Speed dating ice breaker

A fast and fun excercise to help people get to know each other

aims

To work well as a team everybody has to feel comfortable to speak their mind. You have to feel that you can trust others in the team. An ice-breaker is a way to get to people really quickly, to have a bit of and to warm up your brain before starting the creative work.

set up

You need a time keeper who over sees the game. You need a chair for each person in the team divided equally and arranged in two lines facing each other. If you have an odd number of people in the team then the time keeper can join in to.

activity

Choose three simple questions that every one can answer easily. We chose these three:

• What's your name?
• What do you do in your spare time?
• What food do you dislike the most?

Each person takes a seat.
The time keeper claps to start the exercise and each pair takes it in turns to ask the other the three questions.
You can have a little conversation about the answers as you go but 30 seconds should be ample time.
Once the time keeper thinks that each question has been answered he or she claps their hands and each person moves one seat clockwise and askes the same questions of their new partner opposite.
Keep going until each person has spoken to each each other - or until things descend into chaos.


posted by joe heapy on 02/09