Episode 66: Two Easy & Unique Icebreakers for your Next Corporate Team Meeting
Happy Wednesday, improve it! Fam! We’re back with an exciting episode for you. Erin reveals that she truly is an improv rap goddess on top of all her other talents.
In this amazing episode, Erin answers the commonly asked question, “What are some fun and unique icebreakers that I can use for my team meetings?” Well, ladies and gents, it’s your lucky day because we’re dropping it right here, right now. Listen in and implement these icebreakers during your next in-person or virtual meeting or event! Enjoy and let us know what you think.
Connect with Erin:
About the Host: Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
Episode 66 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
It's so important to hold people accountable and hold yourself accountable as a leader. If you show up in person or on zoom with low energy, how in the stinking world can you expect your team to give you the energy that you want? So if you want to have the team hold each other accountable for their energy, the golden ticket is your icebreaker. It's just like from Willy Wonka, it's the golden ticket!
Erin (00:36):
Are you a leader or change maker inside of your business organization or corporation? Are you looking for new, innovative ways to drive morale through the roof? Are you looking for fun and exciting icebreakers, team-building exercises, and activities that will foster team growth, friendships, loyalty, and completely transform your organization from the inside out? Have you been searching for a fun and unique way to create change instead of this same old dry, boring leadership books and ice breakers that aren't actually working? Hi, I'm Erin Diehl, business improv edutainer, failfluencer, and professional zoombie who is ready to help you improve it. My mission in life is to help you develop teams and leaders through play improv and experiential learning. In this podcast, we will deep dive into professional development team building effective communication, networking, presentation, skills, leadership training, how to think more quickly on your feet and everything in between. We have helped everyone from fortune 500 companies to small mom and pop shops transform their business, their leadership, and their people through play. So grab your chicken hat. We are about to have some fun. Welcome to improve it! The podcast!
Erin (02:10):
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding, ding, ding, ice ice baby. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. All right, stop, collaborate. And listen. I am back with a brand new invention, something grab a hold of me tightly flow like a Hawk yo daily and nightly. Do you want an ice breaker? Let's go turn off the lights and I'll flow to the extreme, I rock a mic like a vandal, light up the stage, let me chunk like a candle. Dance! Everybody say, Hey ow girl, you get on the mic and slay. I'm just flowing. I didn't know I could do it, but I'm gonna keep going for you at improve it. What was that? Total riff total riff improve it! Family. Thank you for that moment. I can now keep my day job. Thank you for allowing me to rap at the intro of the show. It's a dream come true and I have got some goods for you. Also sang, two dreams in one episode have come true.
Erin (03:16):
I am here today my failed it! Family because I am answering one of the most asked questions that we get here at the ghetto improve it! What are some fun and unique icebreakers that I can use for my team meetings. Now let me just say this. We're giving away the goods. We're giving it all away. We're putting it in a grocery bag, handed it to you saying and taking it home, put it in the fridge, use it. That was a metaphor. I'm not really sure I was going or where I was going with, but I wanted to give you two unique icebreakers that you can use in either a virtual world or an in-person world. As we see in person events starting to come back. So you're going to want a paper and pen. You might want to stop and pause this episode and take notes in your phone.
Erin (04:15):
You, if you're on your walk or in the car, just please be careful if you're in the car, limited insurance here at improve it! But take notes because this is for you and we are the Kings and Queens of breaking the ice. That is what we are known for. We see the ice, we break it. And I think it's important for you to have some tools in your tool belt, being the leader that you are, that you can use in any setting - in-person or virtual. So let me just start by saying this - icebreakers are so stinking important. And I know a lot of people hear this word and they roll their eyes and they think it's cheesy, right? Guess what? Icebreakers set the tone for the meeting. Think of it this way. If you go to a friend's house for a birthday party, which I'm currently in the midst of planning, Jackson Diehl's birthday.
Erin (05:21):
So this is very relevant for me. If you go to a friend's house for a birthday party and there's not any food or there's not any sort of decor to let you know that it is a birthday or it's just not thoughtfully planned, that's a tone. That's a vibe. The party's probably going to be short. People are going to say happy birthday. And if there's cake have a bite of cake and leave, and that's the tone of the party. However, if you have them enter your home and there's balloons and thoughtful party favors, then you hand them a glass of a mocktail or a mimosa. And then they go through an experience of the party. So let's say they go through the food and then they go to the backyard and there's a bouncy castle. Just speaking from experience here, you are giving them a vibe.
Erin (06:18):
You're setting the tone for how you want them to experience the party. Same thing with a meeting, icebreakers set the tone. They set the energy. So if you want the meeting to be dry and stale, don't do an ice breaker, tough love here, but I'm giving you, I'm giving you the real deal. If you want it to be energizing and you want to boost morale, and you want your team to connect and share ideas and collaborate and communicate throughout the meeting. So you're not necessarily having to do all the work as the leader, use an ice breaker. It is such a powerful, easy thing. You could easily Google icebreakers and come up with so many different ideas, but I'm going to give you two that we use at improve it! In some of our workshops that are tried and true. And I have seen work rooms and work zooms.
Erin (07:17):
I did that. So let's get right into it. I'm going to start off with an activity that we love called the golden ticket. Okay? So I'm going to tell you both the in-person version of this and then the virtual version. So you can apply it for your team. So if let's say we're in person and you want to start off with something that's going to set, not only the energy of the room, but hold other people in the room accountable, use this. All right. So if you want to have the team hold each other accountable for their energy, the golden ticket is your icebreaker. Just like from Willy Wonka, the golden ticket. So here's what happens. All right, you are going to, as the leader, tell the participants or your team, all right, I'm going to count to three. And on the count of three, we are going to jump up and down and scream.
Erin (08:13):
As if we had just won the lottery. You've not just won a million dollars. You've won like the mega million. Your life is completely different. You can do whatever you want. I hope you stay in work here, but you can do whatever you want within reason. And just, you're so excited. You literally just found out, okay. So on the count of three, we're going to jump up and down and scream and yell and act like we just won the lottery. Okay, here we go. 1, 2, 3. Everybody's screaming. Everybody's jumping. People are doing maybe a high kick. If they're a gymnast or if they were in cheerleading and the applause and roar dies down. And you, as the leader, ask the participants, okay. Rate this on a one to 10 energy scale. One is our energy was super low. 10 is we crushed it.
Erin (09:13):
We on the energy meter just blew the roof off the house. Okay. I don't know where I was going with that. So one is low energy. 10 is high. And you asked the team to give a number and you say, we'll take the average. And if you're like me, you are not in accounting. And so you just make up an average, but usually the average is around like a six or a seven, because they know they could do better. Okay. So round two, this is in person, you were saying, okay. So we want to get the energy to a level eleven. We're going to give every single thing that we have. We're going to pretend like we won the lottery. Again. This time you have a different objective. If somebody in front of you next to you, beside you across the room from you is not at a level 11.
Erin (10:05):
I want you to go up and hoot and holler and scream and yell and get their energy up with you. Make eye contact. You can move around the room, but get your energy to an 11. All right. On the count of three, here we go. Everybody goes nuts. There may screaming, yelling, kicking, maybe doing a happy dance. Maybe you've got like the cabbage patch going on. Maybe you got people like just jumping on furniture like Tom cruise, who knows. Okay. So at the end you ask them to rate their energy level again on a one to 10 scale, we're hoping for an 11. And usually we get everybody to an 11, your question to the team. Now, what was the difference between round one and round two? And usually we lead the questions to get to this answer. We held each other accountable. So how can you hold the team accountable for the rest of today's meeting?
Erin (11:06):
How can you make sure that we're all at an 11, because I need you at an 11 to guide us through what we've got to accomplish. We have so much to go through in this meeting, and I need you here with me. So do we have each other's backs? Do we trust that we are going to hold each other accountable as leaders to come up with solutions to some of these challenges and rock this meeting? Are you with me? Get them to give you a yes. Boom. Your meeting has been in a jazz. The ice has been broken with the golden ticket now in a virtual world. Here's how you would replicate that. Okay? Just get everybody on zoom. We are zoombies here. We love zoom. We have found that some of the other, and I know some people have rules where they can't use zoom for their company, but we have really loved the quality of video and just the breakout rooms and the overall user experience with zoom.
Erin (12:06):
This podcast is not recorded by zoom or recorded. This podcast is not sponsored by zoom, but any zoomers out there. If you're listening, we're totally open to it. We love you. Okay. So just know zoom is our best friend. Get everybody in the main room on zoom. And for this, you want all participants, especially if you have, like, let's say your rule of thumb is if there's a hundred participants or less, keep everyone on video, a hundred participants or more bandwidth is going to get real dicey. So go ahead and put them actually let me caveat all of this. You cannot do this activity with more than a hundred participants. Your bandwidth on zoom will be so low. So don't even try it unless you have a hundred participants or less. Okay? So here's what you're going to do. Everybody's in the main room on zoom.
Erin (12:59):
Their camera is on, their audio is on mute. So you see everybody, you want to put the view in gallery view. So you look like the Brady bunch instead of a bunch of giant talking heads, speaker view is where you look like the giant talking bobblehead, gallery view is the Brady bunch. This is where you want to be for this activity. Now, as the leader, you're going to guide them through these same instructions. You're going to say, okay, on the count of three, we just won the lottery. Tell the people in your house or your home or your office, the plants, the animals. You're going to get a little loud and just have fun with this. So on the count of three, we're going to pretend like we won the mega million lottery. I'm going to go on mute as well. So we're all muted, but we're watching each other's body language.
Erin (13:47):
All right. So you do round one just as you would do in person, you everybody's screaming and shouting from the comfort of their homes. Most likely in their business, mullet. Okay. A business top yoga pants, sweat pants, bedroom slippers on the bottom. Where is my slipper squad? Heyo. Then you come back off mute and you rate it just like you did in person on a one to 10 scale, where was our energy? Same thing. It's usually at a six or a seven, but you have them put those answers in the chat box. And if somebody is great at math, they can actually add it up. Otherwise just take a pretend average. And then you say the same rules apply. We're going to do this again. I want to get everybody at an 11. Now what we're going to do here on zoom is make sure that our team is doing as much as we are.
Erin (14:39):
So if you see Susie from accounting, not jumping up and down, I want you to get in your camera and you can lean really close to your camera. At this point, it's always just beautiful. You can see every pore. And then you say, I want you to make eye contact. And even though Susie doesn't know that you're looking at her, you were at least leaning in. So she might feel your presence. We want everybody to be on the same page here. All right, on the count of three, here we go. You just won the lottery and everybody's going nuts. And maybe they're spinning around in their chairs and maybe they're throwing things. It's crazy. It's nuts. So then you come off of mute. You ask for the average, what was the average? And you usually get people to an 11, same debrief applies as in-person hold each other accountable.
Erin (15:30):
Let's get to a really cool place together. I need your energy for this meeting. Are you with me? Let's go. And then you start your meeting. All right. So that's the golden ticket. And I will tell you, I love this one, especially we use this in our leadership workshop because it's so important to hold people accountable and hold yourself accountable as a leader. If you show up in person or on zoom with low energy, how stinking world can you expect your team to give you the energy that you want? And I'm such a big person on energy. I will tell you it's it's everywhere. Money is energy, movement and the energy body language is energy. Everything is energy. So if you want positive energy given to you, you have to be the mirror. You have to give that in order to receive. So I know I got my leaders on this call on this recording.
Erin (16:39):
Listen to me, this is an amazing reminder for you. This activity is just as important for the participants as it is for yourself. You got to show up with the energy you want them to bring. We say in one of our other workshops, show up with your pits up. This is virtually, which means show up from the arm pit up. Yes, it is a play on the marvelous Miss Maisel's other terminology. If you've watched that show, you know what I'm talking about. However, if you want to have energy given back to you, you've got to put it out there. All right. So do this activity, take it, run with it. It's the golden ticket. And it's really just an opportunity for everybody to raise their energy levels, to hold each other accountable and to start your meeting with pizzazz. All right? So that was number one.
Erin (17:38):
Let me lead you to number two. I hope you're taking notes. Come back to this episode anytime you need it. So the next activity I want to talk through with you is called commonalities. Again. I'm going to go through in-person first and then we'll talk about how to acclimate it to a virtual world. So you start off with everyone grabbing a partner. Then you put one minute on your timer, on your stopwatch and you give them these instructions in under one minute or less, you have to come up with four things that you have in common with your partner. Without talking. There is no texting. There's no writing. There's no mouthing the words. You are literally using body language to come up with four things that you have in common with your partner. You put a minute on the clock. You say, go, all right. So they do this.
Erin (18:43):
Usually most partners come up with four things, but they usually, some people get through it in 30 seconds. Some people get closer to the minute mark, but after the minute you ask, how was that? Easy, hard, right? Get a little, get a little insight from the team. What are they thinking? And most people will say it was easy. Ish. It wasn't too hard. So then you take them to round two. Round two, they find a, another partnership to join. So now you have two sets of partners as a group of four. All right. So if Bobby and Sally were partners and Jack and Joe were partners, they're all going to join a group of four. Then they're going to go up a hill. All right. I don't know where I'm going with this, but okay. You've got four people. All right, now you're going to put another minute on the clock.
Erin (19:29):
And you're going to say to this group of four and many groups of four, you're going to have one minute to come up with one thing that all four of you have in common without talking same rules apply no texting, no mouthing, no writing. The caveat is you cannot use any of the things that you had in common with your partner. Give a minute for that. Usually most groups of four come up with one thing. Some do it very quickly. Some do not. And then you have each group go around and save the one thing that they got out or that they have in common together. All right. That's just fun. I mean, you just, you start to bond immediately because number one, you're not talking. Number two, you are finding out information about these people very quickly in a forced environment, but you're laughing and kind of giggling because you can't talk.
Erin (20:29):
So it's so fun to watch and to facilitate. So that's, that is the activity. And then where you go from there is why is finding commonalities with each other so important? Because it builds trust. It builds trust right off the bat. So if you want to start off your meeting with something, that's going to automatically foster collaboration and trust. Ooh, this is a good one. Take it, use it, love vets. We've done this. So, so so many times we do it with associations. So you've got groups of people who have no clue who the other person is. And it's a really great way to just foster that connectivity connection in laughter, who doesn't like a little levity to start a meeting, right? So that's your in-person commonalities and how we connect this with virtual is same thing. You're going to use zoom, breakout rooms for this.
Erin (21:27):
Okay. So I think you have to have the second level of zoom in order to use breakout rooms. Again, zoom is over here. We love it. So you'll just put everyone into a group of two in a breakout room. They then have the same rules, one minute to come up with four things that they have in common with their partner. And they want to stay on mute. Okay? So this way they can not cheat. So they're on mute for things that they have in common, in under a minute or less. And then once you get close to a minute, facilitator, bring them back to the breakout rooms. Usually there's like, you can set the settings on zoom where you can do a ten second retrieval back from the breakout rooms, 15 seconds. I like to set it at 15 seconds just to let people know, like you're coming back a minute is way too long.
Erin (22:20):
So if you put them in the room, start the clock at a minute and around 45 seconds, bring them back to the main room. So they really have that one minute to work with. And then you ask them questions. So how was that? Easy, hard, same thing. Again, you're going to then usually we need a moderator or second person helping with this. Cause it is hard as a facilitator to then move that group of two into another group. But you'll have to manually do that. That's something zoom allows you to put people in breakout rooms automatically or manually. You'll have to manually put two and two groups together and they can do that same activity as a group of four, same rules apply. You have one minute to come up with four things that you have in common without talking caveat is it can't be the same thing as your partner.
Erin (23:13):
And then that's usually really fun. Again, bring them back at 45 seconds and then have each group go around and share, or you can just have them post in the chat box. The one thing that they had in common and what I also like to do after that is say, okay, go back to your partner. Think about your partner. What was one of the things that you had in common and why, why is that your favorite thing? And have people talk about it. But again, it just fosters that feeling of trust. It gets people connecting, smiling, laughing. It's so special to witness to watch. So that is called commonalities in a virtual or in-person setting. You have both options from a hybrid teams out there. Use it, love it, take yet. So my improve it! Family we've we've given away the goods. These are some baked goods.
Erin (24:05):
They are very well cooked. We have used these a lot and I know that they work. They are tried and true. And I just want to say thank you to all of my improve it! Fam listening today, man, I feel like the luckiest woman in the world, we really do get to work with the best people on the planet because you care about your teams. You care about the energy that you're bringing the energy you're showing up with to your team meetings. And I want you to use these and continue to keep caring. Remember that people don't leave jobs. They leave leaders and with a leader like you, they are bound to stay because they are growing. They are improving. So keep showing up my improve it! Fam, keep doing you keep bringing that magic that only you can bring because the world needs your it, that special thing that only you can give.
Erin (25:14):
Hey riends, thanks for tuning in to improve it. I am so happy you along for the ride. If you enjoyed this show, head on over to iTunes to leave us a five star review and subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. New episodes drop every Wednesday. Now, if you're really feeling today's show and you've improved it even just a little bit, please take a screenshot and tag me at keepinitrealdiehl on Instagram and share it in your stories. I'll see you next week, but I want to leave you with this thought, what did you improve today and how will that help your future successful self? Think about it. I am rooting for you and the world needs that special. It that only you can bring. See ya next time!