Posts Tagged ‘Ice Breaker games’

Briefing the Ice Breaker Game

Ice breaker games are fantastic for getting people to talk and befriend each other quickly. They bring people together that otherwise may not have the opportunity to talk.  Having a bit of fun together breaks down barriers quickly and helps people relax.   Icebreakers speed up the getting to know you process and make it easier to take a group forward. They are a trainer’s dream tool but can be used in many more meeting situations than people do!

When should you use an Ice Breaker Game?

Ice breaker games have so many uses both at work and away from work. They can be used for all ages too! You can use them to start your training sessions, sales meetings and corporate events but you can also use them to integrate your school pupils at the start of the new school year, for youth groups, club meetings etc. Virtually any group gathering could make use of ice breaker games to ensure an event gets off to a good start. I used to use them at the start of every PTA meeting.

To get your meetings off to an excellent start you should learn how to to lead an icebreaker really well. Get to know your chosen ice breaker game very well and then practise on your friends!

Ice Breaker Games

First, give an overview of the game and then step by step instructions. Start with easy  ice breaker games when you’re first starting out and then learn something a bit more challenging for established groups. Ask around colleagues and friends for their favourite ice breaker games and try those. With some great care and attention you will grow in confidence and your meetings and events will have a real buzz about them.

Ice breaker games can be quite noisy and busy affairs – that’s what they’re supposed to be! if you need to amke yourself heard you might think about investing in a whistle, bell or some attention getting device.

Try this easy ice breaker game:

Changing places

• Have everyone seated in a circle. You stand in the centre. You say
• “Everyone wearing blue change places and greet your neighbours on both sides”
• So everyone wearing blue changes places and you try and slip into one of the vacant seats. Allow a few seconds for people to greet their new neighbours
• The new person in the centre issues another command such as:
• “Everyone who drove here today change places and greet your new neighbours”
• The person in the centre slips into a vacant seat, everyone greets their new neighbours and on it goes until everyone has met lots of people and had enough!!
• Above all, have fun with this energetic ice breaker game suitable for all kinds of groups.

Sharon Naylor is passionate about ice breaker games for work, play, parties, meetings, groups and clubs. In fact anywhere people are connecting to others whether it be for the first time or even when familiar with each other. If you would like to find some great icebreaker ideas for your next training or event visit the ice breaker ideas web-site for hundreds of amazing games and fun icebreakers.

Many years ago when I was starting out in my career I worked for an adventure centre for children and young adults. The first evening was always given over to a session of Ice Breaker Games.

This was the first time I had ever come across such a concept, but since then, I have used ice breaker games to great effect in a myriad of jobs, places, meetings, training sessions, conferences, parties and corporate and social gatherings.

Ice breaker games are brilliant for breaking down barriers quickly and for helping people feel at ease with each other. Used correctly they can rapidly create an atmosphere of fun and expectation.

At the adventure centre, kids would often turn up to programs not knowing many people and some not knowing any at all. They could be anxious and excited; but some were also reluctant and detached. Our job was to ease them into the programme, allowing a sense of fun, trust and anticipation to build. We did this through the use of ice breaker games.

We started the evening seated in a circle and the instructors would always join in as equals. First we would start with a simple name game: “Hello my name is Sharon and I like tennis” and on it would go around the circle with everyone trying their best to remember people’s names. The ice breaker was simple and non-threatening and even the most reluctant could join in.

The next game might involve working in pairs spending a few minutes getting to know each other and then introducing each other to the group.

Gradually the group began to feel more at ease with each other, and began to trust us, the leaders.  From this point on, and sensing the mood in the group, we could start to include more physical and ambitious games.

The key is to start with simple, non-threatening ice breaker games and gradually build up the complexity or outrageousness as the group allows. Once the ice is broken the group will look forward readily to the main topic of the day.

There are literally thousands of ice breaker games and ideas that can help you get your next event off to a flying start; whether you are looking for a quick ice breaker to inject a bit of fun into a meeting before the more serious business begins or you are looking for a party ice breaker to transform your event into the next sizzling sizzling show stopper!

Check-out the ice breaker ideas web-site for more fun than you can handle!

I was trolling through some video stuff the other day and came across this team building activity called Wacky Races we did with some clients a few years ago. It made me laugh because the weather was quite appalling. Nevertheless everyone got on with the planning and design and had fantastic fun with the racing. In fact the weather made it really – it was so ludicrous.

This type of team activity makes a good half/full day team building session and will be a trip down memory lane when kids used to make go-karts and buggies out of all sorts of rubbish and pram wheels. Just make sure you find a good flat surface in which to race your buggies, and the decoration of the team karts is as much of the team identity process as is the building and racing.

Take turns to race the kart and don’t forget the winner’s podium, chequered flag and magnum of champagne for the winners!

For more novel team building activities and ideas visit the ice breaker ideas web-site, and don’t forget to sign-up for tons of team games and exercises too!

Nicky Carter

Last week we were in shock. We had a phone call from someone who used our team building services many moons ago, in fact it was 18 years ago, not long after we had started up as a team building events company.

Brightening up a dark corridor

Nicky is now HR Manager at Royal Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. Thinking about team building she sent us an email saying she remembered the events and were we still around? What a surprise! I visited her yesterday in delightful Tunbridge Wells and she is just the same larger than life character. Hopefully we’ll get something going with them!

Nicky showed me her “Ideas Factory” wall. It was really impressive. Invited employees work with a local artist to produce a pictorial representation of how they want to improve life and services in the borough. All ideas are discussed and many are put into workable plans. The murals and pictures are a constant reminder of what they signed up to as well as making a fantastically colourful display and brightening up an old building.

Ideas factory mural

Strikes me that this is something that many organisations could do. Input from employees is invaluable and realising their ideas and hard work makes commitment to the causes so much easier. It makes a great team building session too!

Sharon Naylor has worked with teams for more than 21 years. She is passionate about using experiential activities to motivate and inspire employees. Check out her ice breaker ideas web-site for hundreds of  ice breaker games and team building activities to turn your training programs and meetings into extraordinary events that everyone will want to be part of.

As trainers we’re often looking for novel training games, energizers and ice breakers to elevate our training programmes from dull to dynamic. training games that neatly illustrate a concept such as communication or leadership are trainer’s gold dust! Most trainers have a few of these up their sleeves.

If your training session ends with a goal setting session, here’s a really easy and effective training closer idea you can use to make the goal setting stick.

Give each person a postcard and then get them to write it to themselves, recording goals and anything significant learnt. Once the postcards have been filled out, take them and post them to the delegates in 6 months time. It’s a very handy reminder of goals set and will be a very nice surprise in 6 months time.

Sharon Naylor has tons more training games, ice breakers and energisers up her sleeves. Check out the ice breaker ideas website for hundreds of novel ideas for elevating your training programmes and making them a fun as well as a learning experience. Her blog details new training games and ice breakers every week. Be sure to check it out!

Famous Quotes

At some point during your leaderhip training programme you will no doubt be discussing famous leaders; their traits and personalities. Why not turn this into an interesting leadership icebreaker game or energizer?

Make a list of famous leaders and their quotes. Print 2 lists; 1 is your master copy and the other is cut up into strips giving each person a quote or the name of a famous leader. Their job is to match the quote to the leader and hopefully have some meaningful discussions about leadership along the way.

Here’s a list of quotes you might like to use:

• Steve Jobs  “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
• Peter F. Drucker   “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
• Theodore Roosevelt   “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” 
• Kenneth Blanchard     “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
• “Eleanor Roosevelt     “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves”
• Nelson Mandela      “When you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give others permission to do the same.”  
• Winston Churchill     “Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”
• Thomas Jefferson   “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it.” 

This could be quite a difficult task unless you choose famous quotes, but can be a great lead-in to a discussion and reflection on famous leadership styles. Once the game is over take time to really try and understand the meaning behind the words.

Leadership icebreakers are a brilliant way to start your leadership programs. They can be used as energizers too to break up the session and engage your participants.

Sharon Naylor is passionate about ice breaker games for training, meetings, away days, team building and conferences.  A quick ice breaker at the start of a meeting or event helps people relax,  injects a sense of fun into gatherings and speeds up that getting to know you stage, and ready to face the rest of the event with high energy and expectation. 

Tons more fantastic leadership icebreakers for warming-up groups  can be found on the ice-breaker-ideas web-site.

If you are running a leadership training programme or seminar you must include this fun-filled leadership icebreaker!

Ask participants to sit in a circle and choose one person to go out of the room. This person is the detective.

Appoint a leader and have everyone follow the leader. The leader might start with a hand clap, and everyone joins in in unison. The leader might then stamp feet or snap fingers or choose a different rhythm of clapping. The goal is to follow the leader seamlessly so the detective when they come into the room does not know who the leader is and their job is to work out who it is.

The team can get really good at this with practise. The key is for everyone to follow the leader without giving the game away and by staring directly at the leader. The team could wait for a ripple effect instead.. so waiting for their neighbours to change action before they do. The leader should also change movements slowly so as not to give the game away, and make movement changes when the detective is looking elsewhere.

A more advanced variation can include a change of leader by an agreed signal eg. a wink at another person.

The detective has 1 guess only. Once they have guessed another person takes on the role of detective.

You can review this exercise by:

•  Examining what made the game successful or unsucessful.
• What qualities of a leader were needed to make it happen?

Leadership icebreakers are a fun and novel way to start your leadership programs. They can be used as energizers too to break up the session and engage your participants.

Sharon Naylor is passionate about ice breaker games for work, play, parties, meetings, groups and clubs. A quick ice breaker at the start of a meeting or event helps people relax,  injects a sense of fun into gatherings, speed up that getting to know you stage and gets people ready to face the rest of the event with high energy and expectation. 

Tons more fantastic leadership icebreakers for warming-up groups and can be found on the ice-breaker-ideas web-site.

Here’s a great little ice breaker that is a variation on a game we used to play as kids. The game was called “Similarities”.

The games master instructs the group to break into smaller groups according to birthdays. Once in the birthday groups the group members introduce themselves to each other, and the largest group of same birthday scored 1 point for each group member.

Next the gamesmaster might call date of birthday and ask people to reform groups according to dates. You might want to introduce a 2 day either-side of date for this for smaller groups. If a person has a choice of two groups they get to choose which group to be a part of. Again the largest group scores 1 point per person.

Continue in this line asking groups to form and re-form according to your criteria. Each time, the group members introduce themselves to each other, and  the largest group wins a point per person. Finally, when groups have had enough and enough introductions are made, the winners are the ones with the most points at the end.

Other criteria could be:

• Pets
• Number of siblings
• Make up of siblings eg. 2 sisters or 1 sister and 2 brothers
• Place of birth
• Type of car or transport
• Age within 2 either side
• Name begins with…

I hope you have fun with this brilliant little quick ice breaker. Tons more ideas can be downloaded from my ice breaker ideas web-site. Make your meetings rock!

Here’s a great seasonal quick ice breaker game for you to try. It’s so simple  and easy!

Snowballs:

•  Get everyone to sit in a circle and give everyone a pen and a sheet of paper.
• Ask people to write an interesting thing about themselves on the paper.
• Ask them to screw up the paper and throw the “snowball” into the middle
• Mix all the snowballs up and ask each person to take a snowball
• Taking turns, each person introduces themselves and then reads out what is  contained in the snowball.
•  They then have 3 guesses to try and work out who the owner is.
• Continue round the circle until all snowballs have been matched to owners.

It’s a really simple way of finding out a bit more about each other.

For a more advanced and riskier version ask participants to write down the most interesting thing about themselves!

For more easy, simple and quick icebreakers visit the ice breaker ideas web-site

Many team building programs start by asking people to introduce themselves. This helps people to relax and to get to know each other quickly and many more meetings, group sessions, training programs and social functions would be much more engaging and enjoyable for the participant if they too were able to experience the magic of a simple ice breaker at the beginning of an event.

• the place where they were born
• their favourite holiday destination
• if you had a $million what would you spend it on?
• favourite food
• hobby

And a bit more daring you could ask people to describe:

• their favourite joke
• if they were an animal what would it be?

These simple techniques bring a bit of fun to the group and allow people to get to know others in a non-threatening way. They give people some basic and interesting information about others in the group, making it easier to make connections and talk together.

It’s easy to make up your own ice breakers too! But for tons of ice breaker ideas for your next meeting, training program, social activity or party check-out our ice breaker ideas web-site for instantly downloadable ice breaker games.