Fun Games That Can Improve Your Communication Skills

Yehuda Berg once said that words are the most powerful force available to humanity, something we can use to encourage or to tear down. Words carry energy. They can heal or hurt, help or humiliate. That idea sits at the center of why communication matters so much in anyone's personal growth.

If you want to do well in life, the ability to express yourself clearly is not optional. It feeds happiness, too. People who communicate comfortably with others tend to hold onto healthy long-term relationships, carry higher self-esteem, and keep a wider circle of friends around them. They also tend to be liked by nearly everyone they meet.

Why does that happen? Most of us gravitate toward people who speak well. When someone gets their point across cleanly, they read as charming, smart, warm, and easy to relate to. The flip side is harsh. A person who struggles to communicate can seem evasive or dishonest even when there is nothing dishonest about them, and most people keep their distance from anyone who strikes them as fake. Fair? Often not. But first impressions still do most of the heavy lifting.

The good news is that communication is a skill you can practice, and some of the best practice comes disguised as play. Here are a few games worth trying with other people.

Who Am I? This one leans on role playing, which is a surprisingly good way to model healthy communication. Write several scenarios on slips of paper and drop them in a hat or a bag. Each person draws one and acts it out, one at a time. Build each scenario around a specific communication technique. Some scenarios may need two or three people to play out properly, so a larger group helps: pull in coworkers, family, friends, whoever is willing. After a scene finishes, the rest of the group explains where the characters missed each other and how they might have done it better. Then the same person or group performs the scene a second time, folding in those suggestions. Keep going until everyone has acted twice, once the clumsy way written on the paper and once with stronger strategies.

Simon Says. Think back to the old childhood toy with the colored lights that you had to hit before the buzzer went off. This is the grown-up, improv version, and it needs at least two players. The point is to get you thinking and responding fast. In a bigger group, split everyone into pairs. A host calls out random things for each pair to say or do to each other, and the partners in the hot seat have to follow through. Some prompts might be silly, some flirty, some a little playful. Settle on how far the flirty prompts should go before you begin, since nobody should be left squirming or the whole thing falls apart. Run each pair through several rounds. Mostly it exists to prove that talking to each other can actually be fun.

How Much Do You Really Know About Me? Pair people up again. Each person writes down three random things about their partner. If the two have never met, that is fine. Have them write what they imagine or guess about the other person. It does not need to be accurate, but it does need to stay positive. No digs allowed. Both partners write at the same time, then read their notes aloud while the other listens without cutting in. Once a reader finishes, the partner being described gets to accept or push back on what was said and then clarify or correct it. After that, the same person offers three true and interesting facts about themselves. Swap roles and repeat, working through the whole group. It makes a solid icebreaker for just about any gathering, and it sharpens how you listen and respond.

- Dr. R. Y. Langham