Library of facilitation techniques

Icebreaker Workshop Activities

Ice breaker games to help people get to know each other and promote team bonding.
179 results

Getting to know YOU

🔍 A Journey of Self-Discovery and Team Togetherness

The "Getting to Know YOU" icebreaker is a dynamic resource designed to unravel the layers of team dynamics and individual roles within an organisation. It's a unique blend of personal reflection and collective exploration, powered by the BIG PICTURE framework. This tool uses simple yet powerful symbols – Team, Customer, Technology, Measure, Money, Process, Challenge, Opportunity – to facilitate a dialogue that's both fun and thought-provoking. The essence of BIG PICTURE here is not in its comprehensive business modeling but in how these symbols help team members express and understand their roles and perceptions within the broader organisational context.

Participants engage with these Symbols, reflecting on which ones resonate with their personal and professional identities. This process of reflection and sharing is designed to foster a deeper understanding of not only individual roles but also how these roles interweave to form the fabric of the organisation. It's an exercise that brings to light the diverse perspectives and strengths within a team, encouraging a culture of openness and shared insight.

The 'Getting to Know YOU' Resource transforms standard icebreakers into dynamic sessions rich in personal connection, team cohesion, and a deeper understanding of each symbol's role in business, fostering both individual insight and collective accountability.

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Thiagi Group

Postcard from a Friend

Here's an interesting icebreaker that uses the postcards written in the previous closer activity (Postcard to a Friend). It involves distributing postcards from previous participants with their highlights and advice for a new group of participants. Be sure that you receive informed consent from the writers before using their postcards in this activity.
Judy Rees

Revealing Metaphors: Quickly Reveal the Hidden, Unique Essence of Each Person’s Approach to an Activity (aka Jediplication; Speed Clean)

Help people to share their individual way of navigating an activity - such as doing their work, or attending an event - by combining the revealing power of metaphor with a series of simple interactions.

When people are hesitant to engage with each other, for example at the beginning of an event, you can help them to actively feel heard, and create a space where discovering and sharing rarely-noticed personal talents and insights becomes straightforward.

Once participants feel heard and have begun to share, they will be more inclined to trust, to work together, and to take interpersonal risks. And each person will have created an enduring personal image to carry with them and to share with others.

I've been using this for years as a Clean Language introduction, and recently submitted it as a candidate Liberating Structure because I'd love to see loads of other people trying it out.

Works in person or online, with six to 600+ people.

Teampedia Tools

Mouse traps

This is a trust-building activity that can be very rewarding for participants, and can open up a great dialogue between participants. Naturally there is an element of risk, and the activity should be practiced on yourself, before you practice it on others... Before you do any trust activity, you must decide whether or not the group is ready, and whether or not this is an appropriate activity for the group, the individual, and the sequence of your teambuilding activities.
Deborah Rim Moiso

Miro/Mural jam

Open a blank space on a whiteboard canvas and let people freely play with it! No instructions, no opening questions... but a space to learn how to use the tool and play around. Be prepared to be surprised as meaning begins to emerge after just a few minutes!