Stop Using Traditional Icebreakers and Do Improv Instead

Becoming a team doesn't mean knowing about favorite colors and your bucket list.

Whenever you meet with a new group, the leader inevitably wants to do some icebreakers. The motivation is good--a team functions better when they know and understand each other.

But people don't like them. Introverts, especially, feel awkward sharing personal information, and sometimes the "fun" questions can feel invasive. They also don't do a lot to build team cohesiveness. How does everyone's knowing what type of animal you'd be if you could help you develop a marketing plan for 2023?

But just jumping into the work can be awkward as well.?

Why Traditional Icebreakers Fail

The idea is to build rapport by sharing things that friends know about one another. But it forces the order incorrectly. My friends know these things about me because we're friends. We aren't friends because they know my favorite color.

For instance, the standard, two truths, and a lie: Ask each person to share three statements about themselves -- two factual and one false -- and have the rest of the team guess which statement is the lie.

This game is fun with people who are already friends because it elicits new information. But when you are in a new group of people, you don't have any foundational information to judge.

It can devolve into an adventurous "top-this" when people feel compelled to come up with increasingly exciting things. It can cause stress, not unity.

And that's the last thing you want. Sharing personal information doesn't build a team. Teams share personal information. And, everyone should be entitled to choose just how much is personal information they share--even if the question is simply what is on your bucket list?

Building teams without sharing personal information

You want people working together; laughter is a great way to do this. You also want to see people's strengths and learn to rely on each other. This is why I teach improv games to help build teams and strengthen leadership skills. Here are some games you can add in place of icebreakers and why they work.

Strike a name pose: Stand in a circle, and have each person give their name and strike a pose to go with it. Each person repeats every name and pose. Repeat until people are confident in everyone's names--it takes several rounds.

Why this works: When we add an action to a word, it helps cement it in our brains. Plus, everyone repeatedly says their own name, which helps fix pronunciation issues.

Headlines: The first person gives a headline of a topic related to your team's function. For instance, you might say, "Acme's Marketing Summit 2023 is a Great Success!" The following person gives another headline, but their first word must be the person before's last word. So "Success in Social Media is the Key to Building a Brand."

Why this works: We often spend most of our time coming up with what we are going to say rather than listening to the person speaking. This forces you to listen to the previous person's thoughts before you begin. It's building listening skills and priming the group to listen to each other.

Give a gift: Each person uses pantomime to hand a gift to the next person in the circle. The receiver thanks the person and shares what the gift is.?

Why this works: You must pay attention to body language, including facial expressions. It also makes your creative side function. Whether you are the gift giver or receiver, you have to figure out to communicate on the fly.

Five things:?One person asks someone else in the group to name five things in a specific category. This can either be things that exist (name five restaurants you'd take your parents to) or something imaginary (name five monsters that live in people's closets). Once you've given your five things, you ask someone else to name five things by giving them a category. Each time someone says an item, the group counts with them.

Why this works: This is a creative brain stretching exercise. It's often easy to come up with one or two things in every category, but coming up with five almost always requires a reach. Having everyone count along it brings support and builds trust within the group.

What about people who aren't creative or are introverts?

One of the things introverts don't like about typical icebreakers is that they ask you to share personal information. These are not personal, making it easier for introverts to participate. But, it would be best if you never forced anyone who does not want to participate. Force doesn't help build a team.

And as far as creativity is concerned, everyone is creative just in different ways. This allows flexibility to do what you wish without pressure. There are no wrong answers in improv, so you can't get it wrong.?

The next time you need to build team unity, try these improv games rather than asking what people's favorite colors are. It will work better.

Article by Suzanne Lucas @ https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/stop-using-traditional-icebreakers-do-improv-instead.html