Team Building Exercises

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Free Ice Breakers and Team Building Exercises

Here are several free team

building exercises you can use
in your team building events and
DISC assessment activities.
The Encyclopedia of Icebreakers (University
Associates) says that ice breakers “are tools
that enable the group leader to foster
interaction, stimulate creative thinking,
challenge basic assumptions, illustrate new
concepts, and introduce specific material.”
As such, icebreakers can be used nearly any
time a facilitator has a need to gather a
group, get them together, and help them move forward. Icebreakers can be used to the
same ends, and are generally thought of as best for points in the midst of a meeting,
training, workshop, or other group learning experience.

Free Ice Breaker #1

Your Worst/First Job

This is a fun team building activity. Everyone goes around the room and tells what they did
for his/her first or worst job. You could also do it ahead of time and ask meeting attendees
to fill out a card and the facilitator can read them aloud and everyone has to guess which
employee had that particular job.

Goal: To learn something new about your colleagues. It could also spark conversation
between employees who do not normally work together often and in some cases it might
get a chuckle or two.

Go here for 64 other ice breakers and team building exercises!

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 Free Ice Breaker #2

Paper-Tearing Exercise
Time Allocation: 5 minutes

Materials: Blank 8 ½-by-11-inch sheets of paper for each participant

Instructions:

1. Tell the participants the following: “We are going to play a game that will show us some
important things about communication. Pick up your sheet of paper and hold it in front of
you. Now, close your eyes and follow the directions I will give you—and no peeking!
Participants cannot ask questions.

2. Give the following directions, carrying them out yourself with your own sheet of paper
and pausing after each instruction to give the group time to comply:

The first thing I want you to do is to fold your sheet of paper in half.

Now tear off the upper right-hand corner.

Fold it in half again and tear off the upper left hand corner of the sheet.

Fold it in half again. Now tear off the lower right-hand corner of the sheet.”

3. After the tearing is complete, say something like “Now open your eyes, and let’s see what
you have. If I did a good job of communicating and you did a good job of listening, all of
our sheets should look the same!” Hold your sheet up for them to see. It is highly unlikely
any sheet will match yours exactly.

4. Observe the differences. There will probably be much laughter.

5. Ask the group why no one’s paper matched yours. (You will probably get responses like
“You didn’t let us ask questions!” or “Your directions could be interpreted in different
ways.”)

Then, lead into a presentation on the need for two-way communication in the workplace.
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Go here for 64 other ice breakers and team building exercises!

Free Ice Breaker and Team Building Exercise #3

“Ten-Dollar Auction”
Purpose: To highlight the pros and cons of internal competition. This is one of many free
team building exercises and activities we have available.

Set Up: An ordinary 10-dollar bill; a gavel (or some other heavy, hand-held object).

Process: Announce to the group that you will be auctioning off a $10 bill. The bidding
begins at $5, and yes, you really will be giving out the money, no matter how low the
highest bid. The game continues until you’ve called out “Going, going, gone” and slammed
down your gavel. In almost all cases, the bidding will continue beyond the $10 threshold,
with much excitement and high spirits. To ensure this result and to ratchet up the energy
even higher, conduct the auction again, this time announcing that the two highest bidders
(the winner AND the runner-up) must BOTH pay out their bids, regardless of the winner.

Discussion Questions: What made this game exciting? Why were the high-bidders
willing to go over and beyond the actually monetary value of the money? How effective is
competition at raising energy and morale? What are the possible downsides to excessive
competition?

The Point: Competition is an almost sure-fire method for releasing adrenaline and getting
people’s blood rushing – particularly in America’s highly competitive culture and society.
But competition has a price. In our effort to beat out our rivals (often co-workers), we can
easily fall into behavior that disregards cost and time efficiency. Ten dollars has a clear
monetary value of exactly $10 in an even-tempered, thoughtful business environment.
Once competition is added to the mix, however, the atmosphere becomes more charged
and the opportunity increases for hasty and imprudent decision-making. A $10 bill, in this
short-sighted, antagonistic environment, now gets purchased at $15, or $20, or even $30!
People lose sight of what a $10 bill really is; namely, a $10 bill! This fun little exercise is
quite effective for demonstrating the benefits of internal competition (i.e. employee

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enthusiasm, energy, adrenaline) and the possible downsides of an adversarial environment
(i.e. fiscal irresponsibility and short-sightedness). It might also just make you a few easy
bucks as well.

Submitted by Dr. Clue

Copyright (c) Dr. Clue, All Rights Reserved.
Dr. Clue is the premier creator of teambuilding treasure hunts, all across the country.

Free Icebreaker #4
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