Ice Breakers
What is an Ice Breaker?
Ice Breakers warm up the room so people feel more comfortable contributing to the session you are about to run.
It can feel a bit awkward, but running a session with an unfamiliar group who don’t feel comfortable sharing ideas is far worse. By encouraging people to build rapport with each other, and setting the tone for an activity-led meeting, you can have a more productive workshop.
Ice Breakers Miro Template
How to use Ice Breakers in your workshop
1) Interesting questions
Ask the group to introduce themselves with their name and then something interesting about themselves, for example:
Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?
2) Get comfortable drawing
People will claim they can’t draw when sketching out ideas. Show them they can with Squiggle Birds:
a) Ask them to draw random squiggles on the paper.
b) Draw a small triangle on each of the squiggles.
c) Draw two lines for feet. They’ve drawn some birds!
3) Introduce each other
Ask the group to speak to the person on their left. Inform them that in a few minutes you will introduce each other.
Tip: don’t spend too long using Ice Breakers. The meeting should warm up on its own naturally, but just one small exercise at the start can make all the difference.
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Ice Breakers is one of 54 workshop recipe cards inside the Workshop Tactics card deck.
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