Communication warm up games

Name Game opening ice breaker energiser. This is one of those ice breaker activities that is most easily prepared — you only need one roll of toilet paper. Pass this around, and have everyone rip off how much they would usually use. When everyone has taken off a few squares, they should count them. The amount they have is how many fun facts they should reveal about themselves. A warning though: this is one of those fun icebreakers for meetings or workshops that is best suited for more lighthearted occasions.

Group icebreakers are important, even in teams that know each other well. Each team member gets the chance not all at once of course to showcase something — an object or a topic that they are interested in. Everyone has something they dedicate a little bit more time and attention to, but you always hear about this from the more extroverted people. This habit gives less exhibitionist characters a chance to show this side. Providing a mentor to look through their presentation and help prepare their speech is also beneficial and can ease nerves.

Using ice breakers for meetings is a secret weapon for anyone interesting in effective facilitation. An ice breaker at the start of a meeting is a great way to break monotony, motivate attendee and generally loosen people up. They can also help clarify the objectives of the meeting. Here are some meeting ice breakers to help ensure your next team meeting is a success! Once everyone has shared their phrases, discuss the results.

This ice breaker helps explore different viewpoints about a common challenge, before starting the meeting. Each participants gets a set of few LEGO bricks identical sets to everyone — a few items, around bricks per person will suffice.

Everyone builds something that relates to the topic of the meeting. Afterwards, everyone gets 30 seconds to explain what their building means e. An easy icebreaker that will have everyone feeling good before a meeting. Go around a circle and highlight a story — an action, decision or result — that can and should be praised from each team member. Something where they reached beyond their typical responsibilities and excelled.

Have everyone acknowledge and thank each other for surpassing expectations. This is a great mood booster — by lifting each other up, the energy just starts to vibrate in the room. Everyone likes to be recognized. Ice breakers for meetings that give people the chance to celebrate success can be key in setting a great tone for the meeting to come. Meetings can sometimes become useless because attendees come in stressed about the topic and distracted as result. You can reduce this tension by opening with a mindfulness exercise.

Good icebreakers help set the mood, and by taking a moment to be mindful, your team can be more productive. The reflection can be led by questions such as what energy level have they arrived with? What is on their mind that is unrelated to this meeting? After everyone is done, they should rip up their answers and discard them. Team icebreakers that focus on setting the right tone and ask everyone to arrive in the room are some of the best ice breakers out there.

What are you bringing to the meeting teampedia opening team check-in. Ice breaker games are not only useful at the beginning of meetings or getting to know new people. They are also a great way to support team building, by creating a positive atmosphere, helping people relax and break down barriers.

Team icebreakers such as those below are great for enhancing team building and empowering everyone in the group to move forward together. The Four Quadrants one of the tried and true team building icebreakers to break the ice with a group or team. It is super easy to prep for and set up — you only need large sheets of paper flipcharts or similar and markers. They should draw the answers in each quadrant. Afterwards they can show each other their drawings and discuss the creations. Questions can cover topics like current challenges, stressors, defining moments, moments of pride, fears, desired outcome for the current gathering etc.

Team icebreakers that encourage openness are great for team building and ensuring everyone in a group is heard! The Four Quadrants is a tried and true team building activity to break the ice with a group or team. It is EASY to prep for and set up. Separate people into same sized teams. Each group has the same amount of time to complete the puzzle.

The secret twist is to switch up a few pieces with the other groups beforehand! Fun icebreakers can help keep a team on their toes and encourage creative thinking — try ice breakers for meetings that include an edge of competitiveness and fun to really liven things up.

The goal is to finish before the others — so they must figure out collectively how to convince other teams to give up pieces they need. This can be through barter, merging or changing teams, donating minutes etc.

This is a longer game, but one that is worth doing, since it encourages teamwork on several levels — internally and externally too.

Two people should sit facing away from each other. One receives a picture of an object or phrase. Without saying directly what they see, they should describe it to their pair without using words that clearly give it away. Their pair has to draw the specific picture. The game requires two people to sit facing away from each other, where one team member is given a picture of an object or word.

Without specifying directly what it is, the other person must describe the image without using words that clearly give away the image. This is a great game to develop verbal communication and remember that icebreaker games for work do not need to reinvent the wheel to be effective.

BackBack Drawing communication collaboration trust ice breaker teampedia action. Everyone has great memories from childhood scavenger hunts. It is a no-brainer then to recreate this experience as one of your icebreaker activities for adults. You can do this indoors at the office or outside if the weather is nice. They require a wide range of skills and thinking and diverse personalities to be completed successfully.

This is a great energiser that requires players to move about as they build an imaginary electric fence. The fence can be represented by a rope or a shoe string tied between two objects. It should be about waist high. They must also be touching a teammate with at least one hand at all times. This ice breaker activity requires quick brainstorming, problem-solving and negotiating other ideas.

Make sure that people who are uncomfortable with physical contact have an option to not participate but still feel involved in the brainstorming part. Inclusive games make for some of the best ice breakers: be sure to bare this in mind when deciding on icebreaker games for work or your next meeting. The object of this ice breaker game is to introduce event participants to each other by co-creating a mural-sized, visual network of their connections.

They will also need a substantial wall covered in butcher paper to create the actual network. Then they find the people they know and draw lines to make the connections. This is one of our favourite ice breakers for meetings, particularly if those involved in the meeting are distributed in interesting ways. Low-tech Social Network gamestorming ice breaker opening. The object of this game is to introduce event participants to each other by co-creating a mural-sized, visual network of their connections.

Ice breaker games usually all have a strong aspect of teamwork and collaboration as people work together in groups to accomplish a challenge or solve a puzzle. Therefore these team icebreakers can also be used as part of team building events and team development workshops. They are meant to fast-track group familiarity and increase the socialization process in a new or existing environment.

With increased social interaction, people naturally learn how to work together more productively — the mood can warm up between colleagues who are normally highly formal with each other. The best ice breakers have the power to strengthen coworker bonds, stimulate better brainstorming sessions, and create an atmosphere of inclusivity.

In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, collaboration, innovation and problem solving strategy.

Fun icebreakers for meetings can be hard to find — The Marshmallow Challenge is one of those icebreaker games for work that feels almost like play. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world.

Ice breaker ideas that are fun, well designed and have a proven track record are definitely worth a try. Marshmallow challenge with debriefing teamwork team leadership collaboration. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team. This fun activity could be used as an icebreaker both for people who have just met and for already existing teams.

Breaking people up into groups, each one needs a fresh egg, some straws, masking tape and other items for creating a package to protect the egg. Using the raw materials provided, the team goal is to build a structure that will support a free falling egg dropped from a predetermined height e. Get to know you games with an element of danger are always fun ice breakers for meetings.

This is a method that shows and fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well. Egg drop teampedia collaboration teamwork ice breaker team. This fun activity could be used as an icebreaker for people who have just met but it can be framed as a method that shows and fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well. Line up people in two rows facing each other. Introduce the Helium Stick and ask participants to hold their index fingers out.

The goal is to lower the Stick to the ground in a way that no one lets go of it at any time. Pinching, grabbing or holding on properly to the Stick is not allowed. If the group makes a mistake, they start from the beginning. With the right group, Helium Stick is one of the most fun icebreakers out there. Helium Stick teampedia team teamwork ice breaker energiser. A great and simple activity for fostering teamwork and problem solving with no setup beforehand.

Blindfold your seated participants. Leave the circle and ask them to form a perfect square from the rope without looking. When people think they are finished, they can remove their blindfolds to see the result.

Blind Square is one of the icebreaker games you can use to highlight leadership and communication — some people will want to take charge, while others are more comfortable following direction.

Also, it can be repeated after the first try to see if they can improve their collaboration. Blind Square — Rope game teamwork communication teambuilding team energiser thiagi outdoor. When the correct game is chosen, everyone benefits from the energy they bring to any meeting or event. Remember that choosing ice breakers for meetings, even if those meetings are business-critical does not mean that you should discount fun icebreakers.

This ice breaker activity is a fun one that requires some creativity. It enhances a sense of community because people have to draw the others as a group — not just between the drawers, but the recipients of the portraits too. The outcome is very visual and colourful, the images can be put up in the meeting room.

Meeting ice breakers that produce physical results can really help ensure the work of the meeting continues afterwards! Portrait Gallery hyperisland team ice breaker. All games can be played in person or virtually. Games can be played using two different player orderings:. List-based: Player order is determined by a list that everyone can see, or when co-located, by the natural order of people standing around a table.

Player-based: Each player calls upon the next player; this has the advantage of keeping players completely engaged. Benefits of starting meetings with an Improv Warm-up Game:.

The concept is simple: Everyone introduces themselves and then gives three statements about themselves.

Two are true and one is a lie. The group then has to guess which one is a lie. You can even hold a vote. Encourage people to be creative and make the lies difficult to guess. In this game, have your team stand in a circle and start counting.

The first person says 1, the second says 2, and so on. When you get to 7 or one of its multiples 14,21,28,35… , the person has to clap instead of saying the number.

To make the game more difficult, you can change the number or introduce new moves jumping, sitting, touching their nose, etc. The winner is the last one standing. Each person says their name but adds an adjective before it that starts with the first letter of their name.

They then have to act out that adjective. Encourage people to be more creative and choose less obvious answers. The goal of this game is to talk about a set topic for 60 seconds without stopping. Choose funny or ridiculous topics and let people have fun with them. The facilitator can break the ice by demonstrating first, and then quickly going around to each person without pausing. These main games are the ones that will really help your team bond and build camaraderie.

What all main games should have in common is a set task or goal that participants have to work together on to complete.

Like the warmer, they should be entertaining and engaging, but in this case, they also have a purpose. These games typically last 30 minutes or longer, but you can always keep the clock going if you see the participants are really enjoying them.

Always follow up each game with a wrap-up session so the participants have a chance to reflect on their collaboration process, decision making, what they learned, and how would they improve the process. This game focuses on the importance of teamwork in reaching a common goal. There are many possible scenarios, but all of them have the same task: keep the team alive for as long as possible. There are many versions, but the end goal is the same. Here are some examples with links to resources: Lost at Sea or Lost in the desert , or Stranded on a Moon.

In all of these scenarios, each team member is given a list of 15 items, which they have to rank according to importance. Once each team member has completed their rankings, the entire team is given a new list. They must work together to agree on the best order for the items on the list. Usually, the team rankings match the desired outcome more closely than individual rankings do. But sometimes an individual is more successful. In this case, the lesson learned from the game is the importance of working on making individual voices heard.

This game focuses on the importance of sharing information and placing value on individual insights in order to solve a greater problem. Someone has robbed a bank. Green was the only person who had a key to the vault. Team members circulate and read their clues to each other out loud. These games encourage teams to work together to carefully juggle resource allocation, planning, and task delegation to build either a tower or a bridge.

In this scenario, participants are divided into two or more teams. Each team is given resources they can use to build something. Each team gets some money to buy supplies like scissors, glue, paper, etc. For example, if there are 4 teams, there will only be 3 pairs of scissors and 10 sheets of paper. Here is always pressure to buy materials before the other teams do. Each team member is given a copy of a laminated page.