Choosing icebreakers with a purpose

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Abstract

Icebreakers can be a positive addition to a training session by energizing the group, initiating creative thinking, and encouraging involvement. This practice provides guidelines for using icebreakers. Excerpted from the Mosaica guide Starting Strong: A Guide to Pre-Service Training and the newsletter Training Briefs.

Issue

Icebreakers are often used in training sessions to encourage people to open up or feel comfortable, invite participation in a group activity, and stimulate inclusion. However, an ineffective icebreaker can create discomfort or tension, straining rather than energizing a group dynamic.

Action

For an icebreaker activity to be effective, it should be selected deliberately for how it relates to training objectives; it should also follow some general guidelines.

A good icebreaker:

Should not last longer than 10 minutes if it is the opening activity; an icebreaker at other points during the training tends to have an optimal length of 15 to 30 minutes
Encourages trust and cooperation within a small group or the entire group of members — some icebreakers should be cooperative rather than competitive
Makes the group feel challenged, but not uncomfortable
Is a team building experience and involves all members
Initiates conversations and interactions
Increases the respect and liking of other group members
Shows interesting new things about people who have known each other for some time
Reflects members' diverse needs; the activity should be appropriate to the group's age level, physical mobility, or personal interests
Is appropriate for the group's stage of development
Ties the activity to the session topic
Fits your training session design; for instance, if you need smaller groups to be formed later in the training, use the icebreaker to accomplish this
Fits the training location

Use icebreakers:

At the beginning of pre-service training to help members become acquainted and begin the session with a fun activity
After lunch to engage teh group during the mid-afternoon fatigued feeling
After a difficult or intense session to release tension
After assigning members to work with people they do not know well to facilitate group interaction

Context

Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism, provides organizational assessments, strategic and resource development planning, fundraising capacity building, restructuring support, and assistance in financial management and oversight. Other services include board development, program design and delivery, personnel and systems management, volunteer activities, community involvement and community building, community organizing and advocacy, program evaluation, and coalition building.

The goal of Mosaica is to bring together individuals with diverse voices and experience to create an organization with a set of common values. Mosaica was established out of a commitment to social justice and a belief that within the United States and throughout the world, societies that strive for democracy, human rights, peace, individual opportunity, and pluralism must be built and maintained from the bottom up — community by community, group by group —with the active involvement of nonprofit organizations and a strong independent sector. Mosaica helps strengthen nonprofits so they can provide high quality services and advocacy in a sustainable, well-run fashion that supports communities.

Citation

McKay, Emily Gantz and Diane Bacrales, et al. "AmeriCorps Identity and Teambuilding: Using Icebreakers." In Starting Strong: A Guide to Pre-Service Training. Washington, D.C., Mosaica: 1996. p. 289.

Mosaica. "Choosing Icebreakers with a Purpose." In Training Briefs, no. 14 (June, 1999).

*Training Briefs were produced by Mosaica under Cooperative Agreement #98CADC009 with the Corporation for National and Community Service during July 1997 through October 1999.