Colourblind - Online Team-building Kit

Description

This Online Version of the Colourblind® game develops effective communication and team building skills and helps virtual teams recognize problems caused with imprecise communication and language. It is a verbal problem solving experiential learning activity that is used to improve communication & active listening skills, and is played in a small group.

The activity can be facilitated using any simple online meeting software such as Zoom, Google Hangout/Meet, with video cameras switched off to ensure total dependence upon the quality of the Group's verbal communication. The group works together to gather information that will allow them to solve a puzzle. A number of team and individual skills are required to be successful: information and group management, effective listening and questioning, strong chairing skills, the ability to clarify and summarise and the need for feedback to ensure understanding.

This is an online subscription product. The price includes 1 year of access to the online product.

You will receive emailed instructions from RSVP Designs on how to access the software. It may take 1-3 days to receive this email, depending on the day of the week that the order is placed.

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

The activity itself is simple to brief: Virtual Teams of ideally 6 - 14 members gather and share knowledge to identify 2 coloured abstract shapes that are missing from a complete set.

The communication processes involved are much more complex and take participants through increasingly sophisticated patterns of active listening until the task is achieved.
Individuals draw on their experience and descriptive skills to explain to each other abstract shapes that they can see on their screens, but cannot share with the others. They use feedback and clarification skills to ensure that their understanding is accurate.

ORIGIN

The original, physical Colourblind® product game was developed in 1991 when our colleague, Dr.Geoff Cox, designed and delivered the first week of an induction training programme for Air Traffic Control cadets. Each cadet faced an intensive, demanding training programme in which teamwork and communication skills would be fundamental to success. Each, ultimately, would accept professional responsibilities which allow absolutely no margin for communication error, misunderstanding or ambiguity. Colourblind® enabled participants to rehearse every communication skill which Air Traffic Controllers need and to highlight the problems and pitfalls which communication breakdown inevitably brings when there is no visual common ground. Since 1991 Colourblind® has been used worldwide across languages, cultures and business backgrounds, to focus on the fundamental skills of great communication, and now the physical version is also supported by an online app, and this virtual version, making it possible to work with co-located or virtual team participants.

WATCH A DEMO

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Develop effective communication, team building, and problem solving skills
Set up and manage an effective communication system that everyone understands and can use efficiently.
Develop a dialogue which will lead to a common understanding of abstract concepts.
Deliver a successful solution to the problem they face.
To consider how to improve both communication systems and the quality of the messages which those systems support
To practise effective listening and refine questioning skills
To develop flexibility in communication skills, changing and adapting language to meet the needs of others
To understand communication is culturally specific
Ensure we are using shared references to achieve common meaning