ICF NYC Event: “Yes And” Your Active Listening Skills

What do you hear?

Thank you for everyone who joined the ICF NYC "Yes And" for Active Listening workshop on Sept 27. It was so much fun!

For those that attended, or anyone who's curious, here are the applied improv exercises we used: Elephant in the Room, Mirroring, 5 Things, One Word at a Time Story, Word Definition.

In our debriefs, we explored how these exercises related to Competency 6 of ICF PCC Markers of Active Licensing skills as well as coaching skills in general.

Elephant in the Room (a version of "That's Gonna Happen") is an improv version of David Rock's Clearing the Space, so we started there — naming what feelings / barriers / blocks / challenges to active listening we wanted to leave in the room.

Mirroring — A classic nonverbal improv exercise where everyone does their best to mimic the movements of the facilitator. This exercise was great to highlight how often we leap to make assumptions or anticipate what will happen next. Also a reminder to stay attuned to a client's energy shifts and nonverbal cues.

5 Things — A perennial improv favorite, small breakout groups named 5 things. The “things” didn't need to be real or to make sense. This exercise is, in part, about staying attuned to the words a client uses, and staying curious about them. Also about staying flexible and playful (a through-line in all of these exercises). Forever "caramel" will now be the color of fall.

One Word at a Time Story — A classic co-creation improv exercise that highlighted how coaches and client co-create meaning; also that the client's story cannot be anticipated. Participants in this exercise must be patient, as the story unfolds, without correcting or interrupting, and listen actively to co-create the story in real time — just like coaches must be listening actively to clients as they lay out their story and meaning word-by-word.

Word Definition — This was our last exercise of the session, and we played it as a group, lightening-round style. Participants created new words in the chat (or words that mean different things in different languages) and other participants gave new definitions of those words and used them in a sentence. This exercise was a great example of mind maps in real time; staying curious about words that client uses; even how client’s perceive the world.

Such a fun 90 minutes of connection, learning, listening, playing, and laughter!

Want an event like this for your group, contact me!