Icebreakers and Energizers

Do you sometimes find that you're running a meeting and the energy level in the room is low? People have sat through a lot of presentations, it's a little bit warm in the room, they've had a good lunch, there's no enthusiasm or energy in the room. Or sometimes you start a meeting and there are people from different departments who've never met each other before, different companies, there's a little bit awkwardness and tension, people don't want to speak up because they're a little suspicious that they don't want to make a fool of themselves. Well, in either of those circumstances, I would use an icebreaker. My name is Paul Sloane. I've given a lot of courses around the world, masterclasses on lateral thinking, innovation, brainstorming, facilitated a lot of high-level meetings. And what I find as an external facilitator is that an icebreaker literally breaks the ice. It gets people to know each other. It makes people feel a little bit more comfortable about sharing. And in this very short course, I'm going to give a series of concise lectures showing some of my favorite icebreakers. There are many, many icebreakers that you can find in books or on the internet, but here I'm going to show you how to use some of my favorites, and I'll tell you when to use them and what they're good for. I think a good icebreaker is short, it's fun, and it involves everyone. And if possible, you should make it relevant to the meeting in some way. It might be quite a remote relevance, but you link it in some way to what's coming next. And if you can do all of that, I think people will really enjoy the fact that you've gone to the trouble to involve them, to make them active, and to break the ice. So good luck with this series of lectures.