Human Bingo
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Yesterday I attended the Induction day of a program at the local university for small businesses. It's all about sharing ideas and best practise and growing your business. Hopefully we will be awash with ideas and inspiration soon.
I was pleased to see that this programme had 3 icebreakers on the agenda. Everyone took part and soon the atmosphere went from stifled to relaxed and everyone was joining in and having fun. So the icebreaker games did their job!
The icebreakers were all easy: "Show and Tell" which I mentioned in a previous blog - everyone was asked to bring along something which represented their company. Everyone was asked to do use the object and had 2 minutes to say why it represented their company and a bit of explanation about their company. A few people brought brochures but their were many creative and humorous contributions too! - light bulbs, books, sheep wool, parasitic worms in formaldahyde, and condoms to name just a few!!
Rather less problematic for the squeamish "Human Bingo" followed:
It's easy - just get a load of interesting facts together - about 12 for a group of 20 would be ideal. Things like:
- I was born outside the UK
- I love chocolate
- I've been on TV
- I have brown eyes
- I have children
- I drove more than 20 miles to get here
- I enjoy going to the cinema
- I can speak another language
- I have a pet
- I am left handed
Make up a bingo sheet - basically a piece of paper with squares and write the question in each square, then give a sheet to each person and instruct them to go around the room and get a signature or name for each square. The first person to have all squares covered shouts BINGO and is the winner. N.B. don't forget to introduce yourself as you go along as this is the whole point!
The next ice breaker game was "Shields", a really nice way to find out a bit more about people. This time the shield was divided into 4 sections: work, where I'm from, hopes and dreams and hobbies. It's such a simple but very effective exercise. This ice breaker is described more in-depth in our downloadable corporate icebreakers collection along with "Human Bingo".