Ice breaker games that you don't hate??

[pastypirate]

I'm doing a session at a team building event tomorrow. What do you not all loathe? I'm doing two truths and a lie so far. It's only for about half an hour and essentially as a team we get on great.

I just want to turn up, do my job and go home. Why is this never enough for you people? No, ice breakers and role play and “team drinks”.

just sod off and leave me and my grumpy self alone

As others have said if everyone knows each other then more coffee and chat time is better.

If people don’t know each other maybe a short introduction around the room or longer intro chats in groups of 3/4 people on the same table/in the breakout groups.

The 2 truths/interesting fact type activity is really contrary to inclusivity, not everyone has something that they wish to share and it feels cringeworthy and intrusive to many.

Everyone loathes every bit of it.
So why are you doing it ? Especially as you have already said everyone gets on well.

I’ve been through too many of these, and they’re really painful for some. You can always see someone who looks anxious or even panicked. Even if you think everyone has something interesting to share, some people don’t think quickly on the spot, and some people don’t think that what they have is interesting. (even if it is)
Like another poster said - the Penny Farthing Olympist can just make the next person feel shit for saying, “I like crochet”.

They're all dreadful. Quizzes(general knowledge not What cereal does Dave from accounts eat for breakfast?) is the only bearable one imo. I'll never understand the need for them.

theres always some arsehole who shares something that makes someone else feel a bit uncomfortable.

if there must be team building, it’s should be on an impersonal basis.

But, actually, could there not be an actual point to it all. You can ‘team build’ by collectively doing something useful in a room at the same time. You don’t have to do finger painting, build a tower without any connectors, role play a scene from your favourite film, or tell everyone things that are probably good answers for online security questions.

Honestly, don't bother. I've never got on with anyone better after I've found out two truths and a lie about them 😂

Just tell everyone cringy icebreakers belong in the bin and you're letting them all go home 30 mins earlier.

General knowledge games or everyone's dream dinner party guest are about as acceptable as it gets. Just give them the time off instead, everyone will appreciate it far more.

Alion years ago this team building & ice breaker shit was a good part of why I ditched the corporate world & went out on my own.

I can't believe it hadn't been done away with completely.

agree with those saying to announce no ice breaker crap, so time for another coffee & croissant!!

So glad I work for a small company now and no more of this crap. An extra 15 mins for coffee and chat gets my vote.

They are all absolutely dreadful, please don’t

Aarrgh! A nightmare when you walk into the room and on the IWB is item 1. 'Icebreakers!!'
My worst was everyone had to sit on a table with strangers and you had to talk for 2 minutes about yourself to your neighbour then swap. Afterwards we all had to tell the room the most interesting fact about the neighbour. I'm cringing just thinking about it now.

Op, explain you are not doing these activities but ask the room for their most hated icebreakers. Write them all down and never ever use them in the future.

This will probably out me but never mind.

My husband is notoriously shit at drawing (our child could do better when she was in reception) so a few times for various team meetings he has done a "picture round" type quiz where he's drawn album covers, Christmas song titles, movies etc, put them into a powerpoint slide set and people had to guess what they were. I really can't emphasise how shit they were, so they always got everyone howling with laughter. He's done a few for my team as well and they've been enjoyed, and people have asked for the slides to reuse at their own lockdown quizzes and family stuff and further quizzes have been requested.

Maybe if you really wanted a pre-session activity you could do something silly like this. Or just a general knowledge type quiz. But leaving half an hour early would definitely make you popular.

Please don't do any sort of "two truths and a lie" or "surprising fact about me" creeping death type thing. Literally everyone hates them.

I might just take rapidough with me then!!

That Pictionary idea is good. Everyone pulls a movie name out of the hat and then the pics get anonymously hung up and guess the movie. The idea is to make everyone comfortable- revealing anything hand about yourself is not my idea of comfort

Loads of people hate being asked to draw.

I often do stuff at work where people think that asking people to draw things will be a good idea. But no matter how strongly you try to say that it doesn’t matter about their drawing skills, a chunk of people will be totally turned off by the entire idea.

The only bearable I have done is find the person in the room with the most similar shoes to you. Ask each other’s name, where you work and see if you had the same reason for picking them. But that wouldn’t work if you have to wear safety shoes or a uniform!

I don't understand why OP still thinks an ice breaker is a good idea having read the overwhelming majority of replies.

What’s the purpose?
If everyone’s been at their desks before or travelled in, then there’s some benefit in getting everyone moving around and shifting to a ‘here we are to work together’ mentality.
Two icebreakers which don’t ask pp to disclose stuff they don’t want to and include moving around and speaking are getting them to line up alphabetically by first name and then birthday order (not year! 😂)

agree the truth & lie isn’t v inclusive. I’d go for would you rather
tea / coffee
summer / winter
tv / cinema
dogs / cats
early / late
If you already know each other you could guess for someone else

Two good ones are the car keys in the fish bowl, with everyone picking a set out and taking turns getting intimate in the stationary cupboard, or the one where everyone sticks a candle up their bum, lights it, and then you see who can do the most laps of the office on all fours before you get burnt buttocks.

Please don’t do an icebreaker unless you want the whole room to hate you.

As an introvert it’s excruciating. I’m always tempted to come up with outrageous facts about myself though

Even if the only discussion is ‘isn’t this shit’ icebreakers do exactly what they’re supposed to do which is start a conversation.

Doing any sort of training or group work where you go straight into it is much less productive as it takes people a while to warm up unless everyone has had an opportunity to say / do something first.

People don’t just do them to kill time.

Everyone writes down something about themselves that nobody us knows (that they don't mind sharing) and put it in a hat. Then each person takes it in turns to pull paper out hat, read it and everyone guess who it's about.

Build the tallest tower using straws cello tape and marshmallows?

Build the tallest tower using items in your pocket/handbag.

Guess whose keys belong to who... all put in a bowl and one by one taken out and guess whose is whose.

Once upon a time story game. Go around room, everyone say one sentence eg person 1 - once upon a time there was a little girl... person2 - who was left in the house alone... person3 and she didn't know what to do...