I recently saw a great Twitter thread on the best icebreakers for work — particularly to break into small groups on a virtual call — and I thought it would be a great discussion here. If you lead groups or manage new hires, do you employ icebreakers in any of your meetings or trainings? Have you ever been in a meeting where there was a memorable icebreaker, either great or awful?
The Best Icebreakers for Work
Some of the ones that came up in the Twitter thread included the following (my favorites from the list):
- Show off and explain your phone background.
- Tell us about a great sandwich you’ve had (the person who suggested noted that it led to a surprisingly wonderful conversation!)
- If you were invited as a guest on a podcast—unrelated to your profession—what would it be?
- What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done for fun?
- What fictional universe would you most like to live in?
- You win the lotto, what first three things do you buy?
- When you were 5, what did you want to be when you grew up?
- Where is the most interesting/memorable place you have been in the shoes you are currently wearing?
- A former boss always liked to ask “What is a job you had that isn’t on your resume?”. You find out some really interesting things (said boss had taught jazzercise to seniors!)
- If you were an action figure, what would your main accessory be?
- Which TV home would you live in and why?
- What skill do you bring to your team of survivors in the event of a zombie apocalypse?
- If you had to bring one dish to a potluck to tell people about yourself, what would it be?
- When your life story gets told, what medium should it be in?
- I ask everyone to share one good thing. It can be really small: Something they cooked that was great, got a stain out of a favorite shirt, planted their herbs for the summer, etc. When you do it every week, it turns into a really nice way to get to know people.
- What lingo/slang would you bring back if you could?
- What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?
- Would you rather be the best player on a losing team or the worst player on a winning team?
- What’s your fav ice cream combination?
- Pick one fashion trend to disappear off the face of the earth and never make a comeback
- What place would you most like to travel to that you haven’t been? Or what’s your favorite place you’ve traveled to?
- In a box of assorted donuts, which one best describes you.
- If you were an action figure, what would your main accessory be?
- Tell us an unpopular opinion you have
- Top karaoke song (and why)
- Last time you danced (and to what)
- What superpower would you like to have (flying, strength, invisibility, telekinesis, etc.)?
- What would you have on your concert rider?
- If you were going to die tomorrow, what would you eat this evening?
- What would you collect if money was no object?
- What’s one thing you’ve done that would surprise your co-workers?
- What’s your fight song?
- What’s the craziest thing you saw in-person in the real world?
- What’s something you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it yet?
- What’s your favorite condiment, and your least favorite condiment?
- If you go back to beginning of the panny, knowing what you know now, what one new personal skill would you develop?
- If you could have a “walk-up song” – your theme song that would play every time you entered anyplace – what would it be?
Some people described icebreakers that involved a lot of advance prep, such as asking people to provide the leader with a baby picture, and then everyone had to guess who was who at the meeting. Another person noted that at one small meeting the leader had literally brought out a block of ice and asked the team members to try to chip away at as much of it as possible. Other people suggested you have pictures of silly things that would cause disagreement, such as pictures of food that might be questionably a salad, soup, or sandwich, and ask people to make their case.
{related: how to become a leader: leadership resources for female executives}
For my $.02, I love the one about sandwiches — I think that would get a lot of amazing answers from travel experiences, childhood memories, and more — and would tell you a lot about the person answering, but without anything too too personal.
Some of my least favorite icebreakers are the ones that are a bit inane — what kind of powdered donut are you and why — or the ones that are just kind of boring, like showing a picture of a pet.
Readers, how about you? Which are your favorite icebreakers for work? What are your least favorite icebreakers for work?
(Readers have shared this list of icebreakers (via Museum Hack) in the past!)
Stock photo via Stencil.
Kat
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