Draw a Circle and a Line Communication Game

Communication exercises for work — Prototype via Gratisography

We live in an information-driven society, where communication determines how fast we larn.

Cooperation and collaboration underpin how nosotros work together, and done brilliantly, tin can determine our competitive reward.

At the human level, our social resource play a massive function in our happiness and well-being in the workplace.

We tin can castor information technology all off as besides soft and fuzzy, or we can comprehend communication as 1 of the keys to an emotionally intelligent workplace. But because the way nosotros become forth is so central to organizational success and human flourishing, many more companies are focusing on the latter.

In this article, y'all volition find 15 advice exercises, games, and tips to help y'all improve teamwork and collaboration in your workplace. If you have any great activities that we haven't covered, practise let us know!

Before you go along, nosotros thought you might like to download our iii Positive Advice Exercises (PDF) for free. These scientific discipline-based tools will aid you and those you work with build amend social skills and meliorate connect with others.

What are Advice Exercises and Games?

Typically, communication is seen as a 'soft' skill—because it's not hands quantifiable. Compared to profits, losses, and even risk, it is intangible. Unless it's either terrible or completely absent. Advice exercises and games are interactional activities that aim to develop how we relate to one another, including how we share information and become along.

They can exist one-on-i or squad exercises, simply the goal is the same: they help us develop our interpersonal skills and improve our capacity to relate.

The Importance of Communication in the Workplace

Communication is a whole lot more but talking—although, that is a fundamental office of relationship-building and knowledge-transfer. To actually grasp how big of an touch it has, we tin touch on some of the theory. Surprisingly, taking a pace back to look at some theory tin can sometimes exist just as helpful, if not more so, than 'getting on with it'.

What are Workplace Communication Skills?

Succinctly, they help united states convey information to others in an effective manner. And, they go in a higher place and beyond coherent spoken language in many ways—we talk, nosotros apply silence, body linguistic communication, tone of voice, and middle-contact—voluntarily and unconsciously. With a broad and beautiful rainbow of ways to communicate, then, how practice we know what'southward considered a skill? What's racket and what'south a message? What matters?

Drawing on empirical literature on communication skills in the workplace, we tin can expect at Maguire and Pitcheathly's (2002) study of doctors for a good instance. In medical professions, information technology's specially disquisitional not only to extract and interpret information—often, from conversation partners who lack crucial information themselves—only to convey it empathetically and with clarity.

The authors described several key communication skills as follows:

– The ability to elicit patients' bug and concerns.

Swap 'patients' with clients, co-workers, managers, and so forth, and we can see that this is readily applicative in many other piece of work situations. That is, the ability to understand, explore and analyze what others are talking about, and to solicit more details if and when the situation requires it.

Doctors besides described effective communication as being able to summarize what the patient/other had related to correct data and display understanding.

Benefits: In an objective sense, we demand to extract data so we tin can channel our efforts accordingly. Deadlines, role boundaries, budgets, and the 'why, how, what' of tasks. But active listening encourages pleasant social interactions, which in turn, these heave our well-being and life satisfaction (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).

– The ability to deliver information finer.

The doctors studied too checked with their patients what their behavior were virtually what was wrong. In other workplaces, squad situations call for clarity—a shared goal is the ideal, but very ofttimes we come at situations with at least a few unlike beliefs. Alternatively, nosotros may be quick to assume that others understand what nosotros are proverb when situations really require further explanation.

To bargain with this, the doctors:

Reorganized information where required (east.g. into categories);
Checked that patients understood them before moving on; and
Checked whether they wanted further information.

Benefits: Our letters demand to make sense if we want to convey data in a meaningful manner. That applies both to our language and the extent to which we empathize. Constructive information delivery helps us define goals, transfer noesis, and successfully attain shared tasks.

– Discussing treatment options.

Communication, in its near basic form at least, is dyadic—a two-way, and (one would hope) mutually beneficial flow of information. In this study, giving a diagnosis and handling options was only 1 part of the job. Doctors described how of import it was to run into whether patients wanted to participate in choosing their treatment.

They determined their perspectives before decision-making; in other settings, this is inviting participation and engagement.

Benefits: As discussed, data commitment is crucial, but our focus here is opening up discussions. Giving others a take a chance to contribute allows u.s.a. to factor in more perspectives and diverse opinions. We tin can encourage more appointment, delivery, and complement i another's dissimilar skills for better results.

– Existence supportive.

Doctors described empathy in terms of feedback and validation. They showed that they understood how their patients were feeling to relate at an interpersonal level; where they didn't know, they at least made a stab at empathizing through educated guesses.

Benefits: We don't need to expect too far to find sources of workplace stress that might be impacting our colleagues. By empathizing, we non merely build meliorate relationships, but we show that we are bachelor as key 'chore resources' – social support for those effectually the states to reduce the negative impacts of our job demands (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

Put even more simply, nosotros make work a nicer place to be while fugitive unnecessary conflict.

Some of the skills identified by the authors, as we can see, depict more than i capability. As humans, we're complex. But we're also learners, and with the right approaches, we are highly constructive at improving our skills.

7 Tips on Improving Communication Skills at Work

Maguire and Pitcheathly'southward (2002) clinical review offered several learning tips, the first of which was an accent on proper advice skills training. As well as identifying key advice deficits and their root causes, these included several that chronicle to our cognition of positive psychology and communication.

3 Tips for Creating a Supportive Learning Environment

Beginning, we need to create an optimal learning environs if we desire to maximize our improvement; in this sense:

Advice skills demand to be modeled and practiced, not simply taught – a nod to experiential learning, which is frequently emphasized in emotional intelligence learning (SEL) (Haertel et al., 2005; Kolb, 2014);
They are best learned and practiced in safety, supportive environments, which studies bear witness are primal to learning behavior (Edmonson et al., 2004); and
Constructive performance feedback is helpful, but "just one time all positive comments have been exhausted" (Maguire & Pitcheathly, 2002: 699). Peer feedback is likewise a useful job resource when it comes to work appointment; as a class of social support, it can help stimulate our learning and development—that includes communication skills (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Bakker et al., 2008).

iv Tips for Enhancing Communication Skills

We can also look at the concern literature for some more support of what nosotros identified earlier as key communication skills. Breaking these downward into tips, here are 4 fairly wide ways nosotros can enhance our advice skills to increase our effectiveness and well-beingness.

– Piece of work on your emotional perception

Perception of emotions is a key component of Mayer and Salovey'due south emotional intelligence framework and covers the ability to read others' non-verbal cues as well as their potential moods (Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

At the individual level, nosotros can make conscious use of this EQ skill to judge how others are feeling. Is your colleague overwhelmed, perhaps? Is now the best possible time to ask them for aid on a task? Or, have you noticed someone in the corner of the room who has been dying to contribute to the meeting?

– Practice self-sensation

Our not-verbal beliefs and the way nosotros speak is disquisitional. Different studies vary on exactly how much of our intended message (and credibility) is non-verbal, but it'southward undoubtedly important (DePaulo & Friedman, 1998; Knapp et al., 2013).

When the words we speak convey one bulletin and our body another, we take a chance confusion and potentially, we jeopardize our intended bear upon. To enhance our influencing skills and the quality of our working relationships with others, information technology helps to practice being aware of your own non-exact behaviors.

– Give others a hazard to engage

Communication is a two-manner street, at the very least. And equally more than i collective intelligence researcher has pointed out, teams are more than the sum of their parts (Woolley et al., 2010).

When we gather as humans, we need a chance to communicate just as much as nosotros need our individual 'smarts', and essentially, it comes down to social sensitivity—emotional perception once again. We can look at Leary'south Rose for more than insights on how and why, simply this fourth dimension, the tip is to understand when to communicate or step back (Leary, 2004).

– Practice listening

Talking is essentially a course of content delivery, and information technology's not really communication unless we mind. Active listening involves engaging with our co-workers and bringing empathy to the table to enhance the quality of our dialogue.

Sometimes mentioned along with 'reflective questioning', it involves, "restating a paraphrased version of the speaker's message, request questions when appropriate, and maintaining moderate to loftier nonverbal conversational involvement" (Weger Jr et al., 2014: thirteen). It helps us create more than clarity, take in information more effectively, and develop our workplace relationships through compassionate engagement (Nikolova et al., 2013).

3 Games and Exercises to Ameliorate Workplace Communication Skills

Some of these activities will crave a facilitator, and some but a grouping of colleagues. None of them require professional facilitation per se, and any participant can easily volunteer to proceed the process on track.

ane. Back-to-Back Drawing

This exercise is almost listening, clarity and developing potential strategies when we communicate. In communicating expectations, needs, and more, it helps to analyze and create mutual ground. This can show what happens when we don't…

For this activity, you'll demand an even number of participants so everybody tin have a partner. One time people have paired off, they sit back-to-back with a paper and pencil each. Ane member takes on the role of a speaker, and the other plays the part of the listener.

Over five to ten minutes, the speaker describes a geometric image from a prepared set, and the listener tries to plow this description into a drawing without looking at the prototype.

Then, they talk about the experience, using several of the post-obit example questions:

Speaker Questions

What steps did you take to ensure your instructions were clear? How could these be applied in real-life interactions?
Our intended messages aren't ever interpreted every bit we mean them to be. While speaking, what could y'all exercise to decrease the chance of miscommunication in real-life dialogue?

Listener Questions

What was constructive near your partner's instructions?
In what ways might your cartoon have turned out differently if you could have communicated with your partner?

2. Constructive Feedback in "I" Mode

Defensiveness is a root cause of miscommunication and even conflict in the workplace. We're not always set up to receive and learn from criticism, especially when information technology's delivered insensitively. This exercise introduces "I" statements, which draw others' behavior objectively while assuasive the speaker to express the touch on on their feelings.

Employees can pair off or work lonely, in either case, they will need a worksheet of imaginary scenarios similar this one. Together or solo, they can create "I" statements near how the imaginary scenario makes them feel. When done in pairs, they can exercise giving each other feedback on 'pregnant what you say' without triggering defensiveness in the other.

3. Storytelling with CCSG

Storytelling is an engaging way to convey information; when information technology'due south positive information, narratives are too highly effective means of motivating and inspiring others (Tomasulo & Pawelski, 2012). Beholden Inquiry, for example, is one type of positive psychology intervention that uses storytelling in a compelling way, as a means to share hopes and build on our shared strengths.

Through this practice, we can practice structuring our narratives—essentially we'll accept i 'data delivery' tool to draw on when nosotros feel it might help (like the doctors nosotros looked at before). CCSG is a construction, and it involves:

C: Characters
C: Disharmonize
S: Struggle
G: Goal

To use the construction as an exercise, participants only chronicle a narrative using CCSG. For example, 1 squad fellow member might depict a by success of the group or team, where their collective strengths helped them succeed. The Characters would then be whoever was involved, the Conflict may be a claiming the team faced (a new growth opportunity, perhaps).

The Struggle might be something like geographical distance between team members, and the Goal would be only that: their objective or success.

Visit this site for more details.

3 Activities to Amend Advice Between Employees

Considering advice is and so multi-faceted, we've included a selection of different activity types. These interpersonal and team communication games cover topics such equally misinterpreting data, awareness of our assumptions and engaging others.

1. Direction Management

This activeness is a slight twist on Chinese Whispers in that it uses a complex ready of instructions rather than just a sentence. And hither, we have merely one link rather than an entire concatenation of people. Otherwise, the idea is identical—data gets misinterpreted thank you to dissonance, but we can improve our exact communication and listening skills to minimize this risk.

Offset, option a game with enough instructions that the information is a challenge to memorize. With 2+ co-workers, pick one person (a speaker) to whom you lot'll explain the instructions. They are responsible for passing the data on to the rest of their team. The group then needs to play the game with only the instructions from the speaker.

Once they've finished the game, start some dialogue nearly what happened:

Was there whatsoever lack of clarity effectually the instructions?
What might have contributed to this confusion?
What are some key things to be aware of when we give or mind to instructions?

This activity comes from The Wrecking Thousand of Games and Activities (Amazon).

two. Mimes

Here's an exercise on the pivotal role of description. When information technology comes to tasks and expectations, it goes without saying that clarity helps us avoid lots of unwanted things. And clarity plays a office on a larger scale when it comes to our roles more than broadly, in fact, information technology'south a psychological resource under the Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007).

Succinctly, ambivalence contributes to stress, and clarity is empowering—something that is like shooting fish in a barrel to overlook and which this game reminds u.s.a. of.

Any number of co-workers can participate in this very elementary mime game. You'll need a list of topics for people to deed out, then invite players to pause off into groups of two. In these pairs, they will have turns being a mime and being an asker. The mime reads the menu, so attempts to act out what's on it (you'll first need to decide on a theme, like weather, activities, or what have you).

While the asker can pose questions, the mime tin only deed out their answers.

It might unearth an awareness of implicit assumptions, bringing our conscious attention to the role these play in our judgments. Potential word questions volition help you lot unpack this further:

How did your questioning skills help you encompass what was going on?
What value do questioning skills have when we're trying to sympathise others?
What factors sometimes prevent usa from asking questions when they might actually be useful?

3. Let's Face Information technology

This exercise from The Large Book of Disharmonize-Resolution Games is about cocky-awareness. How big of a role does it really play, and how does information technology influence our communication?

At that place is no limit to the grouping size for this game, which requires only enough pens and paper for everybody. It doesn't take very long, either, and can exist played in equally fiddling equally ten to twenty minutes—perfect for breaking up the 24-hour interval.

Start with groups (or sub-groups) of betwixt four and 10 players; in each of these, someone will demand to volunteer as a facilitator. This facilitator just keeps the game on track and gets the word going afterward.

Each actor writes down a feeling on a small piece of paper, folds information technology, and so passes it to the volunteer facilitator. From him or her, they take another slice that someone else has written, and tries to deed out that feeling to the residual of their group—using only their facial expressions. The other participants attempt to approximate that emotion and this should pb to a talk about the function of expressions. Useful word points include:

What feelings practise we sympathise the easiest, when only facial expressions are used? Why might that be?
Describe some contexts where facial expressions play a peculiarly of import role in communication?
In what means can facial expressions influence our power to bargain with misunderstandings?

three Active Listening Games and Exercises for the Workplace

Through active listening, we can enhance our understanding of other people'due south perspectives (Drollinger et al., 2006). Practicing information technology during our interactions with others enables us to validate their feelings and potentially avoid the stress of misunderstandings.

Exercises that heave our active listening skills help u.s.a. engage improve, through empathy, body language, and non-judgment where required (Rogers & Farson, 1957).

At the end of the mean solar day, active listening games tin can impact positively on our relationships by encouraging us to exercise specific techniques, and these, in plough, observe support in the empirical literature (Weger et al., 2014).

1. Concentric Circles

This big group practise works best when you already have a topic for give-and-take. Information technology is used a lot during inclusive strategy sessions, where diverse opinions are valuable but team size can hamper rather than facilitate proficient communication. For this practice, everybody has a handout that summarizes the goals of the discussion.

Ii circles of chairs are prepare up, ane inside the other. Participants who sit down in the middle are 'talkers' while those in the outer ring are 'watchers', and these roles should exist allocated prior to the practice. Armed with their handouts, talkers brainstorm to engage with the topic. They use the goals every bit a guide for the conversation, while the watchers listen carefully and brand notes.

Subsequently fifteen minutes of discussion, the watchers and talkers switch circles—those who were listening earlier at present sit on the inner circle for a fifteen-minute conversation. It tin can exist on the pre-called topic or on a different 1, but the activity must conclude with a debrief.

During this debrief, they reverberate collectively on the experience itself:

How was beingness a watcher, compared to being a listener?
What did you feel when you were observing from the outer circumvolve, listening but not contributing? How did this influence your learnings, rather than providing your own input?
In what ways did beingness a watcher impact your perspectives of the talkers? What about their dynamics?

This gamestorming communications exercise is based on a team coaching technique by Time To Grow Global.

2. 3-infinitesimal Vacation

Here is another talker and listener exercise that tin be done in pairs. In a larger group of participants, this can exist done multiple times as players pair up with different conversation partners. And in each pair, of class, team members will take turns being listener and talker.

The talker discusses their dream vacation for 3 minutes, describing what they would like all-time almost information technology but without specifying where it should be. While they talk, the listener pays shut attention to the explicit and underlying details, using simply non-verbal cues to evidence that they are listening.

After the 3-minute vacation, the listener summarizes the key points of their conversation partner's dream vacation—as a holiday sales pitch. After they've 'pitched' the ideal holiday spot in the space of a few minutes, the pair discuss how accurately the listener understood the talker.

They outline how they could improve their dialogue with regard to active listening, then swap roles. A twist on this team coaching exercise might involve assuasive the listener to brand notes during the talker'south clarification, revealing them equally a bespeak of discussion simply after they deliver the 'sales pitch'.

Used with permission from Time To Grow Global.

3. Pet Peeve

How about a chance to accident off some steam and go that empathetic listening ear at the aforementioned fourth dimension? And at the same time, helping your co-worker practice active listening?

In this game, one colleague has a full 60 seconds to bluster about something which irks them. It'due south best if this isn't inappropriate for the workplace, but at the same fourth dimension, information technology doesn't have to be piece of work-related. If y'all hate pop-up ads, for instance, you've already got keen material for your rant.

The first colleague (Histrion A) merely lets loose while the second person (Player B) listens carefully, trying to cut through the noise by singling out:

What Player A actually cares well-nigh – for instance, smooth user experience on the cyberspace;
What they value – e.g. clarity and transparent advertisements;
What matters to them – e.thousand. getting work done, doing their online shopping in peace, or a more intuitive, user-friendly adblocker.

Player B then 'decodes' the rant by repeating it dorsum to Player A, isolating the key positive points without the fluff or negativity. They can use some variant on the following judgement stems to guide their decoding:

"You value…"
"You care about…"
"Yous believe that…matters a lot"

Then, they can switch over and repeat the game again. Equally y'all can probably see, the activity is aimed at helping teammates appreciate that feedback has positive goals.

iii Team Building Advice Games and Exercises

When nosotros requite attention to our relationships as well as the chore(s) at mitt, we create trust and collaborate more effectively. The games and exercises in this section are about connecting on a human level so that nosotros can communicate with more emotional intelligence in the workplace.

1. Personal Storytelling

In big organizations especially, we may only bring a part of ourselves to the workplace. If we want to communicate empathetically and build relationships with co-workers—important social resource—personal storytelling is i fashion we can build our teams while developing communication skills.

At that place is no set time or place for storytelling, but information technology works all-time when a story is followed by an invitation to the group to give input. 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.

To endeavour out personal storytelling, set aside a team-building afternoon, meeting, or workshop. Ask the group to each prepare a reading that they will share. Here are some ideas that nicely blend the emotional with the professional:

Tell the group what your dreams are equally a squad member, for the company, or for the community (due east.g. Whitney & Cooperrider, 2011);
Tell them about your first task, or your very first working feel;
If you lot've got a budget, give squad members a small amount of money each to practice something good with. 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. And then, let them share the story backside the object.

2. I'grand Listening

We learn from our peers' feedback, and that learning is well-nigh productive in a supportive piece of work environment (Odom et al., 1990; Goh, 1998). Partly, information technology comes downward to giving feedback that is constructive and in the receiver'south all-time interests, and these are fortunately skills that we tin can develop.

I'thou Listening can be played with an even number of participants, equally they volition demand to find a partner for this one-on-one game. In the book mentioned below, at that place are besides hand-outs, but you lot tin can gear up your ain for this activity. Ideally, more than 1 'Talker Scenario' and more ane 'Listener Scenario':

A 'Talker Scenario' will describe something like a bad day at work, or a problem with a client. In a small paragraph, information technology should outline what's gone wrong (perchance it's everything from a croaky smartphone screen to a delay during your commute). This scenario is followed by an instruction for the Talker to play a role: "You call up your colleague for some support" or "Yous decide to let off some steam by talking to your co-worker".
A 'Listener Scenario' is a bit different. In several sentences, the scenario outlines a situation where they are approached by a colleague with problems merely might have other things on their plate. They might be up to their ears in work, or their colleague's complaints might seem footling. Later reading the scenario of their context (e.g. it's a hectic day, your calculator'south just crashed), the Listener's function is to act it out while they respond, for example: "Evidence with your body language that you're far too busy".

The exercise is a good starting indicate for a conversation about constructive listening strategies. Together, the pairs tin come upwardly with more productive, compassionate, and appropriate responses, with the acting feel fresh in mind. Some discussion points include:

Equally Talker, what feedback did your Listener appear to requite?
How did you feel well-nigh the feedback you received?
How might you create some listening and feedback approaches based on this?

This game comes from The Large Book of Conflict-Resolution Games (Amazon).

three. "A What?"

Inspired by the child'due south game Phone, this exercise draws on different elements of effective communication betwixt team members, while highlighting where things often go incorrect. It works with any sized team and requires only a facilitator and some novel objects that can be passed betwixt participants. So, plush toys, lawn tennis balls, or similar—but the more imaginative they are, the better.

Players stand in a circle and pass two of the objects forth to each other. One object should exist passed clockwise, and the other counter-clockwise. Prior to passing on the toy, ball, or what have you, players enquire something near the object and answer a question well-nigh it.

Substantially, the message will change as the object gets passed along, and players will need to stay sharp to remember who they are passing and talking to.

For instance:

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."
Ellen then needs to ask "A What?", prompting you lot to repeat the detail'south name.
Taking the particular, Ellen turns to her right and repeats the aforementioned with Pedro: "Pedro, this is a tattered elephant with pink ears." Pedro asks, "A What?"
Earlier she passes the item to Pedro, nevertheless, Ellen's answer to his question must come up back to the facilitator, who says it aloud. This fashion, it's possible to run across if and how the bulletin changes as it goes effectually the grouping. By the time it reaches Hassan, who is Person five, for instance, information technology might exist "A grey elephant with tattered ears."
Once people get the gist of how to play with 1 particular, the facilitator adds in the 2d by passing it to the left.

Debrief with a conversation about the communication that went on. Did anybody stop upwardly with both items at once? How did they cope? Did others assist them?

iii Communication Exercises and Activities for Groups

A lot of team situations are near creativity. Nosotros each have unique experiences, competencies, and viewpoints, the way nosotros collaborate inevitably decides whether we synergize or fall apartment. Here are ii activities that volition assistance your team piece of work together creatively to solve a problem, besides as ane most the part of silence.

i. Crazy Comic

This is a fun game in communication skills that will too give team members some creative freedom. They will need to communicate those artistic ideas to i another, but also engage in joint controlling for the activity to be a success. And that activity is to create a comic together, using their complementary skills and communication to realize a shared vision.

You lot'll need more than than 9 participants for this activity, too equally paper, drawing, and coloring materials for each colleague. From your larger group of co-workers, let them grade smaller groups of about 3-six participants and tell them their task is to produce a unique comic strip, with one frame from each person. And so, a 6-person group will make a six-frame strip, and so along.

Between them, they need to decide the plot of the comic, who will be carrying out which tasks, and what the frames will contain. The catch is that they all need to draw at the same fourth dimension, so they volition not be seeing the preceding frame in the strip. Make it actress-difficult if y'all similar, by instructing them not to look at one another'southward creative progress as they draw, either.

Afterward, trigger some word about the way they communicated; some example questions include:

How critical was communication throughout this exercise?
What did you find the toughest about this activity?
Why was it of import to make the decisions together?

This exercise was adjusted from 104 Activities that build (Amazon).

2. Blindfold Rope Square

This is similar in some ways to the Back-to-Back Drawing exercise above. That is, the Blindfold Rope Square exercise challenges us to wait at how we communicate verbally, and so think about ways to develop our effectiveness. In a large group of participants or employees, particularly, we often need to cut through the racket with a clear and coherent bulletin—and this game can be played with even a large grouping of people.

You lot will need almost ten meters of rope and a safe place for employees to walk around blindfolded in. So, flat and ideally with no walls or tripping hazards.

Explain first upwards that the goal of the task is effective verbal communication, and requite each participant a blindfold.
In one case they have gathered in your chosen 'safe space', invite them to put on their blindfolds and turn around a few times and then they are (reasonably) disoriented in the space.
Gyre the rope and put information technology where at least one participant can reach it, then explain that y'all've put the rope 'somewhere on the flooring'.
Tell them their shared aim is to collaborate: first to find the rope, and so to lay it out into a perfect foursquare together on the flooring.
Let the participants become most it, taking care not to allow whatsoever accidents occur. Tell them to let you know once they've agreed that the job is washed.
Finally, everybody removes their blindfolds, and it'due south time for feedback. This is the perfect opportunity to congratulate them or start a discussion near what they might do differently the next fourth dimension effectually.

Find more than information on the practise here.

3. Zen Counting

Silence is not always a bad affair. Sometimes information technology gives u.s. a hazard to reverberate, in others it creates a infinite for others to accept the floor. Nonetheless, we're ofttimes inclined to view information technology as awkward—a gap to exist filled or avoided—rather than a hazard to listen. Co-ordinate to Shannon and Weaver's Theory of Communication (1998), this simply creates more 'racket' and negatively impacts our ability to reach resolutions at work (Smith, 2018).

Zen counting is incredibly straightforward: team members just sit in a circle but face up outward. With nobody in particular starting first, they are asked to count from i to ten every bit a group, but each member tin merely say one number. Nothing else is said. When someone repeats or interrupts another group member, they start once again from one.

The idea is to facilitate a sense of 'okayness' with beingness uncomfortable and silent, while team members practice letting others speak.

A Take-Dwelling house Message

Imagine attending a communication workshop, in purely lecture format. Or, reading virtually how to communicate without actually trying what you acquire. Communication exercises may not feel 100% natural at first, but they let us piece of work with—rather than alive in fright of—that discomfort. Whether it'south Chinese Whispers or making a rope square blindfolded, we tin can shake up old habits and create new ones by stepping into our 'stretch zones'.

Try out activities that are all-time suited to your organizational goals so they take the nearly relevance. If you lot're focused on innovation, try a creative communication exercise like Mime. If yous're a cross-functional squad, why not try out an action that challenges assumptions?

Tell the states if any of these are specially useful, and let united states know if you've got tweaks for this electric current set up of activities. What has worked in the by for your squad?

Nosotros hope you enjoyed reading this commodity. Don't forget to download our three Positive Advice Exercises (PDF) for free.

mcdowellseestrocces.blogspot.com

Source: https://positivepsychology.com/communication-exercises-for-work/