Tip #45 Build Listening Skills with Dominos
To demonstrate the importance of listening skills in dealing with customers via telephone, Shari Petrak, a liability claims training specialist, Nationwide Insurance Colombus, Ohio, pairs off participants and designates one person in each pair as the “sender” and the other as the “receiver.”

The sender is given a diagram showing a configuration of 10 dominoes. The receiver gets a matching set of dominoes. A barrier such as a notebook is placed between the two. The sender’s job is to verbally communicate the pattern shown on her diagram to the receiver who tries to duplicate it. The sender is not permitted to see the receiver’s work. Petrak allows six to eight minutes for the exercise, depending on the complexity of the arrangements.

She follows up with a discussion of barriers to clear communication, such as using terms unfamiliar to the other person, giving instructions too rapidly, or failing to listen carefully to questions.

More creative training tools like these will be presented during the concurrent session How to CTTize Your Training. For more information on The Bob Pike Group Training and Performance Solutions Conference.