Develop Professional Relationships with Ice-Breakers
What are Ice-breaker Activities?
Ice-breakers are an excellent way to connect with a new group of people.
First, a leader can use them to get to know a team or introduction activity for new members.
Second, ice-breaking activities are an excellent way to get to know each other while improving creative energy.
Finally, leaders can use a wide range of ice-breaker games to start the conversation.
Discover our set of 59 Ice Breaker Questions, Star a Meaningful Conversation
When are Ice-breakers Useful?
Ice Breakers are great for team building, getting to know each other, and meeting participants comfortably in a new environment. Use them at the start of a meeting, to kick off a collaborative working session or workshop, or to introduce new hires or team members to the rest of the group.
For building stakeholder rapport.
Ice-breakers are especially useful for developing stakeholder relationships and driving engagement. They help ignite productive conversations and make stakeholders feel safe to explore perspectives and voice their opinions.
For team building & cohesion.
They can be a terrific way to introduce new team members and have attendees explore each other’s motivations and hobbies. Existing teams can also benefit from ice-breaker activities by building interpersonal relationships and understanding each other better.
For conferences & seminars.
In a seminar or conference setting, the facilitator can use an ice-breaker at the beginning of the session to get people energized and in context for the discussion at hand.
Networking events.
Hosts can use ice-breakers to allow people to connect and start talking to people they don't know. One of the benefits of using ice-breakers is that people are more likely to talk to others when they are in a group of strangers because it is easier to initiate a conversation when everyone is starting at the same level of familiarity.
Why are ice-breakers Effective?
People tend to feel more comfortable around people similar to them, and ice-breaker games can encourage discussion and give the group a chance to get to know each other better. It also helps to break down barriers and encourage interaction by providing people with an opportunity to talk about themselves.
Online Ice-breakers
The online version of “breaking the ice” has several benefits over more traditional face-to-face versions. First, online ice-breakers are appropriate for most meetings at any time when people want to connect and engage with others. The group setting is more comfortable than face-to-face meetings and helps get everyone talking early in the meeting. Finally, online ice-breaking can help participants gain a sense of connection before meeting face-to-face and can be a less intimidating way of getting to know a new team.
Ice-breakers for Large Groups
In smaller groups, the ice breaker tends to be straightforward, with a set list of questions, often targeted at getting people to know each other and discussing their hobbies and interests.
With larger groups, you need something easy to facilitate that motivates people to engage, chat, and build connections quickly. People generally work best in small groups of 3 -4 people, so dividing a large group into smaller sub-groups can help you get the ball rolling faster, keeping attendees active and engaged throughout the session. In addition, smaller groups can quickly move and rotate around the large group, allowing everybody to spend time with each other in a short timeframe.
Develop a selection of questions or ice-breakers to use as discussion points.
The technique works best if there are enough people in each group so they can each speak in turn.
Make sure people know how long they will be in the group, so they feel comfortable knowing the length of the conversation.
Create a running order for the groups, such as a round-robin.
Ice-breaker Questions
Many of the best ice-breaker questions are open-ended and encourage conversation rather than posing closed-ended questions that require a specific answer. Using this type of question means that people can respond to the question and talk about something they find exciting or interesting to others in the group.
Discover our set of 59 Ice Breaker Questions, Star a Meaningful Conversation
Some ice-breaker questions are the following:
1) What would it be if you could only have one luxury for the rest of your life?
2) What's your favourite hobby and why?
3) If you could choose anyone to be your mentor, who would it be and why?
4) What was your favourite book as a child and why?
5) What is your favourite movie of all time and why?
Ice-Breaker Games
Short activities to get the energy up and familiarize your group with each other and relevant skills. For example, if you kick off a project, try our template "My User Manual." to help the team learn each other's communication preferences and work styles.
Check out Three Ice-Breaker Activities for Strategic Planning
Leverage our Favourite Free Tools
Consider the tools you will use and align how you communicate with your attendees. For example, how will you be sharing outputs from the ice-breaker? Setting clear expectations on what will be shared and how the group can access this information will help to streamline project communication. These are our favourite free tools:
Free Video Conferencing.
Commit to a free video tool and use it consistently for all your kick-off meetings.
Our top pick is Hangouts
Online Whiteboards.
Get hands-on to inspire meaningful collaboration. Use a whiteboard to brainstorm, share ideas and run workshop games.
We like to build our whiteboards in Canva and then present them in Google Jamboard
Online Workshops Tools.
Pick one (you hear me, ONE) tool that allows your stakeholders to stay connected and communicate.
Our top pick is Hangouts
Note-taking Apps.
The main advantage of note-taking applications is that stakeholders can share notes among the group. In addition, these notes can serve as reminders of what was shared and learned during the kick-off.
Our top pick is Google Docs
Online Design Tools.
Make your first impression POP by going the extra mile on your workshop design. You do not need to be a graphic designer to use these tools; they are easy and, best of all, FREE!
Our top pick is Canva
Online Survey Tools.
Always follow up and a couple of questions on the kick-off format and your approach.
Our top pick is Typeform