(More) Icebreakers for meetings and workshops that don’t suck (no really)

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Last week, I ran a workshop at Agile Cambridge, building on top of my popular blog post Quick icebreakers for online meetings (that don’t suck).

The workshop examined why we use icebreakers, what a good and bad icebreaker looks like and how to select the right ones for specific scenarios. This post summarises that workshop.

Read the post below, or skip to the list of Icebreakers.

“Hey, let’s do an icebreaker!”

That’s a phrase that can induce fear, stress or a heavy eye roll. I, too, dislike many icebreakers, but I love a good one.

I started off the session by sharing some of what I consider to be bad icebreakers (from my previous post)

• What’s your biggest sporting success? (to a group of non-sporty people).
• What’s your most proud achievement? (to a group that doesn’t know each other)
• Map out your life over a timeline with happy and sad points. (to a group where division exists)
• What are you wearing on your bottom half? (to a group dialling in)
• Two truths and a lie (to anyone, I really don’t like this one)

Characteristics of the worst icebreaker

I then ran a version of the anti-problem along with 1-2-4-all to ask the room what the characteristics of the worst icebreaker are. The top themes that came up were

• Too personal
• Not aware of context
• Not inclusive
• Too boring and long
• Creating pressure to be interesting or funny
• Only allowing loud voices to speak
• Not engaging or too complex

So if icebreakers are so awful, why do we do them?

There is definitely a reason that we keep coming back to them, and it’s all about getting people engaged and ready to participate.

“Icebreakers can help students feel more comfortable and connected with their peers, leading to a more positive classroom atmosphere and increased willingness to participate.”

In “An Exploration Of Icebreakers And Their Impact On Student Engagement In The Classroom,” it was shown that engagement and participation increased when icebreakers were introduced.

A great icebreaker can help with these aspects.

When preparing for this session, I identified five main reasons for using icebreakers. All should be aimed at lowering the barrier for participation, but the other reasons should be specific to the context of using them.

Lower the barrier to participation, checking people into the session and making it easier to contribute later on (all icebreakers should do this).

Increase psychological safety, allowing people to participate equally and freely without fear of judgment.

Connect people with the session to prime them for its content and expectations.

Create energy and engagement to elevate the energy to the required level.

Connect people with one another to foster empathy and cooperation.

Flipping that around, an inappropriate icebreaker can

• Make it harder to contribute
• Create anxiety or fear of looking stupid
• Move people away from the content
• Disengage people
• Create division

Context is important

These questions can help you understand the context of the situation before deciding on an icebreaker to use.

Do people know each other?

Is this a team that works together all the time, are they comfortable in sharing with each other or are they strangers?

What are the session outcomes?

What are you trying to achieve? If it’s a workshop about layoffs, then don’t start with something super fun. If you are running a workshop, you can use the icebreaker to move you towards the outcome.

Are there any existing tensions?

Is the group in conflict? Or are there one or two voices that are normally louder than the others?

What is culturally appropriate?

Where are people from, and what is acceptable or not acceptable to the people in the room? For example, don’t go to the pub if there are people in the group who abstain from places that sell alcohol and don’t assume that everyone can easily move around. Be extra cautious when using approaches that could highlight socioeconomic differences within a group.

The icebreaker as a powerful connector

When we think about icebreakers, often we assume they should just be fun, short sessions before getting on with the real work. But they can also be a powerful way to connect people to the content and each other. I like to reference the first C (Connections) in the 4Cs model from Training from the Back of the Room.

A well-designed icebreaker can connect people to:

Each other in positive ways

The topic, what they already know and what they will gain

Their goals, what they want to take away from the session

The outcomes, what they will be able to do as a result of the session

Examples of where I have used this:

Starting a principles session for a team with “what’s the worst possible team”, then building on this as part of the session.

Or getting a room full of people who are all working on the same programme to find someone who shares a similar role to theirs, whom they haven’t yet met.

Ok, enough with the talking, give us a list of icebreakers and their purpose

Here is a list of icebreakers I shared in the workshop, some of which I ran and their benefits. You can download it here.

And some brief descriptions.

From another room. Great for online icebreakers to get people out of their chairs, go and find an object, e.g. a tin of something and bring it back

Rock, paper, scissors in rounds or small groups

Make it rain bring up the energy by getting people tapping fingers, feet and clapping hands.

Rapid drawing. Give everyone 3 pieces of paper, ask them to find another person in the room, introduce themselves, then each spend 20 seconds drawing the other person without looking at the paper. They then swap drawings and repeat 2 more times. At the end each person should have met some new people and have 3 drawings.

What makes you smile: Good for online meetings, show an object to the camera that makes you smile and (quickly) share what it is.

Zoom game, putting together a story from a set of sequential images from the Zoom book.

Constellations learning more about each other through how close each person is to a location, belief or point in time.

Find someone similar. Finding someone who shares an aspect with you, this could be work-based or not.

Draw a Duck: A fun, quick icebreaker where everyone gets 30 seconds to draw a duck; no drawings are wrong. Then share your ducks and give them a short back story.

Yes… and… Create a story or idea by building on top of the last person, good for creative thinking.

What’s the worst Or the Anti-problem, a great way to air the things people are holding onto, so you can turn it around to describe the best.

Draw the last sprint/time period. Ask everyone to draw the last sprint; there are no wrong answers. Then give that drawing to someone else so they can describe it. A great way of getting out what people are really feeling, as they can use the drawing as a proxy.

Consequences (story) Create a growing story by using a set of random images, story cards or story dice. Great for creative thinking.

Draw toast A great way for people to think about combined mental models and our differnt views of the world

ThinkLinks business Great for lateral thinking, groups are given three random cards from a ThinkLinks pack and come up with a business or service they would create using the images on the cards they have been given. They then share with the group.

Name the thing Another lateral thinking game, rapidly go through a ThinkLinks pack and ask people to name what’s on the card, without using its common name.