Icebreakers For Meetings

It is important that the meetings you organize are productive and bring out the best in everyone. Ideally, every
participant should be engaged, contributing great ideas and enjoying the meeting. Unfortunately —
meetings often become tiresome and participants begin to “zone out” instead of engaging with the other
people present.
To avoid your meetings becoming dull and unproductive, you could try using icebreakers for meetings. They are a
fun way to help participants relax, be creative and collaborate with others in the group. Here are some of
the best icebreakers.

1) 10 Things in Common (Getting-to-know-

you icebreaker)
Randomly divide meeting attendees into smaller groups of 3-4 people. Try to put people together with
others who they don’t know well. Each group must try to find 10 things that they have in common with
each other.

The 10 things should be as unusual as possible and cannot be things that most humans have in common
(like having two eyes or two legs!). At the end of 10-minutes, the groups read out their 10 common
things. The group with the most unusual or interesting things in common wins a small treat, like a
chocolate bar.

2) A Bad Day At The Office (Fun

icebreaker)
Split the participants into groups of 3 or 4. Create a list of common “bad day at the office” mistakes events
on separate pieces of paper. A member of each group takes a random piece of paper and acts out the
scenario without speaking. Their teammates have to guess which “bad day” scenario they are
presenting. Bad day at the office events can include things like:

 The printer jams

 A fly lands on your food
 You spill coffee on your shirt
 Your computer crashes and you lose your work
 Your pen leaks and ruins your shirt

3) Animal Noises (Fun icebreaker)

A very simple and fun game that will help the meeting participants relax and have a few laughs before the
meeting. Have the group sit in a circle or around a table. Each person is given the name of an animal on a
piece of paper. Going in a circle, they must imitate the animal by making animal noises and
movements! The rest of the group has to guess which animal they are.

4) Would You Rather (Getting-to-know-you

icebreaker)
Have the participants sit in a circle and ask them “Would you rather…” questions. These questions can
relate to work or be completely random and fun. Ask the participants questions like:
  Would you rather be the president of the United States or a rock star?
 Would you rather give a speech to 25 people or be piddled on by a dog?
 Would you rather be forced to listen to Maroon 5 or Nickelback?
 Would you rather have an IQ of 150 or the good looks of Fabio?
 Would you rather holiday in Las Vegas or New York?

5) Hidden Talents (Getting-to-know-you

icebreaker)
Simply go around the group and ask each team member to introduce themselves, before divulging their
hidden talent. Give them the option of sharing their talent with the group, be it drawing, joke telling,
juggling or singing. Keep it light hearted and have “performances” last 30 seconds or less.

6) The Introduction Game (Getting-to-

know-you icebreaker)
Participants sit in a circle or around a table. Every second person turns to their right and spends a minute
asking questions of their fellow participant. The questioners then take turns telling the group about the
person they just met. They share some of the highlights of their conversation and what they learned from
meeting this person. The questioner and answerer then swap roles.

7) Icebreaker Questions (Getting-to-know-

you icebreaker)
You can help the group learn more about each other and relax by asking some fun icebreaker
questions. These questions should be light hearted to encourage a few laughs from the group and prepare
them to be creative in the meeting. This is one of the simplest and most effective icebreakers for
meetings. The questions can include:
 What’s your favorite movie? Why?
 What’s your favorite book? Why?
 If you reincarnated, what would you like to come back as?
 If you could go on tour with a famous musical artist, which one would it be?
 If you could bring back one dead rock star, which one would it be?
 What is your favorite “guilty pleasure” television show or music?
 What food do you love to eat on any days?

BONUS) Candy Questions

This is a simple game that helps participants learn more about each other and enjoy some energy boosting
candy! Place some colored candy (M&Ms or Skittles) into a bowl. Write five or six questions on the board
— one for each candy color. For example, if you are using M&Ms, you could have:

 Brown — What’s your favorite part of the work day

 Green — What’s your biggest goal for this year
 Red — What’s your favorite workday snack?
 Blue — What’s your favorite workday beverage?
 Yellow — Favorite form of exercise?
 Orange — Favorite way to de-stress after work?
 Go around the table 3 times, with each participant selecting a piece of candy and answering the question
that the color corresponds to.

Speed Dating With a TwistSave

Team building games Relaxing games Icebreaker games Circle games Large group games

 Inside
 Whole Group
 5 - 10 mins
 No cost
 No Mess
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How To Play Speed Dating With a Twist

Set up the chairs in two circles, a small circle and a larger circle outside of that. Make
sure that the chairs are facing each other and there are an equal amount of chairs in the
inside circle as well as the outside circle.

The format or idea of how the game is played is like speed dating. Every kid will sit
across from another kid, can be same or opposite sex, and will have a task to complete
in 30 seconds before they rotate to the next person.

Here is a list of questions we asked kids to complete with each other:

- What's your most embarrassing moment?

- What's your favourite food?
- What do you want to be when you grow up?
- Who's your favourite celebrity?
- Who do you look up to the most?
- What's your favourite childhood memory?

Some of these topics may need a little longer than 30 seconds, others may need less.
We used a cymbal as our rotation gong. This game is a great introduction to the topic of
love or dating that also acts as a way for kids to get to know each other and break out of
their comfort zone a little.
 Two Truths And A TaleSave
Also known as: Two Truths and A Lie
Relaxing games Icebreaker games Small group games Circle games

 Play anywhere
 Whole Group
 0 - 5 mins
 No cost
 No Mess
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Similar Games:

 Matchstick Truth or Lie

How To Play Two Truths And A Tale

For this great get to know you game, each person must make three statements about
themselves, one of which isn't true.

For example: I have two brothers, I was born in Australia, I have a motorcycle.

This works best when you give the group some time to think of their statements, and
write them down if they need.

Once one person makes their statements, the rest of the group must guess, or vote on,
which statement is the tale. You could play as a team, or individually. It could work well
to get each group member to write down their own answers and see who gets the most
correct.

Secret IdentitySave
Relaxing games Icebreaker games Large group games

 Play anywhere
 Whole Group
 5 - 10 mins
 No cost
 No Mess
 Has this game
been helpful?

Similar Games:

 Celebrity Head Mania

 Celebrity Articulate
How To Play Secret Identity

Have everyone secretly write down the name of a person on a small piece of paper or a
"post-it" note. It has to be a person that everyone in the room would know about - a
famous historical figure, an actor or sports celebrity, a politician, etc. Then have them
tape the name on the back of the person on their left.

Everyone goes around and asks people yes or no questions about who is on their back.
They can only ask each person one question. The person who can do it in the least
number of questions wins.

NEW: This game concept is for sale as a board game called HedBanz. Check it out on
Amazon.

Materials Needed
paper, sticky tape, pens

True False Run

Action games Icebreaker games Camp games Large group games

 Play anywhere
 All On All
 0 - 5 mins
 No cost
 No Mess
Has this game
been helpful?

How To Play True False Run

The group stands in the middle of a room (or if outside, between two markers eg
cones). one wall/marker is nominated 'true' and the other 'false'.

The leader reads a statement, eg 'bats aren't actually blind'. On 'Run!' the kids must run
for whichever side they think is correct - true or false - and whoever reaches the correct
wall/marker first wins. STAYING IN THE CENTRE IS NOT AN OPTION. Disqualify
stragglers if necessary.
Tally the winners on a board and award the overall champion a prize.
Alternatively, the kids who choose the wrong answer are eliminated, and only the
correct side continue to the next round.

This game can also be played with bible teaching, eg 'All twelve apostles were Jews'
etc.