Start Strong, Be Smart - How To Build Connection Between People And Session Topic Without A Nonsense Icebreaker?
One of the ways I like to start a session is to connect people with people and people with the topic of the session in the first 5 minutes. Here are the 5 steps on how to start a strong session: 1. Small group share: make groups of 2/ 3 persons out of your group; small group sharing creates psychological safety 2. Listen and talk: answer in turns to the question: "Our .......is like what?" 3. Give a number: ask someone to give a number between half of the participant’s number and the total number of participants 4. Share in the big group: shout out x times what you discussed about that topic - the persons who listened are sharing what they heard from their group partners 5. Connection done: everybody is connected with each other and with the session topic Why is this method working? - It creates psychological safety, people’s relatedness button is pressed positively because they find similarities between their opinions and find a sense of belonging to the same group with which they will spend the next hours/days. - People like expressing their thoughts, and opinions, they feel heard right from the start of the session. - Active listening is warming up for the whole session - one person shares what they heard from their group partners, not what they said - Having this x number of shoutouts gives autonomy to the group of who wants to share and who does not - it’s not mandatory that each person shares - In case you were ever a participant where the facilitator used an “icebreaker” which had nothing to do with the session and you were more confused than connected afterward, you know what I mean with nonsense icebreakers - give them a meaning and people will remember them for the meaning and what they meant in the whole session outcome - otherwise they might remember it but have no meaning attached and the session was not valued out of them Variations: - You can use various materials as well in case you have the time, logistics, and so on: Lego Serious Play, Playmobil Pro, Facilitape, Climer Cards - When possible, the same method would be great to use as a strong ending, customizing it depending on your session - The leading question can vary depending on the session topic - Finding similarities of answers in each small group would skip the numbering step and reducing answers to the number of small groups (good as option when you have less time)