Conversation exercises

Exercise # 1

Questions to start a conversation

Examples of questions to start a conversation

SourcePink, Daniel: To sell is human: The surprising truth about moving others, location 2716. http://www.amazon.de/Sell-Human-Surprising-Influencing-ebook/dp/B00AO3K05S/

Where do you come from?

What do you do?

Exercise # 2

What is interesting for you?

What’s interesting for you regarding this topic?

½ minute per person

Exercise # 3

What is important for you?

What is important to you regarding this topic?

½ minute per person

Exercise # 4

What is your ideato solve the problem?

½ minute per person

Each of you, please communicate 1 idea to solve the problem.

Exercise # 5

What success experience can you share?

Share a success experience. 1 minute per person

Each of you, please share a success experience, you had in your life.

Exercise # 6

3 minute chat withthe person next to you

What is important to you in what has just been presented?

3 minute chat with the person next to you

Further questions

For you, what was a key take-away from this presentation? What can you use from the presentation? What do you think about x? How do you feel about this?

What do you think we should do next? What might you do differently going forward? How can you contribute?

What do you need to know more about? What do you feel uncomfortable about regarding this?

Further questions

Inspiration sources

Ib Ravn: Facilitering, p. 93-94.https://hbr.org/2014/08/four-ways-to-fix-the-qa-session/http://legacy.hbr.org/tip/2014/10/30/turn-your-boring-qa-session-around

Exercise # 7

First impressions game

Step # 1

Each of you, please walk over to a person you do not know.

Please have a 1 minute conversation with that person.

Step # 2

Using post-it notes, please write first impressions about the person and put them on his or her back. Use 1 post-it note per impression.

Examples You have a beautiful smile. You are a great listener.

Step # 3

Please move to another person, you don’t know, and have a 1-minute conversation with that person.

Step # 4

After each of you has spoken with 5 people, please sit down.

For each person in the room, the person on his/her left reads out loud what is written on the post-it notes on his/her back.

Exercise # 8

How can you help?

Step # 1A group of 10-20 people, who work with each other, gather.

Step # 2Each person makes a personal request for help to the others.

Step # 3Group members use their knowledge, resources, and connections to help / grant the request.

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/givers_take_all_the_hidden_dimension_of_corporate_culture

Exercise # 9

Appreciative inquiry exercise

Part A. 2 minutesWhat is the best experience you’ve had with X?

Part B. 2 minutesWhat did you do to make this experience really good?

Part C. 2 minutesWhat would you wish was possible in relation to X?

Part D. 2 minutesWhat can you do to make your wishes come true? Please be concrete.

Exercise # 10

Poster exercise

4 participants each place a poster in each corner of the room.

The other participants in the room split up in each corner.

Each of the 4 participants with posters talks about his/her idea for 5 minutes.

Round # 1. 5 minutes

Using post-it notes, each participant places questions on any poster.

Round # 2: 5 minutes

Round # 2: 5 minutes

In groups of 2 persons, participants discuss questions with each other.

Exercise # 11

How can we improve the questions?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/09/11/learning-to-ask-the-right-question-2/

Step # 1The workshop moderator suggests a topic to work on.Example: Innovating farming.

Step # 2Participants develop questions.

Step # 3Participants improve questions.

Step # 4Participants prioritize questions.The moderator defines criteria for prioritizing questions.

Step # 5Participants and moderator decide on next steps.

Step # 6Participants reflect on what they have learned during the exercise.

Exercise # 12

Ideas from 2 consultants

Preparation

Participants are named as A, B, and C persons respectively.

Groups of 3 persons are made. Each group consists of the following persons: One A Person. One B Person. One C Person.

Part # 1. 2 minutes

Person A talks about a challenge he/she has at work.

Persons B and C listen.

Part # 2. 5 minutes

Persons B and C give feedback to person A by speaking to each other, i.e. they ignore person A.

Examples: What would happen if he/she.…? I’m thinking about whether he/she needs to do activity B in that way? Why doesn’t he/she….? Here’s what I would do:…..

Person A writes down what he/she can use.

Part # 3. 5 minutes

Person A picks out what he or she thinks is the best idea.

Person A discusses this idea with person B and C.

Exercise # 13

Creating multiple choice questions

Each of you, please create 3 multiple choice questions about course related topics.

Each question should be relevant. be concrete, simple, and clear. have minimum 3 different answers

of which minimum 1 answer is correct.

Part A. Create multiple choice questions. 5 minutes

Please pass the multiple choice question to the person on your left, and let him/her do the multiple choice test.

Part B. 2 minutes

Please hand the multiple choice test, you have just taken, to the person on your left, and ask him / her to correct the test.

The person correcting the test gives a short feedback to the person, who did the test - arguing for why the answer of the question is right or wrong.

Part C. 5 minutes

Exercise # 14

What do we have in common?

SourcePink, Daniel: To sell is human: The surprising truth about moving others, location http://www.amazon.de/Sell-Human-Surprising-Influencing-ebook/dp/B00AO3K05S/, location 1230.

Step # 1

Groups of 3 – 4 people are formed.

SourcePink, Daniel: To sell is human: The surprising truth about moving others, location http://www.amazon.de/Sell-Human-Surprising-Influencing-ebook/dp/B00AO3K05S/, location 1230.

Step # 2

Participants in each group find out what they have in common.

Exercise # 15

Individual reflection exercise

2 questions to reflect individually on for 3 minutes

Question # 1When you think about what you have worked on, what is most clear in your mind?

Question # 2When you think about what you have worked on, what is the most useful for you in your life at the moment?

Further individual reflection questions

What do you think is the essence in this meeting?

What challenges does each one of you have in this area?

Adapted fromRavn, Ib: Facilitering, p. 96.

Exercise # 16

Take home message

Each one of you, please reflect individually for 2 minutes about what you will take home from this event, i.e. what you personally can use.

Exercise # 17

Individual feedbackassignment

How was the event? Please draw a line of your choice

+

-

Start Finish

What, in particular, did you like?

Further inspiration

http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/creativity-exerciseshttp://issuu.com/frankcalberg/docs/brainstormingdisneyhttp://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/six-thinking-hats-9989762http://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/brainstorming-the-scamper-methodhttp://www.slideshare.net/frankcalberg/facilitationmoderation-of-meetings