Icebreakers

This is important activity to start building an effective team. The term "icebreaker" comes from "break the ice", which in turn comes from special ships called "icebreakers" that are designed to break up ice in the arctic regions. Just as these ships make it easier for other ships to travel, an icebreaker helps to clear the way for learning to occur by making the learners more comfortable by helping to bring about conversation. Many times people are fearful in new situation. The icebreaker can help put new teams at ease. Icebreakers should be short from 15-20 minutes. Keep them moving, and fun.

Icebreaker: Complete this sentence: Break the large group into 4-5people circles, and let each person complete these three sentences (or something similar): o The best job I ever had was... o The worst project I ever worked on was... o The riskiest thing I ever did was... This is a good technique for moving on to a new topic or subject. For example, when starting a workshop and you want everyone to introduce themselves, you can have them complete "I am in this class because..." You can also move on to a new subject by asking a leading question. For example if you are instructing time management, "The one time I felt most stressed because I did not have enough time was:

Icebreaker:Your team is stuck on island:

You are shipwrecked on an island. What five items would you have brought with you if you knew there was a chance that you might be stranded. Note that they are only allowed five items per team, not per person. You can have them write their items on a flip chart and discuss and defend their choices with the whole group. This activity helps them to learn about other's values and problem solving styles and promotes teamwork

Icebreaker: You have found a Jennie in the Bottle with Three wish You have just found a magic Jennie in the Bottle that allows you to change three work related activities. You can change anything you want. How would you change yourself, your job, your boss, coworkers, an important project, etc.? Have them discuss why it is important to make the change. Another variation is to have them discuss what they would change if they become the boss for a month. This activity helps them to learn about others' desires and frustrations

Icebreaker: Ask each team member to bring his or her favorite t-shirt: Ask attendees to bring (not wear) their favorite T-shirt to the meeting. Once all participants have arrived, ask each person to show the shirt to the group and explain how the T-shirt best resembles their personality.

Icebreaker:

Change is Good... You Go First with FREE DVD

At recent training session, the team facilaltor showed the video ‘ Change is good” Ask the team the following questions after the video;

Is change good or bad?
Why do people resist change?
Can our team take advantage of change and innovation?
What trends will impact our organization?
Do organizations need to change to survive? Can organizations profit from change?

Meeting ice breakers

The Encyclopedia of Icebreakers (University Associates) says that icebreakers "are tools that enable the group leader to foster interaction, stimulate creative thinking, challenge basic assumptions, illustrate new concepts, and introduce specific material." As such, icebreakers can be used nearly any time a facilitator has a need to gather a group, get them together, and help them move forward. Icebreakers can be used to the same ends, and are generally thought of as best for points in the midst of a meeting, training, workshop, or other group learning experience.

Your Worst/First Job

Everyone goes around the room and tells what they did for his/her first or worst job. You could also do it ahead of time and ask meeting attendees to fill out a card and the facilitator can read them aloud and everyone has to guess which employee had that particular job.

Goal: To learn something new about your colleagues. It could also spark conversation between employees who do not normally work together often and in some cases it might get a chuckle or two.

Paper-Tearing Exercise

Time Allocation: 5 minutes Materials: Blank 8 ½-by-11-inch sheets of paper for each participant

Instructions:

1. Tell the participants the following: “We are going to play a game that will show us some important things about communication. Pick up your sheet of paper and hold it in front of you. Now, close your eyes and follow the directions I will give you—and no peeking! Participants cannot ask questions.

2. Give the following directions, carrying them out yourself with your own sheet of paper and pausing after each instruction to give the group time to comply:

“The first thing I want you to do is to fold your sheet of paper in half. Now tear off the upper right-hand corner.

Fold it in half again and tear off the upper left hand corner of the sheet.

Fold it in half again. Now tear off the lower right-hand corner of the sheet.”

3. After the tearing is complete, say something like “Now open your eyes, and let’s see what you have. If I did a good job of communicating and you did a good job of listening, all of our sheets should look the same!” Hold your sheet up for them to see. It is highly unlikely any sheet will match yours exactly.

4. Observe the differences. There will probably be much laughter.

5. Ask the group why no one’s paper matched yours. (You will Probably get responses like “You didn’t let us ask questions!” or “Your directions could be interpreted in different ways.”)

Then, lead into a presentation on the need for two-way communication in the workplace.

“Ten-Dollar Auction”

Purpose: To highlight the pros and cons of internal competition.

Set Up: An ordinary 10-dollar bill; a gavel (or some other heavy, hand-held object).

Process: Announce to the group that you will be auctioning off a $10 bill. The bidding begins at $5, and yes, you really will be giving out the money, no matter how low the highest bid. The game continues until you’ve called out “Going, going, gone” and slammed down your gavel. In almost all cases, the bidding will continue beyond the $10 threshold, with much excitement and high spirits. To ensure this result and to ratchet up the energy even higher, conduct the auction again, this time announcing that the two highest bidders (the winner AND the runner-up) must BOTH pay out their bids, regardless of the winner.

Discussion Questions: What made this game exciting? Why were the high-bidders willing to go over and beyond the actually monetary value of the money? How effective is competition at raising energy and morale? What are the possible downsides to excessive competition?

The Point: Competition is an almost sure-fire method for releasing adrenaline and getting people’s blood rushing – particularly in America’s highly competitive culture and society. But competition has a price. In our effort to beat out our rivals (often co-workers), we can easily fall into behaviour that disregards cost and time efficiency. Ten dollars has a clear monetary value of exactly $10 in an even-tempered, thoughtful business environment. Once competition is added to the mix, however, the atmosphere becomes more charged and the opportunity increases for hasty and imprudent decision-making. A $10 bill, in this short-sighted, antagonistic environment, now gets purchased at $15, or $20, or even $30! People lose sight of what a $10 bill really is; namely, a $10 bill! This fun little exercise is quite effective for demonstrating the benefits of internal competition (i.e. employee enthusiasm, energy, adrenaline) and the possible downsides of an adversarial environment (i.e. fiscal irresponsibility and short-sidedness). It might also just make you a few easy bucks as well.Submitted by Dr. Clue

Dr. Clue is the premier creator of teambuilding treasure hunts, all across the country.

Icebreaker:

Time capsule: The items should represent items that make your organization successful.

Ask each team to come up with list of items that should go into a time capsule. The time capsule will be open up in 10 years. Let the teams brainstorm for 10 minutes. Then ask them to pick the top five items to go into the time capsule

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