Communication dynamics: 2 examples

The communication dynamics are a great investment for companies. With not too many resources and a time range that never exceeds one hour, positive behaviours can be reinforced, the development of new skills can be supported and deterioration in corporate communication can be halted.
Poor communication is at the root of many problems and can lead to errors, quality problems, conflicts, penalties and missed opportunities.
All this can be avoided by raising the issue in time communication dynamics such as the two we propose in the following lines, which help develop much-needed skills, to building trust and developing good relationships between team members.

Communication dynamics 1: learning to listen

Learning to listen is an essential part of any communication. and this activity helps to develop active listening skills in the team, in a period of time ranging from half an hour to forty-five minutes. It consists of:

1. Encourage participants to communicate how they feel about a topic, which can be chosen at random from different worksheets that have been prepared before practice. The topics should be interesting, but not controversial.
2. For one of the simplest and most effective communication dynamics in existence, it is enough for people to come together to listen to a team member express his or her opinions.. The environment is important, so choose a quiet, well-lit room with sufficient privacy.
3. After you have finished your presentation, someone else should summarise what you have heard, without judgement.

This activity strengthens the listening skills of team members. Listening is an incredibly important part of good communication, but it is a skill that people often ignore in team activities.
In addition to active listening, this type of communication dynamics also encourages the group to maintain an open attitude.. Therefore, at the end of the activity, it is worth talking to the team members and asking them how they felt about participating in this exercise.

Communication dynamics 2: team building

In this activity, team members must act quickly to form small teams according to the instructions they receive. This is one of the types of communication dynamics that strengthen the skills of expression and help to put oneself in the place of others, to empathise with the rest of the team.
Allow about fifteen minutes, never more than an hour, and follow these instructions:

• Explain to the participants who must form a team according to the proposed rules. For example, some instructions could be to form a team with people who have the same number of children as you or with partners who like similar types of music.
• When the team is considered to be formed, it can be communicated or simply agreed that all members of the team sit down.
• What is important is act swiftly, get groups to form as quickly as possible.

This exercise can be repeated as many times as you like. It is important to discuss with participants at the end of the activity how they could learn to open up and communicate more effectively in future work situations.
Both of the above communication dynamics can be applied to get a new group off to a great start, but they also work well with an existing team., if the problems that could be holding back its development need to be addressed performance.