How conversationally challenged and verbally impaired do we need to be before turning to conversation starter cards? This is a common prejudice in many social circles. People could easily argue that only a confident person would dare and know how to properly use conversation starter cards. They can be a fun tool and the object is eventually to mediate the relation between people, helping them grow familiar to each other until the cards become obsolete, unnecessary.

There are many types of conversation starter cards and the offer is very diverse and it can range from humorous to mostly intimate questions. What you should start by understanding is that conversation cards are mainly just a game to play with your friends, with new colleagues but even with your family. You would be surprised how much more there is to know about your family members which we all tend to take for granted and end up in shock not from what we find out but more so from the fact that we never knew that thing about them.

There’s no question of surrendering your ego when you decide to let some cards lead your conversations if you understand that it is just a game At the same time, don’t underestimate their power to bring about full-on revelations.

Which is the best way to introduce cards to a group of people and what is the best approach to using them? Things can go terribly wrong if you don’t use them wisely and you can start by letting everyone know that it’s normal to raise your eyebrow in the beginning but that it’s more important to enjoy yourself and have fun with it. The object is not to find out your most intimate thoughts and weaknesses. The object is just to find out more about the way you relate to others and about how different you perceive the same experiences.

The only rule is to be honest. Opening true conversations and always listening to the response is basically the rulebook for the game.

The cards can help out in a lot of circumstances. For one thing they can improve family life by bringing the members together for at least once a week. It’s a known fact that children from families who take the time to talk and listen are always better prepared to deal with life’s difficulties and don’t resort to other ways of relief like drugs and alcohol. In an organizational environment the cards can be used as a cohesion strategy in team building and  as an ice breaker for various training programs. They can be highly effective and can enhance further communication.

Examples of frequent topics or questions that can come up in such games are: “Are you attracted or repelled by people who are different? Talk more about your reasons”, “If you could go back in time and live in any era what would it be? Why?” and so on.

As you can see the questions are harmless but can become very powerful. There’s no harm in trying them out and do pass them on  to someone else when you think you’ve used them up.