Unit 6: Information, Advice or Guidance Work with Groups
Icebreakers
What are they?
Icebreakers are discussion questions or activities used to help participants relax and ease into a group meeting or learning situation. There are two types:
Facilitating Introductions
Icebreakers used to help participants relax and ease into a meeting or training; and to help participants learn each other’s names and personal/professional information.
Topic Lead-ins
Also known as warm-ups, topic lead ins are icebreakers used to identify individual needs and goals, share information and resources, and/or surface resistance.
Name Game
Facilitator asks the group in turn to introduce themselves to the group also state, one thing they like, and one thing they dislike and finally one thing hope to learn from the session.
Logos
Each person is given a blank name tag. Explain to the group that corporations are recognised by a specific logo or symbol. (McDonalds arches, 3M, Apple Computer’s Apple, etc.)
Give the group 2 minutes to draw their personal logo. This logo should reflect their personality, their interests, any thing they would like other people to know about them.
Then give the group time to mingle and see what each other’s logo looks like. When it looks like the entire group has mixed, instruct everybody with a similar logo to form a small group. You may be surprised at how many similarities there are in your group.
Colour Pool
The object of this small group exercise is to get the group to quickly meet the other members. Before starting this one the facilitator needs to ensure the group understand to only state things they are comfortable with others knowing. The facilitator calls out a colour of the rainbow:
Red typically is the stop/turn- off colour – so each member of the group quickly tells what is the one thing that is a real dislike / turn off for them.
Orange: is the motivation colour – what motivates them
Yellow: is the inspiration or creativity colour – what was the best idea they’ve had
Green: is the money colour – what they plan to do for money, or the dumbest thing they ever did for money.
Blue: is the sky’s the limit colour – what is your favourite fantasy about your future
Indigo: is an odd, or different colour – what is the most daring thing they ever did.
Purple: is the colour of royalty – if you were ruler of the universe for a day – what is the first thing you would do?
Seating Plan
Ask participants to arrange their seats:
Alphabetically, according to first name, or sequentially, in order of birthday month and date
What’s the Question?
1. Facilitator writes some facts on the board. Example: Purple, 16 months, Japan
2. Participants try to find the question that matches each fact.
- Purple – What’s your favourite colour? What colour is your car? What colour are your toenails?
- 16 months – How long have you lived in this city? How old is your child? How long have you been married?
- Japan – Where were you born? Where have you worked? Where are you going on vacation?
3. When participants have discovered all of the questions, place them in small groups Repeat 1 and 2.
4. Have participants introduce each other to the large group.
Word Tree
Generate a list of words related to the topic. For example, in a health and safety workshop, ask participants to give you words related to the phrase, “hazardous materials.” Participants may suggest: ‘dangerous,’ ‘corrosive,’ ‘flammable,’ ‘warning,’ ‘skull and crossbones,’ etc. Write all suggestions on the board, clustering by theme where possible. You can use this opportunity to introduce essential terms, too.
Multiple Choice or True/False Quiz
Rather than giving participants a multiple choice or true/false quiz at the end of a session, try giving it at the beginning. As facilitator, this can be very useful to hear participants’ responses – this can help you to identify where to focus your attention during the group session.
This can be either a paper document or a list of things the facilitator can reads out to group, if using this latter option agree with the group a side of the room to represent true an another for false. The group then move to the side of the room they feel is the correct answer.
Scavenger Hunt
- Each participant should write down or tell,(quietly!), the facilitator an obscure fact about themselves.
- The facilitator puts these facts on separate pieces of paper or card.
- The ‘facts’ are then put out in front of the group and as a whole a decision is made as to whom the fact belongs to giving reasons as to why they think the fact and person go together.
This is a particularly good ice-breaker if the follow up session is about stereotyping or first impressions.
Human Bingo
Description:
- Prepare Bingo Cards that are divided into 25 squares – 5 across and 5 down.
- In each square write a phrase that could apply to someone in the group. Examples: has travelled in another country; likes to play chess; enjoys dancing, etc.
- Give people a card and have them mingle to get a signature from someone who fits the phrase.
- No one can sign a card a second time until all names are on the card at least once.
- When someone has completed a straight line or all spaces on the card, they call Bingo and the game ends.
I Have Never
Another good game for finding things out about others…. (Credited to Mark Lussier)
- Have everyone sit in a circle except one person.
- The person in the middle says something that they have never done (ie. I have never drank. or I have never worn a dress).
- All the people who have never done that have to get up and find an empty seat (from someone else who just got up).
- The person stuck without a seat is now in the middle.
- This game has no time limit.
Communication Challenge: “Line up game”
- Give everyone a number.
- They have to arrange themselves in numerical order communicating with each other without speaking or holding up fingers.
- They make up their own sub-language or sign-language and it often is pretty amusing.
- Round two.
- Have people arrange themselves in order of birth or in calendar months
2 Truths & a Lie
- Have each person write 2 truths and a lie about themselves.
- They then pass the paper to the group and have the others guess which is the lie.