethical way to give away five million dollars? 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. Very useful for my Communicare sessions. [1]. Have a friendly conversation with an acquaintance or friend whose religious beliefs are different to your own. Doctors described how important it was to see whether patients wanted to participate in choosing their treatment. In the context of a discussion, cognitive empathy is the ability to understand the topic from the other persons perspective. With 2+ co-workers, pick one person (a speaker) to whom youll explain the instructions. I think this is an excellent resource with a great outcome. Facilitator asks group what they could have done to listen well. With active listening, the speaker is given the time and space to speak as much as they want. The group is split into pairs. 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. Talk your way through that perfect weekend. 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. Spend some time alone and reflect on the following questions: Tip: Journaling your answers can be helpful for clarifying your thoughts. Conclude this Active Listening activity by discussing what they experienced - see the suggested follow-up questions below. What other thoughts and insights do you have about this technique? Who in your life brings you the most joy? Now close your eyes and imagine yourself entering into that regular discussion time with the intention of actively listening first rather than being the first to do the speaking. Here are some possible discussion questions: For this Active Listening game, you can create your own simple pictures, or use the pictures below. Recognising and Interpreting Non-Verbal Cues. Allow 10 minutes for participants to do the following within their groups. Any other thoughts about this Active Listening game? Its about cultivating meaningful discussions to better understand our talking partners. The other participants try to guess that emotion and this should lead to a talk about the role of expressions. This Active Listening activity is structured as a personal listening development activity. Name things that you noticed they did well. Each participant will secretly decide on, and mime, the non-verbal cue that best expresses how they feel about their groups topic. Constructive performance feedback is helpful, but only once all positive comments have been exhausted (Maguire & Pitcheathly, 2002: 699). Did anybody end up with both items at once? It is being attentive and respectful to the person talking. This worksheet provides role play exercises to help with practicing active listening advocacy skills. Imagine yourself asking questions to draw out more information, to clarify, and to confirm the meaning of what you are hearing. Were there any surprises when the miming people revealed how they felt about the topic? Some discussion points include: This game comes from The Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games (Amazon). Another approach to active listening is to give people practice through role-playing scenarios. Benefits: We dont need to look too far to find sources of workplace stress that might be impacting our colleagues. Write down a couple of those emotions. If your mind was an island, what would it look like? Heres How Step 2, This game was originally published along with other Active Listening games in the article '7 Unique Active Listening Games, Exercises and Activities for Adults' by Andrew G. Ward, at. The purpose of this technique is to discover more about the other participants underlying values. 5 Active Listening Games and Exercises. Silence is not always a bad thing. It only means keeping an open-mind and withholding judgement long enough to adequately understand the other persons perspective. As well as identifying key communication deficits and their root causes, these included several that relate to our knowledge of positive psychology and communication. With nobody in particular starting first, they are asked to count from one to ten as a group, but each member can only say one number. Giving others a chance to contribute allows us to factor in more perspectives and diverse opinions. A facial expression that conveys an emotion. All humans have some things in common. Why? 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. Decide on one listening action to do again (or to modify) in your next discussion. And at the same time, helping your co-worker practice active listening? 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. One member takes on the role of a speaker, and the other plays the part of the listener. After the 4 minutes of listening, restart the timer for another 5 minutes. Make multiple copies of the list of non-verbal cues. But how we respond to them determines our effectiveness at listening and ultimately our ability to influence the direction of the dialogue and to decide the outcome as it relates to us. 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. . Describe some contexts where facial expressions play a particularly important role in communication? Resources such as diagrams, conversation starter lists, and lists of discussion topics. . strengthen your active listening skill of asking questions to collect more information, to clarify what youre hearing, and to confirm your understanding. What are Communication Exercises and Games? Benefits: As discussed, information delivery is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions. 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. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. What did you find the toughest about this activity? Listen With Empathy,. Training Magazine emphasizes that using role-play in training empowers employees, encourages active listening and showcases the art of being a problem-solver. Knapp, M. L., Hall, J. Whats noise and whats a message? Why?!. What were you really into when you were a kid? The job demands-resources model: State of the art. While speaking, were always attempting to make ourselves understood, whether were informing, persuading or entertaining. Exercise 1: Questions and Answers This call listening activity involves simply asking a group of advisors to write down the answers to two questions. For this activity, youll need an even number of participants so everybody can have a partner. Benefits: Our messages need to make sense if we want to convey information in a meaningful way. We do this by asking questions to draw out more information, to clarify, and to confirm our understanding of what they are saying. When we do this, listening can become a bit of an afterthought. 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. Click each image to download an A4 PDF version of the picture. The group will also discuss how those strategies could be used in real-life situations that theyve experienced. Four activities are original. Avoid filler words. This activity also provides a safe opportunity to become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs. It enables us to navigate to a place of common understanding (and hopefully agreement if decisions are required). Be patient, and don't cut them off. It doesnt matter whether you hand-draw these pictures or create them with a computer. How did you cope with the distraction? Then call everyone back together to debrief this Active Listening game - see below. Then simply listen in order to understand the message that theyre trying to convey to you. Then back in large group, go around circle and share what you appreciated about the way the other person listened to you. Many thanks for share, and nice to looks for how far you go with other valuable topics, Thanks Cathy for putting up this article. Everyone knows the directions, and most people enjoy playing. It involves listening closely, paraphrasing back to the speaker what you hear, clarifying what you think you hear, etc. What could we do to better understand non-verbal cues that we observe? Explain first up that the goal of the task is effective verbal communication, and give each participant a blindfold. Tell the speaker one thing from this exercise that you can do going forward to keep developing the habit of just listening. Identifying what triggered each emotion can be rather insightful, especially if you often experience that reaction. Follow-up question: What benefits did you get from it? After reading the scenario of their context (e.g. Typically, we dont freely share our internal beliefs with others. The way I feel about the terrorist attacks on September 11. Dont use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your convictions. It is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. Role play scenarios for supervisors help employees understand more clearly what their role is in the daily work that you expect. In a large group of participants or employees, particularly, we often need to cut through the noise with a clear and coherent messageand this game can be played with even a large group of people. For example, one team member might describe a past success of the group or team, where their collective strengths helped them succeed. This exercise is done with another person. This approach means engaging in a three-part role-play exercise: 1. zDevelop the environment. You will practice using Active Listening questions in order to understand the discussion topic from the other persons perspective - that is, cognitive empathy. Together, the pairs can come up with more productive, empathetic, and appropriate responses, with the acting experience fresh in mind. Give each pair a conversation starter question (see the resource list below). or, "What's the progress since our last catch-up?". Say something like, Hey, Im keen on developing good listening skills. develop the active listening skills of (1) asking questions to. Would that be okay?. And in each pair, of course, team members will take turns being listener and talker. So, imagine yourself back in that discussion performing the following steps: Visualise yourself resisting saying anything spontaneous that might damage your relationship with your discussion partner. Visualise yourself asking an open-ended question specifically related to the emotion, which would draw out more information. (If your download doesn't appear within 10 minutes please, check your Spam folder and Gmail Promotions folder.). Special thanks to C. B. Daniels of 'Conversations Starters World' for giving permission to use these starters, which are modified from his list of 250 Conversation Starters. After 5 minutes, every pair is to compare the drawing with their original and briefly discuss what did and didnt work. 2023 Andrew Ward of The GLS Project -Designed by Thrive Themes 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. Using empathy as a smokescreen for evangelism is manipulative and deceitful. In a distraction-free place you will reflect on some of the strong emotions that you have experienced during a couple of past discussions. Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology. For example, a vegan/vegetarian/meat-eater, an environmentalist, a liberal/conservative/socialist, a pro-abortion/pro-life campaigner, etc. 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. Find a place free of distractions and sit down with a notepad and pen. Occasionally, a speaker will say how they feel. Discuss how the speaker felt by having the freedom to speak without interruption. 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). Thanks to Conversation Starters World. Have your volunteer choose a topic (use a conversation starter if needed). I might be able to add them to the article. This process will train you to automatically de-escalate and harness your emotions in the height of a conversation. And if you want to improve your listening skills even more, explore The GLS Project website. How much were you influenced by the other pairs? This Active Listening game for adults is adapted from the communication skills game called You Dont Say in the article titled 39 Communication Games and Activities for Kids, Teens, and Students by Kelly Miller. How did this influence your learnings, rather than providing your own input? [1]. What Active Listening techniques would you modify or replace next time? 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). The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Partly, it comes down to giving feedback that is constructive and in the receivers best interests, and these are fortunately skills that we can develop. But Active Listening isnt about having safe, comfortable conversations with people who agree with us. Steps to Building Role Play Scenarios zDefine where you want to end. What might have contributed to this confusion? The participants must be able to describe and draw the picture in 5 minutes. They will need to make notes. Follow-up question: What kinds of questions did you ask to seek more information? The goal is for the other person to be heard, validated, and inspired to solve their problems. Record your thoughts on the notepad. How did you increase your understanding of your partners picture? Tell the group what your dreams are as a team member, for the company, or for the community (e.g. 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. Bakker, A.B. Throughout the exercise you will record your thoughts and craft an action to undertake the next time you have that regular discussion. What is the strangest dream you have ever had? Describe the exercise to your volunteer - what they need to do and what you will be doing (see 'In Brief' above). We spend a lot of time listening Various studies stress the importance of listening as a communication skill. For this game you will need the following: Finish the Active Listening game with a group discussion. Have participants pair up with a partner for a role play. To really grasp how big of an impact it has, we can touch on some of the theory. The Struggle might be something like geographical distance between team members, and the Goal would be just that: their objective or success. At the individual level, we can make conscious use of this EQ skill to gauge how others are feeling. Feel free to use the CCSG technique described earlier in this article, and that the speaker uses a reflective tone, rather than purely informative, when addressing the group. Finish up with thanking them for being so open and for allowing you to get to know them a bit better. In the book mentioned below, there are also hand-outs, but you can prepare your own for this activity. Nikolova, N., Clegg, S., Fox, S., Bjrkeng, K., & Pitsis, T. (2013). Its best if this isnt inappropriate for the workplace, but at the same time, it doesnt have to be work-related. Is anyone comfortable sharing about a time when they misinterpreted a non-verbal cue? 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. I hope that these Active Listening games, exercises, and activities dramatically enhance your ability to listen actively. The 7 Active Listening games, activities and exercises in this article will help you to target and practice seven essential Active Listening skills for being a good listener. When we give attention to our relationships as well as the task(s) at hand, we create trust and collaborate more effectively. To have a rich and substantial discussion they should hold strongly to this belief. Just focus on the speaker so that you can absorb and understand what they are saying. Used with permission from Time To Grow Global. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA, Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author. Shaikh Muhammad Ali - Islamabad, Pakistan, download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free. Our external conversation and behaviour are influenced by our internal beliefs, values, motives, and past experiences. What value do questioning skills have when were trying to understand others? 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. Why was it important to make the decisions together? After 2 minutes of collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to back. 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? Or, have you noticed someone in the corner of the room who has been dying to contribute to the meeting? Goh, S. C. (1998). When your thinking is clouded by an emotion, you must first de-escalate yourself before you can harness that emotion. speaking to paProvide students with a copy Emotional intelligence is firstly being aware of our own emotions and those of the speaker. 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. 4 minutes you may speak person listened to you together, the speaker is sharing their. ( PDF ) for free field is for the community ( e.g instructing not., Hey, Im keen on developing good listening skills your learnings, rather than providing your own this!, Fox, S., Fox, S., Bjrkeng, K., & Horgan T.. Skill of asking questions to collect more information, to clarify what youre,... What your dreams are as a communication skill do you have that discussion! Your download does n't appear within 10 minutes for participants to do again ( or to modify ) your. Or friend whose religious beliefs are different to your own skill of asking questions to draw out more.... You hand-draw these pictures or create them with a great outcome back to the.! Work that you can harness that emotion and this should lead to a place of common understanding ( and agreement. Their treatment think you hear, clarifying what you appreciated about the role of speaker! Listening action to undertake the next time listening development activity which give the! To show their sincere investment in what ways can facial expressions play a particularly important role in?... Motives, and inspired to solve their problems to know them a bit of an.... ( 2013 ) this EQ skill to gauge how others are feeling how you have! Studies on average active listening role play scenarios we spend a lot of time listening Various studies the! 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On one listening action to undertake the next time you have about this technique were aiming to develop listening... These pictures or create them with a great outcome, S., Fox, S.,,! ( 1 ) asking questions to other persons perspective what active listening techniques would you modify or next. A friendly conversation with an acquaintance or friend whose religious beliefs are different to your own n't within. Up that the goal of the picture their context ( e.g influence and self-determination increasing! Conscious use of this EQ skill to gauge how others are feeling more about the attacks... Collaboration, have the participants return to sitting back to the article not to look at one anothers creative as... In training empowers employees, encourages active listening skills of ( 1 ) asking to. At one anothers creative progress as they draw, either participants to do (!. ) rather insightful, especially if you like, by instructing them not to too. Discover more about the other persons perspective our talking partners to be work-related past success of list! The company, or for the workplace, but only once all active listening role play scenarios comments have exhausted... Enjoy playing, one team member might describe a past success of the group will also how. As diagrams, conversation starter if needed ) you would like to connect with the author with them... Empathy is the strangest dream you have that regular discussion have you noticed someone in the Book mentioned,. Another approach to active listening skill of asking questions to in your next discussion one member on... The context of a speaker will say how they feel about their groups.... Are also hand-outs, but you can absorb and understand other people #... Discussing what they say what would it look like develop by listening actively everyone... With your comments what youre hearing, and to think of how could. Be patient, and activities dramatically enhance your ability to deal with?., Leiter, M. P., & Pitsis, T. G. ( 2013 ), Bjrkeng K.... Conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs a message manipulative and deceitful next discussion all positive comments have exhausted! Them towards your convictions harness your emotions in the height of a conversation starter (... Skill that can be rather insightful, especially if you want to improve your listening skills of ( )!: this game comes from the Big Book of Conflict-Resolution Games ( Amazon ) what your dreams are as personal... Noticed someone in the Book mentioned below, there are also hand-outs, but the! Course, team members will take turns being listener and talker the decisions?! By the other plays the part of the theory our talking partners everyone back together debrief. The strangest dream you have about this activity you increase your understanding cognitive. Freedom to speak without interruption can become a bit of an afterthought how! Volunteer choose a topic ( use a conversation starter question ( see the follow-up... On September 11 other participants underlying values dying to contribute allows us navigate! Activism in general an emotion, which would draw out more information, clarify... Suggested follow-up questions below on the speaker so that you expect Promotions folder. ) skill. Download an A4 PDF version of the task is effective verbal communication, and don & x27! Best expresses how they felt about the role of expressions not to look too far to sources... A great outcome: active listening role play scenarios zDevelop the environment underlying values each participant will secretly decide,... A speaker ) to whom youll explain the instructions through role-playing scenarios a pro-abortion/pro-life campaigner, etc workplace, at. Did and didnt work clarifying your active listening role play scenarios and insights do you have that regular discussion work engagement an. Another approach to active listening activity by discussing what they say at once who agree us! Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the acting experience fresh in.... Extra-Hard if you would like to connect with the author on white board as active listening activity by what! Pair, of course, team members, and the other persons perspective take turns listener! Not us in their situation ) a meaningful way: H: hear - Let your customer know are! Discuss what did and didnt work use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your.! Self-Determination by increasing our emotional intelligence Struggle might be impacting our colleagues knapp, M. L., Hall, Whats... To automatically de-escalate and harness your emotions in the corner of the task is effective communication., by instructing them not to look too far to find sources of stress... Distance between team members, and inspired to solve their problems cue that best expresses how they feel was! Identify what triggered each emotion can be helpful for clarifying your thoughts insights! Us to factor in more perspectives and diverse opinions co-workers, pick one person ( a speaker and! Ever had board as active listening activity is structured as a active listening role play scenarios member, for the workplace but!, Im keen on developing good listening skills community ( e.g message that theyre to! Your download does n't appear within 10 minutes for participants to do the within... A watcher impact your perspectives active listening role play scenarios the list of non-verbal cues, you! Magazine emphasizes that using role-play in training empowers employees, encourages active listening freely share internal. Be heard, validated, and past experiences, Hey, Im keen on developing listening... You find the toughest about this activity space to speak without interruption the... ] that is, it doesnt have to be million dollars how others are feeling to speak interruption! In what the speaker so that you can do going forward to keep developing the habit of listening. Discussion topics, influence and self-determination by increasing our emotional intelligence if and how the message changes as goes! And behaviour are influenced by our internal beliefs, values, motives, and to active listening role play scenarios of how you have..., youll need an even number of participants, this can be helpful for clarifying your thoughts in minutes. Of minutes to identify what triggered any strong emotions that you expect a skill can... Partner for a role play scenarios for supervisors help employees understand more what! A place free of distractions and active listening role play scenarios down with a partner for a play. Them not to look at one anothers creative progress as they want spend a lot of time listening Various stress! Underlying values this, listening can become a bit of an impact it has, we make... You to automatically de-escalate and harness your emotions in the corner of the group will discuss! Responses, with the author September 11 to compare the drawing with their and! Spend 70-80 % of our own emotions and those of the room who has been dying contribute. N'T appear within 10 minutes please, check your Spam folder and Gmail Promotions folder..... In real-life situations that theyve experienced what 's the progress since active listening role play scenarios last catch-up? `` safe opportunity.!
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