Icebreakers Suck

Worst question ever

This sign was posted in our co-working space and it made me cringe.  Studies show that asking people to share something personal to a group of strangers is extremely stressful and distracting.  No one is listening to the things that are actually being shared, instead they are worrying about what they will share when the time comes.  Will it be interesting or funny enough? The flood of stress entering the brains of the participants when they see this sign is going to kill the productivity, creativity and authentic connections the facilitator was hoping to evoke.

So, if this isn’t going to work, what will?   Getting participant to open up can be very effective, but it’s important to not force people to work too hard or share too much.  Try something like this instead:

• What is your go-to fall-themed drink?

• Who is your favorite superhero?

• What time of day are you most productive?

• What is your favorite sport?

• What is your favorite breakfast cereal?

• What was your least favorite food as a kid and do you still hate it?

If you’ve got more than a minute per person, try a warm up game instead.  Same rules apply - the game can’t force people to be to share personal information and it should be a game with no winners or loser to discourage competitive behavior.  A good example is to get the team to try to answer an impossible question:

How can we solve climate change by midnight tonight?

Encourage participants to shout out the answers and have a facilitator write them on a whiteboard.  Impossible questions work because there is no ‘right’ answer. The team will likely start laughing at some of the responses and where there is laughter, there is a great foundation for creativity and collaboration.