Icebreakers should be:
- Relatable–don’t ask an icebreaker about a certain show, game, or movie. Ask an Icebreaker about movies, games, or shows in general.
- Non-intrusive–Ice breakers should not make the respondent uncomfortable telling the truth. Note this point only applies to office/meeting ice breakers; some events may choose to use an intrusive ice breaker to force attendees to open up earlier than they intended.
- Not too thought-provoking–I have been to a few meetings where the host asks an icebreaker question that causes all in attendance to respond with “umm…” before giving a defeated answer. One way to prevent ice breaker questions from causing overthink is to introduce a recency parameter in to the question. E.g Ask for the last song a person remembers listening to, instead of the person’s favorite song. Ask the attendants what was the last meal that excited you, instead of their favorite meal.
- Open-ended–Icebreakers that are binary don’t allow the respondents to share much about themselves, and icebreakers that have an obvious best answer cause the whole room to respond with the same answer.
- Finished within 10-15 minutes–If the icebreaker takes longer, then either the meeting was too large for the question/activity or the icebreaker wasn’t appropriate for the group.
Bonus thought, an icebreaker does not have to be a question. Often an activity will keep the meeting attendants more present than a question will.
Polly Wanna Math 