Icebreakers and Team Building

Sarita’s Top 10 Favorite Icebreakers and Team Building Activities

1. What’s in your wallet?

Participants share an object from their wallet/purse which represents them and explain why.

2. Guess Who?

Participants write on an index card six adjectives that describe themselves.  Cards are collected, shuffled and dealt.  Each person reads the adjectives and attempts to identify which person in the group the card describes.

3. Magazine Puzzle Hunt

This activity is used to divide your staff into smaller groups.  In advance, cut magazine pages into 6-8 pieces (# of pages should equal # of groups desired).   Scramble and distribute one piece to each person.  Participants mingle and form groups as they put their puzzle together.

4. Song Tunes

To divide your staff into smaller groups, give each participant a piece of paper with a well known but simple song title on it (For example – Happy Birthday, Row Your Boat, Jingle Bells).  Participants mingle and hum the song tune until they find other participants humming the same song.

5. Life Line

Have each person draw a line on a piece of paper with 0 on far left end.  Instruct each person to write on the line at least 5 significant events and at what age each occurred.  Share in pairs or small group.  For example:

0–Spelling Bee (age12)–College (age18)—Married (age 25)—Sales Award (age 29)

6. M&M Sharing

Circulate a bag of M&Ms asking each person to take as many as they want.  The number of M&Ms each person takes is how many personal facts he/she must share with the group.  Best for small groups of less than 20 people.

7. Truth, Truth, Lie

Participants write down three facts about themselves. Two facts must be  true and one fact must be false.  Other person(s) guesses which one of the three facts is false. Can be done in pairs or small groups.

8. Name Game

Participants introduce themselves using a descriptive word that begins with same letter as their name (ex – Smiling Sarita, Sensational Susan, Perfect Paul).  The real fun is that participants must repeat all of the preceding descriptions and names prior to stating their own. This is good for newly formed groups of 30 or less.

9. Human Scavenger Hunt

In advance, create a page of descriptions about people in the group.  Some items can be very specific based on facts you know about group members; some of info can be generic.  Each person must mingle and get the signature of the appropriate person/s.  First one to get all items signed wins.

For example-

Find someone who….

-Has been with the company more than 5 years

-Has traveled outside of the US

-Participates in the same hobby you do

10. Who Am I?

The name of a famous person is taped on the back of each person.  Participants mingle and ask each other YES or NO questions to determine the identity of the person on their back…  (For ex – Am I a politician?  Am I a woman?  Am I someone who is over age 30?)  You can also create a theme such as names of characters from a certain movie or TV show.