Sometimes when people hear the word 'icebreaker' they cringe or might feel super anxious about taking part in one. Yes, icebreakers can make you feel a bit awkward initially, but they are proven to help enhance relationships and encourage creativity. 'Icebreakers can help increase team bonds, boost performance and creativity'āHarvard Business School study Integrating icebreakers into your workshops or meetings is a great way to get everyone relaxed and ready to participate. But how do you choose the right ones so that you avoid those dreaded awkward silences? Here are my Top 2 Icebreakers that are easy to implement (in-person or online): 1. My First Job Ask everyone in the group to write down their name, their first job, and what they learned from that job. Then go round the group and have everybody read theirs out. 2. Pointless Questions Prepare a few fun questions ahead of the workshop, then go round the room and have everybody take turns answering the questions. Itās as simple as thatāyou donāt even need to write anything down! Here are some question suggestions to get you started: - If you could invite a celebrity over for dinner, who would it be and why? - What is your most prized possession and why? - You can have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life. What do you choose? Here are some more icebreakers for you to explore! What's another great icebreaker that I can add to my list?
Curious about what time-keeping tactics you use in your sessions? Do you carry one a big clock with you? Do you announce the countdown verbally? Show the time in PowerPoint slides? I usually just announce the time verbally. For breaks, I have some PPT slides that count down from 15 or 10-minutes all the way down to zero that work pretty well.
@Shreyas Iyer That's quite true (re time limits on ideation), however, I've also experienced the reverse - which is that ideation sometimes happens best within constraints, as the brain functions faster under pressure. I try to use shorter time limits for initial 'divergent' brainstorming sessions, to encourage people to worry less about the viability or rationality of the idea, and just to generate quantity. When moving to convergent ideation or trying to expand on selected ideas, I try to be more lenient with time limits as this where you really need freedom to explore. It's surprising how many ideas a person can come up with in 90 seconds when they aren't worried about being 'correct' or 'conventional'!
Would love to hear from anyone involved in Design Thinking and how you apply it to facilitation. Curious also about the resources you have access to, courses you've learned from and any DT community you may be a part of (I myself am a part of IxDF). Do share!
@Bertha Barrera Hi Bertha! Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I do access IDEO resources frequently as well as d.school/IxDF resources. The DT based workshops I run use a process similar to d.school's ideology. Very interested in seeing how others have applied DT processes to workshop facilitation though.
Hello Facilitatorsš I'm really curious about where everyone is from. I'd love to make this a mega post where we can see how diverse the Facilitator Club community is. Who knows, you might find a lot more people in your area than you thought! Once I have lots of answers on this post, I want to make a nice graph!
Hello everyone! I am Laura working as Innovation Consultant in Berlin. Love to help companies to innovate and Startups to grow. Happy to see such as Collaborative network growing. š