This icebreaker is good for getting everyone up and moving around, and cracking each other up.  There is no actual dancing, which I know is a disappointment to some. 😉  Thanks to Roger James for this one.

• Circle up with one person in the center.
• Give the instructions, stressing safety.
• The person in the center names a personal characteristic they have (blue eyes!  born in a barn! left-handed!)
• Everyone in the circle who shares this characteristic – including the person in the center – has to find a new place in the circle.  The person who doesn’t make it into the circle has to go to the center.
• Repeat steps 3 and 4 until people look bright and shiny again.

One of my favorite icebreakers is to go around the room and ask people to respond to 1-3 fairly innocuous questions. I wrote about this kind of icebreaker in an earlier post that turned out to be quite popular.  So I thought I’d devote a post to listing all the questions I could think of.

Together we can make this even better

Add your questions in the comments.  I’ll move them into the main list, editing only for clarity, and credit you in the comments.   If you want to add your story about how you used these questions, and what happened, that would be great too.  To those of you who have already done this – thank you!

How to use these questions:

You can use one or more questions to start your weekly staff meeting  or any gathering so your group can get to know each other over time.  For larger groups or longer time slots, putting 24 of these on a bingo card is a fun mixer.  No matter how well team members know each other, they always learn something about each other. Thanks to coach Michael Tertes for the original list all those years ago.

+     +     +     +     +

1. What time did you get up this morning?

2. Diamonds or pearls?

3. What was the last film you saw at the theatre (not at home)?

4. What is your favorite T.V. show?

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?

6. What is your middle name (and where did it come from)?  You can do this with first names too.

7. Favorite cuisine?

8. What foods do you dislike?

9. What is your favorite chip flavor?

10. Who is your favorite musician/song/recording right now?

11. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you like your car?  Why?

12. Favorite sandwich?

13. What characteristic do you most dislike in yourself? In others?

14. Favorite item of clothing?

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?

16. What color is your bathroom?

17. Favorite brand of clothing?

18. Where would you retire to?

19. What was your most memorable birthday?

20. Favorite sport to watch?

21. Most embarrassing moment?

22. Proudest moment?

23. Goal you have for yourself?

24. How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

25. Are you a morning person or a night person?

26. What is your favorite dessert?

27. Pets?

28. What is your hobby?

29. What did you want to be when you were little?

30. What did you actually become?

31. What is your favorite candy?

32. What is your favorite flower?

33. What date on your calendar you are looking forward to?

34. What do you listen to in the car?

35. What is the last book you read?

36. What is your favorite food?

37. What is your favorite restaurant?

38. What is your favorite drink?

39. Which is your favorite way to dance:  With others or alone?

40. What is your favorite color?

41. What’s the most unusual job you’ve ever had?

42. What’s your favorite travel destination? (been there or want to go)

43. What characteristics do you admire (in yourself or others)?

44. What always makes you laugh?

45. What is something no one here knows about you?

46.  What’s your idea of the perfect day?

47.  How do you describe what you do for a living to your friends?  To strangers at a party? To your family?

48. Describe your closet.

49. How do you take your coffee/tea?

50. Sweet or salty?

51. Most important quality in a friend?

52. What would you name your pet gorilla (lizard, ferret, kangaroo, clown fish, etc.)?  (you could fill an entire bingo card with animals)

53. Describe your perfect day off.

54. Favorite museum?

55. What interest haven’t you pursued, but have always wanted to and what draws you to it?

56.  Oils, pastels, acrylics or water colors?

57. Favorite comic?

58. Favorite comic strip character?

59. Favorite artist?

60. Piece of art that moved you deeply?

61. All-time favorite movie?

62.  Favorite game?

63. If you had a second-life avatar, what would it look like?

64. Favorite character (book, TV movie)?

65. Cook in or eat out?

66. Favorite drink?

67. What’s your favorite season (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring)?

68.  Have you ever played the accordion?  Has anyone in your family?

69. Have you ever played the banjo?  Has anyone in your family?

70.  What makes you laugh out loud?

71.  When was the last time you got the giggles at an inappropriate time?

72. What is your favorite kind of music?

73.  What movie star, musician or artist have you spent hours learning about?

74.  What was the last thing you geeked-out about?  Where were you?

75. Tell us a funny family story…

76. What do you think the secret to a good life is?

77. If you could go on a road trip with any person (dead or alive), who would you choose and where would you go?

78.  Why should trust you to pet sit for me?

79.  How do you get your news?

GOOD ANNUAL OR QUARTERLY QS:

80. What was the highlight of the year for you?

81. What might not have happened if you hadn’t been involved? (this one is especially good for those who have trouble claiming their successes)

82.  What was your proudest moment this year?

83.  When did your team pull together in ways that surprised you?

Inventing your own ice-breakers is easy once you know where to look.  Perhaps this situation will sound familiar to you:  In a day-long meeting between people who have never worked together, there is a crying need for an icebreaker, but not a minute to spare in the agenda.   It’s a dilemma alright, and one facilitators face all the time.

Here are two ways to fit in an icebreaker:

Turn breakfast into a mixer. Here’s how:  Most all day meetings have name tags or table tents.  You can use these to seat people in random groups, then give them something to talk about either at their table or with the person sitting next to them over breakfast.  Just write the table number on the back of the name tag or tent, label the tables and put a topic for discussion at each table.  The topic can be anything from “where did you go to school?” or “how did you get your first name”to “what’s your favorite thing about your work?

Use the content of the meeting as an icebreaker. This is as simple as making the exercise “rank order the organization’s 5 goals (list provided)” in an annual goals planning meeting.   Or, “list as many activities as you can for each goal.”   When you incorporate the content of the meeting, you’ve used an icebreaker to give participants a jumpstart.  You can do this at the start of an agenda item, not just at the start of the meeting.

One thing that distinguishes an icebreaker from “real” work is that every answer is the right answer and people are expected to have fun.  With that in mind, start looking to the content of your meeting to design your own icebreakers.  To liven up any icebreaker, set an impossible time frame, like 30 seconds, or have participant’s work through drawings only – no talking.   Then let everyone know it’s a competition and give a goofy prize for the most original, or the worst answer.

Those are some of my ideas for shoe-horning an icebreaker into a full agenda.   What do you do?

Let’s say you’ve got a group with a little free-floating rage. Nothing too terrible, just a little, you know, frustration, marked by an inability to move on, perhaps for years. You can try the old chestnut where you list all the issues, declare them in the past and agree never to speak of them again. Except you’ve just spent 30-60 (or more!) minutes reinforcing the complaints and negativity, amping up the limbic system and reinforcing the very neuronal paths you want to extinguish. Probably not the best approach. And, saying “you can’t talk about that” just drives them underground. Besides, you want these complaints as a springboard for problem-solving. What you need is a way to hold them differently, a way to create some transformation space around them. Here are two ideas:

1. Have pairs, trios or some other subgroup create skits depicting the frustrating situation then follow that up with one depicting the situation as they’ like it to be. Ideally, you’d ask them to do something creative with this: act it out as if everyone were animals, do a group sculpture showing the relative position of everyone in the drama, perform a song, limerick or haiku – something that engages a different part of the brain than the part that’s stuck. Watch all the performances, then, in the debrief, use the positive version as a spring board for action planning.

2. Rework the board game CLUE! This is riskier, faster, high-energy fun. Have the group generate new CLUE! solutions based on the frustrating situation. You can prime the pump by making the following three lists:

Places (can include virtual places)

Categories of people (probably job titles)

Murder weapons (these can be objects or behaviors)

After you’ve had the group list all three, have them generate new solutions in this format:

It was (category of person) in the (place) with a (murder weapon).

Examples:

It was the executive in the boardroom with a powerpoint

It was HR in the computer with an email

After they’ve had their fun with others, have them generate some more, this time using this format:

It was the team member in the (place) with the (murder weapon).

This gives the group a fun and easy way to make the shift from blaming others to seeing their own culpability and returning them to a sense of personal power. Productive action planning follows naturally.

Christine Kane calls gratitude “the ultimate bringer of more. It is the ultimate releaser of drama.” This article from Pepperdine University links expressing gratitude to increased cardiovascular and immune function as well as increased optimism and success. Martin Seligman’s research suggests that a daily practice of gratitudes is as effective at combating depression as cognitive therapy and anti-depressants combined.

So, why not use it for a team that’s running on fumes and could use some encouragement? Why not use it to sustain your high-performing team? It’s easy, uplifting and fun to replace whining, complaining and gossiping with appreciation, gratitude and counting your blessings.

This attitude of gratitude icebreaker comes in two flavors: face-to-face and virtual.

 

Face-to-face:At the start of your meeting (team, project, staff, annual planning – any meeting) ask everyone to list 3 things they’re grateful for in the last 24 hours. Then go around the room having each person read their list. That’s it. The real pay-off is in doing it every time you meet, making it your practice.

Virtual: Send a group email to your team every morning, listing three things you’re grateful for in the last 24 hours. Ask each of them to do the same and watch the positive momentum build.

I’ve been doing the virtual version for the last month with members of my business group, the BUGs. It’s made a huge difference: I’m not interested in finding things to complain about anymore. Instead, I find I’m focused on making each experience something I can be grateful for which is so much more fun! The practice has made me much more creative – more of a problem solver – and much more peaceful. I’m more optimistic too. Try it with your team and let me know how it goes.

I love this icebreaker: it works for any size group, participants learn something valuable about themselves and each other, it incorporates the latest research, and it’s so energizing and engaging, it’s difficult to get them to stop.

Strengths-Based

This icebreaker is based on the VIA Signature Strengths Survey found on Martin Seligman’s website. Focusing on people’s strengths is not only a genius approach to leadership, it’s a refreshing change from the deficit-based approach that has bedeviled corporate America and hindered performance and satisfatction for decades. It takes some preparation on your part, but the benefits are worth it. Here’s what you do:

Prep

1. Give participants about 10 days lead time to complete the VIA Signature Strengths Survey at (This is a 240-question survey that takes about 25 minutes to complete. They’ll have to register in order to access the survey. Although, free and easy, it will take some time.)

2. Ask participants to print out their complete results (all 24 strengths in order) and bring that print-out to the meeting.

3. Have each participant email you their top 5 strengths.

4. Compile the group’s top 5 strengths and put them on a flipchart page, butcher paper or Powerpoint slide for display. (I list all 24 strengths, tally the results of the group, then reorder the list so the strength with the most tick marks is listed first, the strength with the second most is listed second, and so forth).

Running the Icebreaker

1. 10-20 minutes. Have participants mingle and show each other their top 5 strengths. If you want more depth here, encourage people to linger; if you want them to mix more, let them know that too. In large groups where I want to encourage to get to know people they don’t work with, I’ll ask them to talk to at least 5 people they don’t usually work with. When I really want to push quantity over quality, I’ll time them and give a prize to the person who talked to the most people in the room.

2. 7-10 minutes. When I call the group back together, I ask them what they noticed. They’ll talk about how many of them have one or two strengths in common and you’ll see many heads nodding. Then someone will say “But no one else had this one.” Debrief by displaying the group’s top-5 list you compiled and asking for responses to that list.

That’s it for the icebreaker. I recommend you display the group’s top-5 list for the rest of the meeting (this is why I prefer a large chart to Powerpoint – it can serve as a visual reminder). I find that group members will keep referring to the list and thinking about the connections between their work and their strengths for the rest of the meeting.

Give it a try and let me know how it comes out. And if you’ve done something similar, I’d love to hear about it.