The Conflict and Communication Activity Book: 30 High-Impact Training Exercises for Adult Learners

298 Pages·2003·5.43 MB·English

by  Bill Withers

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Conflict and
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Communication
Activity Book
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Conflict and
T
Communication
Activity Book
30 High-Impact Training
Exercises for Adult Learners
&
Bill Withers Keami D. Lewis
AMACOM AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Withers, Bill.
The conflict and communication activity book : 30 high-impact training
exercises for adult learners / Bill Withers and Keami Lewis.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8144-7167-6
1. Conflict management—Problems, exercises, etc. 2. Communication in
organizations—Problems, exercises, etc. 3. Interpersonal
communication—Problems, exercises, etc. 4. Conflict management—Study
and teaching—Activity programs. 5. Communication in
organizations—Study and teaching—Activity programs. 6. Interpersonal
communication—Study and teaching—Activity programs. I. Lewis, Keami.
II. Title.
HD42.W578 2003
658.4′053—dc21 2003000648
© 2003 Bill Withers &Keami D. Lewis
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Although this publication is subject to copyright, permission is granted free of charge to photocopy or download and
print any pages by reader that are required in the text. Only the original purchaser may make photocopies. Under no
circumstances is it permitted to sell or distribute on a commercial basis material reproduced from this publication.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
AMACOM, a division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
We gratefully dedicate this book to our families.
Keami would like to thank her husband, Ralph Lewis II and her children,
Ralph III and Bianca Rae, for their love and kind support while writing this book,
and her mother, Dorothy Pitts Jones, and her parents-in-law, Joyce Lewis and Ralph
Lewis Sr., for the many lifelong lessons they have shared.
Bill is grateful for the love, support, and patient interest of his family—Julia
Hawrylo and Michael Withers and his parents, Charles and Jeanne Withers.
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Contents
Preface...................................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgments................................................................................................xi
TEACHING ABOUT CONFLICT AND COMMUNICATION
WITH GAMES AND EXERCISES
Why Playing Games in the Classroom Is Serious Business..............................3
Creating a Successful Learning Environment....................................................5
Some Good Questions about Conflict..............................................................11
CONFLICT AND COMMUNICATION EXERCISES
MY WORKSHOP STARTS IN FIVE MINUTES
1.Three Similarities and One Difference.......................................................18
2.A New Leaf....................................................................................................23
3.Right Listening..............................................................................................26
4.Building Bridges...........................................................................................33
5.Climbing Life’s Ladders...............................................................................36
6.Draw a House ...............................................................................................41
7.Energy Jump..................................................................................................46
8.Meet the Press..............................................................................................49
9.Not “I”.............................................................................................................54
10.Sentence Relay..............................................................................................62
11.The Squares Game........................................................................................68
12.What You See Is What You Get...................................................................73
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viii THE CONFLICT AND COMMUNICATION ACTIVITY BOOK
EXERCISES TO PREPARE IN ADVANCE
13.Four Roads to Resolution............................................................................81
14.A Time You Felt Different.............................................................................88
15.Centering under Pressure............................................................................95
16.How Soon Is Possible?...............................................................................101
17.I Lean...........................................................................................................105
18.Minefield......................................................................................................108
19.Missing the Meaning..................................................................................113
20.Say It, Shout It, Skip It...............................................................................116
21.Telephone Tales..........................................................................................121
22.Think Fast: Three Variations .....................................................................126
23.Timed Square..............................................................................................131
24.Values Clarification.....................................................................................137
25.What’s in a Word?.......................................................................................143
26.Workers and Managers...............................................................................150
FULL-DAY WORKSHOPS
27.Diversity Dialogue.......................................................................................157
28.Hold Please.................................................................................................163
29.The Synthetic Culture Lab.........................................................................168
30.Write Your Own Case Study.......................................................................173
TRAINER’S TOOLBOX
Exercise Matrix..................................................................................................188
Sample Agendas................................................................................................190
Handouts, Flipcharts/Overheads, and Charts................................................204
Tips for Leading Group Activities....................................................................267
Fun Ways to Break into Groups.......................................................................268
Additional Resources........................................................................................273
Index...................................................................................................................281
Preface
T
his book will help you to zero in on conflict and communication issues in your company,
school, organization, or community. Teachers, trainers, facilitators, and students can
follow the step-by-step directions in this book to guide adult learners through these creative,
highly interactive activities.
We asked trainers around the country, “What would make a book of communication and
conflict exercises more helpful to you?”
The responses included requests to:
➤Provide easily understood theoretical or background information on the topic, not just
exercises.
➤Categorize the exercises based on how much prep time may be needed.
➤Make it easy to look up exercises by learning objective.
➤Include options to adapt the exercises to different sized groups, where possible.
➤Incorporate detailed instructions for each exercise—everything from setup to debrief.
➤Note the usual responses participants have to the exercises or discussion questions,
including any potential surprises and how to handle them.
➤Dig deeply by focusing on one topic area—such as the learning environment.
Conflict and Communicationcovers all of these bases. It features the top thirty proven activities
selected from the authors’ “tried-and-true” lists collected from trainers and teachers working
in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
Use this book for everything from quick exercises you can do “on the run” to a step-by-
step guide to daylong workshops that highlight key communication and conflict areas. You
can easily copy any of the handouts, overheads, and flipcharts by turning to the Toolbox
section in the back of the book.
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