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When people are comfortable with their surroundings and peers, they are more likely to grasp and accept new ideas. Frequently, people come to training sessions tense from a prior activity or resent the fact that they are present. Ice breakers can help to turn around such negative feelings. Articles in our "Ice Breakers" Category:
Ice Breakers
By Speaking Tips | October 30, 2003 Ice breakers are a great way to begin a meeting. They help to relax participants, and that makes them more receptive to listening and contributing. An ice breaker can also serve to
build a team atmosphere and to generate enthusiasm. Ice breakers can be fun, amusing, humorous, thoughtful, surprising or just plain silly.
10. Have each particpant introduce themselves and tell the most memorable moment in their life so far (one they care to share).
involve and relax people immediately open the lines of communication help foster a sense of trust promote content flow revive failing energy stimulate creativity encourage trainees to look at the world in new ways equalize differences among trainees
There are many types of ice breaker and group activities. Match your objective for a particular segment of training with the relevant type of activity. The guidelines for using ice breakers and related activities are straightforward: keep them simple, explain clearly and make that sure everyone understands, try to relate the activity to the competency or principle, and be non-judgmental with responses. There are dozens of print and online sources of ice breakers and games but some of the best group activities are the ones you create and customize to fit your group and material. Well
known games can be easily modified and have the benefit of being familiar. Here are a few broad categories and ideas:
Introducers
Use an introducer at the beginning of a program, especially when the people present are unfamiliar with each other and need to become acquainted. This can be a simple as self (or partnered) introductions. It can sometime be helpful to ask people to include some specific details on their attitude, experience or learning style. You can prompt them by having them complete sentences: such as "People say I have...".
Energizers
Use energizers to emphasize a point, transition to a new topic or revitalize the group when energy is low. Energizers tend to be loud and physical so be sure you have space and can make noise without disturbing others. Some common ideas for energizer activities include: having the trainees change seats or re-arrange the room, changing the format of delivery to one which uses more audience participation, doing aerobic, stretch or breathing exercises.
Simple lead ins
Lead ins are activities designed to ease the transition into your next presentation topic. Some examples are: finding out what learners already know via discussion or informal quiz, having volunteers role play a problem related to the next topic, asking your audience what questions they hope to have answered by the next module.
Review
These are activities designed to help the trainees review the material you have covered. Try preparing a rhyme that sumarizes your presentation and have them memorize it and then recite it as a group. Another favorite is to have the trainee take turns at sharing a point that they have learned. A variation of this idea allows the chosen trainee to then choose who goes next until everyone has had a turn. Pop quizes can be another good way to review the session.
Reflections
Reflections can be used to calm people down after exuberant or emotional sessions and can be a powerful learning tool. They are appropriate for a reality check after an imaginative brainstorming. Encourage your trainees to reflect for five minutes with their head down. You can enhance the reflective mood by playing soothing music or sounds of nature in the beackground.
Diversions
You may never need a diversion but if an unexpected interruption or delay occurs you must be prepared to occupy the time. A diversion can make such dead time come alive.
Windups
End the training with an activity that offers closure and connection. Individual action plans are an excellent way to end and so are team action plans if the training involves team skills. Brief individual summations are another way to end.
Ice Breakers
by Speaking Tips | October 30, 2003 Ice breakers are a great way to begin a meeting. They can help to relax participants, increase their receptiveness to your message and encourage contribution. An ice breaker can also help to foster a team atmosphere and generate enthusiasm among the group. Ice breakers can be fun, amusing, humorous, thoughtful, surprising or just plain silly. The most popular ice breakers are games that have participants reveal something personal about themselves, or which encourage participants to get to know each other in other ways. The idea is that more than just having fun, the ice breaker will truly help to create group cohesion based on mutual trust and understanding. In important consideration when deciding on an ice breaker activity is your available time. If an activity is too long the serious work of the meeting may not be given enough time. If, on the other hand, it is too short then the participants may feel that it was merely a perfunctory exercise. The time you allow for an ice breaker activity also depends on the size of the group, the overall length of the eventand its purpose. Here are a few ideas for ice breaker games, activities and lead-ins. Be creative and try and come up with some of your own!
Ice Breaker Ideas
The following represent some ideas for games which can be used to help break the ice. Depending on the audience dynamics, such games can sometimes be enhanced by introducing a competitive aspect such as by awarding prizes to the individual or group which performs the best.
1. Ask participants to state one or two "burning questions" they hope will be answered in this session. 2. Have each participant say three things about themselves - two of which should be the truth and the other a lie. Ask the other participants to guess which statement was untrue and have them give their reasons. 3. Have everyone write on a piece of paper their answers to these questions or other similar questions: What is your favorite ice cream flavor, book, TV show, color, animal, etc.? Each participant should sign their name and be told to keep their answers private. Once you are done, collect the responses and then read the answers to the whole group. Have the participants try to guess to whom each set of answers belong.
4. Give each participant a list of five to ten traits that they must find in common with the people around them. Sample items could be: "Find someone that was born in the same month", "..someone who lives in your state", or "..drives the same model of car". Try to think of twenty or so questions and give a slightly different set of questions to each person. 5. Write the words "agree," "disagree," "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree" on separate pieces of paper and post them on four different walls of the room. Then make a statement such as "our organization can change the world" and have everybody move to the part of the room that matches their opinion. At the end of the activity, have the group discuss why they chose their response. 6. With everyone in a circle, have someone come up with a short story that they whisper to the person next to them. Have that person relate the story to the next person and so on. When the story has reached the last person, have them recount the story out loud. 7. Have participants describe one strategy or resource they have used successfully. Make sure that you specify that the resource or strategy must be relevant to the topic you will be presenting on
left, they choose the one most important. This dramatizes the difficulty in choosing what is important in life and how we will spend our time. At this point, the audience has been a part of the content of the speech. A third way to engage the audience is ask participants opinions on the idea you are discussing. I often talk about stage fright and I will sometimes start the discussion by asking them first if they experience stage fright. Most will answer that they do and then Ill ask what their symptoms are. This results in an energetic give and take with the audience about the different ways we show anxiety when we are about to speak. That engagement allows me to move into good techniques on controlling too much anxiety. These three ways can help engage the audience so that they feel a part of developing your successful presentation.