Six great icebreakers for your next workshop

Have you ever had to start off a workshop with a room full of people who have never met each other before? It can take quite a while for professionals to form groups and start functioning efficiently during a workshop without having some sort of a positive bond with each other. If your workshop involves teaching collaborative skills, it is very important to get the attendees to open up to one another before you start. The right kind of icebreaker can help you there.

Icebreakers are activities or games that help people break down social barriers and be at more ease with each other. Whether you are a new team leader, event organizer, or meeting planner, dedicating a time block of your agenda for an icebreaker activity will benefit you. Here are six fun icebreaker ideas for your next workshop:

1. Show and Tell

This one works well when you are looking for an icebreaker activity for your virtual meeting/workshop. Show and Tell is a great way to let your coworkers revisit the third grade memories and allow them to talk about something that they value. The steps are simple: Ask your virtual team members to grab a nearby item that matters to them and share an interesting fact about it.

2. Airplane Champion

What better way to kick things off than to have a paper airplane competition? Hand out pieces of colored paper to your team members and ask everyone to come up with a paper airplane design. Once everyone is done, they can launch their paper planes. The plane that travels the furthest, wins.

3. Imagination Illustrator

Are your teammates artistic? If the answer is no, there’s no need to worry, because this activity is ten times funnier with amateur artists. Ask a team member to give a short prompt for a drawing and give everyone three minutes to come up with a sketch. Everyone can take turns giving prompts and the team can have a blast going through what each member comes up with for prompts like, “A cheeseburger on vacation in Hawaii.”

4. One Word at a Time

If your team members have a whimsical spirit and love to tell stories, One Word at a Time is the ideal icebreaker for them. This is a common icebreaker used in offices all over the States. The first person of your team can say a word to start a story. The next person in line can add one more word to the story. The team can continue to add a word to the story until all the participants have had a chance to produce their own word.

5. The Guessing Game

Before you start the meeting, gather a few items in separate paper bags. These can be things like a squeaky toy, fidget spinner, brush, plushie, or any office item that you find lying around. Ask each participant to reach into the paper bags and try to identify the object, only by touching it. Then, everyone can take turns guessing what the item might be.

6. Two Truths and a Lie

If you are a fan of Fallon’s Tonight Show, you are no stranger to this game. Two Truths and a Lie is an icebreaker that lets your team members bond through laughter. Ask each player to write down two truths about themselves and a believable lie. When everyone is done, you can go around in a circle reading the statements out loud, and the rest of the team has to guess which statement is a lie.