101 Ways to Improve Customer Service: Training, Tools, Tips, and Techniques

Chapter 7. See Saw: Visual Perception

Goal

To discover the relationship between what is seen and what is perceived. Participants will identify objects based on verbal descriptions.

Time Required

Approximately 30 to 45 minutes

Group Size

Eight to twenty participants

Materials

• One sheet of blank paper and a pencil for each participant

• Eight to ten common objects (for example, stapler, stuffed animal, plant, globe)

Process

1. Prior to the session, place half of the objects in a front corner of the room and half in a back corner. These objects are in addition to other items normally found in the room.

2. Distribute one blank sheet of paper and a pencil to each participant.

3. Direct all participants to face the front of the room. Ask for a volunteer.

4. Explain that the participants will be trying to identify specific objects that will be described by the volunteer. The name of each object is to be written on the paper provided, numbered sequentially.

5. Tell the volunteer to look at the front corner of the room where you placed the additional objects (define the limits of the “corner”) and describe everything that he or she sees there, without naming any of the actual objects, their composition materials, or their uses. The descriptions should be in terms of line, shape, color, texture, size, apparent weight, translucence, ...