Icebreaker ideas
You will find many ideas for icebreakers in books and on the Web. Many of these focus on the ‘getting to know people’ aspects of group behaviour. This is obviously important but we think that it often helps to start with an activity which helps you start the task as well as becoming more familiar and relaxed with each other. So each of the following suggestions aims to meet both task and social objectives.
Idea 1 – If your group has just met or don’t know each other that well
Get everybody to sit in a circle facing each other and make sure everyone has access to some A4 paper and a pen. Go round the table and get everyone to introduce themselves to the rest of the group. Get everyone to put their full name on a piece of paper and place it on the table in front of them. Now as a group, discuss how the group will keep in touch with each other. Now add your contact details to your name based on the group’s preferred method of communication (so you might add a phone number or an email address, for example). Then ask each person to pass their paper to the next person, who adds their details to the list and continue round until you get your own details back. Now spend a bit of time discussing how your group will work together, when will you meet, who will take notes, how will you decide stuff etc. In other words, your team ground rules - see the section on ground rules in the book for more on this) and make some notes on the same piece of paper. At the end of your discussion, you should have an idea about the names of the people in your group, the best way to contact them and some ideas on how the group is going to work together!
Idea 2 – If your group already knows each other quite well
Get everybody to sit in a circle facing each other and make sure everybody has access to some A4 paper and a pen. Get everyone to write down on their piece of paper what they think needs to be done for this assignment and when it needs to be done by. You may also want to write down the percentages of the mark each component is worth also. Get everyone to read out what they have got written on their piece of paper in turn. This serves two purposes. It reminds everyone what is required and it checks to see if the team are interpreting the task in the same way. Once this is done, get everyone to take five minutes to think of some ideas for the project. At the end of the five minutes get one person to volunteer to take notes and get people to read out some ideas. It is important that you don’t discuss any initial ideas until everyone has had the chance to add some ideas to the list. Once no-one wants to add any more, get the note-taker to read out the list and the team can discuss each one in turn. Although, the team may find they have some difference in opinion, this technique usually results in some really good ideas right from the start and focuses people on the task!
Idea 3 – If you find that some of your group are very shy or not very involved
Try to get everybody to sit in a circle facing each other and start a discussion about what is required for this assignment and what the deadline is. Once everyone seems clear about this, get everyone to write down at least one idea about the project and offer to email everyone with a note of the project requirements, the deadline and the initial ideas. Suggest that people add any more thoughts to the email so it can form the basis for discussion at the next meeting. Take their email addresses and email this information as soon after the meeting as possible. In your email, make sure there is a heading for each person’s name and under that heading place their initial idea. Ask people to add ideas to their sections. This method is similar to a blog, in that it is sometimes easier to come up with ideas, if you can see others’ ideas first. Some people are more comfortable writing their ideas than speaking in a group. If you have access to one, a wiki would serve the same purpose as an email that you pass round the group.
Hartley & Dawson, Success in Groupwork, Palgrave Macmillan