active listening role play scenarios

While listening, answer in your own mind, questions such as: What aspects of the speaker's message most interest them?, What is the main theme(s) of their message?, What are the key takeaways from the speakers message?. Whitney & Cooperrider, 2011); Tell them about your first job, or your very first working experience; If youve got a budget, give team members a small amount of money each to do something good with. Understanding the literal content of the persons message is fairly straightforward. 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? They are responsible for passing the information on to the rest of their team. Active listening helps you build trust and understand other people's situations and feelings. Different studies vary on exactly how much of our intended message (and credibility) is non-verbal, but its undoubtedly important (DePaulo & Friedman, 1998; Knapp et al., 2013). We hope you enjoyed reading this article. The group exercise invites participants to pair up and experience two scenarios: (1) sharing a problem . 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. If you could call up anyone in the world and have a one hour conversation, who would you call? To get started improving your (or your team's, or your student's) communication skills, give these 5 activities a try. [1], And as a bonus for subscribing, you get this Active Listening exercise 'Just Listen' as a PDF. Here are some possible discussion questions to ask: Here are some conversation topics that the participants will have a wide range of feelings and attitudes towards. What would you talk about? Who is the most successful person that you know personally? It works with any sized team and requires only a facilitator and some novel objects that can be passed between participants. How? Youll need more than 9 participants for this activity, as well as paper, drawing, and coloring materials for each colleague. That applies both to our language and the extent to which we empathize. First, pick a game with enough instructions that the information is a challenge to memorize. We spend a lot of time listening Various studies stress the importance of listening as a communication skill. Self-awareness is about recognizing one's own emotional tendencies and how they impact the customer. Otherwise, the idea is identicalinformation gets misinterpreted thanks to noise, but we can improve our verbal communication and listening skills to minimize this risk. Very useful for my Communicare sessions. To practice active listening and assertive communication. E: Empathize - Having empathy in business pays off in all relationshipspractice understanding and compassion when listening to your customer's grievances. In this exercise facilitators demonstrate good and bad listening techniques, and participants are able to experience and discuss the elements of successful communication. Benefits: As discussed, information delivery is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions. And if you want to improve your listening skills even more, explore The GLS Project website. 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. 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. When the words we speak convey one message and our body another, we risk confusion and potentially, we jeopardize our intended impact. This exercise from the team at MindTools is a good way to help participants develop more empathy, consider other perspectives, build their communication and negotiation skills. 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? It helps us create more clarity, take in information more effectively, and develop our workplace relationships through empathetic engagement (Nikolova et al., 2013). Share how it felt to just listen for understanding without having the pressure to contribute. back to the Active Listening Skills. 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. With a broad and beautiful rainbow of ways to communicate, then, how do we know whats considered a skill? Provide pairs of students with copies of Active listening scenarios (Activity Sheet B). Each time you ask the question, dont bluntly ask Why? Soften and modify it in response to what the other person is telling you. 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. 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!]. Who had the biggest impact on the person you have become? Possible imagined response: explore the situation. 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. Did others help them? Discuss the difficulties of communicating with each other and discuss Active Listening strategies that they could use to overcome those difficulties. Give each pair a conversation starter question (see the resource list below). Our intended messages arent always interpreted as we mean them to be. 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. 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. Tell the group what your dreams are as a team member, for the company, or for the community (e.g. 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. Defining Goals . For example, Gee! Describe a controversial opinion that you have. Communication, in its most basic form at least, is dyadica two-way, and (one would hope) mutually beneficial flow of information. Communication is a two-way street, at the very least. This is a solo Active Listening activity to help you listen more effectively by improving your emotional intelligence. Nonetheless, were often inclined to view it as awkwarda gap to be filled or avoidedrather than a chance to listen. Then, let them share the story behind the object. 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. 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, Its an area of your life that weve never talked about and Id love to get to know you a bit better. While they talk, the listener pays close attention to the explicit and underlying details, using only non-verbal cues to show that they are listening. Then, once you adequately understand them, you can switch into the role of speaker in order to share your perspective. Click on the tiles below to jump down to the instructions for each of the Active Listening games. But active listening encourages pleasant social interactions, which in turn, these boost our well-being and life satisfaction (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). 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. They outline how they could improve their dialogue with regard to active listening, then swap roles. Once theyve finished the game, start some dialogue about what happened: This activity comes from The Wrecking Yard of Games and Activities (Amazon). The studies on average say we spend 70-80% of our waking hours in some form of communication. Why?!. Find more information on the exercise here. Active listening activities are ideas that will promote the ability to pay attention to both verbal and nonverbal communication cues. What do you appreciate about them? Bad listening roleplay: Facilitators roleplay listening blocks and poor listening. Give Participant 2 a different simple picture and Participant 1 a blank sheet and pen. While speaking, were always attempting to make ourselves understood, whether were informing, persuading or entertaining. The exercises in this worksheet can be done in groups of two to three. Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike CC BY-NC-SA, Contact a Commons librarian if you would like to connect with the author. This worksheet provides role play exercises to help with practicing active listening advocacy skills. A facial expression that conveys a serious, light-hearted, or intense presence of mind. But appropriate eye contact and nodding are okay to show that you are paying attention to them. Write up suggestions on white board as active listening skills. If youre a cross-functional team, why not try out an activity that challenges assumptions? Recall a recent, important discussion and muse on one or two moments during the discussion when you experienced unusually strong emotions. Cooperation and collaboration underpin how we work together, and done brilliantly, can determine our competitive advantage. How much does language affect our thinking? Giving others a chance to contribute allows us to factor in more perspectives and diverse opinions. This is a companion resource meant for use after completing the Listen Up! Make sure that the participants have paper and pens (or smart devices) to make notes. It is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate good communication. 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. . It is being attentive and respectful to the person talking. emphasise that assumptions about the meaning of non-verbal cues will almost always be wrong to some extent. Clarify Understanding IV. Reference: Nonviolent Community Safety and Peacebuilding Trainers' Manual, page 18. What matters? quieten those urges to interrupt in order to jump in with your comments. What value do questioning skills have when were trying to understand others? 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. Dont use this conversation as an opportunity to argue them towards your convictions. Read out the following at a steady pace: You are the driver of the 147 bus route You started your shift at 6:30am this morning The purpose of this technique is to discover more about the other participants underlying values. What are some real-life issues that youve experienced where the message relayed, and the message received were not the same? What could we do to better understand non-verbal cues that we observe? A third skill is reflecting (Robertson, 2005). Thanks to Conversation Starters World. This is a solo Active Listening exercise. 1. If their original conversation starter is too personal, then allow them to choose a different one. However, this is an opportunity to learn more about our discussion partner and their differing perspective. 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. And lets make listening fashionable. Two circles of chairs are set up, one inside the other. Here are four training activities, suggested by Caroline Cooper, that will help you to develop active listening in your contact centre. promote collaboration. This activity also provides a safe opportunity to become more comfortable conversing with people who disagree with our beliefs. Finish this Active Listening exercise by discussing the following: Your volunteer can use one of these conversation starters if they can't think up their own topic. 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. Make multiple copies of the list of non-verbal cues. It's how they say it. For example, an Atheist, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh. It is a skill that can be acquired and developed with practice. Its a cognitive limitation of the way our brains are wired. A simple A4 picture for every participant, which they will describe to their game partner. Visualise yourself asking an open-ended question specifically related to the emotion, which would draw out more information. Make role-play activities more fun and effective for facilitators and players with this assortment of tips and exercises. Why might that be? How did you feel during the game? I too would like to be able to utilize them as a resource for my workshop. What would be the most ethical way to give away five million dollars? A facial expression that conveys an emotion. 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. Each participant will secretly decide on, and mime, the non-verbal cue that best expresses how they feel about their groups topic. To enhance our influencing skills and the quality of our working relationships with others, it helps to practice being aware of your own non-verbal behaviors. Discuss any other thoughts about this Active Listening exercise. And clarity plays a role on a larger scale when it comes to our roles more broadly, in fact, its a psychological resource under the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). 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. Finish up by discussing this Active Listening exercise with the speaker. You could give students a randomly selected scenario, such as one of the . The catch is that they all need to draw at the same time, so they will not be seeing the preceding frame in the strip. This may put you well outside your comfort zone. Would that be okay?. Three are my unique Active Listening adaptations of existing communication activities. To continue improving your emotional intelligence over time - and hence your listening ability - you will briefly repeat this exercise after significant conversations. Discuss anything else that impacted you both. Discuss. For this exercise, everybody has a handout that summarizes the goals of the discussion. You will keep rehearsing this image in your mind until you can easily visualise yourself listening actively to the other person(s). Succinctly, ambiguity contributes to stress, and clarity is empoweringsomething that is easy to overlook and which this game reminds us of. Active listening involves giving the other person time to explore their thoughts and feelings, they should be given adequate time for that. What draws you to that idea? This awareness will help you to harness emotions to your advantage during discussions. You will have a friendly conversation with an acquaintance or friend whose ideological beliefs are different to your own. into categories); Checked that patients understood them before moving on; and. C: Conflict Sometimes it gives us a chance to reflect, in others it creates a space for others to take the floor. Tomasulo, D. J., & Pawelski, J. O. What is the most recent success youve had? We can encourage more engagement, commitment, and complement one anothers different skills for better results. 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). What was constructive about your partners instructions? To use this technique, students act out skills after discussing them. 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. A., & Horgan, T. G. (2013). Throughout the exercise you will record your thoughts and craft an action to undertake the next time you have that regular discussion. Head over to, This exercise was originally published in the article '7 Unique Active Listening Games, Exercises and Activities for Adults' by Andrew G. Ward, at. Nikolova, N., Clegg, S., Fox, S., Bjrkeng, K., & Pitsis, T. (2013). Invite students to role play the scenarios. What Active Listening techniques went well? For privacy information see the About page. You will utilise a well-recognised habit-formation strategy - the process of imagination and reflection.' Role-play is particularly helpful for developing the skills needed (Nelson-Jones, 2014). Conversation starts at the surface level. These 17 Active Listening Exercises have been culled from communication and training experts around the world. For example: Emotion - Offense. The group then lists the listening stoppers they noticed. Find a place free of distractions and sit down with a notepad and pen. Tell me more., Emotion - Knot in your stomach. Heres How Step 2, Follow-up Questions Are The Secret To Meaningful Conversations Step 3, Active Listening How To 5 Easy Steps to Your Best Conversation Yet. What are some ways that we can distinguish between non-verbal cues that relate to the topic and unconscious mannerisms? When someone repeats or interrupts another group member, they start again from one. Follow-up question: Reflecting on that situation, what could you have done to better understand that cue? This can be a fun roleplay to really ham it up (make it exaggerated and humourous). The game is an Active Listening twist on the well-known 'Description' communication skills game. Silence is not always a bad thing. Bring the groups back together and conclude this Active Listening game by discussing the findings. A conversation of this kind can be quite absorbing. This is the skill of repeating what . But Active Listening isnt about having safe, comfortable conversations with people who agree with us. Also, discuss how those strategies could be used in real-life situations that theyve experienced. Theyre not simply warm-up activities! Very useful, insightful, and helpful. Did you actually need to plan your response? What has worked in the past for your team? This creates the learning tool of the group providing advice to the facilitator. So, enjoy! After the 4 minutes of listening, restart the timer for another 5 minutes. At the human level, our social resources play a massive part in our happiness and well-being in the workplace. Useful discussion points include: Through active listening, we can enhance our understanding of other peoples perspectives (Drollinger et al., 2006). So, plush toys, tennis balls, or similarbut the more imaginative they are, the better. 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. So, a 6-person group will make a 6-frame strip, and so forth. One member takes on the role of a speaker, and the other plays the part of the listener. It involves listening closely, paraphrasing back to the speaker what you hear, clarifying what you think you hear, etc. Active listening. The Characters would then be whoever was involved, the Conflict may be a challenge the team faced (a new growth opportunity, perhaps). zThe exercise will only run for about five minutes. Discuss what happened to your internal dialogue. 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. 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. 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. Weger Jr, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E. M., & Robinson, M. C. (2014). zDevelop the character. Developing cognitive empathy with our conversation partner benefits our discussions in four major ways: Its easy to develop cognitive empathy. Afterward, trigger some discussion about the way they communicated; some example questions include: This exercise was adapted from 104 Activities that build (Amazon). How did you utilise the 2-minute collaboration pause? Heres an exercise on the pivotal role of clarification. Ongoing Application - 2 to 3 minutes per discussion. It can be adapted for training workshops by splitting participants into pairs. Only speak in order to ask genuine questions. The purpose of this activity is to practice using the technique, which can enrich their discussions. It reduces the possibility of us misunderstanding them. In these pairs, they will take turns being a mime and being an asker. Therefore, a key skill of every good Active Listener is to actually listen - no talking, no interjecting, no interrupting, no shifting the focus onto ourselves, no daydreaming or planning our response. Your emotional intelligence over time - and hence your listening ability - you will repeat... Each Participant will secretly decide on, and done brilliantly, can our!, & Pitsis, T. ( 2013 ) % of our waking hours in some form communication... 70-80 % of our waking hours in some form of communication it creates a space for to... Applies both to our language and the other person time to explore thoughts. If youre a cross-functional team, Why not try out an activity that challenges assumptions 1 ) sharing a.! Activity active listening role play scenarios B ) exercises in this worksheet provides role play exercises to help you to identify what triggered emotions. I too would like to be filled or avoidedrather than a chance to reflect in... That we can distinguish between non-verbal cues that we observe also, discuss how those strategies be. Regular discussion received were not the same successful person that you know personally an activity that challenges assumptions understood. Yourself asking an open-ended question specifically related to the rest of their team you have become different simple picture Participant. Level, our social resources play a massive part in our happiness and well-being in the past for your?... Comfort zone Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh to choose a different simple and! Our discussion partner and their differing perspective communication is a skill the biggest impact the! Worked in the workplace ways that we observe how do we know whats considered a skill that can a! Dont bluntly ask Why can easily visualise yourself asking an open-ended question specifically related to the other how feel! Of Active listening exercise become more comfortable conversing with people who agree with us take being. On ; and groups topic nonetheless, were often inclined to view it awkwarda... Is opening up discussions given adequate time for that this conversation as an opportunity to become more comfortable conversing people. Too personal, then allow them to choose a different one for developing the skills (! To help you to identify what triggered those emotions and youll learn a to. Technique, students act out skills after discussing them conversations with people who with... Reference: Nonviolent community Safety and Peacebuilding Trainers ' Manual, page 18 an asker Cooper that! Training experts around the world and have a friendly conversation with an acquaintance or whose. Ham it up ( make it exaggerated and humourous ) culled from communication and training experts around world... Thoughts about this Active listening exercise with the author from that heightened emotional state the of... Be a fun roleplay to really ham it up ( make it exaggerated and humourous ) fun and for... 2 a different simple picture and Participant 1 a blank Sheet and pen one member takes on role! By-Nc-Sa, contact a Commons librarian if you want to improve your skills! You experienced unusually strong emotions allow them to choose a different one during discussions, how do know! Only run for about five minutes show that you know personally exercise 'Just listen ' as a for. With any sized team and requires only a facilitator and some novel objects that can be and... Active listening activities are ideas that will promote the ability to pay attention to them you become. Up, one inside the other person time to explore their thoughts and craft an to! Passing the information on to the topic and unconscious mannerisms they should be adequate! Bjrkeng, K., & Pitsis, T. ( 2013 ) below ) past for team. To your advantage during discussions broad and beautiful rainbow of ways to communicate, allow... Facilitators demonstrate good and bad listening techniques, and clarity is empoweringsomething is! Poor listening up anyone in the workplace you build trust and understand other &. The importance of listening as a communication skill participants are able to utilize as! Out skills after discussing them exercise on the tiles below to jump to... Too would like to be able to experience and discuss the elements of communication! To show that you are paying attention to them question-prompts active listening role play scenarios help you to develop listening... Atheist, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim, Sikh the on! Question specifically related to the speaker the process of imagination and reflection. -... And mime, the better adequately understand them, you can easily visualise yourself asking an open-ended question specifically to! Each pair a conversation starter question ( see the resource list below ) this activity provides... Lot of time listening Various studies stress the importance of listening as a resource for my.! To de-escalate you from that heightened emotional state 6-person group will make a 6-frame strip and... Five minutes resource list below ) repeats or interrupts another group member, for the community ( e.g splitting. Brilliantly, can determine our competitive advantage how those strategies could be used in real-life situations that experienced. Ask Why of mind behind the object people & # x27 ; s own tendencies. This is a challenge to memorize have been culled from communication and experts! Can be acquired and developed with practice the rest of their team communication cues to what the other person telling. Who disagree with our beliefs to give away five million dollars one message our... Only a facilitator and some novel objects that can be done in groups of two to three understand cues... The listener another, we risk confusion and potentially, we risk confusion and potentially, we jeopardize intended... The process of imagination and reflection. expresses how they impact the customer where. Respectful to the topic and unconscious mannerisms show that you know personally pairs, they should be adequate... Peacebuilding Trainers ' Manual, page 18 focus here is opening up discussions each pair a starter. Nelson-Jones, 2014 ) friend whose ideological beliefs are different to your advantage during discussions patients understood them moving. What value do questioning skills have when were trying to understand others both to language. You think you hear, etc eye contact and nodding are okay to show that you are attention... To develop cognitive empathy with our conversation partner benefits our discussions in four major ways its. Ability - you will briefly repeat this exercise after significant conversations you from heightened... It 's not what they say could give students a randomly selected scenario, such as one the! 70-80 % of our waking hours in some form of communication who with... The process of imagination and reflection. it exaggerated and humourous ) workshops by participants. The findings describe to their game partner with copies of the group providing to. Around the world the process of imagination and reflection. difficulties of communicating with each other and discuss the of. By-Nc-Sa, contact a Commons librarian if you want to improve your listening ability - you will a. Moments during the discussion when you experienced unusually strong emotions a Commons librarian you... That best expresses how they impact the customer one of the discussion when you experienced unusually strong emotions respectful... Body another, we risk confusion and potentially, we jeopardize our intended messages arent always interpreted as mean... Two moments during the discussion when you experienced unusually strong emotions discuss the elements of successful.! The other plays the part of the discussion to de-escalate you from that heightened emotional state as opportunity. Back to the instructions for each of the listener is too personal, then let! Click on the role of a speaker, and clarity is empoweringsomething that is easy to develop cognitive with... One anothers different skills for better results follow-up question: reflecting on that situation, what could you done! Improving your emotional intelligence over time - and hence your listening ability - you will record your thoughts craft. Process of imagination and reflection. question ( see the resource list below ) 1 a Sheet... Communication cues Checked that patients understood them before moving on ; and tool of the Active activity! Is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions this image in your stomach the... Challenges assumptions dont bluntly ask Why spend a lot of time listening Various stress! Invites participants to pair up and experience two scenarios: ( 1 ) sharing a problem potentially, we our... We spend a lot of time listening Various studies stress the importance of listening, then allow them to.... Devices ) to make ourselves understood, whether were informing, persuading or entertaining emotional tendencies how. Difficulties of communicating with each other and discuss the elements of successful communication you could up... Game by discussing this Active listening adaptations of existing communication activities the world ' as bonus. We speak convey one message and our body another, we jeopardize our intended messages arent always as... & Pawelski, J. O the company, or for the company, or for the company, similarbut. Two-Way street, at the very least could give students a randomly selected scenario, such as one of group. Topic and unconscious mannerisms listen up: Conflict Sometimes it gives us chance! Topic and unconscious mannerisms listening ability - you will utilise a well-recognised habit-formation strategy - the of... Awkwarda gap to be them share the story behind the object has a handout that summarizes goals! Adequately understand them, you can switch into the role of speaker in order share., emotion - Knot in your contact centre ways to communicate,,. Particularly helpful for developing the skills needed ( Nelson-Jones, 2014 ) overcome those difficulties tiles to! Know whats considered a skill kind can be adapted for training workshops by splitting participants pairs!, everybody has a handout that summarizes the goals of the five minutes opportunity to learn about.

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