The purpose of ice-breakers at workplace events is to initiate conversations between members of the meeting. Not only should they let the participants know a little more about each other but also make them more comfortable in the meeting.

Check out these effective ice-breakers that I have both used as well as seen at other events that I felt were effective and fun.

• Draw your life on a flip chart:Hand over sheets of a flip chart to all attendees then give them 10 minutes to ‘draw their life’. Once the 10 minutes are up, go around the room and give each attendee a chance to introduce themselves using the images on the flipchart. Few people can draw well, so the scribbles on the flip chart are surely going to make people laugh. Everyone likes to laugh, right?

• One word ice-breakers:Ask attendees to say a single word out loud that is relevant to the meeting you are about to have. For example, if the purpose of the meeting is to enhance team communication then ask each employee to think of the first word that comes to their minds when they hear the word “conflict”. Go around the room and have them say the word out loud.

• Ask funny ice-breaker questions:Not all ice-breakers need to lead into the point-of-conversation of the meeting. Ice-breakers that generate positive feelings are excellent ways to start them off. Think of ridiculous questions to ask attendees. It doesn’t even need to make sense; it just needs to get them to open up. Ask them if they woke up tomorrow as an animal, what will they choose to be? If they could have one superpower, what will it be and why?

• Ask them to share something strange/unique about them: The purpose of this ice-breaker is to make attendees curious about one another so they have some incentive to approach each other during breaks. A former colleague had shared that he was stuck by lightening as a teenager as an ice-breaker; everyone flocked towards him during the coffee-break to find out more. Another colleague shared that she had visited 68 countries during her life and was on a mission to see all of the countries of the world. We didn’t know any of this before the ice-breaker.

• The candy question: Pass around a bag containing 5 different types of chocolates and have each attendee pull one out. Each chocolate will represent a specific question that they will have to answer.

Being an awesome inspirational keynote speaker, Jon Petz is an audience engagement expert who also takes the mystery out of peak performance and helps others perform at their best.

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