Quickly review for everyone again the different labels for common non-empathetic responses and their descriptions on the flip chart.
Ask for people to think for a moment about which of the 5 non-empathetic responses they think they hear the most, then go through the list and ask participants to raise their hands to indicate which response type is the most common (they can each vote for 1).
Explain that you’re going to share a brief story of a challenge you’re facing, and then you’re going to hold up a card to indicate what type of response you want pairs to craft together, pretending they are responding in a one-on-one conversation to you.
Hold up a reaction label (that isn’t empathy) and have pairs craft a response to what you shared. Choose which labels to practice based on the earlier show of hands (prioritize the most common).
Pairs can write their responses down if they find it helpful, but this is optional (encourage them to use the notebooks they got in their participant packets). Ask for a pair to volunteer to read their response out loud.
Then ask each pair to craft/write a new response that’s empathetic instead. Ask for a pair to volunteer to read their empathetic response out loud.
Repeat the process above for at least two more reaction types, going with the 2nd most common type identified by the group. You can use the same challenge you shared before, a different one, or have a participant volunteer to share one of theirs.

Responding with Empathy

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