Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Don’t you just love it when the kids go back to school and we are all returning to work after the long summer holidays and the Christmas offers start pouring in – Christmas cards and Xmas gifts; Christmas parties; Christmas travel; party venues; Christmas food (the supermarkets have already stocked up) etc. etc. In fact we have just bought chocolate coins for our treasure hunts from the local supermarket.

Uggh.. I find it really annoying.. corporate Christmas stuff has been coming through the post for months even before summer. Me, I want to linger with the fine summer days for as long as possible. I don’t want to think about Christmas now when there’s 3 months to go!

This year we’ve been innundated with corporate Christmas stuff well before the summer holidays: “Get your corporate parties booked before it’s too late.” “Limited space available – book your venues now!”

If you want to avoid the ostentatious corporate Christmas party scene you might consider running one yourself in your offices or local pub. Rope a few friends in to help you and have an evening of traditional party games and ice breakers. Nothing beats traditional games for good wholesome fun!

Develop team spirit by asking each person to bring an icebreaker game or party game so you don’t have to do it all yourself. Think:

• Pin the tail on the donkey
• Musical chairs
• Charades
• Pass the Parcel
• Secret Santa
• Christmas bingo
• The Chocolate Game
• Forfeits

Most people will know how to play these games – if not be sure to leave a comment and I’ll explain or you can go to our web-site ice breaker ideas  where we have hundreds of great ideas for party ice breakers and games. So don’t forget the party bags and run a party to remember!

Do you bring people together for a reason? Bringing people together and making the reason you bring people together a great success, cannot be left to chance. No matter what your event, whether it be for a party, reunion, corporate function, youth group, sports group or business meeting, using a well chosen ice breaker game can relax people and really get them on your side. So then making the rest of the meeting or event a much easier proposition to handle. When people are enjoying themselves and having fun they are much more amenable!

On Thursday, I am attending a programme for business leaders at my local university. It’s a first meeting for 30 people who don’t know each other and lo and behold we’ve been asked to bring something for an ice breaker we’re going to do – Show and Tell – one of my favourites. It’s so simple and easy;

Show and Tell

Bring an item that represents you and your business and then tell everyone else by way of introduction why the item is so significant

Be ready to be amazed! It’s so quick and easy and will introduce people to one another in a fun way whilst breaking down barriers quickly

There are more free ice breaker games and downloadable collections on our ice breaker ideas web-site.

This morning there was definitely more than a sniff of autumn in the air. The kids are back to school and our attention will turn to closing down the shutters and stocking up on firewood. The onslaught of winter slowly approaches…

This reminds me of one of the best parties I ever attended. I say attended, but actually we jointly threw the party, shared with another company in our dilapidated mansion house set of offices.

Some of you may know of Newton House, Dinefwr Park in Carmarthenshire, West Wales? It is currently in the hands of the National Trust, but not that many moons ago it was privately owned and rented out as offices to local firms. When we started our business 20 years ago it was the only place in the locality where we could find office space to rent. The room was shabby and damp, and the only saving grace was that it was huge and we had the run of the whole place. And as a bonus we had a turret as a storage room!

Reportedly the house had several ghosts. A maid apparently threw herself to her death from our office window ( high second floor) after the mistress of the house discovered her having an affair with her husband. Now the house is subject to many TV programmes and ghost hunts - but I can tell you in the 2 years we worked there when i was often on my own in the whole house – I never heard or saw a single thing. And this is an isolated building, surrounded by parkland and woods. At that time there were no outside lights and even the corridor lights were on a timer, so you would often find yourself feeling your way along the corridor, if you mistimed your trip to the loo!

Anyway back to the party… It was Christmas 1990 and we were chatting to the guy in the office next door one day and somehow agreed to share a Christmas party. With two disparate sets of people we had to come up with some ice breaker ideas to get this party to work.

Being in the events and team building business it didn’t take long to realise that our spooky, collapsing mansion would be the perfect setting for a murder mystery type ice breaker game. We had the run of the whole building, including dark, rotting cellars and star-gazing rooftop. We started to get excited about the possibilities.

Quickly we had drawn up a plan of the whole house and committed it to a big board, a bit like a Cluedo board. When guests arrived they were split into teams and we played the board game, shaking the dice and moving from room to room. Each time teams landed on a room they set off with flashlights to visit the room in the house. The house was in darkness and at its nighmarish best. Teams gingerly entered rooms to find hidden clues and chilling audio greetings added by our media friends next door.

What fun a hoot! Everyone absolutely loved this ice breaker game and didn’t want it to end. It was meant to be a party icebreaker to get people interacting and having fun, but it became the whole focus of the evening and has been talked about ever since. It was quite simply one of the best parties ever! And it’s a game we have since used for many of our corporate events and private parties ever since.

If this story has inspired you, you may want to visit our web-site to find more creative ice breaker ideas and games for your parties, events, reunions, team meetings and social and work functions. If you are also interested in running this game for yourself for Christmas or Halloween, or any other time please get in touch or leave me a comment.

Ice breaker fun

What’s in a Name?

Icebreaker literally means “to break the ice”. “Icebreaker” was taken from the Russian icebreaker ship that was used to “break the ice” in the Arctic, making it easier and safer for other ships to follow.

Similarly, an ice breaker used before a training, or learning and development day, paves the way for learning to take place and an icebreaker at a party quickly helps people get to know each other and removes that awkward getting to know you stage.

Here at Incredible Ice Breaker Games and Ideas we use ice breakers at the start of just about every event. They really help to lighten the atmosphere and get everybody onto the same level.

They can take the form of quick and easy ice breakers, taking only  a few minutes or more themed exercises linked to the rest of the day’s event.

Whatever you use icebreakers for, make sure they are conducted with good intentions. They should never be played with the intention of making people feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.

Download a copy of our” Top 10 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Using Icebreakers”

Anyone can use ice breaker games to bring fun to an event, liven up proceedings and quickly disperse that awkward getting to know you stage.  Whether you find yourself in charge of organising a wedding, family reunion, meeting , function or charity event, ice breaker games are an invaluble way of helping people to feel relaxed more quickly and comfortably. Use them at the beginning of a gathering of people and help people socialise quickly.

Use ice breaker games as energizers part way through a conference or meeting. They help maintain interest and excitement within the meeting and help people keep focussed. They keep people’s attention and prevent boredom from setting in.

Think also about using them for youth groups, schools events, charity meetings etc. – in fact anywhere people are coming together for a common purpose.

Take a look at our great selection of ice breaker games to enhance any event

When I was in my twenties I had several jobs working with youth groups: camp counsellor in the USA; youth worker in London and Outdoor Activities Instructor in Wales. In all these jobs I used ice breaker games extensively, because:

• they were so fantastic at getting the group to gel and me to gel with them
• they are fun, and quickly get people laughing and smiling
• they really set the day up well and you can then ease your young people into the rest of the day’s session

I had hundreds of icebreaker games and I could literally pull them out of a hat at a moment’s notice.Over the years, neglectfully, I had forgotton many of these games until now .  With a lot of persuasion from folk who know me, I’ve compiled as many as I could remember into my ice breaker games book for youth, but sadly there are a few that, annoyingly, I can’t quite remember.

 Can you help me?

Does anyone remember an icebreaker game called “Jenny Bloggs” or “Owl and the Pussy Cat?” If you do let me have the details and I’ll send you some great ice breaker games that you can use for your youth groups. Or if you have any other great games that I can add to my collection I’ll do the same. Please leave me as much detail as possible in my comments box – thanks

For more great ice breaker games and ideas for youth groups visit  ice-breaker-ideas.com

Here’s a neat little ice breaker that can be done in pairs or in small groups. It’s a getting to know you exercise which will accelerate that introductory phase.

 Ask participants to share, as a child, what they wanted to be when they grew up. Spend about 5 minutes sharing and asking questions and then swop over.

This can be a very powerful exercise for people who have not re-visited their childhood ambitions. Were these goals reached? When did they change? How many achieved their childhood goals?

Ask if anyone would be willing to share with the rest of the group?

2 Minute Review of The 80 Minute MBA

 This week I attended the 80 minute MBA at the B F I IMAX, London.

 Leaving at 7am, 20 of us, from various businesses around South Wales, travelled by coach through snow blizzards and rain for 4 hours to reach London. Arriving at the BFI for midday there was just enough time to take a quick trip on the London Eye, and have noodles at Wagamama – both excellent. I highly recommend a trip on the London Eye, midweek in January – there were – hurrah – no queues which made up for the slightly dingy weather. Nevertheless we had the capsule to ourselves and the views were good enough.

 Onto the institute , and I have to confess I had signed myself up to this trip with absolutely no prior knowledge whatsoever about what I was about to experience though I had assumed the title to the event pretty much gave it away.

 The crowd looking mainly young business types and the auditorium was packed perhaps with upto a 1000 people – there were barely any spare seats

 The start was rather underwhelming; a film clip and a bit of music, no brash lights and a crash, bang wollop of an entrance for the rather staid looking middle-aged presenters: Richard Reeves and John Knell. I thought they looked rather nervous and started quite shakily. With a packed audience at £150 a head they needed to pack a punch

The presentation started with a lot of banter between the 2. They went through areas they would cover and gave quick dismissal to the areas they perceived of lesser importance; economics and accounts. A massive digital clock was counting down the precious 80 minutes.

 Part way through, I couldn’t decide whether I was being entertained or educated. I guess it was a bit of both but the entertainment side lacked any kind of “punch” or “sock it to them” statements. It was quite a gentle meander through various aspects of the MBA.

 The areas to whch they gave the greatest weight and respect were to:

 ®     Sustainability

®     Leadership

®     Culture

 At least the first 10 minutes was spent on sustainability and how they predicted that all companies would really have to pay attention to this is the coming years. M&S’s Stuart Rose was hailed a hero for bringing this to our attention.

 There was a good section on leadership. We were told that there are 5 books on leadership published everyday, and after Charismatic, Balanced, Living, Courageous, Spiritual, Resonant, Primal, Servant, Liquid, Strategic, Down to earth, Authentic and Coaching leaders, what on earth would we need next? After months of studying successful leaders we are told to forget about the above and focus on the 4 areas below:

•  Where we’re going (strong direction and vision)
•  What’s going on (know your business and staff inside out)
•  Who am I? (successful leaders know their strengths and weaknesses and are often humble about themselves but intensely ambitious for the   business)
•   How to build a strong team ( Knowing their limitations they build a strong talented team around themselves)

 The section on CULTURE rand many bells:

   People work best when freer and with more flexible working arrangements

   People stay at a company because of their colleagues and leave because of their managers

   People are most productive when happy

 So this is what I came away with in 80 minutes, plus the 80 minute MBA certificate! Did I come out buzzing, inspired with all guns blazing? Definitely not, though I was slightly reassured that if the above was true, then there didn’t seem to be any magic ingredients in the must-have MBA.

 Did I think it was value for money? Well if I’d paid £150 out of my own pocket , then NO. I think I’d have been rather disappointed

 Anyway see for yourself http://the80minutemba.com/

 or get their  International Bestseller “The 80 Minute MBA”