Don’t Slip On the Ice (Breakers)

We’ve all had to endure silly icebreakers – telling embarrassing stories to someone you don’t know, playing scavenger hunt games, using the letters of your name to describe yourself, but what are icebreakers all about? And do we really need them?

While icebreakers aren’t necessary for every meeting, they definitely have their place. Sometimes icebreakers can help meeting attendees become more comfortable with each other and more confident, especially if the meeting will last all day or for several days. They also can help you get to know whom you are presenting to - are they a group of introverts…a group of nonstop talkers? This way you’ll know how to maintain control of the group if things start to go awry.

When choosing your icebreaker, be conscious of your group dynamic, says Charlie Hawkins, a recognized expert in meetings and presentation effectiveness and president of Seahawk Associates, a business consulting firm.

"It’s very difficult for an icebreaker to work when you put people on the spot," Hawkins says. "Icebreakers shouldn’t be designed to make anyone feel uncomfortable such as asking them to reveal personal information or participate in a stressful activity. Remember, what’s not personal to some may be personal to others. Be sensitive to different styles, encourage interaction, and tie the icebreaker to the topic to be discussed."

Hawkins provides this example for use in a meeting where you want to encourage out-of-the-box thinking: Bring in a group of different hats - firefighter hat, chef hat, explorer’s hat, clown hat, baseball cap - and ask attendees to select a hat. (Depending on the group, you may or may not ask them to wear the hat.) When brainstorming, the attendees are told to think the way the person who normally wears the hat might think and then generate ideas. This icebreaker can provide each participant with a new perspective.

You can also use hats as icebreakers when getting a group back together or during the second day of a meeting. Ask attendees to select a hat that describes what they do on the job, put it on, and describe the analogy. For example, someone may choose a firefighter’s hat because they have to continually put out "fires."

The key to an effective icebreaker is to start small and build up, says Hawkins. Here are some ideas:

• Pair up or group people into threes or fours. Ask them to introduce themselves and after they’ve chatted for about five minutes, have them join the large group and introduce each other.
• Ask attendees to bring a cartoon/comic strip to the meeting and explain why it relates to their workplace. (Be prepared for a lot of Dilbert.)
• Play games - number or math games for a group of actuaries, word games for people who are into books, and so on.
• Ask everyone who enters the room to drop a business card into a bowl. Then have everyone select a card and find the person that it belongs to and talk with that person for about five minutes.
• Share examples - ask attendees to talk about their biggest sales success or talk about their worst jobs.

Using icebreakers successfully is an integral part of presenting, however, you need to know your audience’s mood, topic of discussion, and time allotted. Remind everyone who participates that the whole idea behind icebreakers is to break down barriers, encourage participation, learn something about one another, and start the meeting in a lighthearted way.