Icebreaker activities are a way to help people break down the barriers to closer personal interaction and are often used in professional settings to give people a chance to get to know each other. Studies have shown that there is a close correlation between employee fulfilment and positive relationships with work colleagues. When you consider that most people spend more time with workmates than they do with family and friends these activities deserve attention.
Icebreaker activities are used to make introductions in a fun way and make it easier to remember names and to start conversations. When done properly they can also engender a sense of community and set the tone for a meeting or other work-related session. They can also be used by facilitators to introduce the topic of the gathering in an informal way and establish expectations for what is to be achieved. It helps participants loosen up, energizes them and helps with collaboration and networking.
Following are some examples of different types of icebreaking activities that have proven effective:
• Getting to Know People – The Just One Lie activity involves participants mingling and asking questions of each other and noting the answers on post-it notes. Each participant must include one lie among answers that are true. At the end of the day the post-it notes are pinned to a board and allow participants to ask each other which lie they told. There is a more well known variant of this game called Two Truths and One Lie where people must assess three statements that a person has made and work out which one is a lie.
• Breaking the Ice – The Toilet Paper Sheets activity is a more light-hearted way to get people relaxed. The idea is to pass around a roll of toilet paper and ask people to tear off as many sheets as they would normally use. Hilarity ensues! At the end people must count how many sheets they have and then reveal an interesting fact about themselves for each sheet they have.
• Kicking Off Meetings – The One Word Exercise is an activity in which each person needs to pick a phrase that is central to the topic of why they are meeting and have everyone write down or say a word that comes to mind related to it. Once everyone has chosen a word discuss the results. This is a way of exploring different points of view about a common challenge.
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