Life Coach Training

Module 2 - Exercise: Conversation Activation

ABOUT THIS EXERCISE

 

Every person is fascinating.  This exercise is meant to bring us to a much stronger conclusion of that fact.

 

Not everyone is a born conversationalist, but everyone can learn to start conversations and to keep them going.

 

If a person says that they have nothing to talk about with another person, then either:

 

1. They don’t see the value in the other person to ask probing questions.

 

2. They aren’t being very creative in asking questions.

 

There are millions of life questions that any individual has never been asked.

 

CONVERSATION ACTIVATION

 

In this exercise, we’re giving you some conversation starters.

 

You will:

 

1. Contact a friend, family member or co-worker and ask if you can practice asking them questions
You can choose to do this with one individual, but it is okay if you do it in a small group of 3-5 people.

 

2. Don’t just run through all of the questions on the list.  Try asking a question, listening for important, interesting things and asking them to unpack it. See how long you can go with a single starter question.

 

3. Finally. take note of the dynamics of conversation and how different it was from regular conversations.

 

4. Ask each individual for feedback as to what they felt was different and how they enjoyed the experience.

 

What thoughts and dreams do the following examples trigger in you?

 

Conversation Activation (PDF)

 

EXAMPLE of where you can go with questioning:
 

Children and grandchildren you want to have:

 

• What do they look like?

• What kind of personalities do they have?

• What are they known for?

• What kind of characteristics do they get from you?

• How are they different from you?

 

Professional dreams

 

Financial dreams

 

Creative dreams

 

Books to read

 

Events to attend

 

Subjects to research

 

Things you’ve always wanted to

 

Places you want to visit

 

Experiences you want to have

 

Cultural food experiences

 

People you want to meet

 

Countries you want to visit

 

Hobbies you want to

 

Kind of spouse you want to have

 

Things you want to have

 

Things you want to buy

 

CONCLUSION:

 

How far were you able to go with a single trigger question?

 

Did you enjoy this exercise?

 

Were the people in this exercise more interesting than you thought?

 

 

What was the feedback from the people you interviewed?  Was it positive or negative?  Would they do it again?