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 😀

if you need to do something just play some music and hand out snacks.

that seems to lighten the mood and doesn't put anyone on the spot.

I loathe them too, but this one is one of the better ones I've had to do: https://mentproject.eu/portfolio_page/ice-breaking-game-weaving-a-net/

The best one I was at .... 'tell us something about yourself' ... quite a few academics in the room talking about their achievements, the medical papers they had written that were published, great stuff to be fair to them, a few murmurs around the room.

Then this new fella had his turn ... "I used to date one of the girls in Steps" ... well the room took off .. all desperate to know which one, how long, what was she like .. so much interest 😁

I also used to collect 'toys of our youth' and put them out. Slinkies, Play Doh, finger cuffs, those clacky toys that fall like blocks. Hours of fun. One slinky did end up on the roof (don't facilitate with gang-involved young men if you can't stand the heat )

What fruit best represents you and why?

No not really

I've had to do the spaghetti marshmallows tower one. It was great fun - but we ended up with a binliner full of wasted food, which felt wrong.

A general knowledge quiz in teams with chocolates prizes was good.

Maybe play Would I Lie To You?

My Cubs do the spaghetti/marshmallow thing! 🙄

Another one who hates them!

Can you do something with no value judgements attached (ie nothing about a fun fact etc)? The first person asks something like "spring or autumn" and the next person gives a really brief response then asks someone else a different question. All really basic stuff : morning or evening / beach or mountain / cats or dogs? Nothing annoying or which could upset someone. And don't spend long on it!

This, it doesn't have to be any more complicated.

If you really need to do something, ask people to say what their favourite colour is, or what their favourite food is.

Snog / Marry / Push Off A Cliff (adapted to the culture and context of your workplace) with something banal and inconsequential like biscuits or pancake toppings.

Oh my word, just no.

So intrusive, especially the photo one.

The app is quite a good idea because there are so many apps and people may not have heard of them - it could be a work related one or something to do with someone's hobby. Or just whatsapp so they can keep in touch with friends and family. You don't have to actually show your phone.

For example if you asked me I have a couple of pilates apps on my phone so I could talk about that. You might have the Fitbit app so you can count steps or a music app for playing your favourite songs. Etc.

I don't think that is intrusive.

Whatever you do please avoid the “tell us a fun fact about yourself question”. I absolutely DESPISE that question. You get the odd anomaly who’s able to say “I have lived in 6 countries”, “I speak 85 languages”, “I won triple backflip gold for team GB before I started this admin job” etc but the 99.9% of other people who just have normal lives just feel awkwardly put on the spot when they have to answer with “my names Kelly and I’ve got a cat called Frank”.

OP I get it I hate them too BUT I have done lots of training days and as annoying as they are the days that start with an icebreaker tend to go much better- people are more relaxed, open to talking, more familiar etc. So they do serve a purpose.
I like asking people what colour they would be and why. Its easy to say a quick basic answer (blue- I like the sea/Im a calm person) but you get the odd 'out there' answer and a sense of peoples personality without it being invasive.

They are awful. Extroverts love them, inflict them on everyone else and say they don't realise that most people find them really fucking cringe. Well of course I am not going to say anything- I'm an introvert, it goes against my nature

Well, if you told that as a response to ‘Tell me something about yourself’ at an ice-breaker, I’d be all questions. 😀

Scattegories is quite low pressure. You can get a category list on your phone/laptop https://swellgarfo.com/scattergories/ points are for unique answers rather than 'good' answers so it's quite inclusive.

Give everyone a sheet of flip chart paper, tell them to make a paper plane, award prizes for longest flight/best design/ best airline name etc. gets everyone on their feet and not too cringy

What about a 1% club style quiz? If you google you will be able to get some questions

Or flags and play guess the country, airport codes, theres loads of quick quizzes online if you do a search

When I was teaching adults I used this website for ideas

https://www.businessballs.com/team-management/icebreaker-games/

The True and False statements one, was great for a lot of people because some came out with some really interesting things.

Much depends on what the session is for though as to what icebreaker you choose.

Oh and not everyone hates icebreakers, it's actually really useful tool to get people working together quickly even when some in the session hate them.

As a shy introvert, ice-breakers give me extreme anxiety.

If you are a manager, pkease stop asking your staff to do them!

I'm still traumatised after an ice breaker 30 years later. I was just back at work after maternity leave. Our team was on a training course and we were asked to say what we were good at. I couldn't think of anything, I was suffering post natal depression. One of the team yelled at me and said oh just say being a mother. I burst into tears, left the room and have never forgotten it. Normally I'm hard nosed and don't care about this stuff.

If you have to do something what about best holiday? Favourite meal? Something totally innocuous.

I have tried telling the extroverts in my team that the introverts will just sit there mortified and wishing the ground would swallow them up, but no, they're adamant that 'everyone' loves a good ice breaker 🤦🏻‍♂️ they only hear the loudest voices

Groan. Here we go again. You’re not going to be able to tell an extrovert from an introvert at a team-building exercise or ice-breaker, unless the introvert has socialised far too much over the preceding period, had no solo time to recharge, and is consequently exhausted and visibly bad-tempered. Not all extroverts are talkative and confident. Not all introverts are reserved or shy. An introvert might loathe ice-breakers, but that will not have anything to do with their introversion. They might hate them because they’re shy, socially anxious, inarticulate, lazy or because they think they’re moronic. But they’re in good company — everyone hates them, extroverts and introverts alike.

What seems to unite people who self-identify as introverts on Mn is a complete misunderstanding of introversion, and a rooted conviction that those ‘bubbly’, loud-mouthed over-sharing extroverts are out to get them doing karaoke.

Can you theme the icebreaker on whatever it is the rest of the session is about?

So for example I had to run a decision-making meeting and at the beginning I asked everyone to share a decision they've had to make lately. It was quite nice as people shared stories about their family, trying to decide whether they could make it to the nativity play on time, what to have for dinner, etc. It gave us an insight to everyone's lives.