“Let’s start with an ice breaker!” When you hear those words, do you cringe and stare at your shoes in hopes you won’t have to participate or do you slide to the edge of your seat and hope you are the first to participate? I guarantee that in every audience these 2 extremes exist. That’s why I think carefully if using an ice breaker is the right decision for the group I’m facilitating.
An ice breaker which may be a question or an activity can be relevant to the content of the meeting or it can be random fun (not silly). Success of an ice breaker is heavily dependent on what the facilitator does with the audience. As the facilitator, if all you do is have participants take turns and respond then you’ve missed the benefit of an ice breaker.
As the facilitator, your role is to acknowledge each person and their contribution which starts the rapport you want with each person. Secondly, your role is to tie together various responses from the group to build connection with the entire group. Lastly, the facilitator needs to capitalize on the energy that is building if you are doing the first 2 things well.
Asking everyone to share their high school team mascot is a non-threatening question and leads to the most interesting responses. And that’s how I learned of the Magicians, the Holsteins and the Woodchucks!!
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