Ice Breaker Techniques

Ice Breaker Techniques

In any office setup, some time ice breaker techniques are required. Either it is for a group or for individuals, this technique is required everywhere to start a conversation and to make people comfortable with each other.

Some of the common techniques are:

1.       Brainstorm: Divide the whole group in equal sub groups. Give each of them a topic, pick a funny topic. Like what you will do if you are alone in desert..etc. Match the clock and give them two minutes only. At the end of two minutes, the team with the most items on their list wins! This helps people to share ideas without fearing what other people will think.

2.       Fact or Fiction: Every member in team should write three surprising things about themselves, two of which are real and one is made up. Each and every one will read their list and the rest of the group votes on which is fact and which is fiction. A group can have more than one winner. At the end from all the winners in the group there comes one winner. In this way the group members will remember each other’s choices.

3.       Nametags: Prepare nametags for each person and put them in a box. As people walk into the room, each person picks a nametag (not their own). When everyone is present, participants are told to find the person whose nametag they drew adn introduce the person whose nametag they were initially given and mention something of interest about that person. This helps participants get to know and remember each other.

4.       Desert Islands: Give a situation to the team that what they will take if they are marooned on a desert island. In 30 seconds the list should be ready. At the end of 30 seconds, tell the team you can take only 3 things from the list. The person who suggested each item on the list will defend his/her point as to why it is important for them to carry these 3 things with them. This helps the team learn about how each of them thinks.

5.       Line Up:  As people enter the conference room hand each one a piece of paper with a random number written. Askn the group to arrange themselves in numeric order without using their voices or any gesture or showing the number. This helps the team to think of other ways to communicate with each other and to work together to achieve common goal.

6.       Meet and Greet Shoe Pile: This works great in large groups and is a variation of the name tag ice breaker. Have everyone take off one of their shoes and throw it into a pile. Have each group member pick up a shoe and walk around the meeting room greeting other people as they try to match their selected shoe to the one another team member is wearing. This is a great way for new people to meet several members in a group. In this way they can also become team member for the day and do their all tasks in same pairs.