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Original poster

Interesting 5 min max ice breaker for a meeting of 8 CEOs -women/men

106 replies

KingfordRun · 06/09/2018 08:54

Any interesting ice breaker recommendations for a meeting? Delegates don’t know each other well and this will serve as an opener on a workshop re: personal growth/development. Many thanks

OP posts:

HollowTalk · 06/09/2018 20:55

I love the ice-breaker idea, too!

Can those of you who are senior managers tell us, why do the rest of us have to put up with ice-breakers when management hate them for themselves?

HappyHedgehog247 · 06/09/2018 21:00

Answer the question ‘who am I?’ for one minute each in pairs. Then do it again but you are not allowed to repeat anything you said in the first minute. Then for a third time and not allowed to repeat anything you said in the first or second minutes.

delphguelph · 06/09/2018 21:03

Any of these working for you, op?

AnalUnicorn · 06/09/2018 21:10

Fuck icebreakers. A quick intro is enough. Also, make it 15 mins for lunch instead of making us hang around for an hour, so we can all get on with our actual jobs.

Teaandcrisps · 06/09/2018 21:13

I use ice breakers a lot to engender a sense of personal in the group and also for you as a trainer to set the tone.
My tried and tested is who you are, what you do, what you want to get out of the day and then their 1st job - totally fascinating.

CatchingACold · 06/09/2018 21:20

My DF was on a residential course, it was the 3rd to run and they were the senior managers (v big international company)

5 am- woken up by the course leaders getting them out of bed to go canoeing as a team building exercise- not relevant to the course. They all just looked at each other and went back to bed. Apparently the other 2 more junior groups had leapt out of bed and onto the lake!

DiveBombingSeagull · 06/09/2018 21:49

Oh God cringe. Whoever thought a silly game ice breaker was needed? Regardless of level. Name, what you do and what you hope to get out of the day. Why do you need any more than that?

Womaningreen · 06/09/2018 22:00

Oh these are awful
All the suggestions too
What a waste of time

The pp suggesting one about names would bug me particularly because I have a forrin name, people struggle with it, and focus on it will lead to those racist "where are you really from" questions possibly. I've only kept it because mum would be upset if I changed it.

Any ice breaker should totally avoid anything personal, but ideally, ice breakers should be put in room 101!

AnalUnicorn · 07/09/2018 03:21

@KingfordRun. I hope you take the feedback on board and please don’t patronise your delegates with stupid games. They will have joined your course to learn specific things that were presumably advertised on the course prospectus, and won’t thank you for wasting their time on claptrap.

actualpuffins · 07/09/2018 04:29

Sharing "the defining moment of my life" or something similar felt far too personal.

Exactly. I think I'd leave there and then if I was asked to play some stupid game. You might get away with it with young, inexperienced staff, but to ask senior, mature people to play ice breaker games is completely cringeworthy.

Original poster

KingfordRun · 07/09/2018 05:59

Thanks for all suggestions, it’s a very unusual seminar/situation & I completely agree generally unnecessary/patronising.

OP posts:

kalinkafoxtrot45 · 07/09/2018 06:13

I quite enjoy a daft ice breaker but I’m not sure it would be the right thing for this level of participant. I’d rather hear from each person about their background, experience and expectations and wishes for the day.

AJPTaylor · 07/09/2018 06:28

Oh i love the tell one interesting fact thing.
I make it up entirely.
Entertains me hugely.

prawn100 · 07/09/2018 06:41

Could you just ask them to chat with the person next to them about a current challenge they have and how the course they are on will help?

Then debrief by asking them to share their challenges with the group?

topcat2014 · 07/09/2018 06:44

Five minutes to speak to someone else, then introduce the other person to the group.

That's what I had last week at a meeting. Nice and straight forward with no element of 'zany' cringe stuff.

Most of these people will have facilitated these meetings themselves in the past, and you can't kid a kidder. bullshit a bullshitter

topcat2014 · 07/09/2018 06:47

@hollowtalk - it is all about 'do as I say not do as I do'

Senior folk are also vulnerable to emperors new clothes ideas.

AJPTaylor · 07/09/2018 07:06

On a more serious note. Can you not get them to talk about another person who has contributed to their personal development and how? Or what gave them the most progress? Or what the one skill they admire most in others?

Gardeninginsummer1 · 07/09/2018 07:12

Just don't. Ice breakers get my back right up.

SouthWestmom · 07/09/2018 07:19

Here's one not to do.

Give everyone a couple of post it's.

Tell them to write something nice about other people and stick them to them.

Go round the room and read out the nice things people noticed about you.

Except I had none. Shittiest start to a long session ever.

TolstoyAteMyHamster · 07/09/2018 07:26

Grim all round. Best - in a similar situation with similar group - was to divide into pairs, draw the other person while they talked about what they wanted to get out of the course and why they were there. Brief presentation back, we all laughed at the terrible drawing, knew something about the other people relevant to the course and they were used at the end to check back on what we had got out of it. So there was a point to it, at least. Still grim though.

PlateOfBiscuits · 07/09/2018 08:08

Wtf @noeuf - that sounds horrible! Were all the others friends?

At the very least the instructor should have said ‘write one for each person’.

SouthWestmom · 07/09/2018 08:10

No I don't think so. A couple maybe had come together. It was horrible, took me back to that awful school feeling.

Satsumaeater · 07/09/2018 08:28

Is this ice-breaker awfulness done in other countries? I wasn't a CEO but strongly resented the time-wasting that went on at courses I attended

I don't know, I can't remember but I did do a course in the US once where we were told to take our shoes off. I didn't want to, and the trainer had a hell of an edge to her voice when she told me to comply or else! I was "let go" from that job a few weeks later anyway, pity I didn't tell her to get stuffed.

The other thing I hate about courses is when they start late. Trainers: please respect the time of the people who made the effort to be there on time. Sometimes you know there are difficulties with a particular road/rail line, and it's fair to wait a few minutes but otherwise get on with things. And just have 30 mins for lunch, I'd much rather finish earlier.

NamelessEnsign · 07/09/2018 08:47

I’ve just been on a school of management residential with 65 people from around the world. It took a while with 65 people, but we had to share our name, company, and role, and then the quirkiest thing about ourselves.

It gave us all something to start conversations with - ie, one was a qualified pilot, another had done a sky dive, another had trypophobia, another spoke several languages etc. I can still remember a lot of the facts (and where people were sitting!) now, several weeks later.

Womaningreen · 07/09/2018 09:00

65 people? That's quite a waste of time!

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