Ice breakers. An informal, fun way to relax your audience and start building connections. Or. A really fast way to worry people before you’ve even begun your session.
It’s likely that even the most confident extrovert has at some point felt a degree of dread inspired by sitting in a circle of strangers, waiting to ‘share a fun fact about yourself’.
So why do an ice breaker at all? Well, if you get it right for the audience in the room, it can create energy and engagement, warm up creative muscles, help people feel more relaxed and comfortable in contributing (by lowering the barrier to participation), and help people connect with the session and each other. It just sort of… breaks the ice.
When planning your icebreaker, a good place to start is to ask yourself the following…
Do this team know each other well, or are they strangers?
What are you trying to achieve? An extreme example might be redundancies, but for heavier workshops, dial down the fun. Use the icebreaker to move you towards the outcome.
Are there any existing tensions? Is this a group in conflict? Or are there one or two voices that are normally louder than the others?
What is culturally appropriate? What will help everyone in the room feel comfortable? For example, don’t go to the pub if there are people in the group who abstain from places that sell alcohol and don’t assume that everyone can easily move around. Be sensitive to differences within the group, and mindful that some people find group work of any type intimidating.
So what is the best way to warm up your audience and begin the process of connection before a workshop?
We get asked this question a lot, and while we are experts in providing space in which to run inspiring, meaningful, genuinely useful workshops, we aren’t experts in running the workshops themselves. We’re therefore sharing some of the icebreakers our fabulous clients have told us they find effective, or that we’ve seen online, tried internally and had success with.
Ask people to imagine they are working undercover on a top-secret mission for a competitor.
The mission? To RUIN the workshop.
“How will you ensure nothing gets done and no one achieves their objectives?”
Let people list all the possible ways: from the obvious to the crazy ones.
Reflect and discuss ways to run the perfect workshop today.
This is fun, it also shifts the thinking toward success and you get a good framework for the day.
Another good one is to ask people to write down a couple of things they want to achieve from the session, and a couple of things they’re worried about.
This is a good one for introverts, it also sets an intention and also allows you to head off any concerns right from the get-go.
We often hear facilitators say they like to get people in pairs or smaller groups for icebreakers – it’s a bit less terrifying. Try pairing people up and asking them to find out one thing they have in common with each other outside of work.
You learn new stuff about your colleagues, no-one feels embarrassed about standing out, and it’s a nice wholesome start to the day.
Flying Challenges. Hand out pens and paper and tell participants to write down their personal challenges. Then ask everyone to crumple up the paper into balls and count down before throwing them in the air.
After this, everyone needs to grab the nearest paper ball and read out some of the anonymous challenges.
This can help people feel more relaxed knowing they aren’t alone in the challenges they are facing.
Another high-energy one – Inflatable beach ball questions. Using a permanent marker, write simple questions on an inflatable beach ball and throw it round a circle, having people answer the quick-fire questions. Some suggestions below, but whatever you think will work for the group…
Favourite place
Favourite smell
Preferred way to cook potatoes
What’s on your bucket list?
Favourite crisp flavour
Signature dish
Boxset binge recommendation
Best podcast
Dream holiday
Who makes you laugh?
Favourite household cleaning tip
If you could bring back any fashion trend, what would it be?
First concert you went to?
Which app on your phone do you use the most?
This one works best for teams who know each other well. Everyone sits around a table and writes their name on a piece of paper. They then pass it around, and you ask prompt questions as it keeps moving between people. For example, ‘What one thing do you value most in this person?’ or ‘What can you learn from this person?’ By the end of the exercise everyone has a piece of paper filled with meaningful things about themselves. If anyone can’t be there, post it to them as a surprise.
Finally, a really nice one, ask everyone to write themselves a postcard reflecting on the day and where they want to be in three months. They’ll all receive these in the post three months later.
Let us know what works for you!
