at workTIPS, TOOLS & INTELLIGENCE

FOR DEVELOPING TALENT

TRAINING DELIVERY & FACILITATION

Icebreakers: Be Strategic

Nikki O’Keeffe and Patty Gaul

JUNE 2020 ISSUE 2006

Breaking the Ice ..................................................................................................... 2

Implementation ..................................................................................................... 5

Delivery ...................................................................................................................... 9

Best Practices .......................................................................................................... 9

Evaluation................................................................................................................. 11

Conclusion ..............................................................................................................12

References & Resources ....................................................................................13

JOB AIDS

Icebreaker Selection Questionnaire ........................................................... 14

Icebreaker Success Questionnaire ...............................................................15

TD at Work (ISSN 2373-5570, Electronic ISSN 2373-5589, ISBN 978-1-95049-6-976, Electronic eISBN 978-1-95049-6-983) is published monthly by the Association for Talent Development, 1640 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. TD at Work is available for subscription in print or digitally. The subscription rate for the Monthly All-Access (12 print and digital issues, plus archive access) is $119 (ATD national members) and $159 (nonmembers). The monthly digital subscription rate for 12 issues is $69 (ATD national members) and $99 (nonmembers). Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional entries. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TD at Work, 1640 King Street Alexandria, VA 22314. Claims for replacement of subscription issues not received must be made within three months of the issue date. Copyright © June 2020 TD at Work and ATD. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without the express written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, please go to copyright.com, or contact Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 (telephone: 978.750.8500, fax: 978.646.8600). ATD Press grants permission for the material on pages 14-16 to be reproduced for personal use.

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VOL. 37 • ISSUE 2006 • JUNE 2020

ICEBREAKERS: BE STRATEGIC

training delivery & facilitation

COPYRIGHT © ATD 1Icebreakers: Be Strategic |

AUTHORS

Nikki O’KeeffeNikki O’Keeffe is an internal senior

facilitator for the Association for Talent Development. She is a

dedicated training specialist who delivers a positive, memorable, and meaningful service that repeatedly

exceeds learners’ expectations.

Patty GaulPatty Gaul is a senior writer and

editor for ATD. In addition to serving as editor of TD at Work, she manages several columns for ATD’s flagship

publication, TD magazine, and writes content for TD.org.

Author, 1989 edition, “Icebreakers”

Robert C. Preziosi

Content Manager, Training Delivery & Facilitation

Eliza Blanchard, APTD

Editor, TD at WorkPatty Gaul

Managing EditorJoy Metcalf

Senior Graphic DesignerShirley E.M. Raybuck

Think back on training sessions or conferences you’ve attended. During them, has the facilitator asked you one of these

questions: What are you currently reading? If you were an animal, what would you be? If you could invite anyone to dinner—living or deceased—who would it be and why?

Perhaps as a facilitator or speaker, you may have asked one of

those questions or similar ones. They are meant to engage attendees,

establish a comfort level, and encourage active participation. They

are icebreakers.

An icebreaker, as management and organization development

consultant Susan M. Heathfield writes, “is an activity, game, or event

that is used to welcome attendees and warm up the conversation

among participants in a meeting, training class, team building ses-

sion, or another event. Any event that requires people to comfort-

ably interact with each other and a facilitator is an opportunity to

use an icebreaker.”

Icebreakers can range from a single intriguing or thought-

provoking question to an activity where participants get up and

COPYRIGHT © ATD2 | Icebreakers: Be Strategic

move around to a brainstorming exercise where the

facilitator asks individuals to address a question related

to the training.

In this issue of TD at Work, we will discuss:

• when to use icebreakers and the various types

• activity ideas

• words of caution when using icebreakers

• methods for measuring whether your icebreaker has

been successful.

This issue of TD at Work—an update to a 1989 issue of

Infoline—is intended to help you think more strategically

when it comes to using icebreakers.

Breaking the Ice

As talent development professionals, we may often think

of icebreakers as introductory to a course or conference

session, a facilitator’s request to “Turn to the person on

your left, introduce yourself, and share what you hope to

get out of today’s session.” That is one type of icebreaker,

but icebreakers go well beyond that. It’s not as simple

as coming up with a question to ask of your audience

or participants.

The rationale for the personal sharing that occurs

during icebreakers is that people learn better when their

minds and spirits are relaxed. Icebreakers help ready par-

ticipants for the course, sessions, or meeting as a group

and individually. The activities or questions direct energy

to the event, even if the questions or activities themselves

don’t correlate to the topic.

The more you can develop the camaraderie of “We’re

all in this together,” the more receptive the group will be

to learning. Depending on which introductory icebreaker

question you use, this initial period of the course can

encourage learners to establish their own individual learn-

ing goal for the day. It also can offer insights for you as the

trainer so that you can tailor examples and discussions as

much as possible to individual challenges and questions.

Further, by getting everyone involved early, ice-

breakers can set the tone that all learners are expected

to be active participants during the event.

To be successful in deciding when to use these

activities and which ones to select, you need some

knowledge of your audience, how well participants

know each other, and what you hope to gain from their

participation in the icebreaker.

TimingWe often think of using icebreakers at the beginning of

a meeting or training course, when participants first

meet each other. But you can use icebreakers when a

group comes back after a break or for a new day of a

multi day program.

Additionally, you can use these exercises to transi-

tion to a new topic or to refocus the room during a mid-

afternoon slump or when you detect cognitive overload.

Rely your experience in reading the room to help you

decide when to use an icebreaker.

PurposeWhile the gamut of icebreakers you design can be end-

less and there are tweaks to the types, there are three

main purposes and overlap between those three types.

Getting-acquainted icebreakers. These serve two

functions: They establish nonthreatening introductory

contacts and increase participants’ familiarity with one

another. Although these activities usually are not tied to

the course content directly, you can adapt them to meet

participants’ and the training program’s specific needs.

Consider a large conference session where people are

looking at their phones or still getting settled. A speaker

could use an icebreaker to bring the participants’ atten-

tion to the session and prepare them to learn.

Or consider the face-to-face classroom activ-

ity called One Word. Ask a question, give your one-

word answer, then throw a ball to someone who should

The rationale for the personal sharing that occurs during icebreakers is that people learn better when their minds and spirits are relaxed.

COPYRIGHT © ATD 3Icebreakers: Be Strategic |

answer the question using only one word. For example,

“One word: What’s your favorite travel destination?

Australia.” Participants then take turns passing the ball

around with each individual adding a one-word travel

destination. You can use this activity during an online

course via the virtual chat, with each participant typing

their one-word response. This enables participants and

you as the facilitator to learn more about each other. It

also re-energizes the room, whether physical or virtual.

Topical icebreakers. These warm up the group by

stimulating, challenging, and motivating participants.

Use them to begin a session, start a discussion, prime

the group after a break, ready learners for new mate-

rial, or shift focus to a new topic. In contrast to getting-

acquainted icebreakers, topical icebreakers are related

to the subject matter being discussed, either intro-

ducing the subject, moving on to a different topic, or

recapping content.

At the beginning of a course, a topical icebreaker

can lead learners to think about the course at hand or

dispel any negative stereotypes about spending time in

a training course. Content-related icebreakers can like-

wise refresh learners’ memory of content taught previ-

ously—for example, after a lunch break or on day two of

a training program.

For a virtual course on software, you may open the

afternoon session by asking participants: When we

logged in this morning, what shortcut did we talk about

for getting to a list of customers? Have learners respond

in the chat.

Activity-based icebreakers. Activities get partici-

pants up and out of their chairs. They may be physical

team building exercises or as simple as moving to

a different table or partner in a training room. Use

these icebreakers when participants appear overly

stressed, are in a slump, are overloaded cognitively, or

the group is flat.

These activities may entail a group of individuals

brainstorming and listing ideas on a flipchart. The exer-

cises don’t necessarily need to be related to the training

session topic. For instance, one may require partici-

pants to move around the room with a list of questions

they need answers to—this is often called Collecting

Autographs. The questions may be topical—such as: Who

Facilitator Benefits

While the majority of this issue focuses on how icebreakers can ensure that learners are comfort­able and ready to learn, icebreakers are also ben­eficial to the facilitator.

Get a feel for the group and individual per-sonalities. Does the group tend to be cautious, defensive, freewheeling? You must have a good feel for the group early in the training session. By identifying the group’s makeup, you can adapt the discussion and instruction style to fit the group, rather than trying to force the group to fit your training style. Icebreakers can help you gain insight into the group’s personality by enabling you to stand back and observe the group in action.

Further, you can observe individual personali­ties within the group. That assists you in assigning people to small groups for activities. You can mix and match personalities for the benefit of every­one and the class as a whole and increase the likeli­hood of small­group success. For example, in one group, you may want to avoid having two individu­als who make everything into a joke; instead, add a person of influence who can focus the energy of a bubbly personality on the activity.

Understand whether participants have exist-ing relationships. It’s helpful to know whether some learners already know each other well. Do you seat them at different tables? Do you lever­age their understanding of one another to make others feel more comfortable?

Determine attitudes. Sense whether certain participants have a negative attitude toward training—or, on the flip side, if there are learners who can be your allies in bringing others around to the learning. This is related to the other participant dynamics. Do you want to take a moment to talk privately with an individual who would rather not be at the course? Listen to what that person has to say and focus your message accordingly.

Take time to rethink facilitation. You can learn a great deal by observing the icebreaker. Use that information to adapt program content or select more appropriate activities—or both.

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