Good, non-cringey icebreaker type games?

[Catnary]

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!

The best one I ever experienced that was fun but not excruciating was that we sat in a circle and various packaged foods were randomly given out round the circle - chocolates, Pringles, that kind of thing. Then the convener read out a story she had written about the boss arriving at work and going through her dat. Every time she said the word "left" (used in any context, eg left at the lights, she left the room, the cake was left over) we had to pass the treats left, and vice versa each time she said "right". It was quite fun especially when she had sentences like

'Now In a right old mood, Jane went right to it. "Right" she yelled. Which one of you left this box here? It's right in the way. Move it. Right now. I don't want any evidence left behind". Fuming, she left the room, slamming the door right behind her.'

When the story finished, you got to keep the item you were holding. Some people had a whole box of chocs, others a little choc bar, pack of Pringles or a pack of walkers, etc but everyone got something.

Google if its some kind of National day for inspiration, takes the pressure off the fact you've thought of the icebreaker if its linked to a particular event. At a meeting that fell on National gratitude day we all went round sharing one thing we were grateful for - some were serious, some were tongue in cheek. At another it was National go for a walk day so I asked people to share a photo of their favourite place to walk/be outside and tell us why - that was lovely and very feel good, everything from exotic locations to the local park and we all learnt a bit about each other.

Have a Google of Taskmaster Live Tasks. There is loads of clips on YouTube and you should easily find one that suits. Or you could ask on the Taskmaster subreddit there will be loads of people who know which tasks would fit into your criteria.

Have a tray covered with a variety of items. Show it for 10 seconds then cover it up. They have to try and remember as many things on the tray as possible. You can play again where 1 item is removed and they have to work out which item it was.

If it's not too personal, unpopular opinions - all written down and read out randomly to see if they really are unpopular.

Or would you rather with different sides of the room to move people around. Lots of online lists for inspiration.

Get them to state their pronouns.

Not really.

Not sure which poster you were replying to, but I really really hope they see your post and take it on board.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn
hahaha!
no of course I don’t want to embarrass people and perhaps I didn’t phrase it well.
I mean why is the boss so hugely concerned that people would - hence why this is so prominent in the brief. The heavy emphasis on “avoid cringe” reads like a brief from a middle manager who doesn’t really know why they are doing the away day, maybe doesn’t really want to do it and sounds like it comes from a low trust work place, where people don’t necessarily feel like they are safe to be authentic. I don’t see enthusiasm of any kind from the client brief, but instead a list of “don’ts”
if this were my client I’d go back to find the enthusiasm and clarify “why we are here” and be sure to build from there.

I agree with you that many facilitators do seem to just to hugely crap things that don’t chime with where people are at, seem random, or hackneyed and don’t meet with the overall aims of the session at all.

Honestly, getting them to come up with non-cringe icebreakers is the best suggestion. No-one is interested in anyone else's favourite walk/book/album etc. or they've not heard of it so it just all becomes lowest common denominator stuff like " U2's 'One' because it was our first dance at our wedding". No-one else cares or they're just trying to think of something to come up with. I'd just lie at those bits and make something up.

If it's not too personal, unpopular opinions - all written down and read out randomly to see if they really are unpopular.

This is a terrible idea.

@BloodAndFire
Thank you

My view is that workshops feel awkward when they feel like a waste of time, and when they feel like they are being done “at” the participants.
People are taking a whole day out to dedicate to something, so make the time count.

in my industry an away day or workshop is an invitation to think very differently from how you are invited to in the office. We will ask you to step outside of your comfort zone to do this at some point, but it doesn’t need to be excruciatingly awful, rather it should build up to a point that you do feel you can take a step to be bold. Building trust with the facilitator and inside the group of participants is so important in this.

it’s very common for external facilitators to deploy a “set menu” rather than being very responsive to the brief which should include a proper set of aims, and a thorough understanding of the problems and the context leading to these problems.

We did one at a women’s networking event where we plotted the perfect murder. I have to say it went down well and if I didn’t already know that women can be wily and cunning creatures - I did after that.

also amazing the number of women who have connections with pig farms/breeders.

Was just going to say this - we had squares with things on and if you found someone wiho had done one of the things you chose to ask e.g. been to Disney, jumped out of a plane, been to Japan etc. Wasn't nosy enough to be intrusive but was easy to encourage participation - we called it getting to know you bingo

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

That's a shame because that's how I feel about all of this.

I think the idea that you need to make people feel uncomfortable (step outside your comfort zone) or reveal personal information that they would not normally share with colleagues, in order to make the time worthwhile, is a massive and damaging misconception.

There are many warm up games from e.g. drama workshops which can get people relaxed and on their feet without any need to push them into revealing anything personal.

An 'away day' which is just about breaking people down and exposing them isn't worthwhile. You don't need to be embarrassed or exposed in order to learn.

If there is actual content to be learned, then great. Otherwise it's just a power trip that oversteps professional boundaries and messes with people's emotions without any proper aftercare

I really don't like the "tell me one interesting fact about yourself" as it is really hard to think of something interesting on the spot.

Instead you can play the same type of game but with categories, e.g.

Share a nickname you have at home / in your friendship group / from school and where it came from

What would be your "last supper" - starter, main and dessert

Desert island discs "extras" - not all the tracks, but what you would take with you to a desert island and why: 1 book and 1 luxury item (inanimate / no communication with outside / not used to escape the island).

It's relatively low pressure and doesn't turn into an opportunity to show off ("I've climbed Kilimanjaro" / "I used to be a professional dancer")

Oh, love Taskmaster!

🤣🤣🤣

Random questions and you go to one side of the room depending on your answer.
Eg would you rather be too hot or too cold
Beach holiday or city holiday
Cats or dogs

You could throw in some really random trivia (either true or false, or with only two options) and people have to guess the answer eg which is taller, the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building.

Do you have any budget?

wrap around 30/40 presents in various wrapping paper. Some nice (bottle of wine), some… meh (bottle of bleach in a wine bag…

(or, if participants are willing/able ask them to bring two presents each, one nice, one meh).

then provide the group with two or three sets of double dice. Start the game throwing the dice. Every ‘six’ enables participant to select a present. Stop the first round when all the presents are claimed but DO NOT OPEN ANY.

go for coffee.

second round set a timer, say 5 minutes. This time you can steal a present every 6 you throw.

stop after 5 mins. However, if any person is ‘present less’ they can choose one present.

I promise everyone, any age enjoys this.

Desert island discs "extras" - not all the tracks, but what you would take with you to a desert island and why: 1 book and 1 luxury item (inanimate / no communication with outside / not used to escape the island).

I've had to endure this one as well. Someone droned on and on about Alice in Wonderland as their favourite book. And then someone suggested "hotel" as their luxury item and everyone hooted at how clever that was 🙄so that was the end of that.

Google things like the survivor game - list of items, what would they take, desert island etc.

Find examples of 'More or less' cards, that can be fun to guess and does not need knowledge.

Also, Would you rather... but clean versions.

And yes, taskmaster style tasks ... like the rule is a team gets points through using certain words eg what.

Lego. Play with Lego. Build it competitively - towers etc, build a car and race them. Or just give them champagne breakfast. That breaks the ice

Share a nickname you have at home / in your friendship group / from school and where it came from

Do not do this!