Ideas for icebreakers for new and existing groups

If you need ideas for icebreakers for your next meeting or workshop, you’re in the right place.

This compilation of ideas for icebreakers has been put together in partnership with my long-time facilitation buddies Will Bessen and Margo O’Byrne.

Ideas for icebreakers for new groups

The following three activities are great with new groups as they are simple and relatively comfortable for people to contribute to.

Quick disclosure

Ask participants for either a:

• Description of yourself using your initials;
• Highlight of your last two weeks;
• Something you’re really good at.
• The last time you were on a plane was…
• What you like most about _________ …

Continuums

• The questions used in the process can be designed to highlight skills, experience and different perspectives that participants may bring to the group.
• Step out a line across the room
• Mark one end as ‘Low/Not much’ and the other end as ‘High/Lots’
• Get people to move to their preferred point on the line (continuum) based on their rating, experience, etc. and answers to questions like:

– How did you travel to get here today?

– What’s the level of energy that you have for today’s workshop?

– How experienced are you in _________ ?

– How long have you been working in your organisation?

• Ask them to discuss the answers in pairs (people generally feel reasonably comfortable doing this)
• Then get a selection of responses from different points along the continuum

Favourites

This is a good energising exercise that can be used with pretty much any group. The hardest part is getting people to stop talking!

• Provide participants with an A4 piece of paper
• Ask them to write down four of their ‘favourites’ in big letters. This could be favourite film, food, hobby, aunty, holiday spot, cafe, TV show, beach, drive, season, wine region – the options are endless
• Get them up on their feet and moving around the room. Their task is to grab someone they don’t know and discuss their favourites
• Debrief by asking the group if they found any favourites in common or what they discovered about other participant

Ideas for icebreakers with existing groups

The next two activities are more suited to existing groups

Something you may not know about me

Ask participants to tell the group something about themselves which may be unknown:

• I play the drums
• I spent a year living in Italy
• I grew up on a farm
• I’ve been on TV

This deepens participants’ knowledge of each other and provides another point of relating.

Visual tools

Use images from card sets such as Picture This or Shift your Thinking cards

Based on the focus or purpose of your workshop, ask participants to select an image, based on either:

• How they feel about the issue
• Their description of the key challenges or opportunities relating to the issue
• A change they’d like to see

This can assist people to detach from a fixed position, activate their creativity or better understand the perspectives of others.

Key points

• Link any icebreaker to what the group needs
• Think of a way to link the icebreaker back to the main purpose of your workshop
• Avoid icebreakers in a warm room (i.e. if the group is well connected and wants to get on with things, let them roll!)

If you need more detailed help with session design and facilitation, get in touch or book a 20 minute planning session.