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Ice Breakers

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 Breaker Group Activities


By Speaking Tips | May 31, 2004 Ice breakers can help to relax participants and can also serve a valuable role in building relationships and a team atmosphere. Here we present six icebreaker group activities. Full Article

Ice Breaker Introductions


By Speaking Tips | May 17, 2004 Ice breakers can help to relax participants and can also serve a valuable role in building relationships and a team atmosphere. Here we present ten icebreaker ideas designed to help training participants get to know each other better. Full Article

Breaking The Ice


By Speaking Tips | April 5, 2004 Some trainers mistakenly think trainees need to be totally serious in order to learn. They see fun group activities as a waste of time and an impediment to the learning process where in fact the opposite is true. 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. Full Article

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.

Ice Breaker Group Activities


by Speaking Tips | May 31, 2004 1. Assign each person in the group to another person in the group. Then have them find out as much of the following information about that person as they possibly can in three minutes: name, hobbies, family members, home town, job, favorite colour, food and music, etc. The members of each pairing can interview each other but you may find it works better to avoid this. Once the time is over, have the participants use three words to describe their assigned partner. For example, "Jill was my partner, she is thoughtfull, energetic and committed." 2. Make up a bingo style sheet with characteristics and background information in each square that are likely to match your group's demographics. Use a broad variety of categories of information. You might include items such as "has blonde hair", "is an only child", "hates jazz music", etc. Be creative - the possibilities are endless. Participants then meet other people in the room, introducing themselves and finging out whether or not they can match a person to one of the items on their card. It's a good idea to award a small prize to the first person to find a match for everything on their card. 3. As participants enter, give them a slip of paper withthe name of a famous person, or an object. When you are ready to begin your activity, instruct the trainees to find all people who are in their group based on the paper slip thay have received. You can try assigning groups a category of objects and giving individuals slips of paper identifying a member of that category. For example, you could choose "fruit" and individual members of the fruit group might be "apple", "orange", "banana", etc. If you have sufficient time, once people find everyone in their group, you can have them perform an additional task as a group. 4. Pick a letter of the alphabet and have the participants sing a song or recite a well known nursery rhyme or poem. Every time the reach a word containing the chosen letter, they must either sit down or stand up. Repeat the exercise up to three times, going faster each time. Obviously, this works best if the letter you have chosen features prinently on the words or lyrics so you will need to do some planning ahead of time. 5. Arrange chairs in a circle so that there are just enough seats in the circle for everyone except you. Assign participant the name of vegetables from a list you have made beforehand ensuring that there are at least three people assigned each type of vegetable. Then call out one vegetable and those having that name swap seats while you attempt to take one of the vacant seats during the swap. Whoever is left standing calls the name of vegetable and the process repeats. If the person in the center calls "vegetable soup" then everybody changes place.

Ice Breaker Introductions


by Speaking Tips | May 17, 2004 The following represents some ideas for ice breaker activites centered around the idea of having participants introduce themselves to the group in turn. Gather people around and give them the instructions and then demonstrate using yourself as an example. Explain to the group the order in which they will take their turn and then ask if there are any questions. People should have the right to pass if they can't think of an answer right away, just make sure to get back to them at the end to see if they have an answer. 1. Have every participant introduce themself as their favourite food item or dish. ("Hello everyone, my name is "Baked Alaska"). If time permits, you could also ask participants to briefly explain why they made their particular food choices. 2. Have every participant introduce themself by giving their first name and a descriptive sentance using an adjective that starts with the same letter as their first name. ("Hi! I'm Mary and I'm feeling marvelous!"). 3. A variation of this is to have people pick adjectives that describe themselves based on each of their initials. If your initials were FIH, you might be Fastidious, Independent and Humorous. 4. Along the same vein, you can use initials for several other icebreakers. For example, have participants think of something (or things) they are thankful that share their initials. Be creative! 5. Try having each person introduce the person next to them and describe a ficticious (and preferably outrageous) attribute, job or hobby. "This is Sarah. Sarah was recently recogized by a leading national publication for her contributions to science after publishing a revolutionary paper in which she summarized her more than 25 years of research on the sleeping habits of garden gnomes." 6. Have particpants introduce themselves with their first pet's name (or doll's name if they didn't have a pet) as their first name and the street they lived on as their second. If your first pet was a dog named "Lassie" and you lived on Winchester Road, you would be Lassie Winchester. If that same person lived on a street named numerically they would be Lassie the Fifth (Fifth Avenue). 7. Ask participants introduce themselves and to tell what one object they would want to save if there was a fire in their home (assuming that their family and pets were out of the blaze) and why. 8. Have each particpant introduce themselves and tell what animal best fits their personality as a description and why. 9. Have each particpant introduce themselves and tell were they would most like to visit on a dream vacation and why.

10. Have each particpant introduce themselves and tell the most memorable moment in their life so far (one they care to share).

Breaking The Ice


by Speaking Tips | April 5, 2004 Have you ever attended a training session or other presentation where you didn't know anyone, or felt out of place or unprepared? These feelings are common among audiences. One way to help minimize or replace these feelings is to use ice breakers. These are activities and other techniques which break the ice and create a warm ambience. Try to include them in the design and delivery of your training. Ice breakers are effective ways to help improve group dynamics and get your presentation off to a good start. Some trainers mistakenly think trainees need to be totally serious in order to learn. They see fun group activities as a waste of time and an impediment to the learning process where in fact the opposite is true. 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. Some don't think they need training and resent the fact that they are present. Ice breakers can help to relieve such tension and negative feelings. Ice breaker activities can be used throughout training but are especially useful at the beginning. Such activities have several important benefits:

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

Engage Your Audience!


by Stephen Boyd | August 31, 2011 In a recent presentation skills workshop, when I asked the ten people to tell what they wanted from the workshop, I was surprised to hear that over half wanted to learn ways to engage the audience. I realized I had not planned on giving enough attention to this important element of presentation skills. So before the day was over, I shared some ways to do that. Bruce Springsteen said it well about engaging the audience: "The life of a rock and roll band will last as long as you look down and can see yourself, and your audience looks up at you and can see themselves." We are not musicians but speakers; thus we may have to work harder at making the connection with our audiences. One way is physically to move into the audience. When I stress a point, I may take two or three steps toward the listeners. This action lets them know that I want to make sure they are with me as I share this information. Another method is to involve the audience in some activity to process the point you are making. This can be very simple. For example, when I talk about goals or priorities or how a person should spend his or her time, I will sometimes use the following activity. Each person gets a blank piece of paper to tear into four equal quadrants. I say, On each quadrant, write something that you hold of great personal value. Then I have them fan the four pieces out as they would a deck of cards. I say, Wad up the least important of the four to throw away. Then among the three, they choose the one that is least important. When two are

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.

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