What Does The Term Icebreaker Mean?
An icebreaker refers to any game, exercise, or activity that guides various members to become a unified team. It allows the involved individuals to become acclimatized and used to the other people in a short time. In most cases, an icebreaker finds application during induction ceremonies and welcoming events.
An icebreaker guarantees that all the involved individuals can warm up and get to know one another without feeling shy and awkward. It ensures that a sense of comfort gets created even when the participants strike up a conversation with someone they did not know before. In other words, icebreakers allow a group of people to learn about others, their hobbies, and personalities at their first meeting and relate to one another.
An icebreaker event or game creates a platform where individuals can share their private and personal information without any feeling of embarrassment or alienation. It can consist of trivial data such as their name, background, hobbies, aspirations, likes, dislikes, etc. The sharing of the information helps the members of a party feel close to one other. In turn, it facilitates and improves their coordination and collaboration.
What are the Different and Distinct Types and Categories of Icebreakers?
An icebreaker can get classified and categorized into different and distinct kinds. It depends on the purpose for which they get used and their result. These classes of icebreakers can be primarily of two types that consist of the following:
- Introductory Icebreakers
It is a fundamental custom and etiquette to introduce oneself when meeting new people for the first time. However, when such situations come to be in actuality, most individuals become unsure of what they must do and how they should proceed. In such scenarios and instances, an introductory icebreaker proves beneficial.
Introductory icebreakers offer activities, sports, and games that allow the members of a team or group to get to know each other. They can reveal and uncover the disparities and similarities that all the involved individuals have among themselves. Furthermore, they permit and compel the participants to recognize, acknowledge, understand and appreciate the points of resemblance and distinctions that come up.
In typical cases, an introductory icebreaker involves an uncomplicated game. It can merely be a round of self-introduction where the participants can share something about themselves. They can let others know of their interests, strong points, daily activities, and so on, among numerous others. To keep the game or conversation lively and interactive, the rest of the members can ask some questions. However, the queries should not be hurtful and sarcastic. They should not target or probe into anyone’s personal lives.
Overall, an introductory icebreaker allows all the members to develop a trace of kinship and trust with the rest. It helps sustain the appeal and will of working together in the future.
- Acquaintance Icebreakers
An acquaintance icebreaker should involve participants that know each other from some past meeting, no matter how little. Nonetheless, there should remain some scope for further understanding and uncovering of details. It is predominately because these games and activities aim to improve and deepen the relationships between acquaintances. This aspect of it is as the name suggests.
Let us take the example of a newly-formed team that got confined to remote work. The team members may know a little about each other but not much to form a solid impression. In such cases, they can call for virtual meetings. Using a zoom event icebreakers of this category can get incorporated and used to get to know the others better.
Acquaintance icebreakers allow the participants to share something more about themselves rather than conventional information. When an acquaintance icebreaker gets incorporated in a game, they aid in relieving a tense mood, creating a comfortable atmosphere where the participants can converse and enjoy comfortably.
An acquaintance icebreaker also helps improve and increase the communication and interaction skills of all the involved individuals. It enhances their collaborative capabilities and overall teamwork.
What are Some Engaging and Fun Icebreakers That Can Get Used for Most Events?
A colossal list of icebreakers exists that is fun, compelling, engaging, and exciting, a few of which consist of the following:
- Two Truths and a Lie
Two Truths and a Lie is an exciting and interactive game. It requires the participants to prepare and formulate three fragments or chunks of information revealing something about themselves. Here, the icebreaker activity incorporates a twist. Among the three data, two would be the truth, while one would be a lie. The incorrect information can be any of the three.
The rest of the team or group members have to discover which one of the three pieces of information is false. They can only guess the answer with no other means of confirming their speculation. The game helps reveal the extent to which each individual knows their peer. In addition, it creates the opportunity to learn more about the rest.
- Interview Games
Interview games are the complete opposite of their professional counterparts. They do not have the slightest tinge of strictness in them. In the activity, the participants have to form pairs. They get allocated a particular duration within which they have to ask each other questions. The inquiries can relate to any topic. They can even touch a bit of personal information but should not be too prying.
Each participant of a pair has to collect the answers. They have to use the obtained information to introduce their partner to the other members of the team or group.
- Ball Game
The ball game is one of the most commonly played games worldwide. The participants have to sit in a circle and pass around a ball or any similar object. A piece of music would play in the background during this time. When the song stops, the person holding the ball has to answer the question from the member from whom the passing started. In the next round, the loser of the previous set gets to ask the question.