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Process
- At the end of your session, ask people to do the following within 30 seconds:
- Everyone needs to touch three walls.
- Everyone needs to hug three people.
- Everyone needs to sit down in a different seat from the one that they've sat in before the ice breaker games.
- Set them off. Say “Ready! Steady! Go!” or something similar. If you don’t, they will just look at you with confusion. Make sure they all understand the three tasks.
- Play loud, upbeat music, after you say, “Go!” Just a quick tip for using music during ice breaker games. Get the song ready. Don’t set them of running around and then start to look for the song. They will all be seated by the time you get the song going. Get the song ready, so you can just press the pause button or turn the volume higher.
- Join them in these ice breaker games and have fun.
Human Knot
This is one of my favorite ice breaker games. It invades people’s personal space and break down barriers in the process.
Time Needed
10 to 15 minutes.
Materials Needed
None.
Group Size
8 to 15 people. If the group is bigger, split them into smaller groups, so that you have two to three groups.
Benefits
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Set Up
- Get the participants into groups of 8 to 10.
- Ask them to make a bundle...not a circle. Get them together...almost like a group hug.
Process
- Ask each person to raise his or her left hand.
- Now ask them to take the hand of someone the furthest away from them on the other side of the bundle.
- The hands must be in pairs. They are not aloud to have three hands together. If it is an uneven group, one person will be without a hand. Don’t worry; it will work out in the end.
- Ask them to slowly lower their hands, WITHOUT LETTING GO OF THE OTHER PERSON’S HAND.
- Ask them to raise their right hands, while holding on with their left hands.
- Now you ask them to take SOMEBODY ELSE’S right hand with their own right hand. This is important; otherwise, the activity will not work.
- If they are an uneven number and they all took somebody else’s right hand, there should be two people in the bundle who has one hand free.
- If they are an even number, undo on pair of hands. Remember not to undo the other hands…only one link.
- What you are left with, is a group of people that are tangled up terribly.
- Their challenge is now to undo themselves, so they form a straight line. This all needs to happen without ever letting go of the hands.
- The result is people climbing over, under, and ever through one another’s arms.
Lap Sit
This is one of the ice breaker games that I usually do towards the end of the ice breakers session. It’s great to use with big groups. The bigger, the better. I once did it with a group of hundred middle managers.
Time Needed
5 to 10 minutes.
Materials Needed
None.
Benefits
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Set-Up
- Have participants stand in a circle with their right leg to the inside of the circle.
- Let them move closer to the inside. They should be touching the person in front of them and behind them. People naturally don’t stand tight together, so you have to move them closer.
- You stand in the middle of the circle and coordinate the activity. Alternatively, you can join them in as part of the circle. (Try to join them whenever you can during these ice breaker games)
Process
- Everyone make sure that their knees are together, so they can make a “lap”
- Everyone push their left legs slightly out to stabilize the circle.
- The participants need to put both hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them.
- On your count of three, everyone move slowly down, to sit on the lap of the person behind them. Remember to make it slowly. They should start to go down on “one’ and they should be seated on “three”
- A natural reaction is to “sit” in midair. In other words, not to completely sit on the lap of the person behind you. If this happens, the person in front of you will sit on your lap and you will not be able to hold them in this half standing position. If that happens, everyone will fall down.
So it is important that everyone sits completely. This is actually also a great trust activity.
- Once they are all seated, they celebrate with a cheer and they all get up. If they fall down, let them try again until they succeed
Catch my Finger
This is one of those ice breaker games that's nice to do if you see that people’s concentration starts to go down during the meeting or conference.
Time Needed
5 minutes.
Materials Needed
None.
Benefits
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Set-Up
- Participants can just remain seated in their chairs.
- Everyone holds both their arms out sideways.
- The left hand has its palm open towards the roof. The right hand has its index finger pointing to the floor.
- Now, everyone put the down pointing index finger of their right hand, into the open left hand palm of the person sitting on their right.
- On the count of three, everyone must try to catch the other person’s finger in their left hand palm. At the same time they need to try to get their finger away from the person on their right, who will try to catch their finger
BANG!!
This activity usually works best just after lunch...at the beginning of the so-called graveyard session. It’s a variation of the good old “Cowboys and Crooks”
Time Needed
10 – 20 minutes
Materials Needed
None.
Benefits
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Set-Up
- Have participants stand up from their chairs and form a circle, facing the inside
- Every person forms a “gun” with their hands, by folding their hands together in front of them, with the index finger pointing forward.
- Decide who will start first. It usually works best, if you start first yourself.
Process
- You are “it”. In your mind, choose whom to “shoot”.
- If you “shoot”, you need to call out that person’s name, and say “BANG”. In other words, something like, “JOHN! BANG!”
- John, then needs to duck down. The two people on either side of John then need to “shoot” one another, by saying “BANG”. The person who is “shot” first is out. If John were totally confused, or didn’t duck down, he is out as well
- The person that are “out” (whoever on either side of John, who was “shot” first by the other person) sits in the middle of the circle.
- Now John is “it” He now gets to decide whom he wants to “shoot”. Again, he has to call out the person’s name and say. “BANG!” For example, “SUSAN! BANG!” Now Susan ducks down, and the two people on either side of her are in the “shootout” to see who will “shoot” the other one first.
- And so you carry on, until there is only one person standing.
Line up
This ice breaker gets people to communicate and mingle without saying a word.
Time Needed
10 to 50 minutes.
Materials Needed
None.
Benefits
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Process
- Have participants stand up from their chairs and scatter around
- Ask everyone to keep quiet, because they need to complete the following activity without saying a word.
- Let them line up in different ways. From the person whose birthday is the earliest in the year to the person whose birthday is the latest in the year.
- Let them repeat the ice breaker with other criteria. I.e. the person who grew up in the southern most town to the person who grew up in the most northern town
Variation
A nice variation is to blindfold everyone and ask them to do the same without any talking. It can be quite a challenge and a lot of fun.
Inside Out
This activity can be quite a brainteaser...but it is a group brainteaser.
Time Needed
10 to 15 minutes.
Materials Needed
None.
Benefits
- The group have to do some “group think”
- People move into one another’s personal space.
Set-Up
Have participants stand in a circle, facing the inside, holding hands.
Process
- Explain to the group that the way they are standing is the starting position.
- Get them all to let go of their hands. Each person then crosses their arms in front of their chests. While they stand like this, ask them to hold hands again. This is the end goal or the end position…everyone has their hands crossed in frond of their chests, holding hands with the persons on either side of them and face the inside of the circle.
- Get them back to the starting position…everyone standing with their hands next to their sides and hold hands with the person on either side…and facing the inside of the circle.
- The challenge is for them to get from the starting position to the end position without anyone letting go of their hands.
This is possible. Some of these ice breaker games seem impossible, but if they think of themselves as a unit and not a group of single people, they will be able to do it.
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Return from Ice Breaker Games to How To Use Ice Breakers To Motivate Employees
Return from Ice Breaker Games to Sustainable Employee Motivation
