Directions
1- Hand-out one A4 size paper to each participant
2- Tell participants that we will play a quick game to prove a couple of facts about communication and that you will be giving them a series of instructions about what to do with their paper and that you will be doing the same instructions with yours simultaneously.
3- Ask everyone to hold their paper and close their eyes
4- Give the following instructions, pausing after each instructions to give everyone a chance to catch up
5- “Fold your sheet of paper in half”
6- “Tear off the upper left hand corner”
7- “Fold it in half once more and tear off the upper right hand corner of the sheet”
8- “Fold it in half again and tear off the lower left hand corner of the sheet of paper”
9- Ask participants to now open their eyes and inspect what they came up with.
Discussion and debrief point
– Hold your shape up for everyone to see and make the point how different their shapes are from your shape even though you gave very simple and clear instructions
– Observe how everyone’s shape is different, point out to the variety of the shapes, even though you gave the same instructions to everyone.
– Ask the group how come none of the paper’s resemble yours?
– Point out the importance of two way communication in the workplace which is highlighted by this simple exercise since it was a one way communication and they didn’t ask any questions.
