14 Apr 10 Breaking the Ice on Your Next Meeting

Raising the energy level of an early morning meeting can be quite a challenge. People head for the coffee and tend to gather with familiar faces. This can make things a little awkward for new people in the group and makes it difficult to generate new group dynamics. The right icebreaker can shake things up a bit and get people interested in what is to come.

One fun way to create new groups and start a team building activity is to distribute bits of a building set among the participants. People who hold Legos go to the Lego station, anyone with a Tinker Toy piece heads to the Tinker Toy table, and so forth. Each team has 15 minutes to create a model of a concept on the day’s agenda.

The exercise could focus more on introducing relative strangers to one another. Break the group into smaller parts using the same method, this time using small pieces of candy. This time the group members play 2 out of 3, meaning they write down 3 things about themselves, 2 of which are the truth and 1 that is a lie. The more outrageous the items, the more fun group members will have separating truth from lies.

Tags: 15 Minutes, 3 Things, Breaking The Ice, Candy, Coffee, Energy Level, Exercise, Familiar Faces, Group Dynamics, Group Members, Lego, Morning Meeting, New Groups, Participants, People, Play 2, Relative Strangers, Small Pieces, Team Building Activity, Tinker Toy