Ice Breakers for Small and Medium-sized Groups
Fun Getting To Know You Activities For Events
Sep 18, 2008
Introducing your participants to one another, having them reveal something new to the group, getting their blood flowing and breaking down barriers are all goals for an icebreaker activity. Professional Trainer and Courseware Developer Mark Swift shares some of his top picks with Suite in this 2008 interview.
Simple Balloon Ice Breaker
This very easy activity is a get-to-know-you that gets participants out of their seats and encourages them to let their guard down. You need one large balloon – about the size of a person’s head. Have everyone stand in a circle, then bump the balloon to someone and say, “Let’s see how long we can keep this off the ground.” Most groups will be able to keep it up indefinitely. Make some small talk while this is going on.
Next, ask everyone to introduce himself while keeping the ball in the air. Keep it simple: their name, their position in the company, where they’re from. Once everyone has had the chance to introduce himself, ask all participants to keep the balloon going, but now with their hands behind their backs.
As the group starts laughing and jostling, trying to keep the balloon aloft with their heads, feet, shoulders, etc., introduce the next level of complexity. You can say something like, “Okay, everybody keep the balloon in the air except Tom. Tom, you’re out!” A couple seconds later, follow up with, “Okay, Tom, you’re back in. Sarah, you’re out!” Do this three or four times, then have each person who hits the balloon do the next call-out. Pick up the pace. This is a great way to get people remembering each other’s names.
The people called out get to come back in as soon as the next person is called out, but if someone who isn’t supposed to touch the balloon touches it, he is eliminated. Says Swift, “You don’t have to do this as an elimination, but I think it’s fun.” The goal is to be the last one standing, and people have to have the presence of mind to get out of the way. “After a while you can start calling out groups of people rather than individuals,” suggests Swift. “You can say something like, ‘Now, no blonds can hit it; nobody with brown shoes; nobody with an "A" in his name. It’s a really fun game, and it doesn’t have to be super competitive.”
The Crest Activity Ice Breaker
Swift recommends this activity as an opener for long or multi-day trainings or events. “When you develop your crest, you reveal things about yourself that others don’t know, and you declare your values. It works for strangers as well as for people who already know each other.”
You’ll need to create the blank crests ahead of time. You can either draw a shield-type crest on a piece of paper or cut out shapes that are meaningful to the group in place of the crest shape (a book, a hand, a bust, a flag). Divide the crest into four sections.
Tell the group members that they are going to use imagery, no text allowed, to express their ideas.
- Quadrant One: Tell us where you came from. They might draw a map or landmark – remember, no text!
- Quadrant Two: What is something you love to do?
- Quadrant Three: What is something you are really good at?
- Quadrant Four: What is something few people know about you that you are willing to share?
Encourage them to depict non work-related ideas.
Based on time, participants can share their entire shield during the debrief. You can either have one person share all four quadrants at once, or have all participants share Quadrant One, and so on. If you have a larger group, you can break them out and have them share the entire crest within their smaller groups, then share just one thing with the group as a whole. “Be strict if you want to stay within your time constraints,” warns Swift. “There will always be those people who try to share the whole thing even when the instructions say just one item.”
In a multi-day training, you can post the crests on the wall where participants will browse them before and after classes and during breaks (make sure everyone’s name is on them). You can also add a scroll under the crest where people can add a personal saying to share. Another variation is to not divide the crest at all and to ask a deeper question such as: What is most important to you? Your goals for the exercise and your audience will dictate exactly how you tweak the activity.
Ice breakers can be employed in various ways to introduce participants, break up a long session, foster trust, or create a positive environment. Mark Swift offers more fun activities for small groups and large groups in his additional interviews with Suite, and even shares his no-fail tips on how to make them successful.
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