Website design By BotEap.comGetting people comfortable in a group setting before a team meeting may be the best investment of ten to 15 minutes of time you can make. Icebreakers bring creative juices to flow, can increase brainstorming, establish team identity, and create a sense of community. All of these elements are important in building the best productive teams. But how do you get people to participate and not feel uncomfortable with an icebreaker?

Website design By BotEap.comFor meetings in a business environment where the participants are professionals, icebreakers that require actions not normally associated with everyday office behaviors generally make people uncomfortable. Successful icebreakers for these types of groups usually consist of attendees sharing memorable information with each other, creating innovative ways to get people to introduce themselves, or having group members work collectively on an issue that everyone has to contribute to.

Website design By BotEap.comWe’ve selected our top ten team meeting icebreakers that are sure to get meeting participants relaxed and ready to focus on their agenda, as well as connect with others in the group.

Website design By BotEap.com1. Brainstorm !:Divide the meeting into teams of four or five. Give each team a theme. Choose topics that are fun and simple, such as “What would you wear on a trip to the desert?” or “List the things that are purple.” Give your teams two minutes, no more, and say, “This is a contest and the team with the most items on your list wins.” Encourage teams to write down as many things as they can and don’t discuss anything, just list things as quickly as possible. At the end of the two minutes, the team with the most items on their list wins! This helps people share ideas without being afraid of what others think.

Website design By BotEap.com2. Same or different:

Website design By BotEap.comDivide the meeting into teams of three or four and give each team a large sheet of paper and then give each person a different colored marker. Have each person draw a large oval so that each oval overlaps the other ovals in the center of the sheet of paper. Provide the group or groups with a topic that relates to the objectives of your meeting. Ask the participants to write at least five or more entries in the areas of their ovals that do not overlap and that overlap each other. Give them five minutes, no more than that, to talk about their similarities and differences and write them in their own ovals on the paper. If there is more than one group, compare the results and identify common themes in both parts of the diagrams and what light these similarities and differences shed on the purpose of the meeting. This helps team members to develop an understanding of shared goals and in a non-confrontational way to learn how their views differ from those of others in the group.

Website design By BotEap.com3. Fact or fiction:

Website design By BotEap.comHave everyone write three surprising things about themselves, two of which are true and one of which is made up. Each person, in turn, reads their list and then the rest of the group votes on which “fact” they feel is the “false.” If the group does not correctly choose the “fact” invented by one person, that person wins. A group can have more than one winner. In the end, the whole group votes on which of the “winners” of the final round had the most misleading “fact”. This helps people to know and remember their colleagues.

Website design By BotEap.com4. Free association:

Website design By BotEap.comThe object of this icebreaker is for small groups to generate as many words or phrases as they can that are related to a particular topic that focuses on the purpose of their meeting. Give the group or groups a keyword you want them to associate with, and then give them two minutes to list, as quickly as possible, as many words or thoughts that come to mind. For example, if your business is trying to decide whether to reduce travel and increase conference call usage, you can use the word “conference call” and have people list all the words or phrases that they can associate with the keyword. For example, they might say: “save money”, “save time”, “impersonal”, “I need to see other people”, “get distracted”, “sound quality” … This reveals what people think, similarities in points of view, and possibly even problem areas or issues that need to be further addressed or discussed.

Website design By BotEap.com5. Identification labels:

Website design By BotEap.comPrepare identification tags for each person and place them in a box. When people enter the room, each person chooses a name tag (not their own). When everyone is present, participants are asked to find the person whose name tag they drew and to present and say some interesting things about themselves. When everyone has their own name tag, each person in the group will introduce the person whose tag was initially given and mention something of interest about that person. This helps the participants to get to know and remember each other.

Website design By BotEap.com6. Desert island:

Website design By BotEap.comGroup people into teams of five or six and tell them that they will be abandoned on a desert island. Give them 30 seconds to list all the things they think they should take and each person has to contribute at least three items. At the end of 30 seconds, tell the teams that they can only take three things. Have the person who suggested each item on the list say why they suggested it and argue why their item should be one of the three chosen. This helps the team to learn how each of them thinks, to know the values ​​of the others and how they solve problems.

Website design By BotEap.com7. Commonality Plus:

Website design By BotEap.comGroup your meeting participants around the tables. At each table, ask the group to list ten ways that everyone in that group is similar. Let them know that they cannot list body parts or clothing and that what they select cannot have anything to do with the job. One person at the table should be tasked with making your list. At the end of your time limit, have the group share its list with everyone in the meeting. This is a great opportunity for meeting attendees to learn about each other’s hobbies, families, and common interests.

Website design By BotEap.com8. Align:

Website design By BotEap.comWhen people enter the meeting, give each a sheet of paper with a different number written on it. Ask the group to organize themselves in numerical order without using their voice, hands, or showing their number. This helps the team think of other ways to communicate with each other and work together to achieve a common goal.

Website design By BotEap.com9. Meet and greet the shoe pile:

Website design By BotEap.comThis works great in large groups and is an icebreaker variation on the name tag. Have everyone remove one of their shoes and throw it in a pile. Have each group member pick up a shoe and walk around the meeting room greeting other people as they try to match the selected shoe with the one another team member is wearing. This is a great way for new people to meet various members of a group.

Website design By BotEap.com10. First or worst:

Website design By BotEap.comHave each member tell the group their first or worst job in turn. This easy-to-use icebreaker also works great with teleconferencing, allowing team members to engage in conversation with each other and have fun discussing the work they have done. Many of our top ten icebreakers can be used for both on-site meetings and teleconferences. The nature of icebreakers is to get the group to talk, share and get to know each other in an informal exchange. The best and most successful teams start with a little fun; learn to value what each member brings to the group. Icebreakers can help facilitate this exchange of information and comfort by doing so early in the team forging process.