Posts Tagged ‘icebreaker’

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There's a brilliant article in The Sunday Times Style section this weekend.

In it they asked some food experts "if you were a vegetable...."  Of course this got me thinking - it's very similar to quite a few of our ice breaker games "if you were an animal what would you be?" "if you were a pudding what would it be..?" Obviously they have to expand on their answers and the Sunday Times had some really insightful ones...

Gizzi Erskine, TV chef

"An artichoke - multifaceted, pretty, occasionally thorny and a pain to deal with"

Lily Vanilli, cupcake maker

"Asparagus, because I've got great tips, or maybe celeriac, because I'm well hard."

Ravinder Bhogal, recipe writer and TV presenter

"An onion, because there are lots of layers to me (my first layer comes off easily). Also i'm best when pickled"

You get the picture! There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't use this as an ice breaker game for your training, meetings and events.

For shed loads of fantastic ice breaker games to electrify your meetings, training, social and corporate events, check out the ice breaker ideas web-site NOW!

 

 

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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!

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.

 

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Who Am I?

Here's a great little fun icebreaker you can use for teams that are quite well established. Works well with all kinds of teams including school groups and as a meetings ice breaker.

Divide the group up into teams of at least 5 players. One person is being questioned in each round and will answer a question from every other team member. The only trick is that they answer the questions as if they were another person in the team! Mmmm... tricky. The questioners should think carefully about the questions they ask and really try and get into the mind of the person they are trying to be.

At the end of each round - every person in the team gets to guess the identity of the person they are trying to be.

Possible questions could be:

• If you were an animal what would you be?
• if you were a bird what type of bird would you be?
• What would be your ideal vacation?
• Which famous person do you most respect?
• if tomorrow was your last day on earth how would you spend it?
• What clothes would you love to wear but never dare?
• What is your wildest dream?
• Who is a leader you most respect?
• What is the greates quality you posess?
• What annoys you most about other people?
• What do you do if you make a mistake? own up or cover up?
• Do you prefer to love or be loved?

So what do we learn from this? That people's preconceptions about another person can be totally wrong or right or mostly somewhere inbetween. It's good if everybody in the team has a chance to be the assumed person. Explore what it's like to be mis- represented or even deeper what is that that person does to make someone think that way?

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. Icebreaker games inject a sense of fun into proceedings, speed up that getting to know you stage and get people ready to face the rest of the event with energy and enthusiasm. For hundreds of amazing, fun icebreakers that you can use with your own groups and teams visit the ice breaker ideas web-site.

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I've just been asked about an icebreaker for a large group of  100 people and I would definitely recommend Human Bingo if you haven’t done it already.

With a group of 100 it is going to be difficult for all to introduce themselves without taking a long time so it might be better to focus on each new person getting to know a group of people. So just cut the bingo down to getting say 12 or 15 signatures

Limericks is also good for a large group but you may want to make it easier by numbering the lines so people at least know which line they have – see page 14 of the incredible ice breaker games and ideas corporate collection.

 Also try a more sedate version of “Changing Places” – have everyone stand in a circle on an A4 sheet of paper with one person (yourself) in the centre. The central person says something true about themselves like “I like to dance” or “I love music” or anything. Everyone that is in agreement with this comment must change places and find another place to stand. The person left without a place (because the central person has taken a place) takes the centre and the game starts again. Great for getting to know a bit more about people's like and interests. 

For large groups seated around tables

If groups are to be seated around tables what about gathering a few everyday objects and putting them into a soft drawstring bag- one for each table – each table has to guess the contents by feeling them without opening the bag. Give them about 5 minutes and get them to record their answers and then ask them to pass the bag to the next table. At the end of the rounds read out the correct answers – the table with the most correct answers is the winner. N.B. you may not have time for each table to do more than 1 or 2 bags in which case each bag or half the bags could have the same content.

Guess the Candy! 

Collect a few unusual shaped chocolate bars and/or candy - one for each person in the room. Put them into soft drawstring bags and place on the table. Each team must guess the type of candy, chocolate bar from the feel – get them to open the bag and see if they are right – each person then keeps the chocolate bar/candy!

For tons more fantastic ice breaker games for large and small groups check out our ice breaker ideas web-site

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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.

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Not that long ago I was asked to run an ice breaker game at the launch of the Swansea Foundation - a new business club.

The organizers were keen that The Foundation should have a different kind of ethos - that it should be more of business family - supportive, creative, dynamic and forward thinking and not just another networking group.

They asked me to provide an ice breaker to kick-start the party - a gathering of 40 or so local business people, most of whom did not know each other.

I used one of my favourite ice breakers to get people interacting and getting to know each other. Within 20 minutes everyone was chatting and having fun. The organiser was so pleased with the ice breaker and said it was the perfect introduction. It set the tone of the whole evening - fun,friendly and dynamic.

In fact he said it established an ethos for the rest of the Club's meetings and events as we continued to use ice breakers and interactive games and ideas at every meeting.

The business club is now a thriving and fun filled place with a booming membership and full participation and enthusiasm from members at every event.

Ensure your clubs and meetings are a fun, friendly and a learning place to be by learning how to use ice breaker games. Visit our web-site ice-breaker-ideas.com and we'll show you how.