Ice-breakers
Ice-breakers, are you using them already?
If so, perfect, but you might still find some new ideas in this article 🙂 .
If not, get inspired and give it a try in your team or workshop! Your participants will appreciate it.
Why use an ice-breaker?
Ice-breakers are boats used in areas where the sea freezes over during the winter months. They sail through the ice first so that other ships can pass through more easily.
This is what ice-breaker games also do for a meeting or workshop. They clear the way before the real work starts. They cause your brain to break from the previous topic and be ready for a new one.
Online and onsite ice-breakers
In this day and age with meetings continuing more online than onsite, you have to have an ice-breaker for both scenarios. Both have their charms and challenges. Some online ice-breakers cause the cameras to turn on. Handy anyway 😉
Online Ice-breakers
Scavenger Hunt!
Create a Miro board or other online whiteboard on which you place a large number of unique icons, both small and large. Make sure you keep a place where you place the icon that they should look for. Set a search timer of 10 to 15 seconds, up to you.
When the icon is found, have that person tell a short story about that icon. This may be a true or made-up story.
Start with two to three icons, depending on how fast they find them you can do one or two more.
Miro board: Ice-breaker board
Can you find it?
This one is also a nice one and appreciated by people.
Once again, create an online whiteboard and place on it 5 objects you can find around the house. Keep in mind that if people are following the meeting from the office, choose objects that can also be found there.
The game is simple, reveal the objects one by one. Whoever is first to show the object to the camera has won. And then you reveal the next object.
This causes everyone to turn their camera on and it usually stays on for the rest of the meeting 🙂 . You will also find that people are sometimes fanatical about finding the objects as quickly as possible.
I have used this one several times and it has been a success each time.
Miro board: Ice-breaker board
Check-in game
Another simple ice-breaker is just doing a check-in. This is then more based on how people are feeling at the time. Are there many people who feel tired (due to many meetings), it might be good if you can finish your meeting 5min earlier. Will always be appreciated by all.
You can do this check-in in many ways, a small overview:
– Put an emoji on a sign.
– Let people play with drawing. You provide the objects they can use: clouds, sun, rain, lightning, … .
– Use Dixit cards. Have everyone choose one card that best fits how they are feeling right now.
You can also do this with Pokemon cards, or other cards where there are pictures on them.
To use this online, you can scan the cards and place them on an online whiteboard. If you don’t have time for this, I have already scanned the Dixit maps and made them available on a Miroboard. You may shamelessly copy them from my Miroboard 😉(Ice-breaker board).
Here I conclude the online ice-breakers, in a future post we will mention some more.
Onsite Ice-breakers
Dixit
Where I closed the list of online ice-breakers with the dixit cards, I open this list. You can use the standard cards as well as the expansions.
Images are now once easier for people to associate with a feeling. Even if someone thinks this is an impossible task, these people are just most often the ones who give a very in-depth explanation.
Original price was: € 34,99.€ 30,00Current price is: € 30,00. inc. Vat
Totem: The feel good game
If you are giving a workshop soon, open it up with the Totem cards. Have your participants choose their totem animal card.
When this is done they go and explain to another participant why they took this totem card. They each get 1 min to then find a new person. As a result, your participants got to know each other a bit and the ice was broken in the group.
€ 19,95 inc. Vat
Happy Salmon
This is a very fun and short ice-breaker/energizer that works best with a large group (at least 8). Very simple game rules and explained quickly. This is an energy booster best played right after lunch or when you notice people getting a dip.
I have personally played this game with a group of 10 to a group of 100 people. Highly recommended!
Original price was: € 15,50.€ 14,50Current price is: € 14,50. inc. Vat
Up to here a first list of ice-breakers. There are many more, but that’s for another post.
Do you have any additional questions regarding the games such as: which ones to use, how to use them, … Please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be happy to help you further.
Be sure to let me know which ice-breaker you like best, preferably even with a photo attached. 
This can be done via LinkedIn, email or facebook messenger.
Looking for someone to come facilitate this, no problem, contact me and we’ll see what’s possible together!
