Ice breaking games have an important role in breaking the ice and building relationships between employees. In this way, employees will feel more comfortable and trust each other at work.

 

What is Meant by Ice Breaking Games?

 

Ice breaking games are activities or games designed to welcome participants and warm up conversations between participants in a meeting, training, team bonding session, or other activity. Ice breaking has an important role in events that involve a lot of communication activities. This helps ensure that all participants are equal and that they are fully engaged.

 

Ice breaking helps remove barriers that exist in the workplace through hierarchies, organizational structures, job titles, and various departments. Apart from helping in activities where the participants don't know each other, ice breaking is also effective in breaking the ice for employees who already know each other. Ice breaking can help participants feel more comfortable, especially if they work in different departments at different levels in the organization.

 

How do Ice Breaking Games Work?

 

When participants don't know each other, icebreaking will help them introduce themselves to other participants. This is the most effective tool to initiate participant engagement and encourage participation in meetings, training or team bonding sessions.  When meeting participants already know each other or participate in regularly scheduled meetings, ice breaking is still effective in breaking the ice and making participants more comfortable in involving themselves.

 

For example, one such classic ice breaker is “Two Facts and a Lie.” To play this game, ask each participant to provide three statements about themselves. Two of them must be facts, and one must be a lie. The other participants then have to guess which of the three statements is a lie. These icebreakers help reduce tension among groups by helping group members learn facts about each other and form deeper bonds.

 

Are Ice Breaking Games Important?

 

Yes, ice breaking games play an important role in breaking the ice. Additionally, here are some of the main benefits of icebreaking:

 

a. Allows People to Get to Know Each Other

 

Icebreaking helps people to know each other's names. Because, when interacting in a group for the first time, people may have difficulty remembering all the names.

However, icebreaking makes it easier for participants to remember everyone in the group. They begin to associate names with faces through this activity, making it easier to work together.

 

b. Building Teams and Communities

 

By doing ice breaking, you can form a sense of togetherness among the team. As you know, each team will interact regularly, which requires them to get to know each other.

Ice breaking helps them speak more fluently and learn how to work together on projects and understand each other.

 

c. Build Trust and Relationships

 

Planning an icebreaker gives employees the opportunity to build relationships and trust. This is because people are more comfortable working when they know each other.

Even though it doesn't allow them to get to know each other completely, this activity can be the basis for helping them start a relationship.

Once they get to know each other, it will be easier for them to work together and talk about projects required for work.

 

d. Leave a Positive Impression

 

Sometimes, people will feel nervous when they are about to join a new group. However, they can overcome their nervousness as they get to know people and see who they would fit well with on the team.

Therefore, you need to give team or group members the opportunity to introduce themselves.

 

e. Helps overcome awkwardness

 

At first, all team members will feel awkward when trying to interact with other people. Therefore, you need to make it easy for them to start interacting. Through ice breaking, they may be able to mingle and develop better relationships.

There may be some quieter people within the department, so icebreaking gives them a chance to speak. Thus, these activities can help develop team relationships.

 

What are Some Examples of Ice Breaking Games?

 

Here are some examples of ice breaking games that you can do to increase intimacy:

 

a. Show Baby Photos

 

As an activity to start a meeting or marketing, you can ask employees to provide photos of their babies before the meeting. Then, during the meeting, display all the photos on the screen or board. After that, meeting participants had to try to guess the employee from their childhood photos.

 

b. 2 truths, 1 lie

 

To play this game, you need 10-15 people and it should not take more than 20 minutes. In this game, participants must introduce themselves by telling two truths and one lie about themselves.

Then, the other participants have to guess which one is a lie and which one is the truth. The statements shared do not have to be personal information, but can relate to hobbies, interests, funny experiences, or other general things.

 

c. Would you Reather

 

Would you Rather is a game in which participants have to choose between two options. These choices can be unique actions, items, or situations. The goal is to help coworkers open up more to each other, thereby forming more meaningful relationships.

Would you Rather is very suitable for new or existing employees, as it is a great game for building new relationships and strengthening existing ones.

You can adapt the questions to suit the situation, and questions can be serious or comedic as needed.

 

d. Q&A

 

Company question and answer quiz is a game that allows new employees to know about the company and its values. To make it more fun, you can hold a quiz competition instead o f giving away books or digital copies about company history.

Questions in this game can be about the company's founding date, biggest challenges, biggest clients, company motto, and so on.

 

e. Continued Words

 

This game requires team members to build a story one word at a time. The first person will start with one word (for example, “Si”), the second person will add the following word (for example, “Cat”), and the third person will continue with another word (such as “walk”), and so on.

To make the game more exciting and challenging, you can add rules.

 

f. Guess the Product Logo

 

In the product logo game, you need to prepare several product logos to be displayed on the projector screen. Then, ask all participants to guess the logo.

To make it more exciting, you can give punishment to participants who can't guess correctly, for example they have to smear their faces with powder or something like that.

 

g. Simple Trivia

 

Try trivia games with your friends. Make a list of questions about trivia, like guessing popular songs, movies, or TV shows. Then, award points for each correct answer.

At the end of the game, count the points and award the prize to the winning team.

 

h. Map of Origins

 

This game involves two exciting activities. First, ask each person to explain their origins, such as place of birth or current residence, without naming the place.

Then, give each team a large piece of paper and let them ask each other questions. Together, ask them to create a map that includes where everyone is from.
 

i. Geographic Games

 

In this game, someone will start by saying the name of a place, such as a country or city. The next person must name a place starting with the last letter of the previously mentioned place. For example, if one person says “Peru,” the next might say “Uganda,” and so on. To make the game even more exciting, make a rule that no place can be repeated.

 

j. Morning, Afternoon, Night

 

In this game, you need to create a simple story that contains the words “morning”, “afternoon”, and “evening”. Every time the word "morning" is mentioned in the story, all participants must clap their hands once. When the word “afternoon” appears, they must clap their hands three times.

And when the word “night” is mentioned, they must clap their hands twice. This is a fun way to play and lighten the mood, so that participants can get to know each other.


 

What are the tips for successful ice breaking games?

 

To carry out ice breaking successfully, here are some tips you can do:

 

a. Sequential Ice Breaker Questions

 

The quickest way to avoid awkward silences is to avoid general, open-ended questions.

Instead, choose a series of sequential questions that everyone can answer quickly, such as different names, roles, and something like:

 

• What did you eat for breakfast this morning?

 

• What drink do you drink in the morning, such as tea, coffee, or something else?

 

• Tell us about your first job, your favorite music album, or your pet.

 

• What are you reading, watching or listening to right now?

 

• Use one word or phrase to describe how you feel today.

 

Some of the questions above are simple and easy to answer, so they can remind everyone about the purpose of the meeting, their role in it, and provide insight into their personalities.

 

b. Limit the duration of ice breaking to a maximum of 5 minutes

 

Take care and limit the time when doing ice breaking. Use questions that encourage short answers, for example about “one thing” or “one word”:

 

• Name one thing that made you happy from last week.

 

• What are you looking forward to this week?

 

• Use one word to describe your work style.

 

• What one word sums up your weekend?

 

• Name one thing on your list of life dreams.

 

These questions can be answered quickly and without having to think too long.

 

c. Create a Variety of Ice Breaking Activities

 

Try to do a variety of ice breaking activities like the examples mentioned above. This way, employees will not feel bored and can lighten the atmosphere.

 

d. Do an icebreaker with a comedy theme

 

To encourage everyone, you need to do a fun ice breaker by asking the following questions:

 

• If you could be any animal in the world, what would you choose and why?

 

• If you could be the star of one TV show, which one would you choose?

 

• If you could only eat one dessert for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

 

• If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

 

e. Make the Icebreaker more Structured

 

Finally, you need to do ice breaking games in a more structured manner. Instead of selecting participants at random, you can do the following:

 

• Send questions in advance along with the meeting agenda.

 

• Arrange a structure for answering questions by determining who will start, designating who will answer next, and designating who will be next in line.

 

Conclusion

 

Based on the explanation above, it can be understood that ice breaking games play an important role in lightening the atmosphere in meetings or other activities.  

With the interesting games presented, participants can experience various benefits, from getting people to know each other, to reducing awkwardness, which makes the work process more effective and enjoyable.