Icebreaking The Corporate Awkwardness

The pandemic unfortunately did not eradicate the concept of meetings. In-person meetings were simply replaced by Zoom or Team meetings. It is no secret that most employees shudder at the mere thought of meetings. Even the meme market is flooding with “another meeting that could’ve been an email” content these days.?

Considering the stress of high-pressure jobs, it's a miracle most employees can barely keep their heads above water. Add to that, poorly organized meetings, which simply increase the nuisance quotient.

But meetings are essential, or a necessary evil some may say. They foster creativity, and innovation and regulate communication among peers. Meetings also affect important aspects of an organization, including profitability, revenue, customer experience, employee turnover, and more. It is believed that engaged employees perform better. Meetings also allow employees to connect with each other at a much deeper level.

The task at every HR professional’s hand is to help the management swiftly reach this point. To instill the spirit of teamwork among employees, holding meetings thrice a week is not the answer, instead, teaching employees the skills to conduct intellectually stimulating meetings.

To get started, an important employee engagement tool that managers often use either to help new hires connect with other team members in their new, unfamiliar environment and create a sense of community, or start any meeting on a high note, is icebreaker games. Icebreakers build empathy and harmony among the employees.

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What is an icebreaker and how does it help?

An icebreaker is an activity, game, or event that is designed to welcome attendees and warm up the conversation among participants in a meeting, team-building session, or any other activity. Icebreakers can be an effective way of starting a meeting or team-building event. They can range wildly from simple question answers to elaborate team games.

As the name suggests these sessions are designed to “break the ice” at an event or meeting and the “ice” that needs to be broken could be anything. For instance, if you are working with people from different backgrounds, outlooks, or cultures, the “ice” may come from their perceptions. If these people don’t speak the same language, the language barrier can be the “ice”. In the case of like-minded people, the “ice” can be because they’ve not met yet, or don’t relate.

Icebreakers are mostly used under the following circumstances:

●?????When participants come from different backgrounds

●?????When a team is newly formed.

●?????When discussing an unfamiliar topic or project

●?????To optimize the meeting

Benefits of Icebreakers

????Boost Productivity

Icebreakers accelerate the whole process of getting acquainted with a new team member within minutes. Also, meetings are more effective when the employees are up and moving around before it starts. Sometimes icebreakers serve as a segue to the meeting.

????Mental and Psychological Upgrade

Sometimes the always-meeting routine can be tiring, especially when it’s dull. In such scenarios, employing icebreakers, and using the correct procedures can play a pivotal role in arriving at conclusions quickly. Before any meeting, having icebreaker sessions, especially the ones that include brainstorming, could be helpful. So that when the meeting starts, everyone is already psychologically alert, and hence for every small case, there’ll be accordance and good relations.

????Interaction

Interaction is a necessary component of community building. By the nature of how icebreakers work, it results in interaction between co-workers. Even the few minutes an icebreaker might take, can elicit laughter, open dialogue, or stepping out of one’s comfort zone, and most importantly it prevents a siloed work environment, which breeds dysfunction. It helps employees relate to each other better and share and bring forth their ideas.

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????Fun!

The number one objective of any icebreaker game or event is fun! Without pleasure, an icebreaker session will be like any other meeting, dull and lengthy, and no one will be interested.

????Community

A community is a group of individuals who share values, ideals, or demographics. Building a community is a process, and a few individuals sitting in a room does not make a community. The practice of using an icebreaker opens the door for the individuals to get to know each other and ultimately leads to building community.

What are the various types of icebreakers available?

????Introductory Icebreakers

An introductory icebreaker is one where participants are introduced to each other. These icebreakers are used to ease conversation among them. Asking the participants their name, department or role in the organization, length of service, etc. are all examples of introductory ice breakers.?

????Sharing Icebreakers

A sharing icebreaker is one in which participants share information about themselves. Asking which book they are currently reading, or where was the last place they traveled are examples of sharing ice breakers. This is perfect for new teams or teams who have hired new people.

????Team Building Icebreakers

Team building icebreakers are meant to promote a collaborative environment. Any short activity that requires the participants to form teams for the purpose of conducting the activity is a team-building icebreaker. They are particularly beneficial to new teams and can help people start working together more cohesively towards shared goals.????

????Topic Exploration Icebreakers

These can be used to explore the topic at the outset and introduce or segue into the topic of the training session or meeting. Their clear purpose is to start a discussion and open up the topic of the session.

The key to having effective icebreakers is to have a clear objective regarding what the “ice” is and keep it simple. Below is a list of icebreakers that can be used for groups of all sizes:

Ideas for Small Group Icebreakers (Less than 10 people) and How They Contribute

1. Two Truths and One Lie

In this activity, every person says three things about themselves, but two of those statements must be true and one must be a lie. And the rest of the group is required to guess which statement is false.

In this game, everyone gets to learn something new about each other while still having fun and building problem-solving skills.

2. Group Storytelling

A group storytelling session is a terrific icebreaker for smaller groups. It involves having everyone create a story together, one line at a time. Start with a theme and have each team member weave a story around it, one line per person.

3. Whodunit

Ask everyone to write down something interesting they have experienced on a piece of paper. Examples can range from having gone skydiving to having lived in 10 different states.

Fold all the pieces of paper and put them in a container, shake them up, and have each person draw one and read it aloud. The individual reading the fact must then guess who had that experience and why they think it is that person. Anyone who draws their piece of paper, should put it back and try again without giving it away.

4. One Word

This icebreaker game can help employees get in the right mindset for an upcoming discussion. This icebreaker requires teams to come up with a single word that according to them best describes a prompt/ situation that has been provided. Divide participants into smaller groups and give them a few minutes to brainstorm ideas and settle on a word after taking all suggestions.

Starting an important meeting with this activity gives everyone adequate time to think about a certain topic, which can result in increased participation.

5. Charade

Charade is a classic icebreaker used in small groups. Make an interesting charades word list and write them on small pieces of paper. Fold them and mix them up. Have one person pick from the shuffle and they have to enact the word to their team and their team has to guess the word.

It is a great way for people to get a sense of each other’s personalities and decision-making styles in an interactive and entertaining way.

6. The Hot Seat

The Hot Seat is basically a fun interview. Select one person to sit on the hot seat and everyone gets to ask them one question. The questions could be anything, ranging from personal to professional (like recent projects).

7. Would You Rather

Would You Rather, is a quick icebreaker activity that involves asking bizarre questions that start with the words “would you rather”?

Provide a person with two scenarios and ask them to choose one. Make the game more interesting by asking odd questions and putting them in dilemmas. For example: Would you rather stop watching movies or stop listening to music?

8. Toilet Paper Game

For this icebreaker activity, you need a roll of toilet paper. Pass it around the room and tell each person to take as much as they would usually need. Then, for each square of toilet paper they took, they must share one fact about themselves.

9. First/ Worst Job

Not all icebreaker activities have to be complex. In this activity, people can simply go around in a circle and share what their first or worst job experience was.

10. Word Association

Also called the linking word game, it involves coming up with creative ways to link related words to each other. For example, if the first person says the word “red”, then the next person may say something related to it like, “rose” or “dress” and so on.

Word association games are great for brainstorming sessions whilst coming up with new ideas for an upcoming project.

Ideas for Medium Group Icebreakers (15-30 people) and How They Contribute

1. Survival

Divide the group into smaller teams. Each person on a team pulls a slip of paper with one object written on it, out of a bowl. Objects can be anything. Players then try to make sense of the objects they have that would help the team to survive in the wilderness. Each team presents its case on who has the best objects for survival and why. This helps in understanding the resourcefulness ability of the employees.

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2. Tall Tale

One person starts with “Once upon a time” and starts telling a story. They tell a small portion of the story and when the group leader buzzes arbitrarily to decide that time is up, the next person must continue the story.

3. Song Scramble

This icebreaker requires the lyrics to several well-known songs to be written down. They are then cut into one-line strips. Each participant chooses a strip from the pile and then searches for others with lyrics to the same song. The first team to arrange their line in lyrical order wins.

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4. Have You Ever

Prior to this activity, the facilitator prepares a list of questions that begin with “Have you ever …?” and can only be answered with yes or no. The facilitator reads out the questions one by one and for each question, the participant answers with yes, they have to stand up. Possible topics can be countries/ states visited, dishes, games, or sports tried, movies are seen, etc.

5. Super Specific Office Trivia

The goal of super-specific office trivia is to test everyone’s awareness of their surroundings. The organizer has to come up with a list of questions regarding super-specific details about the office and the organization. For example, how many company-branded coffee mugs are there in the break room, or how many people work in customer support, etc.

The more specific the questions, the better. The whole idea is for teams to discuss and debate fun facts about the place they work.

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6. Going on a Picnic

When you need to introduce several new people who have yet to learn each other’s names, this fun game can help. Start by saying your name and the name of an item that you would bring to a picnic, starting with the alphabet of your name.

For example, one might say, “My name is Jatin, I am going on a picnic and I am bringing jam.” The second person says their name and what they are bringing, then repeats what the previous person said: “My name is Mona, I am going on a picnic, and I am bringing mangoes. Jatin is bringing jam.”

This goes on until everyone has had a chance, and helps the manager gauge how attentive the team is and what their retention capabilities are.

7. Question Web

You need to have a ball of wool for this game. You also need to prepare a questionnaire with 25-30 funny and thoughtful questions. Ask your team to stand in a circle. Hold onto one end of the string and throw the ball of wool to one of your team members to catch. They then choose a question from the questionnaire to answer.

While holding the string the person can then throw the ball to another member of the group. This way the ball goes around the room several times in no specific order and eventually creates a web with the wool. Everybody plays a part in creating this unique web. It helps understand the team member's multi-tasking capabilities.

8. Jenga Questions

You can spice up a regular tower toppling game by writing intriguing questions on each block. When a team member draws a block, they read the question out loud, and answer before placing the piece on top of the tower. This can ignite exciting conversations about everyday topics, including career and self-development goals.

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9. Speed Dating Icebreaker

The goal of this game is to have several rapid conversations in an extremely short amount of time with as many people as possible. Have people sit in pairs, with colleagues they don’t directly work with on a day-to-day basis. Determine a time limit (say 3 minutes for each conversation) and set a timer. When it starts, each pair has to start speed networking and find out as much professional information about the other as possible. Every time the buzzer goes off, the pair has to split and find a new partner. This activity is great for large groups and enables swift, deep conversations in less time. It increases inter-department communication.

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10. Back-to-Back Drawing

This game requires players in pairs to sit facing away from each other, where one person is given a picture of an object or word. Without saying directly what it is, they must describe the image to the other person using words that give away the image. Their pair has to draw that specific picture. This is a great game to develop verbal communication within the team.

Ideas for Large Group Icebreakers (More than 40 people) and How They Contribute

1. Scavenger Hunts

If you can set aside a few hours for employee orientation, then it is highly recommended to play this fun icebreaker. It is a great and engaging way to introduce new staff into the workplace and get a feel for their new job, as well as encourage collaboration and interaction.

Divide everyone into small groups and give them a short list of things to find within the office. Set a timer and instruct the teams to find as many of the things on the list as possible. The team that has the most stuff from the list collected wins.

2. Inner Artists

For large gatherings, consider an art activity. Place large chart papers over each table where the participants are seated and also place markers, crayons, or drawing pencils on each table. Assign the group to work together to create an illustration of a concept, such as the company mission or ideas for an upcoming project using pictures rather than words. Have the contributors sign their artwork.

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3. People Bingo

People bingo involves giving out cards with attributes of people or diverse information in each bingo square. For example, one square might be ‘has brown eyes’ and another might be ‘an only child’. Everyone has to interact and try to find someone who meets a particular attribute. They can then put the person’s name in the box. Eventually, by completing a row of five names, you get a bingo!

4. Baby Photos

This activity requires a bit of preparation. Send out a request for baby photos from each individual beforehand. Compile the photos, and place them all up on a board, numbering each one. The team members have to guess which photo belongs to which employee by writing a name on a piece of paper beside the corresponding number. The winner has to get the most correct guesses.

5. 10 Things in Common

This icebreaker helps team members to know each other and discover commonalities, shared traits, and interests. To play, ask people to find a partner - preferably those who have not had the chance to connect yet. Have each pair identify 10 things they have in common with one another, preferably deeper commonalities rather than obvious qualities.

6. App-Based Trivia

Trivia games are a great icebreaker option for large groups having more than 30-40 members. Here, an app is used that allows individual members to enter their answers with a smartphone, with the group’s results displayed for all to see and share. Just enter some trivia questions appropriate for the group, and ask everyone to participate.

7. Line Up

Line-up games emphasize people’s qualities and uniqueness. Diversity and uniqueness in teams tend to increase team performance.

To play this game, give your team a quality (e.g., birthdays) based on which they will have to form a line, in order. When the line is formed and the group believes that the lineup is correct, they will start at one end and call out their birthdays. If the order of the lineup is correct, then the game is won.

This game helps pinpoint natural leaders and team players.

8. Team Jigsaw Puzzle Game

Separate people into smaller teams and give each team a very different jigsaw puzzle and the same amount of time to complete the puzzle. Then secretly switch up a few pieces with the other groups beforehand. To win a team has to finish before the others. The teams must figure out collectively how to convince other teams through barter, merging or changing teams, etc. to give up the pieces they need.

This game keeps a team on their toes and encourages teamwork and creative thinking and includes an edge of competitiveness as well.

9. Helium Stick

This icebreaker is used to enhance teamwork and problem-solving. It requires one long, thin, light rod. Ask people to stand in two rows facing each other. Then, introduce the helium stick and ask participants to hold their index fingers out. Lay the stick on their fingers and before letting go, make sure that the stick is horizontal and everyone is touching it. The rule of the game is to lower the stick to the ground in a way that no one lets go of it at any time. It helps build trust as well.

10. Egg Drop

For this activity, you’ll need a carton of eggs. Teams are tasked with using materials from around the office to protect an egg from breaking when dropped from a certain height, say 7 feet. Each team should have access to the same office materials like paper, tape, erasers, pens, etc. The team who can protect their egg from breaking using the least amount of supplies wins.