Listening Skills™ | Communication Training Activity

This fun communication challenge is about balancing speaking and listening - and doing both well.

Participants prepare for a meeting. There are four people to each meeting. Each person has their own, specific brief which sets the scene and provides a list of issues - and opinions - that they must raise during the meeting. (This activity is not about role play). They also each have a set of 10 counters. To speak at the meeting, a person must first put one counter in a central pot. They now speak and the others listen, but the speaker must stop and give way if another person drops a counter in the pot. The objective for each person at the meeting is to listen to what everyone else has to say AND communicate their own issues and opinions.

At the end of the meeting, participants complete an Analysis Form to assess how well they listened.

The analysis demonstrates how participants nearly always underperform when compared with their expectations. They realise, along with everyone else, how little they know of what was said and how much they misunderstood. We have good intentions but we are also easily distracted. Eye contact goes, we lose focus, thoughts stray and attitudes and emotions get in the way! Staying an ACTIVE listener isn't easy! This activity leads into a discussion about what traits show in poor listeners and the key behaviours in effective listeners (full guidance in Trainer's Notes).

Some participants can act as Meeting Observers. It's optional but they have an important role in recording the ebb and flow of the meeting, and can offer useful meeting reviews for the debrief.

• To demonstrate how most people fail to listen properly
• To balance active listening with communicating one's own points
• To understand the main behaviours that hinder effective listening
• To understand the main behaviours that help effective listening
• To identify where individuals' strengths lie - and what needs to be worked on.

1. Introduce the activity explaining that they are all taking part in meetings and the emphasis is on effective listening.
2. Divide the group into sets of four (using any 'overs' as Meetings Observers).
3. Allocate a set of four name-plates, counter cup and counters to each set of four people.
4. Allocate a set of four Briefs to each table so each person receives the Brief that corresponds with their name-plate (no conferring between the four people).
5. Allow them 10 minutes to prepare for a meeting.
6. Meanwhile issue an Observer's Form and a set of highlighter pens to each observer and explain their role.
7. Announce the start of the meeting. Explain it will last for 20-30 minutes.
8. After 30 minutes, stop the meeting and issue Analysis Sheets.
9. Allow 10-15 minutes for completion.
10. Go through the Analysis Sheet.
11. Lead a Debrief on the main learning points and issue the Ten Top Tips handout.

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

• Trainer’s Notes
• Sets of four Meeting Briefs
• Sets of four Name Plates
• Sets of Counters
• Counter Cups
• Sets of Highlighter pens
• Trainer's Reference
• Observer’s Form
• Analysis Form
• Handout: Ten Tips for Better Listening

This activity is for face-to-face classroom use. It is supplied as a hard copy pack and the digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 15 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.