Help(!) with (mostly) silent ice breaker / get to know each other game

A participant of a workshop I am going to run tomorrow and on Tuesday just wrote me a message that they have had some traumatic experience and currently find themselves unable to speak in front of a group 😱. Of course my activities are mostly built around together alone exercises, but since on this occasion 2 teams that don't really know each other come together for the first time, I was planning on doing a quick round of introductions.

Now I have 2 ideas and would like to hear what you think of them, your suggestions for modifications or totally other suggestions (I'm new to this facilitation game and don't know as many exercises):

>>> Creating business cards - each participant creates their own business card, with picture, fun facts and work related facts and we simply hang them up as a gallery and look at them. For this person, this one would probably be easier than my next idea.

Time: 10 minutes to create, 5 minutes to look at

>>> Guess what: I write each participants name on a board (we are 7, including me - I am the team leader, but also facilitating a workshop to create a marketing plan for next year). I'd ask everyone to write down the jobs they do on individual post-its. Then I collect all the notes and stick them up randomly OR just hand them the stack of notes. The group then organizes the post-its (chaotically, all together in front of the board) the way they think is right. They are allowed to speak to each other. In this way, the participants really engage with the roles and people, as well as getting to know each other while organizing the board together. My hope is that this doesn't count as "speaking in front of the group". At least the person doesn't have to engage (as much), but also is challenged a little bit. While it is important to me to create space for this situation, this is not a therapy session.

Time: 10 minutes to write notes, 15 minutes for me to put up and for them to organize

I have to go out for a bit now, but will have a look here later tonight. Thank you! 🙏

6 comments