Have you ever conducted, or at least attended a meeting? If so, have you ever heard about meeting icebreakers? Well, this is an important activity that actually should be presented in a meeting. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people who do not notice the importance of this activity. This article will reveal some useful information about meeting icebreakers and their importance for your meeting activity.
Meeting icebreakers are a certain activity, whether games or mental activities, which help people to provide more energy to the attendance of the meeting. Besides, it also helps a person through the uneasiness of getting to know others. Therefore, by providing some time during the meeting for this session, people in your meeting will be more energized in discussing the topics or issues. Whether you are going to conduct a meeting or training, fun ice breakers will be a good start.
Holding an icebreaker to start your meeting is very important due to some different functions. You can see the main function when you are gathering a large group for a meeting, seminar, or training for the first time. During the icebreaker session, the participants could get a lot of help introducing themselves to the others. Therefore, when the meeting, training, or seminar is started, they will not feel discomfort because they have known each other. Some other advantages are increasing the comfort of the participants in attending and participating in the meeting as well as increasing their energetic feeling to follow the discussion.
Many business meetings kick off with an icebreaker…. but nobody signs up to attend a business conference to play silly games, pull off squares of toilet paper, and share their biggest fear. Jumping right in with some gimmick to break the ice can freeze your introverted attendees and leave them hiding at every break.
Creating a conference culture that promotes networking is paramount to the success of a meeting, but this is not accomplished by starting with exercises that nobody wants to do anyway. I suggest that you never instigate the socialization parts right out of the gate. People need to feel comfortable with the venue, the presenter, the community, and themselves before they are willing to give 100% to any planned activity.
Understanding an audience and not placing cute games ahead of their emotional pacing is necessary to lead them into activities that will have an impact. Too many people who utilize networking icebreakers front-load these activities into their presentations. This causes the audience to hold back in their participation and can kill the mood of the conference networking. You have to wait until the MC or presentation leader has earned the right from the audience to ease people out of their comfort zones.
Many attendees at conferences are skeptical about the scheduled networking activities long before they arrive at the event. They have attended other meetings where gung-ho facilitators have pushed them into situations that are not their cup of tea. These people go along with the exercises but do so without a real desire to make a meaningful connection. Half-hearted networking is no better than no networking. To create a real culture, there must be true participation.
When icebreakers for meetings are done too early people are less likely to open their minds and hearts to the message encouraging them to make meaningful connections at the conference. They are viewed as “hokey” and “forced”, and while most people will go through the motions, they are not fully engaged.
When you are planning your agenda, and you are including purposeful icebreaking activities, make sure that you are not just giving lip service to the idea of a networking culture…. make it real and all about the audience.
Here are three ways to make sure your icebreakers are well-received and have a real impact on your audience:
1. Make sure that the activity is suited for the makeup of the audience. Left-brained professionals (lawyers, bankers, accountants, IT, etc…) are more likely to be resistant to games than some other groups. This does not mean you avoid icebreakers, you just need to make sure that the actions meet the personalities of the attendees.
2. Do not lead with activities. People get more comfortable as time goes by. If a speaker jumps right into an activity it can feel forced. The same activity ten minutes later, after the person leading the facilitation has gained the trust of the audience, will be much better received.
3. Be clear on the outcome. The audience needs to understand the purpose of the activity. Just meeting new people is not enough, and often we assume the audience knows what to do after they make a new contact. Talk about how the icebreaker sets the tone for engagement throughout the conference and beyond.
Surely, there are a lot of icebreaker ideas that you can easily find in some books or sites. You can pick them up as many as and as varied as possible, so you will have enough references of games or activities that will be perfect for a certain meeting that you are going to conduct. Properly breaking the ice will allow people to thaw.
