I am hold a workshop for Verbal and non verbal communication. Can members help me with some games to make it more interactive and participative?
From India, Mumbai
From India, Mumbai
Hi Anil,
Some of the games are ..
Verbal:
Back-To-Back Drawing
Split the group into pairs and seat partners back-to-back. Give one person in the pair a drawing of a shape, and give the other person a clipboard with a piece of blank paper and pencil. The person with the drawing must give a verbal description of the picture for his partner to replicate on a piece of paper. Once completed, pairs should compare the provided shape with the drawing. Discuss whether or not communication was effective and if the message was received correctly.
Blind Square
Assemble the group in a circle with each participant at an arm's distance from the next. Seat participants and instruct them to put on blindfolds. Place a rope in the center of the circle, and instruct all participants to hold onto the rope while forming a square. Members of the task must communicate with each other to move into proper position.
Building Blocks
Assemble groups of three participants each and ask them to assign roles of director, runner and builder. Each team is given a set of building blocks and construction paper. The directors from each group are taken to another room to view a tower constructed from building blocks and construction paper. Directors are the only team members allowed to see the tower. The director will give building instructions to the runner, who passes the information along to the builder. The runner is allowed to take as many trips to the director and builder as needed within the given time. Once the allotted time has elapsed, allow participants to see the original tower and ask them to make comparisons to the team-built towers. Discuss difficulties in conveying information between participants and how instructions could have been better communicated.
Shoe Tie
Split the group into pairs and assign one person in each pair to give instructions on tying a shoe to his partner. The individual receiving directions must follow instructions exactly as stated. While tying a shoe is an everyday skill, this activity reminds participants that specific directions and guidelines in even the most mundane tasks are required to be successful.
The Tallest Tower
Assemble packets of supplies for groups of four to five participants, with materials such as paper cups, popsicle sticks, construction paper, cardboard, masking tape, etc. Do not equally distribute supplies; keep supplies concealed so participants can't immediately recognize the imbalance of materials. Groups are asked to build the tallest freestanding tower with supplied materials. Groups will begin to notice the difference in supplies and will barter, steal, or resign to the fact that material distribution was unfair. Once the given time allotment is up, bring the teams together and discuss how participants communicated within their team, and how teams communicated with each other to accomplish the task.
Non Verbal:
1) 'Non-verbal introduction'.
In this training game the participants are sitting in a circle. This training game is about introductions, remember? So it is usually played in the beginning of a training. It does not matter how familiar or unfamiliar the participants are with each other, this communication game or training game is an interesting way of introducing each other.
The participants are made to pair up with the person sitting next to them. They are then asked to introduce themselves to each other and give their partner some information about themselves that they believe is interesting/uncommon/unknown.
After everybody has done that, they are asked to introduce their partner to the group. There is a catch however. The participant cannot use words or props to introduce her partner. She can use only actions to do so.
There will be some very funny moments as well as shouts of triumph as participants guess correctly the interesting facts about the members of their group.
2) 'Catching the chicken'.
1. Ask for four volunteers from the group.
3. Ask the remaining volunteer to step into the circle and ask her to imitate the action of catching a chicken in a barn.
4. Remember this is a communication game or a training game to understand non-verbal communication.
5. Hence the volunteer has to use only actions to do this and neither she nor the rest of the participants can speak through the training game. They are not to reveal the training game that is going in any way to the volunteers coming into the room.
6. You will also tell them that the volunteers will come into the room and help her in her task of 'catching the chicken'.
7. Now step out of the room and send the other volunteers into the room at intervals of around one minute. When you send them in ask each of them to join their colleague in whatever they find her doing and help her out. 8. You'll see some hilarious scenes in the room.
9. After all three volunteers have come into the room and the training game has continued for another minute or so, have the participants stop this communication game or training game.
10. Beginning with the last volunteer ask her what she thought she was doing. She'll say something like 'cleaning the room', while the second last volunteer will say she was 'looking for a lost object'. The very first volunteer who walked into the room will say something like 'I was swatting a fly I think'.
11. By this time the room is echoing with laughter at the responses.
12. Finally ask the the first volunteer what she was doing. When she reveals that she was 'catching the chicken', all the participants are in a split.
13. When they have settled down a little, lead them in a debrief of this training game. In the debrief draw their attention to how it is normal for people to interpret the behaviour (non-verbal communication) of a person and respond to it rather than clarifying the communication.
14. Remind them that while the people inside were told not to speak or reveal in any way the training game that was going on, the volunteers outside were not restricted in any way. Yet they chose not to ask anybody about what was going on, rather they jumped in right away and started imitating the leader.
15. This behaviour is true especially when the person who is communicating is a leader.
Thanks,
Sherley
From India, Bangalore
13Some of the games are ..
Verbal:
Back-To-Back Drawing
Split the group into pairs and seat partners back-to-back. Give one person in the pair a drawing of a shape, and give the other person a clipboard with a piece of blank paper and pencil. The person with the drawing must give a verbal description of the picture for his partner to replicate on a piece of paper. Once completed, pairs should compare the provided shape with the drawing. Discuss whether or not communication was effective and if the message was received correctly.
Blind Square
Assemble the group in a circle with each participant at an arm's distance from the next. Seat participants and instruct them to put on blindfolds. Place a rope in the center of the circle, and instruct all participants to hold onto the rope while forming a square. Members of the task must communicate with each other to move into proper position.
Building Blocks
Assemble groups of three participants each and ask them to assign roles of director, runner and builder. Each team is given a set of building blocks and construction paper. The directors from each group are taken to another room to view a tower constructed from building blocks and construction paper. Directors are the only team members allowed to see the tower. The director will give building instructions to the runner, who passes the information along to the builder. The runner is allowed to take as many trips to the director and builder as needed within the given time. Once the allotted time has elapsed, allow participants to see the original tower and ask them to make comparisons to the team-built towers. Discuss difficulties in conveying information between participants and how instructions could have been better communicated.
Shoe Tie
Split the group into pairs and assign one person in each pair to give instructions on tying a shoe to his partner. The individual receiving directions must follow instructions exactly as stated. While tying a shoe is an everyday skill, this activity reminds participants that specific directions and guidelines in even the most mundane tasks are required to be successful.
The Tallest Tower
Assemble packets of supplies for groups of four to five participants, with materials such as paper cups, popsicle sticks, construction paper, cardboard, masking tape, etc. Do not equally distribute supplies; keep supplies concealed so participants can't immediately recognize the imbalance of materials. Groups are asked to build the tallest freestanding tower with supplied materials. Groups will begin to notice the difference in supplies and will barter, steal, or resign to the fact that material distribution was unfair. Once the given time allotment is up, bring the teams together and discuss how participants communicated within their team, and how teams communicated with each other to accomplish the task.
Non Verbal:
1) 'Non-verbal introduction'.
In this training game the participants are sitting in a circle. This training game is about introductions, remember? So it is usually played in the beginning of a training. It does not matter how familiar or unfamiliar the participants are with each other, this communication game or training game is an interesting way of introducing each other.
The participants are made to pair up with the person sitting next to them. They are then asked to introduce themselves to each other and give their partner some information about themselves that they believe is interesting/uncommon/unknown.
After everybody has done that, they are asked to introduce their partner to the group. There is a catch however. The participant cannot use words or props to introduce her partner. She can use only actions to do so.
There will be some very funny moments as well as shouts of triumph as participants guess correctly the interesting facts about the members of their group.
2) 'Catching the chicken'.
1. Ask for four volunteers from the group.
3. Ask the remaining volunteer to step into the circle and ask her to imitate the action of catching a chicken in a barn.
4. Remember this is a communication game or a training game to understand non-verbal communication.
5. Hence the volunteer has to use only actions to do this and neither she nor the rest of the participants can speak through the training game. They are not to reveal the training game that is going in any way to the volunteers coming into the room.
6. You will also tell them that the volunteers will come into the room and help her in her task of 'catching the chicken'.
7. Now step out of the room and send the other volunteers into the room at intervals of around one minute. When you send them in ask each of them to join their colleague in whatever they find her doing and help her out. 8. You'll see some hilarious scenes in the room.
9. After all three volunteers have come into the room and the training game has continued for another minute or so, have the participants stop this communication game or training game.
10. Beginning with the last volunteer ask her what she thought she was doing. She'll say something like 'cleaning the room', while the second last volunteer will say she was 'looking for a lost object'. The very first volunteer who walked into the room will say something like 'I was swatting a fly I think'.
11. By this time the room is echoing with laughter at the responses.
12. Finally ask the the first volunteer what she was doing. When she reveals that she was 'catching the chicken', all the participants are in a split.
13. When they have settled down a little, lead them in a debrief of this training game. In the debrief draw their attention to how it is normal for people to interpret the behaviour (non-verbal communication) of a person and respond to it rather than clarifying the communication.
14. Remind them that while the people inside were told not to speak or reveal in any way the training game that was going on, the volunteers outside were not restricted in any way. Yet they chose not to ask anybody about what was going on, rather they jumped in right away and started imitating the leader.
15. This behaviour is true especially when the person who is communicating is a leader.
Thanks,
Sherley
From India, Bangalore
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Verbal.zip
Verbal Ability test[1].doc