Possible outcomes:
• Practices listening in the moment.
• Practices non-judgemental listening.
• Practices giving and taking control.
Overview:
Participants all pair up with another player and have a conversation in which they speak in unison. Each player mirrors their partner’s speech in the moment.
Time: 5 – 15 min
Number of participants: 2 – 200
Game flow:
Ask participants to pair up with another player. Tell them that they are going to have a conversation and that the listener must mirror the speaker’s speech as she speaks. Ask a volunteer to help you give an example. The aim of the exercise is to speak at exactly the same time, so if the speaker notices that the listener is struggling to keep up, the speaker must slow down. The result sounds a bit like Dory speaking whale in the movie “Finding Nemo”.
Debrief questions:
• What did you notice while playing the game:
• How was your listening different than usual?
• What made the exercise difficult?
• What could you do to make it easier?
Got this game from the book Playing Along: 37 Group Learning Activities Borrowed from Improvisational Theater by Izzy Gesell