ice breaker

Icebreaker

Quick icebreaker activity for your team. Provide a timeframe (3 months, 1 year, duration of board service term, etc.) and ask each individual to write down an event, milestone, or moment that they are personally looking forward to reaching. Place these on an internal calendar (as best you can) and then acknowledge them as they are achieved, passed, or become evident.

The organization’s highlights are not always the same as those of the individual team members. Recognizing individual milestones helps add a shared sense of service and accomplishment. As an added bonus, it is a nice way to start a meeting and build deeper connections.

Half-Full or Half-Empty

Icebreaker exercise: Ask participants if they are half-full or half-empty about a specific prompt. For example, half-full or half-empty about buying candy from a vending machine on your hotel floor at 11 PM? You can prompt meeting attendees to sort into five groups by physically moving to a location: Empty, half-empty, half-full, full, or no opinion. Ask ten to twelve questions and the people in the room are almost certain to find themselves mixing and matching with other participants.

Belt Buckle

The American West cherishes a good belt buckle. It is even more admired if the buckle is won in a competition such as a rodeo, futurity, or pleasure horse event.

If you presented your team with the outline of a blank belt buckle on a sheet of paper and asked each to create a customized drawing or representation of your cause, what designs might be developed? In facilitating this exercise in organizational retreats, I have witnessed some remarkable results with symbols and icons that range from iconic to obscure.

Consider this icebreaker at your next retreat.

What Would You Order?

If you were given a chance to make a wish list order on behalf of a cause you support, what would you order?

Now, look at the organization’s strategic plan. Is there an overlap, or do your dream orders and the organization’s strategic priorities travel opposite directions?

This is a memorable icebreaker at the start of a board and staff meeting. It quickly assesses whether the strategic framework is a living document or a list of ungrounded ideas that float like a dirigible, circling the air space above without delivering the cargo.