Icebreakers

Can you think of a more timely topic right now than breaking ice?

I hope none of your pipes are frozen, that you take special care when driving (or walking) on black ice and that you follow all the safety tips for keeping your house warm during this icy season. 

But, no, that isn’t the kind of ice ice I’m talking about (baby).

Tomorrow I am scheduled to lead a planning meeting and one of the key tasks a facilitator faces is to encourage the participants to engage in conversation. People warm up to this type of discussion slowly – especially first thing in the morning. Sometimes you need an icebreaker activity (or two) to get the chatter going.

For this event, I have decided to break out the beach ball! This evening, I notice it looks to be sagging a bit (we’re all sagging under the arctic chill). I will add a little hot air to pump it up in the morning.

The beach ball ice breaker – which is one of my favorites – will also serve as a wish and a symbol for all of us who are pining for the return of sun and surf. But, more than being a mere conversation piece, the ball will hopefully serve as a conversation starter.

When you’re doing this type of ice breaker, you start with a list of questions designed to get the participants to reveal something about themselves. The goal of this exercise is to help everyone feel comfortable sharing information. You will draw on this level of conversational engagement later in the session when you begin covering the topics which serve as the expressed purpose for the meeting.

To make this work, you grab a Sharpie marker and the ball and you write numbers from one to…on the ball (in this case, I have 40 questions, so I wrote 40 numbers and then repeated them to ensure the ball was fully covered).

The facilitator starts the game by throwing the ball to one of the participants. That person catches the ball and they call out the number that falls closest to their left thumb. Let’s say it’s “number 17.” The facilitator reads question 17 and the person answers (it might be “What was the name of your first pet?” “If you were deserted on a desert island, what two books would you take with you?” “If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?).

You go around the room and everyone has a chance to catch the ball and answer a question. Tomorrow, I may even go around the room twice. If the group seems especially quiet, I may throw the ball to myself, first, and answer a question to show “It’s not so painful.” Considering this is a talkative group, I may not have too much trouble getting the conversation started. 

Over my years of work in public relations, I have attended many (and facilitated a few) similar sessions so I have had the chance to engage in numerous ice breaker games. Having spent many of those years of working on a college campus, I had lots of opportunities to participate.

In addition to the beach ball game, some of my favorites are:

Two truths and a lie

In this game, you tell your fellow competitors three facts about yourself but only two of them are true. One is not factual.

The toilet paper game

You are told to take a few squares from a roll of toilet paper. What you don’t know – until later – is that for the number of squares you take, you have to tell the group that number of facts about yourself.

The name game

This is really helpful if you have a group of people who don’t know each other. I used it a lot when I was coaching young baseball teams and none of the players knew each other. You toss a ball around a circle and as you catch the ball, you say your name. Then, the second go-round, other people have to say the name. It’s a good one.

In any case, these folks know each other, so there’s no need for that game. I think, at the end of the day, the goal of the beach ball will just be to…ahem…get the ball rolling on some good brainstorming.

And, on a cold day at the end of the cold week, maybe it will also help us a bit to think of warmer times and sunny days to come.

JG

Originally posted 1/23/2014