Listening Skills A. Break your Ego "I" You could use this icebreaker for a small to medium group.

You could ask the participants to introduce or tell something about themselves without using the term "I". The one who uses the word "I" loses the game. Do not disclose the results at the beginning. Note the name of the people who fail and at the end, when everyone is done, announce them and explain the importance of listening skills. When a participant talks about himself, others need to listen attentively. This activity is for listening skills and how attentive are the participants, when you announced the rules. Questions to be asked..
Questions: 1. Name and general background 2. Do you have any pets? 3. Your fear 4. Travel 5. What do you do for fun in your spare time? 6. What do you like the most to eat 7. What you dont like the most 8. What do you love to do 9. What are you most greatful for in your life and why? 10.Are you making progress in the ares you want to: Give eg 11.What would be the one thing that you would like to change in your life? 12.Is there anything you cannot say NO to?

B. Blind Map Walk 1

Giving and receiving directions over the phone is much more difficult than giving them in person. When you are talking on the phone, you need clear communication skills for both parties to understand each other. In this game success depends on clear verbal skills and excellent listening skills. This teambuilder is designed to help participants to learn the importance of giving clear directions and to learn what is required of them when using good listening skills. To build trust among group members. You will need blindfolds and a sketch of the surrounding area with a course drawn on it. Divide the group into pairs and blindfold one member of each pair. Give the partner, without the blindfold, a copy of the map. The partner without the blindfold must guide the blindfolded partner through the course with only verbal directions. The partners may walk together but they may not touch each other. Once the course has been completed, switch the blindfold to the other partner and give the pair a new map to follow. HINT: This works best when you use an area that is unfamiliar to the group so they do not already know what obstacles they may encounter. Discussion Prompts: 1. Did you like giving or receiving directions the best? Why? 2. What did you do to make sure the directions were clearly understood? 3. What did you do to make sure you were following the directions? 4. Why are good communication skills important? 5. How was trust a factor in this activity?

C. Purpose
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This activity helps delegates to improve their teamwork and communication skills while going through a specific task. The task is fairly simple. To succeed at their task, the team must be able to self-organise, communicate well, and work together to resolve issues. Optionally, if you have a large group, you can divide them to several teams where they can go through the exercise in parallel and at the end compare their performance.

Objective
A person observes a poster and explains it to another person who in turn explains it to a group which should proceed to replicate it.

What You Need

A poster. This should contain a design of some sort which is suitable for the age group and the background of the delegates. Drawing and writing materials Large sheets of paper

Setup

Ask for two volunteers. Once would be the observer and the other, the explainer. Everyone else would form the group whose job is to replicate a poster. Hang the poster outside the training room. Make sure no one sees the poster. Ask the observer to leave the training room and stand in front of the poster. Ask the explainer to go to the observer. The observer should provide instructions to the explainer on how to replicate the poster. The explainer is not allowed to see the poster. The explainer should then go back to the group and explain what he has heard. The group need to replicate the poster based on the instructions they hear from the explainer. Rules: o The explainer is not allowed to see the poster. o Arrange so that the instructions given by the observer are not heard directly by the group. o The explainer can ask questions from the observer and the group can also ask questions from the explainer. o The explainer should effectively go back and forth carrying messages and instructions, while using his own understanding to accelerate the process. Allocate about 15 to 30 minutes for the whole exercise. You can lower the allocated time to make the exercise more challenging. At the end of the allocated time, get everyone to come back together and to compare the original and the replicated posters. Follow with a discussion.

Discussion
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What do you think of your performance? Were you satisfied with how the instructions were related by the explainer? What was the effect of the explainer on the process? How about observers instructions? If you struggled in the task, do you think you should blame the observer, the explainer or the task group? What does this exercise suggest about providing feedback? What does it say about teamwork, cooperation and communication? What does it mean in relation to working in the dark where all information is not necessarily always accessible? What can you do to improve the quality of your work?

Variations
You can run this exercise as a competition between groups, ideally located in different rooms so they cannot copy each other. Each group should have one observer, one explainer and a subgroup which carries out the task of replicating the poster. Use the same poster for both groups. Allocate a fixed amount of time and then bring everyone back together to compare their replicated posters and choose the best. Follow with a discussion to see why one group did better than others and how different groups compare their performances

Refresher
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D. Human Scavenger Hunt

Break the large group into smaller groups of about six to twelve people each. Have each group stand or sit together in a place that is separate from the other groups but of equal distance from you - the leader who stands in the middle of the room. Read one item from the list at a time. The team who sends up a person or group of people to you first that fits the description you have just given earns a point. For example, you might say "two people who have the same middle name" and within each group the members must talk, find out if any two have the same middle name, and then quickly send those people up to you. The first group of people with the same middle name to reach you earns a point for their team. You may give a bonus point for different items if it applies - for instance, if a group has three people with the same middle name they may earn a point for this round even if they were not the first group to get to you. The group with the most points at the end of the game wins. Human Scavenger Hunt List 1. Two people who have the same first and last initial 2. The person in your group who was born the farthest away from here 3. Two people with the same middle name 4. A group of people whose ages add up to 100 5. Two people with the same birthday (or birthday month) 6. A group of people whose shoe sizes add up to 40 7. The person in your group who lives the closest to here 8. A group of people who have attended school for a total of 38 years 9. A group of people who can spell a word by putting together the first letters of their first names 10. A group of three people who all have different colored eyes Variations ~ Ask for items such as "a 1982 coin" or "an expired drivers license" or any other items that group members may be able to find in their pockets, purses, wallets, or on themselves. ~ Add a stunt to each item on the list - for example, "Two people who have the same first and last initial must leap frog up to me". E. Mirror Game Make pairs of 2 people each. One would be mirror and other one will be Image. They should stand facing each other. The person who is the image should make moves as he/she wants. Those moves should be copied by the mirrors. If the mirror fails to copy the image, they lose. Both of them should move at the same time and should have the same posture. Rules: They should not talk with each other. Objective: To show how important communication is. Without communication is is not possible to soordinate in teamk activities
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F. Getting to know each other Purpose

This activity helps the delegates to learn more about each other by answering specific questions. You can easily bias the exercise by including relevant questions to the course or to your overall objective.

Objective
Pick a question at random and answer it to the group.

What You Need

A hat Several pieces of small papers such as non-sticky post-it notes.

Setup
Before the exercise, prepare the small pieces of paper by writing questions on them. Examples of questions are provided below: What was the highlight of your last week? What is one of your best habits? Explain one of your most embarrassing moments. What is the biggest lesson you have learned on inter-personal relationships? What piece of your cloth best represents you and why? If you were given one million pounds, what would you do with it? What is one of your worst habits? What were the qualities of your worst boss? What is your most productive time during the day? How about during the week? Fold all the papers and place them in a hat. Get everyone to sit around the hat. Ask for a volunteer to start the activity by picking up a paper from the hat, read the question and answer it to others. Put the folded papers in a separate pile. Carry on clockwise until everyone has answered. Put the pile back into the hat and start a new round. If anyone picked up a question that they have answered before, they can drop it back into the hat and pick another one. If someone doesnt feel comfortable to answer a particular question, dont push them. Respect their wish, ask them to pick another question and carry on. Continue for a specific number of rounds or a specific amount of time.

Timing
Explaining the Exercise: 2 minutes.

Activity: 10 minutes

Communication skills exercise:Use your senses Purpose

The aim of this exercise is to help participants realise how their conversations are often about themselves and regardless to other people involved. This is a useful activity to encourage active listening and helps delegates to improve their communication skills.

Objective
Delegates to talk about anything but themselves.

What You need:

A pen and a piece of paper for the listener

Setup

Split the group into pairs. One person out of each pair has to talk for 2 minutes non-stop about what ever subject they like, however they are not allowed to use the words; I, me, myself, mine or my. Both speaker and listening party are not allowed to ask any questions. The listener is not allowed to show any facial expressions such as nodding, shaking their head, smiling or frowning. Every time the speaker mentions any of the forbidden words above, the other person should draw a cross on a paper. Encourage pairs to talk about the experience at the end of the round and provide feedback to each other. Swap the speaker and listener and ask pair to repeat the process.

Timing
Explaining the Exercise: 5 minutes Activity: 5 minutes

Word Tangle Purpose

This fun and creative exercise allows participants to work within a team and brainstorm different ideas to come up with the right answer.

Objective
Team members to work together in untangling words and win a prize.

What You Need

A copy of word sheet for each team (See an example of the word sheet at the bottom of this page) A prize for the winning team such as a box of chocolate

Setup

Divide the participants into teams of 3 or 4 people. Give each team a copy of the word sheet. Explain that each team has 5 minutes to untangle as many words as they can. The team with the most correct words will win the prize. At the end of the activity, read out the correct answers to the group.

Timing
Explaining the Test: 5 minutes. Activity: 15 minutes

Word Sheet
All the words used in this word sheet are associated with the subject of Team work 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. GISBMTONIANR TACNUNIOMOMC NOTPACTIIRRAPI GEMTENCOURANE LETORANEC PESTREC CYREVITATI 8

8. TOMVATIONI 9. GINPIRSIN 10. PRATCONOEO

Answers 1. Brainstorming 2. Communication 3. Participation 4. Encouragement 5. Tolerance 6. Respect 7. Creativity 8. Motivation 9. Inspiring 10. Cooperation