Managers spend a lot of time communicating. The quality of their communication will determine the effectiveness of their management. ‘OARS’ summarises four key skills for verbal communication and in this session, participants will explore what ‘OARS’ skills are.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
By the end of this session, participants will be able to describe the components of the ‘OARS’ skills.
THE ACTIVITY
What are ‘OARS’ skills?
To answer this question, you will give the participants a brief description of ‘OARS’ and then get them to do a reading activity. They will read information about ‘OARS’ and reflect on it and you will discuss what they read afterward.
Display the slide titled – WHAT IS ‘OARS’?
Tell them that:
‘OARS’ is an acronym that describes four verbal communication skills.
‘OARS’ skills are used in fields such as counseling and coaching to understand people and respond to them properly.
Managers can use ‘OARS’ to become better verbal communicators.
Allow them to read the information on the screen and after 2-minutes let them know that they are going to do some more reading about ‘OARS’ and reflect on what they read.
Direct them to the section in their workbooks titled – WHAT IS‘OARS’?
Each person should read the information in the section and do the accompanying activity. Give them 10-minutes to do that.
When the time is up, stop them and get their attention. Review the activity they did by telling each person to type a summary of their understanding of ‘OARS’ in the chat window.
Allow a maximum of 5-minutes for the chat activity and encourage everyone to participate. As they are writing their answers, read through them quietly so you don’t distract them.
After they’ve finished, thank them and read out all their answers. Make sure you appreciate and acknowledge each person after you’ve read their answer.
‘SHUSH’ is an acronym used by volunteers at the listening charity, Samaritans, to remind themselves of the key qualities involved in listening to people they support on the phone properly. The Samaritans are well known for their great listening abilities and understanding ‘SHUSH’ can help us learn from what they do really well. The aim of this training activity is for the participants to be able to practice using ‘SHUSH’ in small groups. Two previous activities would have helped the participants understand what ‘SHUSH’ is (access that activity here) and see what ‘SHUSH’ looks like in practice (access that activity here).
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
After going through this activity participants would have experienced how to use ‘SHUSH’ skills in practice.
THE ACTIVITY
How can you listen effectively with ‘SHUSH’?
Tell them that:
We’ve explored the effective listening skills defined by the ‘SHUSH’ acronym.
We have seen how to use some of the ‘SHUSH’ skills.
Now, it’s time for you to have a go at practicing the ‘SHUSH’ skills in small groups.
Direct them to the part of their workbooks titled – TIME FOR YOU TO LISTEN THE ‘SHUSH’ WAY.
Give them 5-minutes to read the information there and after they have finished reading, check that they understand what to do. If necessary, explain what they need to do again so they understand.
Put them into small groups of threes using the ‘breakout’ rooms feature.
Give them 30-minutes to do the practice activity.
During the practice time, join each breakout room to see how they are doing. Give them guidance and encouragement if necessary to make sure they do the practice.
When the time is up, stop them and bring everyone back to the main room. To review the practice activity, ask them these questions:
How did the practice session go? (You should get an answer from at least one person in each group)
What lessons did you learn from the practice? (You should get an answer from at least one person in each group)
Ask them for any other comments they want to make about the practice session and listen to them.
‘SHUSH’ is an acronym used by volunteers at the listening charity, Samaritans, to remind themselves of the key qualities involved in listening to people they support on the phone properly. The Samaritans are well known for their great listening abilities and understanding ‘SHUSH’ can help us learn from what they do really well. The aim of this training activity is for the participants to be able to identify what ‘SHUSH’ looks like in practice. A previous activity would have helped the participants understand what ‘SHUSH’ is. You can access that activity here.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
After going through this activity, participants will be able to identify how to use ‘SHUSH’ for effective listening.
THE ACTIVITY
WHAT DOES ‘SHUSH’ LISTENING LOOK LIKE?
The aim of this section is to help the participants see what ‘SHUSH’ listening looks like in practice. To do this, the participants will take part in two demonstrations. You (the facilitator) will be the listener in both demonstrations. The first one will demonstrate poor listening and the second demonstration will show better listening using some of the ‘SHUSH’ behaviours. You will need a volunteer from the group to be the speaker you listen to in both conversations.
Tell them that:
Now that we know what ‘SHUSH’ listening is, let’s see what it looks like in practice.
We are going to do two demonstrations that show what is or isn’t ‘SHUSH’ listening.
Please, we need a volunteer to play the role of the person speaking in both demonstrations while I play the role of the listener.
Ask for a volunteer and thank the person who volunteers. Then direct everyone to the part of their workbooks titled – ‘SHUSH’ IN PRACTICE.
Display all the information needed for the demonstrations on the screen and go through it with them. Show them all the parts of the workbook that will be used for the demonstrations which include,
First conversation
Space for observer’s notes – first conversation
Second conversation
Space for observer’s notes – second conversation
After that, clarify that they understand what is going to happen. Then move on to do the first demonstration.
While doing it, tell everyone except you and the volunteer to put off their cameras. This will make the volunteer feel more comfortable as they won’t see anyone looking at them.
Both of you should then go through the script for the first conversation.
After you finish the demonstration, they should put their cameras back on.
Ask the observers for feedback. What you want them to tell you is how Helen used or did not use ‘SHUSH’ skills.
After listening to the observers, ask the volunteer whether they agree with the observers and listen to the volunteer’s views too.
When you finish, move on to have the second conversation and do exactly what you did for the first conversation.
After the second conversation, ask for feedback in the same way that you did for the first conversation. This time they should identify that Helen used some of the ‘SHUSH’ skills. Below are some of the ‘SHUSH’ skills that Helen used which they should have identified (Depending on their feedback you may decide to share this information with them).
Show you care (noticing Jermaine’s body language and asking him a question, taking Jermaine to her office for a conversation, giving Jermaine her attention)
Have patience (using pauses and silence, not interrupting, not giving up after he said, ‘he’s fine’)
Using open (and other types of) questions (Helen used a combination of open, closed and reflective questions. The reflective questions reflected what Jermaine said):
What’s wrong with your daughter? – open question
Is there any way I can help or support you with this? – can be either an open or closed question depending on how Jermaine responds.
So, taking some time off may help you? – reflective question
Oh, Angie’s struggling with it too and she’s handling it even worse than you are?’ – reflective question.
Do you want me to book some time off for you now? – closed question?
Is there any other way I can help? – can be either an open or closed question depending on how Jermaine responds.
Say it back (Helen used reflective questions to say back what Jermaine told her. She also used phrases like, ‘your daughter’ and ‘that must be hard for you’ to reflect back feelings and what she heard Jermaine say’)
Have courage (Helen demonstrated courage by not letting go of her concerns and having the conversation with Jermaine. Phrases like ‘that must be hard for you’ showed she was willing to connect with how Jermaine was feeling)
After that, ask them for any comments and/or questions they have. Listen to them and respond if necessary.
Thank them again for their participation in the activity and end the session.
‘SHUSH’ is an acronym used by volunteers at the listening charity, Samaritans, to remind themselves of the key qualities involved in listening to people they support on the phone properly. The Samaritans are well known for their great listening abilities and understanding ‘SHUSH’ can help us learn from what they do really well. The aim of this training activity is for the participants to be able to describe and understand what ‘SHUSH’ stands for.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
By the end of this session, participants will understand what ‘SHUSH’ stands for and be able to describe what it means.
THE ACTIVITY
What is ‘SHUSH’?
To answer this question, you will give the participants a very brief description of ‘SHUSH’ and get them to do a reading activity. They will read information about ‘SHUSH’ and reflect on it and you will discuss what they read afterward.
Display the slide titled – WHAT IS ‘SHUSH’?
Tell them that:
‘SHUSH’ is an acronym that describes five effective listening behaviors.
Volunteers at the charity, Samaritans, use it to remind themselves to listen properly to people.
You can see what ‘SHUSH’ stands for on the screen.
Allow them to read the information on the screen and after 2-minutes let them know that they are going to do some more reading about ‘SHUSH’ and reflect on what they read.
Direct them to the section in their workbooks titled – LISTENING WITH ‘SHUSH’.
Workbook content – Listening with ‘SHUSH’
Each person should read the information in the section and do the accompanying activity. Give them 10-minutes to do that.
When the time is up, stop them and get their attention. Review the activity they did by telling each person to type a summary of their understanding of ‘SHUSH’ in the chat window.
Allow a maximum of 5-minutes for the chat activity and encourage everyone to participate. As they are writing their answers, read through them quietly so you don’t distract them.
After they’ve finished, thank them and read out all their answers. Make sure you appreciate and acknowledge each person after you’ve read their answer.
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