Dr. Wayne Pernell says party hosts need structure and freedom in balance. Icebreakers aren't stiff, they're leadership that helps risk-averse guests actually talk to strangers instead of hugging the people they came with.
Chapters
At my parties, there is a lot of structure, but the structure is broken up by unstructured time, which is just mixing and mingling. Where most hosts make a mistake, in my opinion, is having the party entirely unstructured. They say, you know what? I'm not going to do an icebreaker. I want to be a chill host. I want to be cool. I'm not going to do an icebreaker. You know, that sounds silly. I just want people to mix and mingle naturally. That's actually showing a lack of leadership on the host side. You're actually doing your guests a disservice by not adding a little bit of structure to help people create new connections. At our core, for many of us, we are resistant to take risks, and for many people, they will talk to those that are around them or nearby.