Ice breakers - I hate them with every fibre of my soul but have been asked to organise two for Friday

[catin8oots]

9 colleagues. 4 new, never met before. All women if that's relevant?

Please help me before I quit my job 😀

I just had the worst flash back
Years ago when I did teacher training we all had to take off our shoes and put one in the middle of a circle of
People. Then you picked a shoe and that person who's shoe it was had to tell You an interesting fact about themselves

That’s awful but also funny, sorry OP 🤣

It absolutely fucking is horrific.

How far do you go with a fun fact in the workplace? Why is it fun that you have a dog? Or that you like to wear trainers?

Ice breakers are such a bloody management-consultant piece of shite. All of it.

We all had to draw a pig the other week .... apparently it showed up certain personality traits.

We did that one where you tell two things about yourself that are true and one that's a lie, it was called 'Whose Lie is it anyway'.

so don't continue bullshit that people hate,
Grow a pair, say you're not doing it and everybody will thank you for it.

Uno.
Top Trumps.
Kahoot. I love Kahoot and you can pick so many categories. I know it's for kids really but it's fun and not as stressy as some ice breakers.

I'd stick to something low-key, like pairs/threes chat about favourite foods that remind people of other people or places. Quick round the room summary to see what the foods were and if any duplicates.

I think I would just get 9 different coloured packs of stickers (dots or little stars), give each person a colour and everyone needs to collect one of all 9 colours

makes everyone talk to everyone but without any “interesting facts” or games.

Oh my god we had to build a tower with shoes one time. Nobody needs to be handling other people's shoes!

Although actually that one was a bit useful in that we bonded in shared hatred and contempt at the manager who told us to do it.

Get them into groups to design an icebreaker that isn't crap. At least you'll have ideas for next time.

At a national team event a few years ago, AT THE END OF THE LAST DAY they did a dancing session. A fucking dancing session. To help you shake off your self consciousness.

I left the room. Fuck. Off. No consideration for anyone with disabilities, no consideration for anyone with no desire to dance ever (like me), no option to opt out. Forced fun.

It's been dropped since then after furious feedback from many of us.

That tower with spaghetti and marshmallow one has been going forever - I did it in the 80s, and again about 10 years ago

I'd get everyone to play kerplunk or mouse trap, one of those interactive games that are a bit daft. Maybe not twister though!

Jesuc fucking christ.

Why why why do they do this?!

If she’s been asked to do it then she has to do it, sorry but I don’t believe all the ‘tell them to go fuck themselves 🤪’ respondees would actually do that. No-one loves icebreakers but ‘find out what your colleague’s favourite biscuit is’ is hardly torturous on a level with naked group sauna or something. Talk about overreactions.

In the spirit of trying to be helpful, I would look for inspirtation from Taskmaster. I'm sure one of the studio tasks would be suitable for a quick game without having to think of random facts about yourself.

But yes, icebreakers are fucking dreadful.

Do the toilet roll my little pony race, with a cup of water

Gamble serious money and the winner takes you all out down the pub

I facilitate and I know everyone hates these. They are what they are.

I always do one where the extroverts can self-select and the introverts can stay where they are.

My favourite:

You say the weirdest [insert thing] about you. I used jobs. "My weirdest job was peeling potatoes for a whole summer. Can anyone beat that, there are prizes?" Extrovert says, "I was a cruise director" and so on. You set a number of rounds, winner gets a prize. Introverts don't have to join in. Everyone learns something, no one is forced.

Russian roulette twister!

well I very much refused to participate in bollocks like this.
Any "games" ice breaker and I said no thanks, i don't do that

Ah i remember the good old days, when you all just went to the pub

Draw the second longest snake would be a good one. Toilet roll, pens and a 3 minute timer.

Russian roulette twister!

Love it!

why do you do them when you know everyone hates them?

Another one who isn't a fan of icebreakers here - but my two pennies is that sharing a boring fact about yourself is much less pressured than sharing an interesting fact (especially if you go first and share something genuinely boring so no one feels they have to be faux boring!)