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Original poster

Good, non-cringey icebreaker type games?

168 replies

Catnary · 30/01/2023 19:40

I’m involved in a work team “Away Day” soon. I’m not the organiser, but I was asked today for suggestions as to how we can get people into the right frame of mind to feel relaxed about contributing ideas to the various discussions.

The group is about 20 people, all levels from very junior to the Big Boss. Roughly even split male/female. Ages from mid twenties to mid fifties. Everyone does more or less the same job, just at different levels of experience/seniority.

It’s all in-person, no remote participants. A few people speak English as a second language but we all work in English.

The criteria are as follows:

Nothing that requires sharing of personal information or feelings.
No popular culture references (so no trivia based on TV, or things like making people guess the celebrity name on a post it on their head).
Possibly with scope to poke mild fun at our work (eg jokes about the bad canteen food or the IT system) but nothing that singles out individuals.
No singing or dancing.
No putting people on the spot (eg “do the next line of this funny story”).
Competition between teams is fine, but more in terms of pooling points than making people work together to do things like build structures or make up a story.

Does anyone have any bright ideas?

My only thoughts (partly after Googling) were:
Pictionary on a big white board, with clues being “things”, actions etc rather than films, songs etc
Everyone writes their name backwards and someone reads them out, team that correctly guesses the most wins.

Does anyone have any suggestions of things you have enjoyed? We really really don’t want to end up with a backlash against “enforced fun” but there needs to be something to make it more dynamic.

PS this is not “AIBU to want to do icebreaker games” inviting a hundred comments about how the whole idea of away days and team building is bollocks. It’s just a plea for ideas!

OP posts:
Gizlotsmum · 30/01/2023 19:43

We did human bingo ( so bingo with thugs to find out , fairly neutral so we had things like had watched a Christmas movie ( was December) got people wandering around and no one felt too pressurised

Gizlotsmum · 30/01/2023 19:45

Or four quarters split a room into four one corner is love. The opposite hate , then like and dislike and just shot random things and people run to which one they feel…

Etinoxaurus · 30/01/2023 19:45

Only non traumatic ones I know are line up in birthdate- so from January 1 to December 31 not year of birth and alphabetical order.
Everyone has to talk to each other and it’s gently moving around.
Also bingo with ‘contestants’ having to find someone with the same first name initial, someone who has a cat, someone who likes strawberry ice cream, someone who speaks French or whatever. Choose the bingo questions carefully!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Games
ErrolTheDragon · 30/01/2023 19:45

How about you divide them into 4 teams and they have to come up with ideas for an icebreaker with your specified parameters.

DFI000 · 30/01/2023 19:48

Divide the group into teams and give them certain equipment - spaghetti, blue tack, cello tape etc and see who builds the highest tower (that has to stand up with no body holding it).

I’ve used this one a lot and it’s generally well received.

Original poster
Catnary · 30/01/2023 19:49

ErrolTheDragon · 30/01/2023 19:45

How about you divide them into 4 teams and they have to come up with ideas for an icebreaker with your specified parameters.

Ha ha love it, very meta!

OP posts:
Original poster
Catnary · 30/01/2023 19:50

Gizlotsmum · 30/01/2023 19:43

We did human bingo ( so bingo with thugs to find out , fairly neutral so we had things like had watched a Christmas movie ( was December) got people wandering around and no one felt too pressurised

Thugs! I hope we won’t have to bring in the Heavies too early 😂

OP posts:
DFI000 · 30/01/2023 19:50

DFI000 · 30/01/2023 19:48

Divide the group into teams and give them certain equipment - spaghetti, blue tack, cello tape etc and see who builds the highest tower (that has to stand up with no body holding it).

I’ve used this one a lot and it’s generally well received.

Sorry - I’ve just seen you rules out building structures! It is a good one though as it’s something different to every day tasks.

Defiantlynot41 · 30/01/2023 19:51

Make a paper airplane from a sheet of flip chart paper. Everyone makes their plane, writes their name on it and at the end of 5 mins or whatever time limit you set, line up at one end of the room and launch. Small prize for furthest distance. Up to you if you allow or disallow the person who screws it into a right ball and chucks it
Coins - everyone takes out a coin and says something that happened to them in that year. Brief that it can be as personal or as light as they choose. Have had everything from "the year I started school " to "the year my marriage collapsed" so be clear there is no compulsion to disclose anything painful
You can tell I used to do this for a living ...

cariadlet · 30/01/2023 19:52

There's the one where people have to write 3 things about themselves. The others in their group have to work out which 2 are true and which is a lie.

That often leads to chat because people ask questions about what's been written, especially if they are surprised by the reveal.

cariadlet · 30/01/2023 19:53

DFI000 · 30/01/2023 19:48

Divide the group into teams and give them certain equipment - spaghetti, blue tack, cello tape etc and see who builds the highest tower (that has to stand up with no body holding it).

I’ve used this one a lot and it’s generally well received.

Just remember not to include marshmallows to join spaghetti, cocktail sticks or whatever else you have.

That gets sooooo messy.

Defiantlynot41 · 30/01/2023 19:54

Human bingo is great but needs a lot of prep (find the person with a cat called Henry etc)

Can do a truncated version with some very broad parameters eg find one person with an older sister, one person who has a pet that is not a cat or dog etc rather than gathering a lot of facts about everyone and constructing it

cariadlet · 30/01/2023 19:56

Gizlotsmum · 30/01/2023 19:43

We did human bingo ( so bingo with thugs to find out , fairly neutral so we had things like had watched a Christmas movie ( was December) got people wandering around and no one felt too pressurised

I haven't done that with adults but I do it on the "meet the teacher" morning with my new class.

It's popular with the children but I can imagine it also going down well in a work setting.

Defiantlynot41 · 30/01/2023 19:56

Really random ones eg what colours are the numbers 5 & 7,
What was your first album, if you were an animal, a vehicle etc etc (not my favourites)

Original poster
Catnary · 30/01/2023 19:57

DFI000 · 30/01/2023 19:50

Sorry - I’ve just seen you rules out building structures! It is a good one though as it’s something different to every day tasks.

Show quote history

Yes, I think I was just trying to avoid things that need teams to cooperate to crate something, but maybe we could do that one individually.

OP posts:
Original poster
Catnary · 30/01/2023 19:57

Thanks everyone who has made suggestions so far!

OP posts:
LazJaz · 30/01/2023 20:00

Hard to make suggestions about an ice breaker when we don’t know what you will work on at the away day - the ones I use are meant to tie in in some way to the overall theme

i find “no feelings, no personal information” but “ok to poke fun at work” particularly strange - we often encourage clients to be more authentic and in tune with values and in doing so encourage them to become positive contributors to their workplace - for me it feels like with this element of the brief you run the risk of setting an bit of a sarky tone unwittingly. There does seem to be a high emphasis on no one feeling embarrassed- as an external facilitator I would question why this is a problem and would ask my clients about whether they would want to increase the feeling of safety and trust amongst them - and suggest ice breakers that foster trust. But not falling into a circle of colleagues though!

I would encourage you to refer to the overall away day agenda - what is the aim of the away day? What is the theme? And then find an ice breaker that supports these aims in some way. Google is your friend - with a specific brief it can work wonders!

but here’s a long list of useful “for any meeting” games that I refer to at work from time to time

gamestorming.com/category/games-for-any-meeting/

good luck with the away day!

BlossomWood · 30/01/2023 20:03

Watch a few episodes of task master, you might get some fun ideas

CMOTDibbler · 30/01/2023 20:04

I once did an icebreaker thing where we made up rucksacs for a charity - there was a list of things and then you had to go and get them, package them up nicely, and so on. It worked quite well as you had a little team and people tended to chat over it as there was no pressure to do so.

LazJaz · 30/01/2023 20:05

A couple more resources to refer to for ideas:

blog.agilityscales.com/stop-talking-and-draw-together-1f389d238a08

toolbox.hyperisland.com

Viviennemary · 30/01/2023 20:05

The very thought makes me cringe. All dreadful. Most people hate them.

User4873628 · 30/01/2023 20:09

Everyone shares a photo? Not of themselves, could be of a pet or the view from their kitchen window, somewhere they've been on holiday. We did this recently and someone shared a photo of their teenage son's bedroom floor. That got everyone talking for sure! Someone else shared a photo of the book she's reading, anything at all

Namechangedforspooky · 30/01/2023 20:09

Just get people to introduce themselves and provide coffee / breakfast. I hate team building exercises though. At best they make you feel inadequate (tell me 3 interesting facts about yourself), at worst they’re just cringe!

letsgetbackto2019 · 30/01/2023 20:11

Nothing with manual (making, building..) tasks please, not even individually.

Undiagnosed/hidden dyspraxics won't thank you (I would hate that and try to sink through the floor)

Pictionary with things and human bingo with neutral stuff are the best suggestions so far imho

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · 30/01/2023 20:20

There does seem to be a high emphasis on no one feeling embarrassed- as an external facilitator I would question why this is a problem

Seriously? You do this for a living and don't know why it's a problem.to embarrass people?

Well that explains a lot about the awfulness of the externaly-facilitated away days I've been on.