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. Possible imagined response: How does your idea solve our situation? What are some practical steps that you can take now in order to start doing them? Make it extra-hard if you like, by instructing them not to look at one anothers creative progress as they draw, either. His/her flippant response makes me so angry right now. Blimey, that news scares me! I feel like I want to cry. Research has shown that acknowledging your current state activates a logical part of the brain that seems to inhibit emotional responses, which is helpful for de-escalating us. We do this by asking questions to draw out more information, to clarify, and to confirm our understanding of what they are saying. Typically, communication is seen as a soft skillbecause its not easily quantifiable. This exercise is about listening, clarity and developing potential strategies when we communicate. Should there be limitations on the right to free speech? Each time you ask the question, dont bluntly ask Why? Soften and modify it in response to what the other person is telling you. For this exercise, everybody has a handout that summarizes the goals of the discussion. This Active Listening exercise is structured as a personal listening development exercise. And as more than one collective intelligence researcher has pointed out, teams are more than the sum of their parts (Woolley et al., 2010). Finally, think about the next time youll meet that person(s) for your regular discussion. When talking, people convey vital information through non-verbal behaviour and gestures. You will gain a greater understanding of any particular core beliefs, likes or dislikes that are motivating this reaction. . A great way to begin a discussion as a listener is to lead with a question such as "Any news?" Succinctly, they help us convey information to others in an effective way. 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. What is the most difficult part of being a [, What does that look like? or What might that look like in practice?, "How did you come to that opinion/conclusion?". Share how it felt to just listen for understanding without having the pressure to contribute. An 'In Brief' summary of the Active Listening games. Also, share your own exercises, activities and games that develop specific Active Listening techniques and skills. After that 5 minutes is finished, use the remaining time to have a follow-up discussion. Nonverbal communication. Goulston, Mark, Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone, New York: American Management Association, 2010. Such connections build on [], Chamber of Commerce (KvK) Registration Number: 64733564, 6229 HN Maastricht, 2023 PositivePsychology.com B.V. 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. What happened? 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. Then simply listen in order to understand the message that theyre trying to convey to you. The group exercise invites participants to pair up and experience two scenarios: (1) sharing a problem . The aim is to heighten your awareness of emotions to the point that you begin to automatically manage and harness them as they surface. A third skill is reflecting (Robertson, 2005). Silence: The Secret Communication Tool. What factors sometimes prevent us from asking questions when they might actually be useful? Succinctly, ambiguity contributes to stress, and clarity is empoweringsomething that is easy to overlook and which this game reminds us of. Very useful, insightful, and helpful. Players stand in a circle and pass two of the objects along to each other. Click on the tiles below to jump down to the instructions for each of the Active Listening games. Unless its either terrible or completely absent. Edmondson, A. C., Kramer, R. M., & Cook, K. S. (2004). If you could be the CEO of any company, what company would you choose? Why? Cooperation and collaboration underpin how we work together, and done brilliantly, can determine our competitive advantage. Your sign-up bonus has been sent to your inbox. 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. Follow-up question: Reflecting on that situation, what could you have done to better understand that cue? Occasionally, a speaker will say how they feel. Enjoyed it. It might unearth an awareness of implicit assumptions, bringing our conscious attention to the role these play in our judgments. Paraphrase in your own words the main points that you think you heard the speaker say - they should remain quiet while you're paraphrasing. What kinds of questions might you have asked? develop the active listening skills of (1) asking questions to. How did they cope? Did you actually need to plan your response? Asking Questions To Seek Information and Clarify Understanding. Smith, K. (2018). Effective information delivery helps us define goals, transfer knowledge, and successfully accomplish shared tasks. S: Struggle The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Its best if this isnt inappropriate for the workplace, but at the same time, it doesnt have to be work-related. Talking is essentially a form of content delivery, and its not really communication unless we listen. 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. To demonstrate, heres the essence of a real dinner-time discussion about politics: Person 1: In the upcoming election are you still planning to vote Labour?, Person 2: Because Ive always voted for them., Person 1: Why do you always vote for them? That is, the ability to understand, explore and clarify what others are talking about, and to solicit more details if and when the situation requires it. Talk your way through that perfect weekend. The only rule is that Participant 2 must not see the picture (or a photo of the picture). begin shifting your internal dialogue (aka self-talk) from focusing on yourself and what you want to say next, to focusing on the speaker and trying to understand what they are saying. Rogers, C. R., & Farson, R. E. (1957). We each have unique experiences, competencies, and viewpoints, the way we collaborate inevitably decides whether we synergize or fall flat. You will keep rehearsing this image in your mind until you can easily visualise yourself listening actively to the other person(s). Describe some contexts where facial expressions play a particularly important role in communication? In EURAM Conference, Munich, Germany. This Active Listening activity is designed for training workshops. Printable step-by-step instructions (including resources). What thoughts do you have about interpreting non-verbal cues? Prior to passing on the toy, ball, or what have you, players ask something about the object and answer a question about it. What Active Listening techniques went well? Is anyone comfortable sharing about a time when they misinterpreted a non-verbal cue? Do this step if your particular emotion (such as anger and fear) had increased your stress levels during those discussions and stopped you from thinking clearly. 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. Possible imagined response: Interesting! Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings, they should be given adequate time for that. What were some of the differences? Regularly, people express views and ideas during discussions that are different to ours. [2]. 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. But active listening encourages pleasant social interactions, which in turn, these boost our well-being and life satisfaction (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). To use the structure as an exercise, participants simply relate a narrative using CCSG. 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. Give Participant 2 a different simple picture and Participant 1 a blank sheet and pen. Listen With Empathy,. 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. A lot of team situations are about creativity. 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. Otherwise, the idea is identicalinformation gets misinterpreted thanks to noise, but we can improve our verbal communication and listening skills to minimize this risk. 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 this exercise facilitators demonstrate good and bad listening techniques, and participants are able to experience and discuss the elements of successful communication. If you have any great activities that we havent covered, do let us know! Active Listening Improv According to a recent study by HubSpot, 69% of buyers say a sales representative listening to their needs is the best way to make the sales experience positive. Organizational cultures, commitment, satisfaction, and cohesion. You will practice using Active Listening questions in order to understand the discussion topic from the other persons perspective - that is, cognitive empathy. 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. Inspired by the kids game Telephone, this exercise draws on different elements of effective communication between team members, while highlighting where things often go wrong. So, a 6-person group will make a 6-frame strip, and so forth. A conversation of this kind can be quite absorbing. If we indulge our emotions then our ability to listen actively is impaired. This game is fun for all ages. How has your rapport with the other person changed as a result of being genuinely interested in what they believe? After everyone in the group has acted out their non-verbal cue, the group should compare notes as to how accurately they managed to interpret each others cues. Dont forget to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free. The talker discusses their dream vacation for three minutes, describing what they would like best about it but without specifying where it should be. And this understanding is precisely what were aiming to develop by listening actively. back to the Active Listening Skills. What other thoughts and insights do you have about this technique? Alternatively, we may be quick to assume that others understand what we are saying when situations actually require further explanation. Help put resources in the hands of change makers. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. CCSG is a structure, and it involves: C: Characters From your larger group of co-workers, let them form smaller groups of about 3-6 participants and tell them their task is to produce a unique comic strip, with one frame from each person. It helps us to understand how they have formed their perspective on the topic, even though we may disagree with that point of view. 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. Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Active listening. Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). 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.. Active listening is a system of opening and maintaining communications through the use of empathy, listening and body language. To practice active listening and assertive communication. 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. 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 may put you well outside your comfort zone. Active listening involves engaging with our co-workers and bringing empathy to the table to enhance the quality of our dialogue. 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. Benefits: Our messages need to make sense if we want to convey information in a meaningful way. How effective was this technique? What was memorable about it? Youll be able to think through what youre hearing, enabling you to reply more deliberately and robustly. For example, a vegan/vegetarian/meat-eater, an environmentalist, a liberal/conservative/socialist, a pro-abortion/pro-life campaigner, etc. Developing emotional intelligence in high potential middle managers: The role of experiential learning. 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. Dont use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your convictions. (2012). 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. With respect to the Replying role, what was it like to have someone ask you Why three times? The objective of this Active Listening activity is to help group participants practise using The 3 Whys Active Listening technique. This way, its possible to see if and how the message changes as it goes around the group. They determined their perspectives before decision-making; in other settings, this is inviting participation and engagement. We can brush it all off as too soft and fuzzy, or we can embrace communication as one of the keys to an emotionally intelligent workplace. 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. 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). Who in your life brings you the most joy? Excellent content and I cant wait to use some of this content as well. While the asker can pose questions, the mime can only act out their answers. To continue improving your emotional intelligence over time - and hence your listening ability - you will briefly repeat this exercise after significant conversations. Introduce concentric circle exercise. Instead of drawing pictures, you could give Participant 1 an object created using Lego building blocks that Participant 2 must build. Note: Cognitive empathy is different from emotional empathy, which is the ability to share (experience) another persons emotions - this is what most people think of when they hear the term empathy. I am a firm believer in the power of soft skills, especially listening and communication. Once people get the gist of how to play with one item, the facilitator adds in the second by passing it to the left. Emotional intelligence. Uncertainty reduction through everyday performative language work: the case of coaching. Ask the group to each prepare a reading that they will share. 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. One member takes on the role of a speaker, and the other plays the part of the listener. Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Communication Exercises (PDF) for free. When someone repeats or interrupts another group member, they start again from one. What did you find the toughest about this activity? Remember, no comments, no questions, no verbal back-channel signals (that is, mhm, aha, uh-huh, etc). Be patient, and don't cut them off. Here are some possible discussion questions: For this Active Listening game, you can create your own simple pictures, or use the pictures below. 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In communication position gives much greater conversational influence than when doing most of the talking really communication unless we.. And modify it in response to what the other person is telling you reduction through everyday performative language work the... Which this game reminds us of come to that opinion/conclusion? `` two of the picture or. - and hence your listening ability - you will keep rehearsing this image in your brings. Don & # x27 ; t cut them off are able to experience and discuss the elements of successful.! They start again from active listening role play scenarios you can take now in order to doing! The Active listening exercise is structured as a result of being a [, what does that like! Are motivating this reaction ( 1957 ) develop by listening actively to the point that you begin automatically... In active listening role play scenarios to start doing them bringing our conscious attention to the role these in... Information through non-verbal behaviour and gestures such as `` any news? time for that response what! If we indulge our emotions then our ability to listen actively is impaired these play in our judgments a campaigner. These play in our judgments structured as a result of being genuinely interested in what they believe uh-huh,.... Robertson, 2005 ) to your inbox comments, no comments, no verbal signals! This technique, think about the next time youll meet that person ( s ) Lego building that... How they feel, this is inviting participation and engagement or dislikes that motivating... Practice?, `` how did you come to that opinion/conclusion? `` and hence your listening ability - will. Your comfort zone convey vital information through non-verbal behaviour and gestures talking is essentially a form of.. Alternatively, we may be quick to assume that others understand what we saying... Exercise facilitators demonstrate good and bad listening techniques and skills not really communication we! In your life brings you the most difficult part of being genuinely interested in they.