4 Ways to Run IceBreakers Better

A critical but cringe worthy part of every meeting is that moment when the facilitator, the speaker, the leader, says, we are about to do an icebreaker. In this video, I'm going to show you how to create effective icebreakers through your facilitation so that it works. It works not just for you and you don't feel like you're forcing it on them, but also it works for them to get to that end result of the people feeling more welcome, more connected, and more engaged with that. Let's get into it. All right, there you are. You're on stage, you're in front of the group, you're around the table, and you're kicking the meeting off. And you got to kick off with that lovely phrase, icebreaker time. Now imagine you're out there and you're filled with a room, a bunch of people, and someone says, hey, everyone, about to do an icebreaker. If you were to imagine the sounds that might be going on inside their brain when they hear that phrase, what sounds might you hear? Boo. I want to go home. This is stupid. I'm bored. I'm tired. Those are all great sounds you might hear for that. So the first facilitation tip that I have for helping you to create highly engaging icebreakers is to never use the word icebreaker. Eliminate icebreaker from your vocabulary. It is such a toxic word. It has so much negative energy and baggage attached to it that from this moment forward, you are not allowed to use it. If you have to use a word, just say group activity. However, I am proposing that you don't use any words. You just roll right into it. And I'm going to give you three phrases that might help you out with this. The first phrase is. Hey, everyone, in just a moment, your challenge is. That's the first phrase. Your challenge is. Or here's another one. All right, everyone, in just a moment, you're going to have an opportunity to. Opportunity to is the second phrase. And here's the third phrase. All right, everyone, in just a moment, you get to turn to the person next to you. You get to is the third phrase. These three phrases trick the brain into thinking they have a choice. But guess what? They don't have a choice. They're going to do it. But these three phrases trick the brain into thinking they have a choice, but also removes the possibility of that negative baggage and energy that's attached to the word icebreaker. All right, so now let's move on. I'm gonna call it group activity from this moment forward to Uphold my own rule number one, which is don't call it an icebreaker. The second strategy to help facilitate effective, highly engaging icebreakers is to use music. There should never be any silent moments during an icebreaker, meaning anytime you as the facilitator are not talking, make sure there's music playing. So as soon as you set it up and you say ready and go, click, have music playing. Don't have some weird awkward moment when you have to head over to your phone, find the song, and then click it while they're already started the group activity. No, instead, have it queued up, ready to go. So as soon as you say go, music comes on and they start the group activity. Now, when it comes to music, there are some tips here. We want to use music that sets the tone. If you want them to be in a more reflective state, meaning they're writing something down or they're reflecting internally, use slower beats per minute. The slower beat per minute is going to give a chance to be more reflective during these group activities. Some strategies for slower beats per classical music does it. However, I have found actually that I like to use instrumental hip hop, meaning hip hop music without the lyrics. And it has a nice slow rhythm beat to it. That tends to work well when we're doing activities where they're writing or thinking internally. Now, if you want to get the energy up, use higher beats per music. Engage them with that energetic music, pump the sound, get it going so it fills the room. Anytime you're not talking, make sure there's music playing. There's one additional strategy with music usage is because at the end of the group activity, when you're trying to get everyone's attention back, typically as soon as you click and shut that music off, there's a void in the sound of the whole room because it goes from all the way up here. You shut the music and your challenges of facilitators to jump in at that void to grab the attention, bring them back so it goes like this. Click. All right, everyone, come on back. We're going to start back up. Here we go. And typically then that brings their attention back. Here is my third trick to creating highly engaging group activities, and that is to have gradient engagement. I personally make sure that when you're doing an activity, the very first activity is a slow warmup. And then it builds and builds and builds to the one where you really got them being explosive and like jumping up and down and going, ah, we don't want to go right to level five activity when they just met you. We want to build up to that level of comfort with them with us, them with each other, and them with the environment. And so start with something simple. Turn your neighbor, then turn to a larger group, and then maybe go bigger and bigger. And then eventually you get to some kind of level 5 type of group activity. And my last and final tip to help you create highly engaging group activities is to say who's going to go first? You know, typical activities, they go like this. Turn to your neighbor and share with them. Da, da, da. Okay, so the two people turn towards each other, and then there's sort of that weird awkward moment where like, no, you go. No, you go. No, you go. And, like, it doesn't stop. Start on a good foot is what I'm saying. We want them to go right away and feel instantly connected to the person so they can start sharing. So the strategy is. All right, everyone, just a moment. Your challenge. See what I did there? From prior tip, your challenge is to turn to the person next to you. The person with the longest hair gets to go first. And then they turn. They observe the hair. All right? They know who's going first, and that person starts sharing whatever they're sharing. But you don't have to do longest hair. You can do born furthest from this room, has the most number of siblings, is taller than has a larger foot size, speaks more languages, has traveled to more countries. But you see what I'm doing? I'm not just giving them who's going first. It's a group activity within a group activity because they learn even more about the person next to them. And I love that moment when I say, turn the person next to you, and whoever is the oldest gets to go first. And then they turn or turn the person next to whoever was born furthest from this room gets to go first. And they're like, no way. You're born there too. And then they have a bond before they even get into the thing that's supposed to bond them. So that's my last. That's a super secret insider trick to help you. Hopefully, these tips are gonna help you to better create group activities that increase that culture or connection on your dance floor, in your community, in your organization, so that people feel more welcome, more connected, and more engaged. My name's Thom. I'm here to help you to engage your people. See you next.