This will help you figure out what to do to ensure active listening in the workplace. By doing this, you can draw out areas that stop them from listening actively. Once the messages reach the final person, ask the original recipients if they remember the message and then the final recipients what message they received. Play music, and encourage them to giggle. Have you ever heard of the game pass the message? The mechanics are simple: have your employees fall in line and whisper two different messages at each end of the line. To help you improve your communication skills, here are four exercises for active listening to help you become a more effective listener. On average, these studies claim that we spend 70-80% of our hours in some form of communication. 4 Fun and Effective Exercises for Active ListeningĪ vast amount of studies stress the importance of active listening as a communication skill. Active listening exercises will help us build relationships, ensure understanding, solve problems, and avoid conflict. Such exercises for active listening can help you fully understand, respond, and then remember what is being said by the other person. What if the important parts are not captured in that 25-50 percent?įrom that alone, we can say that listening is a skill that we can all benefit from improving. However, as described by Edgar Dale in his Methods in Teaching, most of us only remember between 25% to 50% of what we hear. By listening actively, we pay attention not only to the story but how it is told. It involves giving the other person time to express their thoughts and feelings. Unlike hearing, active listening means listening with patience, and no interruption with questions or comments. Why are exercises for active listening important? If you want to be a skilled listener, you need to perform exercises for active listening and turn it into a habit. Plus, it gives you the power to persuade and negotiate. Becoming an effective listener will help you improve your workplace productivity and leadership ability. Listening –actively, at that– is one of the most important skills a person can have. Active listening has become rare - and that’s the sad truth.īut it shouldn’t be that way. We only listen just for the heck of it, but at the end of the day, when the sun has set, we already forgot what the other person just said. Sadly, we spend less and less time truly listening to each other. Communication is an important part of our everyday lives, especially in today’s world of high technology and stress.

Bus driver exercise