Apply these communication skills games in your organization to improve employee communication
Effective communication is essential to the success of an organization. Employees need to communicate with each other, management, clients and other stakeholders in the business for them to effectively play their roles. Failure to communicate effectively leads to conflicts, missed deadlines, and poor quality work, all of which affect the performance of the organization. However, there are communication skills games that employees can engage in to improve their communication skills. Some of the main ideas include:
Blindfold game
The game helps to improve listening and communication skills between partners. The players need their partners to enable them to successfully navigate the course. The game is played by scattering objects and furniture in a room and players grouped into pairs. One player is blindfolded and guided by the other to navigate the objects and move across the room. Once on the other end, the partners exchange roles.
Phrase ball
The game equips participants with the ability to think fast in case they come across moments when they may be required to speak without preparing. The participants are organized into groups of about 5 individuals, and they form a circle. The members throw a phrase ball in turn and the person who catches it says a descriptive phrase such as ‘large pizza’ ‘nice clothes’ and the like. After all the participants can create a phrase fast, the game can be changed slightly where the next person who catches the phrase ball completes a phrase and starts a new one.
Get it together
The game aims at building voice recognition and listening skills. The participants are divided into pairs and one person in the pair is blindfolded. The person who is blindfolded should follow the cues given by the partner to get some items from the center.
Continuing telephone
The game helps to improve teamwork as well as speaking and listening skills. It comprises whispering a phrase into a person’s ear who then whispers to another up to the last person. The person who hears the phrase last then writes what they heard. The group then checks how much the phrase has been altered as it moves from one person to another.
Four at a time
The game helps to strengthen non-verbal communication since it does not require talking. It requires a large number of participants who sit in chairs. Four people must stand for 10 seconds at most and then they sit, and four others then stand. Since the participants are not allowed to talk, they don’t know who is going to stand.
Team game
The game helps to strengthen communication skills of the participants. It requires the employees to act fast and create small teams based on the instructions given. For instance, an instruction can be ‘create a team with those with similar cars.’ Once the team is formed, the participants can sit down or shout. The game encourages the participants to open up and communicate, a skill that can be incorporated into the work environment.