Posts Tagged ‘team ice breaker’

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Here's a great introductory ice breaker for a team or group meeting for the first time. All you need is a large ball of string or wool.

Introduce the exercise "We're all meeting for the first time. Most of us don't know each other at all. It's easier to get to know each other and make connections with people when you find something in common. This is the main purpose of an ice breaker game. In some cases you might have a lot in common with an individual but often you have to discover what it is first. This game will give you a helping hand"

Ask everyone to sit or stand in a circle. Starting with yourself, say "My name is Sharon" and start to talk about yourself. "I have 3 sisters. I live in Wales. I walk to work. I work at...etc. etc." By this time hopefully you might find someone else in the group with 3 sisters or even a sister and they then shout "CONNECT!" when they have found something to connect with you. Holding onto the tail-end of the ball of string you throw the ball to them. They then introduce themselves and continue saying something about themselves until someone else connects with them. They then hold onto the string and throw the ball to that person. And on it goes.

Ensure everyone has a go at connecting with someone else in the group; you might want to add this as a rule until everyone has had a go. Continue connecting until you have had enough. You will surely now be in a mess with strands of wool or string  going all over the circle.

End the ice breaker game by explaining that we all have things in common with other people, but they are often hidden. Look at all the ways we are interconnected with each other... look at all the strands of string. Building relationships and rapport can be speeded up by finding and sharing similarities. 

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

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What's a good ice breaker I'm always being asked?

 First we find out who the ice breaker is for; is it  a corporate ice breaker or for a work group? Or is it for a party, youth group or family reunion? Is it for a group who do not know each other at all or a group that know each other a bit?

This is useful to know as you can take more risks with with a group that know each other and even more with groups that know each other well. Play safe with groups that don't know each other at all. An ice breaker is meant to help people relax and get to know each other and should never make people feel uncomfortable.

Once we know about the group we then look at what we're trying to achieve with the ice breaker. You might be looking for quick and easy fun introductions or something related to the topic of the day or something that will not forget!

You will find after a few goes of using ice breakers that they will become second nature and you will soon develop favourites. Particularly ice breakers are ones that can be used for many different types of groups.

A word of warning though; you should never trial your ice breakers on a group without carefully thinking them through. Better still, try them out on your family and friends first!

A good ice breaker therefore, carefully matches your target group, is non-threatening and allows people to have fun together.

A good ice breaker that we use a lot with corporate groups is "Speed Dating" - arrange 2 long row of chairs according to the number of people attending. Have them facing each other so people can sit face to face and get everyone to sit down. Announce that you have a minute each to introduce yourselves. Blow a whistle after each minute and then after each couple have introduced themselves, instruct all participants to move to the seat to the right. Each person will get a new partner to talk to. Carry for as long as you have time or until all introductions have been made.

Learn how to play this fun, fast, ice breaker and hundreds more at ice-breaker-ideas.com

Don't have just an ordinary event - make it memorable with ice breaker games.!