What I learned form the Game ...

Before the activity, we were discussing among the team members how this game would be helpful or informative other than discovering the person with better acting skills. It’s difficult for many to act annoyed, fascinated or deferential when they are not. Obviously, when someone feels irritated, he/she can express emotions of irritation, anger or frustration. But during the exercise as I was witnessing my own and others' struggle, I realized the main purpose of this game is to show the importance of self awareness and the ability to know how people perceive you. I didn’t have difficulty decoding emotions, but apparently I wasn’t very successful at encoding emotions as my group members would presume a wrong emotion from my body language, voice tone and facial expressions. At the end of each round, it was interesting for me to know what particular body language led my group members to decide on the specific emotion. One of the group members noted that I had a half way smile when I was trying to express annoyance. I wasn’t aware of my smile, thanks to my sales job in which you become an expert to hide all your emotions behind a not-always-genuine smile.

In this exercise we learned that even the smallest unconscious gesture of a hand or facial expression may convey an emotion that we don’t want to express. According to the “How to be Appropriately Assertive” article, even our posture will affect the perception that others have of us. This exercise was very helpful to know how people read your emotions and how you should manage your feelings in professional and personal relationships.