Icebreakers are informal activities and exercises that help people get to know each other quickly, and start communicating and connecting early in a meeting or workshop. Icebreakers are powerful tools to set the tone for participation, and encourage those at the event to play active, contributing roles. They help establish connections quickly and informally.
Icebreaker are useful at event or workshops where, for different reasons, there is insufficient participation or engagement. Icebreakers are ideal when you don't want the audience to feel "passive". When used correctly, icebreakers can also energize the group (especially after lunch!), highlight participants’ particular strengths, and subtly introduce themes to be explored later in an event.
WHEN TO USE THEM AND WHY
Every event or workshop has participants, but often they don’t participate actively enough. Sometimes this is because the event has too many presentations, and those who are expected to participate take the role of passive listeners. Sometimes an event may have plenty of opportunities for participation, but it may start off on the wrong foot with a lengthy introduction or keynote speech. This can have a negative effect on the level of participation.
Experienced facilitators have observed that the first couple of sessions often set the tone for the remainder of an event; if these sessions are non-participatory, then a non-participatory tone is set, and participants will usually behave accordingly. As informal activities and exercises, icebreakershelp people get to know each other quickly, and start communicating and connecting early in a meeting or workshop. Icebreakers are especially useful when participants are from diverse cultural, ethnic or organizational backgrounds. What follow are a few examples:
Experienced facilitators have observed that the first couple of sessions often set the tone for the remainder of an event; if these sessions are non-participatory, then a non-participatory tone is set, and participants will usually behave accordingly. As informal activities and exercises, icebreakershelp people get to know each other quickly, and start communicating and connecting early in a meeting or workshop. Icebreakers are especially useful when participants are from diverse cultural, ethnic or organizational backgrounds. What follow are a few examples:
SPEED NETWORKING
Speed Networking is best used in meetings or workshops where most people don’t know each other. Using a structured setting and pre-assigned questions, this activity eliminates the awkwardness of starting a conversation cold. In this way, participants are able to focus on actually getting to know the person in front of them, without feeling nervous. Using a structured format, participants are given approximately one minute to introduce themselves to others.
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
Mistaken Identity is ideal when you want a quick icebreaker that does not need much preparation.
The facilitator gives name tags to all participants, but distributing them at random. Each participant needs to walk and look for the owner of the tag she has received, talk to this other person and find out a few details. In a relatively short time, all participants get to talk with a few colleagues, and a few cases can then be presented in a plenary.
The facilitator gives name tags to all participants, but distributing them at random. Each participant needs to walk and look for the owner of the tag she has received, talk to this other person and find out a few details. In a relatively short time, all participants get to talk with a few colleagues, and a few cases can then be presented in a plenary.
WALKING BILLBOARD
The Walking Billboard is an informal icebreaker which is very useful when opening a meeting. Participants prepare and wear a personal "billboard": a sheet of flip chart paper with their name and answers to interesting questions about themselves. They then mingle for a short time; the billboards help catalyse conversations. – the facilitator encourages everyone to talk to at least 5 persons. After that, the facilitator brings the group back in a plenary and asks a few volunteers to share a few ideas about persons they did not know but now do.