Including icebreakers

Icebreakers can serve multiple purposes. The key characteristic is that they are meant to build a sense of comfort and connection at a point when people are uncertain and perhaps nervous.

• We can set the stage for people to feel comfortable and relaxed in a group. Even working one-to-one, we create comfort or discomfort by the way we begin.
  • If people start by saying or doing something that is familiar and non-threatening, they are more likely to relax.
  • If they use their voice in the room to say something that comes easily, they are more likely to speak up during the session.
• Icebreakers can help people begin to know more about others in the group, with the freedom to choose how open they wish to be.
• Icebreakers create an opportunity for people to begin to learn about one another. Each participant should be free to choose how much she wishes to share.
• Icebreakers should build trust among the participants.
• Icebreakers can set the stage for the content of the session while creating comfort and building connections.
• A variation on icebreakers is energizers, which usually involve some kind of body movement that is fun and non-threatening. We can use them to stimulate energy at the beginning of a program. We can also use them during a program when energy slides and people need a break from thinking and want to get up and move around.

Icebreakers that connect people with one another

• Participants to put their names and a symbol or picture of one of their passions on a name card, using coloured markers, as a starting point for introducing themselves. Name cards are easy to make using 8½" x 11" paper or card stock folded lengthwise.
• Gather according to where you were born, the number of children in the household where you grew up, your birth order or the length of time you have lived in this community. People can introduce themselves within the group.
• Form a line according to how far we are right now from the place you were born or the length of time you have lived in this community. This exercise necessitates people speaking with one another and the group can make observations about the results.
• In small groups, participants draw one circle in the middle of a flip chart page and one smaller circle for each person in the group around the rim of the large circle. They then put the name of each person inside one of the small circles. The intent is to identify and write in the small circles three things unique to that one individual. In the centre, write three things all the group members have in common. Each group can share the results with the full group.
• In small groups, participants create a group resume to respond to a job ad, (such as ad for a gardener or a tour guide), that could include skills and knowledge from everyone.
• Each person picks a penny from a bowl and speaks to something that happened in her life during the year the coin was made.