Business Meeting Icebreaker Games
Icebreakers are designed to get creative juices flowing, get people talking and open people up to new ideas. Icebreakers can enhance the connectedness and cohesiveness of a team, allowing them a greater understanding of one another and providing opportunities for communication. This enhanced communication ideally lends itself to greater productivity and improved relationships in the workplace. Business meetings can become tedious and unproductive if they drag on too long without a break, use icebreakers to re-energize your meeting.
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Going, Going, Gone
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Bring a $10 bill and a gavel to your business meeting. Ask your team to begin bidding on that $10 bill beginning with a reserve bid of $5. Build excitement among your team, encouraging the internal competition. Competitive nature will flourish in most cases and bidding may exceed $10. Once you have finalized your auction and given out your prize, have a discussion around the positive and negative aspects of competition in the workplace. If the team members bid beyond $10, open up dialogue about this. The goal here is to create an awareness among your team around both the positive and negative aspects of competition.
"Yes, But..."
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Direct your team to consider an out-of-this-world invention and to brainstorm all of its wonderful features. Your stipulation to them is that during this brainstorming session, they are not to use the word "but" and they must applaud after each idea, saying "yes" before offering the next idea. "Yes, but" is strictly forbidden. The idea here is to encourage free-flow brainstorming and discourage premature nay-saying which is not productive during a brainstorming session.
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Look Boss, It's a Plane!
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This activity offers your team a quick burst of energy, taking them back to their childhood and bringing enthusiasm to a meeting. Split your team into groups and instruct them to develop "the best" model for a paper airplane. Next have your team test their model by having them line up and try to hit a target that you have hung on the wall. The final step in this icebreaker is to discuss what occurred. Did they work as a team? What worked and what didn't work? Was the successful "engineer" congratulated and credited for her design?
Break Time
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Not all icebreakers need to be games. Plan to have two stretch breaks during your meeting, allowing your team to get up and move, grab a coffee and mingle a little. These breaks allow staff some time to chat about their days, discuss current events or share a little about their families. Regardless of what they are discussing, they are communicating and that is great for morale. An alternative is to schedule the meeting to begin 10 minutes earlier than usual, serving coffee and providing your team with an opportunity to unwind together.
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References
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