This activity comes from the classic TV show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” It serves as a fun ice-breaker, but also encourages team members to actively think about questions they have been asked by customers, and how best to respond to these.
To play, ask for several sets of two volunteers.
Then invite a set to the front, prompting one of the two to ask a question a customer has asked him or her before.
Then the other volunteer must respond with a question—the entire conversation should be composed of questions for a minute.
Ask the team a few questions:
- In what situations are questions most effective?
- What other ways can we gather information from our customers?
- What specifically would have made these conversations flow more easily?
- Does it sometimes feel difficult to ask customers lots of questions? In what situations?
- How can we make asking questions easier?
If you like, you can end the activity by showing a clip of this game from Whose Line Is It Anyway, to illustrate the different ways that questions can work (This clip is PG-rated – if your organization is more conservative, you may want to omit this step.)
