This Decoding Emotions activity is useful if you are running a workplace training session on body language or nonverbal communication.
The exercise takes around 25 minutes and involves participants working in small groups. Each person has a different role, with the aim of working out how someone is feeling from the way they speak, move, and use their facial expressions.
It’s also a good opportunity to discuss why we sometimes misunderstand other people’s emotions.
How to Use the Decoding Emotions Activity
In this Decoding Emotions Activity, the aim is for your participants to have the chance to practice identifying emotions by observing facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice. It’s a fun and easy way to build emotional awareness and improve communication skills, making it ideal for team workshops or personal development.
How Do You Run the Decoding Emotions Activity?
1. Timeframe
I recommend allowing 25 minutes for this activity.
You can easily adapt it, though, to be 20 minutes or 30 minutes in length as needed.
2. Number of Participants
Ask participants to form groups of 4. If you have an odd number of participants, then you can also have a group of 5 as needed.
If you have a group of five, the extra person can act as an observer and help lead the discussion afterward.
3. Getting Started with the Activity
Ask the participants (employees you are training) to assign a role to each person in their group, so that each person covers a different role.
There are four roles to be assigned, and these are:
- speaker
- face decoder
- body decoder
- and the speech decoder
The Speaker Role
This person will select one emotion and talk about a time when they experienced this emotion quite strongly, trying to express this emotion nonverbally as they talk.
They must not mention the emotion they have chosen, as the others will have to guess it.
So, they will explain what happened, but not how the situation made them feel.
For example, if their friends organized a surprise party for them, they would not say, ‘I opened the door and I was surprised to see everyone there!’.
Instead, they will say something along the lines of, ‘I opened the door, and all my friends were there! It was incredible!’
Note to the trainer: Recommend to the participants that they should choose an emotion and a story that they are comfortable talking about.
They should avoid anything traumatic or too stressful for them.
The Face Decoder Role
Their role is to carefully observe the speaker’s facial movements and try to decode the emotion through the expression of the face.
For example, were the upper eyelids lifted in surprise?
Did the jaw drop?
They should also take notes on what they see.
The Body Decoder Role
Their role is to carefully observe the speaker’s body movements and try to decode the emotion being spoken about.
For example, what was the speaker’s posture like?
Were they gesturing with their arms?
They will also need to write down notes on what they see.
The Speech Decoder Role
Their role is to carefully listen to the sound of the speaker’s voice and try to decode the emotion being expressed.
The most important thing they will need to focus on is the actual sound of the voice, such as volume, pitch, emphasis on words, etc.
They will also need to write down notes on what they hear.
4. Start the Conversation
Give participants 5 minutes to assign the roles and for the speaker to decide what they will be talking about.
Then, start the conversation and give them 5 minutes for the speaker to tell their story.
At the end of the speech, give participants 10 minutes to share feedback within their groups.
Each decoder will share their observations with the others to try and guess the speaker’s emotion.
5. End of Activity Class Discussion
At the end of the activity, allocate 5 minutes to share each group’s experience with the whole class.
Some questions you can ask your participants to facilitate the whole class discussion are:
- What did you find challenging?
- What was easy?
- What did you learn?
This is often where participants realize how easy it is to misinterpret nonverbal signals. Remind participants that facial expressions and gestures don’t always mean the same thing to everyone, so it’s important not to jump to conclusions.
In practice, tools such as a structured communication checklist can help teams distinguish between genuine communication issues and other underlying factors.
You could also use our What Influences Nonverbal Communication training activity to discuss why people’s body language can vary depending on their personality, intentions, and surroundings.
If you want to try some other exercises involving facial expressions and gestures, you can also take a look at our 12 body language activities for adult training.
How Can You Run the Activity Online?
If you’re running this activity online, you can use breakout rooms to divide participants into smaller groups.
Participants can write down their ideas by using an online whiteboard, a chat, or an online tool, such as Lino or Padlet.
Once the group activity is over, bring the participants back to the main room for the whole-class discussion.
Teaching Nonverbal Communication Skills
Activities like this are typically used within a broader communication or nonverbal skills session, where different exercises build on each other.
In addition to this Decoding Emotions activity, you can find other activities, exercises, and full teaching notes for teaching managers and employees in the workplace nonverbal communication skills by clicking the banner below:
>> View the Body Language / Nonverbal Communication Training materials
For more activities and exercises, explore our Workplace Communication Guides for managers, HR professionals, and trainers.
