Team Talk

FACE Team Building Activity, 2008-2009

Communication: Effective Listening Skills

Opening: Team Talk
Team Talk: Like last year, we will include a team building packet with each issue of FACE to
FACE News. As your FACE team continues to build and strengthen communication skills this
packet presents activities and ideas to encourage that growth. Good communication skills
involve listening and talking. When teams talk, and listen they work well together.
Coordinators: It is your responsibility to lead and take part in Team Talk. Please take the time
to prepare and facilitate this session. Consider how you might adapt this activity to fit your team
and its needs. You know your team best, their comfort level and the style of communication.
Adjust the activity accordingly.
Getting Started:
Materials needed: radio/CD player, pencils/pens and handouts in this packet: FACE Team
Talk: Listening (yellow) and Active Listening (blue).
Read and understand the content of this packet before conducting the team activity.
Turn on a radio or other music. (Make it an effective distraction, but not too obviously
different from your usual team meetings.)
Goal: To become aware of active listening techniques, practice them, and apply them to
effective team communication and mutual understanding.
Content/Discussion: Draw a BugEffective Listening Skills
Opening Ideathe importance of effective listening
Coordinator:
Read or ask team member(s) to read the excerpt pages from Horton Hears as Who,
included in this packet. Horton had many difficulties as he worked to save the people in
Who-ville, because he was the only one who heard their cries for help. No one else could
hear anything and therefore didnt value the tiny dust speck the Whos lived on. Finally,
the smallest Who of all added his voice and then folks other than Horton were able to
hear and became convinced that the dust speck had life on it and needed to be saved.
Ask, What do we learn from Horton about active listening as a communication tool?
Listening encourages and values everyones participation. Through listening we gain
new information, ideas, facts, others points of view and mutual understanding. A
supportive environment that listens to new ideas and creativity improves teamwork. A
persons thoughts and ideas are important, no matter how small.

ActivityDraw a Bug
Coordinator:
Distribute pencils/pens and the yellow paper included in this packet, with Team Talk:
Listening face up.
Give the instructions: I am going to describe a drawing that I have of a bug. Without
seeing this drawing, you are to draw the bug that I describe. You may not ask questions
about the bug.
Read the description of the bug using no eye contact.
Discuss the experience. After everyone is finished ask the team to hold up their
drawings. Ask why the pictures look so different from each other. Werent you
listening? Ask how everyone felt about the experience.
Prepare to repeat the activity. Were going to try this again. What needs to be different
so you can listen more effectively? (Some things people may say: turn off the music,
speak more slowly, let us ask questions to clarify, let us see your face as you read.) You
might ask why they didnt make these requests the first time around.
Read the description again. Tell the team to turn their papers over to Team Talk: Active
Listening. As you read, use the changes suggested by the team. Allow questions.
Discuss the second experience. Ask team members to hold up their second drawings. Do
they look more like each other? What active listening skills did you use this time? What
helped your listening be more effective?
Show the sample bug. Why do the bugs still not look exactly like the sample? Is that
OK? We all bring our own experience to our communication, to what we hear.
Application:
Handout
Coordinator: Share the Active Listening Techniques handout. Give team members a few
minutes to review the list.
Action
Coordinator: Lead/Team Members respond: Discuss ways the team can apply their learning about
active listening.
What is an active listening technique that you think is especially important?
What are some techniques that you see other members of the team use well?
What is a technique that you want to improve? Ask each team member to share a
listening goal for the month.
How will the use of some of these techniques help our team communication?
How will the use of some of these techniques help in our work with home-based and
center-based children and adults?
How can we use this activity and the handouts in Parent Time and/or FACE Family
Circle?
Summary: Active listening is a communication skill that is vital to effective team
communication and to communication with FACE families. It takes practice.
Close with discussing the experience. After you complete the activity, it is necessary to spend
time as a group discussing he experience. Part of any team-building process is sharing what has

been learned and experienced; what member liked and disliked and how they felt while
participating

FACE Team Talk Listening Activity: Draw a Bug

Describe the bug.

The bug is round.
The bug has eight legs, grouped in pairs, with four legs on the left and
four legs on the right. In the pairs, one leg is longer than the other.
The bug has two eyes on top of the body.
The bug has two squiggly antennas.
The bug has two pea-pod shaped wings.
The bug has a spot next to each wing.
The bug has a triangular stinger on the bottom of its body.
The bug has two feelers on each foot one longer than the other, both
coming from the same side of the leg.
The bug has a round mouth, placed between the two eyes.
The bug laid five square eggs to the left of the stinger.

FACE Team Talk: Listening

The Bug

FACE Team Talk: Effective Listening

The Bug (Take two)

Active Listening
Active listening is an intent to "listen for meaning", in which the listener checks with the
speaker to see that a statement has been correctly heard and understood. The goal of
active listening is to improve mutual understanding.
When interacting, people often are not listening attentively to one another. They may be
distracted, thinking about other things, or thinking about what they are going to say next.
(The latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements).
Active listening is a structured way of listening and responding to others. It focuses
attention on the speaker. Suspending ones own frame of reference and suspending
judgment are important in order to fully attend to the speaker.
From Wikipedia

Techniques:
Focus on the speaker.
Watch for non-verbal cues. These may be more important than what
is said.
Listen to how something is said. Inflection, intonation and strength of
the speakers voice may communicate more than words alone.
Eliminate distractions.
Give encouraging non-verbal cues. Nodding and leaning toward the
speaker show interest.
Encourage the speaker by using words such as, Yes, I see, and
go on.
Ask questions to clarify what is said.
Check your understanding by repeating or paraphrasing what you
think you heard.
Respond when appropriate.
Control emotional responses.
Listen to the entire point without interrupting.
Give the speaker time to think as well as talk.
Summarize what was said.