Favorite Knock-Knock Icebreaker

Have everyone tell their favorite knock-knock joke. Cell phone research is absolutely
allowed, and laughter is mandatory.

4. Office Charades Icebreaker

Kick off your meetings by playing a few rounds of charades where the presenters can
pick only office-related things.

If you’re rusty on your charades skills, here’s a quick refresher:

 Pick a “presenter” to start things off.

 Ask the presenter to think of an office item or activity. They can announce the
category, but that’s the last time they can talk.
 Then have the presenter explain the item using only gestures. Any spoken
words lead to an immediate disqualification.
 Laugh a lot. All charades manuals agree the game cannot be played without lots
of laughter and yelling.

5. Jenga Icebreaker
Jenga is a block-stacking game probably everyone in the world has played at one
point or another. You start out with a block tower and people take turns removing
blocks (and stacking them on top), while trying to keep the tower standing. The
game’s over when the tower crumbles.

Jenga requires strategy and cooperation, plus you can add a powerful communication
aspect to the game. Encourage your team to do something frowned upon during most
family game nights: give the other teammates advice and pointers. (No one is allowed
to get annoyed and roll their eyes.)

If your meeting is large, split people into groups and see who can build the tallest
tower.

7. Toilet Paper Icebreaker

This idea from Lifehack requires minimal effort and minimal funds. To play, pass a
roll of toilet paper around and have everyone rip off how much they would usually
use.

Everyone will probably think you’re crazy.

When the toilet paper makes it all the way around the circle, have everyone count
their squares. The number of squares each person took is the number of fun facts they
have to reveal about themselves.

20. The No Smiling Icebreaker

Govloop has a counter-intuitive icebreaker that actually leads to lots of laughter. Tell
everyone they can’t smile during the first five minutes of the meeting. You’ll be
amazed at how humorous some people become when they’re told not to smile.

Get the camera ready to take some silly pictures.

22. The Friendly Debate Icebreaker

Use this student-centric icebreaker idea from the Cult of Pedagogy in your next
meeting.

Start out by posing a harmless question that prompts people to choose a side. Here are
some examples:

 Which food is better: pizza or tacos?

 Would you rather go on a hike or to a movie?
 What skill is more valuable: creativity or logic?
 Which is worse: being bored or being too busy?

Have everyone physically divide into sides—pro pizza to the right; pro taco to the left.
Let all the like-minded people discuss the virtues of their position for awhile, and then
have a representative try to sell the other side of the room.

This will give everyone a chance to see things from different perspectives. It will open
everyone’s minds for a productive meeting

2.) Man – Gun – Bear

This game is a full-body version of rock-paper-scissors. It’s a fun icebreaker game for your team
and gets everyone engaged.
Instructions:
Players start out back-to-back. When the facilitator counts to 3, the players jump around to face each
other and pick one of the following choices:
a. Man – This is a man in a karate pose, and as the player turns around, they yell, “Hi-yah!”
b. Gun – Get out your shotgun and yell “ka-boom” as you turn around and face your opponent.
c. Bear – Let out your most ferocious “Grrr!” as you turn around and pose like a bear.
The way this works is the man beats the gun (chops or kicks it out of their oppenent’s hand).
The gun beats the bear.
The bear beats the karate man.
And if you tie, both die.
Before you start the game, make sure all of the players know the rules and who beats who. You
can say it in chant, and get all of your team to say it with you. Repeat it a few times to let it sink
in. Then, do two or three practice rounds and let your team figure out their strategy.
Game time!
Once the practice rounds are over, start the game. The game continues until there are 2
opponents left and there is either one winner, or if the last 2 tie, they both die, and you can start
the game over.
3.) Massage Line
The purpose of this exercise is to get your team loosened up and more comfortable with each
other. I typically use this in a multi-day event as an early-morning wake-up and to start breaking
down walls for the challenges to come.
Instructions:
Have the team stand in one long line, everyone facing the same way and get close enough to
reach the shoulders of the person in front of you.
Game time!
Take the team through rubbing the shoulders of the person in front of them. Start with a good
massage rub, have them do some karate chops, some fist pounding (always keeping it non-
violent!), scratching and light rubbing in the end. Make sure they also keep it above the person’s
equator!
When you have finished the first round, you can say something like, “In almost every major
philosophy or religion, there is a saying that talks about sowing and reaping. And it goes
something like this, ‘As you sow, so shall you reap.’” Have the team about-face and repeat the
process to the person that was behind them and is now in front of them.
5.) The Name-Action Game
In this icebreaker game, the goal is to learn everyone’s names. This is done by pairing an action
with each person’s name and then repeating it until everyone has introduced themselves.
Instructions:
Have the team get in a circle and spread out enough to where everyone can move a bit and won’t
be crowded.
Play the Game!
The first person introduces herself, and then picks some kind of motion to represent her. For
example, Sally says, “Hi, I’m Sally” and then does a ballet twirl. Everyone responds, “Hi Sally”,
and then everyone does the ballet twirl. After the second person goes, the group says their name,
does the action, and then repeats the first person’s name and action. This continues until all team
members have introduced themselves.

Two Truths and a Lie

This icebreaker is usually quite popular with adults and can lead to some funny
responses. Each participant in the group says three things about themselves — two
truthful things and one lie. The other participants can guess which one is the lie and
give a reason why thick so. You can elicit some very funny, creative and interesting
responses from the group!

Guess Who
Each participant in the group writes a very interesting or unusual fact about themselves
on a piece of paper. The group facilitator then reads out the responses and the group
guesses which person wrote the interesting fact!

Animal calls
Players make groups of 4-5 persons. Every player gets a paper with the name of an
animal. Each group has the same animal. The players spread out in the room and then
the light are turned off. Using only the sound of the animals (no talking!), the players must
find their respective groups. The winner is the group who is the fastest group to be
complete.

Statues
All players move about while music is playing. As soon as the music stops, everyone must
“freeze” in the positions they are, like statues. The person who moves last is eliminated
from that round. To make the game more difficult, the players can be told what
movements they should do while the music is playing.
Rescue Islands
With a piece of chalk, draw different large circles on the ground. Each circle represents a
“rescue” island where many players can go to be “safe”. Player move about as music is
being played. As soon as the music stops, every player must find an island. Those players
who can’t find an island, or can’t fit on the island is eliminated from the round.

Widest smile, most evil grin

Which member of the group can pull the widest smile or the most evil grin?