10-Minute Communication Exercises for Small Teams

Most communication problems on a small team are not big fights. They are small misses. Someone heard "Friday" when you said "Thursday." Someone had a good idea and never said it. Someone passed on half a message and the other half got lost.

You can practice fixing those misses in 10 minutes. Below are three short exercises. Each one practices one skill: listening, passing on details, and sharing the airtime. Run one at the start of a meeting. Then ask the group to try one small thing that week. That last part is what makes it stick.

Why short and often beats long and once

A three-hour workshop is nice. But people forget most of it by next month. A 10-minute exercise every week or two keeps the skill fresh, and it costs almost nothing.

It also helps the team feel safe to speak. Google studied its own teams in a project called Project Aristotle. The top thing that set strong teams apart was psychological safety, which Google describes as a shared belief that the team is safe for taking interpersonal risks. Small, low-stakes practice is one way to build that. Nobody gets in trouble for a bad summary of a story about their favorite breakfast.

Exercise 1: Say It Back

Purpose. Practice listening to understand, not to reply.

Time. 10 minutes.

Group size. 2 to 16 people, in pairs. With an odd number, make one group of three and let the third person be the observer.

Materials. A timer and a few easy topics on cards or a board. Keep them light: "a job you had as a teen," "the best meal you ever ate," "a place you would like to visit."

Setup. Pairs sit facing each other. Decide who speaks first.

Instructions.

1. The speaker picks a topic and talks for 90 seconds. The listener does not speak at all.
2. The listener then has 30 seconds to say it back. No opinions, no "me too." Just the main points.
3. Start with "It sounds like..." and end with "Did I get that right?"
4. The speaker says what was right and what was missed.
5. Switch roles and do it again.

What to say to start

"For the next 90 seconds, your only job is to listen. You will not get to share your own story. Your partner will check if you got theirs right."

Discussion questions

• Speakers, how did it feel to be fully listened to for 90 seconds?
• Listeners, what was hard about staying quiet?
• What did you miss when you said it back? Why do you think you missed it?
• Where at work would "Did I get that right?" save us time?

A way in for everyone

Some people find it hard to talk on the spot. Let them speak from a few notes, or let them be the observer. The observer watches one pair and writes down one thing the listener got right and one thing they missed.

The following week

Agree that for one week, when someone gets an important instruction, they say it back in one sentence before they start. At the next meeting, ask: "Did saying it back catch anything?"

Exercise 2: Sneak a Peek

Purpose. See how details get lost when a message is passed along, and practice describing things clearly.

Time. 10 minutes.

Group size. 6 to 16 people, in teams of 3 or 4.

Materials. Building blocks, such as a box of toy bricks. Each team needs enough to copy a small model.

Setup. Before the meeting, build a small model with 8 to 12 blocks. Hide it under a box or in another room. It should be the same distance from every team.

Instructions.

1. One person from each team goes to look at the model for 10 seconds.
2. They come back and have 25 seconds to tell their team what they saw. They may not touch the blocks.
3. The team builds for one minute.
4. A different person takes the next 10-second look. Repeat.
5. Stop at 6 minutes, or when a team gets it right. Then show the model.

Expect at least one team to build something that looks nothing like the model. That is fine. The model is only blocks. The lesson is in how it went wrong.

What to say to start

"One person sees it. Everyone else builds it. Sound like work? Go."

Discussion questions

• What details got lost between the look and the build?
• What helped the most: colors, counts, or comparing it to something?
• Did your team ask the looker questions? Did that help?
• Where in our real work does one person "see the model" and others have to build it?

A way in for everyone

Not everyone wants to rush to the front or build with their hands. Give those people the timekeeper job, or let them be the team's question asker. The question asker's job is to ask the looker one question each round, like "How many red ones?"

The following week

When someone passes on a message from a meeting, a customer, or a boss, they include three details: what, who, and by when. At the next meeting, ask for one example where the three details helped.

Exercise 3: One Turn Each

Purpose. Share the airtime so every voice gets heard, not just the fastest one.

Time. 10 minutes.

Group size. 3 to 8 people. With more, split into two circles.

Materials. One small object to pass, like a pen or a ball. A timer.

Setup. Sit in a circle. Put one simple question on the board, such as "What is one thing that slows our team down?"

Instructions.

1. Only the person holding the pen may speak.
2. Each person gets up to 45 seconds. Then they pass the pen to the left.
3. Nobody speaks twice until everyone has had one turn.
4. Anyone may say "pass," and the pen comes back to them at the end.
5. After one full circle, the leader sums up what was said in two or three sentences.

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Union College studied 699 people in small groups. One thing linked to smarter groups was how evenly they took turns talking. When one person did most of the talking, the group did worse. This exercise makes even turns the rule for 10 minutes, so the team can feel the difference.

What to say to start

"Today the pen is the boss. If you are not holding it, you are listening. Yes, that includes me."

Discussion questions

• Did you hear anything you had not heard before?
• How did it feel to wait your turn?
• Who usually talks the most in our meetings? Who talks the least? (Answer without naming names.)
• What is one way we could share the airtime in our regular meetings?

A way in for everyone

Some people think better in writing. Let anyone write their answer on a card and have the leader read it out. A "pass" is always allowed.

The following week

At the next team meeting, the leader speaks last on any open question. At the meeting after that, ask: "Did we hear from more people?"

Which exercise to pick

Your team's problem	Try this	One habit for the week
People hear things wrong	Say It Back	Say important instructions back in one sentence
Messages get lost along the way	Sneak a Peek	Pass on what, who, and by when
The same few people do all the talking	One Turn Each	The leader speaks last

Run one exercise. Do the weekly habit. Check in at the next meeting. Then, in a week or two, try the next one.

Common mistakes

• Treating it as a break. Say the purpose out loud before you start. One sentence is enough.
• Skipping the debrief. The exercise takes six minutes. The talk takes four. Do not cut the four.
• Letting the leader talk first. If you go first, people will copy your answer. Go last.
• No follow-up. Without the weekly check-in, it was a game. With it, it was practice.

Where this fits

If you want a longer exercise on giving clear instructions, try Back-to-Back Drawing. It takes about 20 minutes and pairs well with Say It Back. And if your team keeps talking past each other because people simply work in different ways, a DISC assessment can help everyone see why.

Sources

• Google re:Work, Guide: Understand team effectiveness. Project Aristotle and the definition of psychological safety.
• MindTools, Team Building Exercises: Communication. The "Just Listen" exercise, which Say It Back shortens. MindTools notes that the original source of the exercise is unknown.
• Collaboration Toolbox, Effective listening in teams, hosted by MIT. Steps for clarifying, paraphrasing, and summarizing, including sentence starters like "It seems like."
• Dinamicas Grupales, Sneak a Peek. The 10-second look, 25-second description, and one-minute build.
• Carnegie Mellon University, Group Think. The 2010 study by Anita Williams Woolley and colleagues on collective intelligence and even turn-taking.

The 90-second timing in Say It Back, the One Turn Each exercise, the options for different ways to take part, and the weekly habits are our additions.

About the author. Jay Olivo is an author, keynote speaker, coach, and transformational leader, who by profession is certified by Maxwell Leadership and a Certified Professional Maintenance Manager (CPMM). More about Jay.