Refresher Training for Frontline Health Workers in Expanded ... - RHO

0.3 Additional Handouts
How to improve communication- Energizer
Communication is never as easy as it appears on paper. Many complex and
interacting factors affect the flow of information and the meaning given to it. Though
we may know what it is we want to say we may not find it so easy to recognize the
problems of the person at the other end in making sense of it. We may be
competent organizing information in a clear and logical way but we may fail to
recognize the difficulties imposed by:
- physical distance
- lack of feedback, or
- resentful attitudes
There are there exercises that are designed to alert participants to some of the
common pitfalls in communicating simple information. The following is a short test
you can use as an energizer.
Organizers Notes
i. Announce to participants that you are about to give them a short test on their
ability to follow instructions carefully.
ii. Hand out the test sheets either face down or folded in two and instruct
everyone not to look at the sheets until you say ‘Go’.
iii. Tell them they have three minutes to complete the test and that you will be
timing them.
iv. Give the word ‘Go’ and thereafter move around as if you were an exam
invigilator. If anyone comes in late ask them to sit down quickly, hand them
the sheet and tell them the test has already started and that they
have…….(whatever time is left) to complete it.
v. After two minutes announce ‘there is one minute left’ and so on after two and
a half and two and three-quarter minutes.
vi. After three minutes ask whether everyone has finished (your tone of voice
should indicate that you would expect that to be so) and if some say ‘no’ then
ask them how long they will need to do so and grant them an extension.
vii. Should anyone spot the trick and finish quickly, ask them to keep quite and
possibly observe the behavior of others in the group.
viii. Use your own judgment as to when the exercise should finish. Try not to
allow anyone to make such a fool of themselves that they feel humiliated.
You will recognize that the idea is to create a sense of outside pressure and urgency
in order to demonstrate how easily we can become distracted from the simple task of
following instructions.
Review
Ask:
Can anyone explain what happened as they did the test?
What effects did the way I handled it have on you?
What did you learn from it all?
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