Activity Communication skills- The name game

Overview

Instruct each participant to think of a famous person and write it secretly on a post it note. Attach the post it to the head of their partner. A fun exercise that shows the importance of asking the right type of questions.

Time /15 Minutes

Instructions and Set up 

 Issue post-it notes.

Split the group into pairs.

Instruct each member of the group to think of a famous person and write it secretly on the post it. Attach the post it to the head of their partner.

In round 1 – take it in turns to ask closed (yes/no) questions. You may continue to ask questions for as long as you receive a yes response. When the answer is no, swap over. E.g. typical questions:

• Am I alive
• Am I male
• Am I a sports person etc?

After 10 mins, stop the activity. Some people will have guessed others will still be playing.

For those that have guessed asked them to come up with another famous person and repeat the exercise (those still guessing can continue).

In round 2 – they must take it in turns to ask one Open or TED (Tell, Explain, Describe) question (with the exception of ‘what is my name’ or similar!). If they mistakenly ask a closed question they have lost their turn.

After 3 or 4 minutes close the activity and debrief.

Discussion questions 

 –  Which were the easier questions to think of? (normally round 1)
 –  Which questions made it easier to guess who I was? (definitely round 2)

What’s the point from this activity? 

The Key message from this activity is that  Despite the obvious usefulness of Open/TED questions (Tell, Explain, Describe questions) for gathering information we for some reason find it easier to ask closed questions so as much as we think we asked the right questions – beware!