Do it When you want to practice active listening or during team building.
I am sure you have seen the movie Midnight Cowboy. John Voight as Joe Buck and Dustin Huffman as Ratso have given outstanding performances.
In that movie Harry Nilsson sings: “Everybody Is Talking At Me. I don’t hear a word they’re saying, Only the echoes of my mind…” Obviously when everybody is talking, no one can hear anything. Somehow we have to practice that active listening.
Talking only when no one else is talking. Here is the most useful game for it.
I have hear it from Master ZI.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fwY3jGNsog&feature=related[/youtube]
Here are the rules for this game.
You start by saying “One”, someone has to continue with “Two”. Other person will say “Three” and so on, until the last person will say the last number. Every person has to be included.
It looks so easy, but we will make it very difficult.
First, it has to be perfect silence, so only numbers can be heard. People are not allowed to communicate verbally or non verbally. It is not allowed to make predictable sequence of who is gonna be next. And finally if two people say the number at one time or interrupt each other, they have to start from the beginning.
It will take several times until your people successfully finish the task.
For sure then they will be relief with applause.
Ask them:
What they have learned from the game?
How hard is to listen in perfect silence, waiting for someone else to talk?
How do they decide when is the time to talk?
When in communication they can use this skill?
Now, for you:
1. What is your real goal with this group?
2. How would you know that you have succeeded?
3. How dedicated on a scale from 1 to 10 you are to that goal?
In that movie Harry Nilsson sings: “Everybody Is Talking At Me. I don’t hear a word they’re saying, Only the echoes of my mind…” Obviously when everybody is talking, no one can hear anything. Somehow we have to practice that active listening.
Talking only when no one else is talking. Here is the most useful game for it.
I have hear it from Master ZI.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fwY3jGNsog&feature=related[/youtube]
Here are the rules for this game.
You start by saying “One”, someone has to continue with “Two”. Other person will say “Three” and so on, until the last person will say the last number. Every person has to be included.
It looks so easy, but we will make it very difficult.
First, it has to be perfect silence, so only numbers can be heard. People are not allowed to communicate verbally or non verbally. It is not allowed to make predictable sequence of who is gonna be next. And finally if two people say the number at one time or interrupt each other, they have to start from the beginning.
It will take several times until your people successfully finish the task.
For sure then they will be relief with applause.
Ask them:
What they have learned from the game?
How hard is to listen in perfect silence, waiting for someone else to talk?
How do they decide when is the time to talk?
When in communication they can use this skill?
Now, for you:
1. What is your real goal with this group?
2. How would you know that you have succeeded?
3. How dedicated on a scale from 1 to 10 you are to that goal?
4. What other variations you are suggesting for this game?
5. Who else might be helpful to you?
I will definitely try this this game with my team on the plain on our next away game.
Thank you
“Silence is a source of great strength.”— Lao Tzu