This is a great activity and it really shows how hard it is to communicate with someone. It does a great job at pointing out assumptions and showing how careful and detailed you have to be with your instructions. It also shows that the listener has an important role to play. The listener must be very careful not to make assumptions and to be sure to take responsibility for what they are hearing by asking good questions.
One more thing this activity does is show how important definitions are to good communication. When I do this activity with my groups, I do it a few times and then take the time to point out some of the definitions the group has been using. For example, when they call one block the red square everyone knows which block that is. I also point out where a definition can come in handy.
For example “Stand the blue block on its side.” Well, which side? Long side, short side, fat side… how do you know? At this point, I take the time with the group to create definitions. “Okay, so when we say long side that always means this side of this block.” As you do this activity, you’ll see where assumptions are made and definitions can come in handy. In science, good definitions are vital. If somebody says, “I put the apparatus one meter from the ping pong ball.” Everyone in the world knows how far a meter is. There is a standard for meters, inches, cups, liters, ohms, joules and all sorts of measurements. Without good definitions no one would know what anyone was talking about!
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You need:
- Identical sets of five different objects for each person in your group. For example, each person in the group has the same set of five different blocks, or everyone in your group has their own fork, apple, napkin, pencil and toy car. It doesn’t matter what the items are but for the instructions below I’m going to use blocks as my items.
- Some sort of screen to allow everyone to keep their items hidden from prying eyes. I use file folders. Open them up about 90 degrees, they stand up nice and the kids can keep their stuff hidden behind them.
1. Pick one person to be the “teller”. Everybody else will be “listeners”.
2. The teller will put his or her blocks together any way he wants. Make sure no one can see how the blocks are laid out. The teller can stack them on top of one another, lay them end to end or do whatever he feels like. I highly recommend only using three blocks the first two or three times.
3. Now, the teller has to carefully tell the listeners what he or she has constructed. The teller’s job is to get all the listeners to build exactly what she has built. The teller should only use her voice to explain how the blocks look. She shouldn’t hold any blocks up or use her hands to show how the blocks are laid out.
4. As the teller describes what has been built, the listeners should try the best they can to build what’s being described.
5. Once the teller feels he or she has explained everything, he should uncover his blocks and let everyone see what he was trying to describe. Take a look at everyone’s blocks. How well do they match?
6. Let everyone have a turn being the teller.
7. For the first couple of times don’t let anyone ask any questions. It is completely the job of the teller to make sure everyone can make the same block constructions.
8. After a few tries, let the listeners ask the teller questions. Emphasize that now the listeners have a responsibility to make sure they get it right. It’s no longer only up to the teller. If they have their blocks set up wrong now, they might not have asked a question when they should have.
Well, I hope I was able to communicate how important and how difficult it is to have good communication. Whenever you write something, read something, say something or hear something, be very careful to make sure you’re not assuming something. Try to make sure your listener truly hears what you’re saying, and vice versa, try to make sure you’re hearing what someone’s telling you.
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