7 Responses

1. Family Photos
   Hi Veronica,
   I don’t know what the people are like but if you can convince them to bring in lots of photos of them at various stages in their lives, you could be onto a winner!

   Trying to guess what your colleagues looked like as babies is the fun intro to the exercise, which then focuses on the need to change and why change is both inevitable and desirable.

   Get in touch in you feel you need more specific instructions.

   Cheers,

   Megan

   megan@light-bulb.biz

2. More than an ice-breaker
   Sounds like you need more than an ice-breaker to have a chance of achieving the above. What about diagnostic one-to-one interviews with the main players to see what their views are and a team performance questionnaire so that you get a sense of how they view their current performance individually and as a team?
   Yours

   Andy Jaggard

3. More than an icebreaker
   I agree with the other comment so far – this is a big issue. Hopefully you know the reasons why the group behave as they do now, and will be giving them some reasons (relevant to them)to change, before they get the techniques to do it.

   you may want to think about them listing the problems with the current situation and their suggested answers. Whether their answers agree with yours, they will be thinking about the merits of a change, and the fact it could be possible. Contact me off line to take this further professionally.

   Good luck

   Ed
   Field Dynamics Ltd

4. Try a goal setting workshop
   Dear Veronica,
   Yes, I’d agree with the others that you might need more than an icebreaker. One way that I have used successfully is the Goal Setting workshop. This is a process of clarifying the team’s purpose which leads naturally into setting goals – you should find that they come up with the need to establish long term customer partnerships etc etc themselves. The basic outline is laid out in a now ancient Harvard Business Review Article: How to make a team work by Hardaker and Ward, Nov-Dec 1987. Maybe a bit old, but a true classic, and I’d say the process has stood the test of time. If you are interested, I have a two day workshop written in microsoft word which is loosely based on the ideas laid out in this article. Can’t help you much with an icebreaker though! Warm good wishes. Philippa Forsyth (e-mail me at Philippa.Forsyth@maf.or.tz

5. Give them the facts first!
   Hi Veronica,

   Good luck with your change management initiative.

   I’ve been in a few situations like this and I would suggest that it would be a good idea for someone (as senior as possible within the organisation) to spell out the consequences of not changing to the group concerned at the beginning of the activity.

   This message should be delivered in a non-confrontational way, be factually based and of course completely objective.

   Once this has been done then the group challenge is to identify the way to make and manage the necessary changes required to meet whatever improvement targets you are working towards during the course of the programme.

   At this stage you can bring the group together by working out where they are now as a management team – I’ve always found Belbin’s team roles an extremely useful exercise both as a way of identifying group dynamics and building bridges between potentially reluctant colleagues.

   Regards

   Steve Fox

6. BIG job!
   Hi Veronica….

   I would strongly recommend getting an experienced, external facilitator to help you sort this one out! If for no other reason than to take any heat off you – we externals have asbestos underwear!

   Basically, you need to give them simple, non-threatening exercises, which will show what happens when a group act as a team instead of as a bunch of individuals. You don’t say how old/senior your management team is – it will make a difference!

   We went through such a process in my last company — it started from the top with Management Offsites, & was then worked down throughout the company. Takes time & money, AND you’re never guaranteed the managers are really on-board, rather than only paying lip-service to the ‘new way’. Contact me directly, & I can give you some details (& a couple of ice-breakers).

   Dave

   Dave.bramwell@learningexperiences.net

7. basic ice breaker re need for change
   hi Veronica-whilst agreeing that this needs more than an ice breaker, there is one I have tried which is very simple & worked well.
   The briefing is for groups to discuss & flip the answers to a few questions as to how the workplace or their workplace would have looked 50 or 100 years ago.e.g-what would the environment be like? The rewards?The atmosphere?The flow of information? etc. etc. From this you can get an extremely useful discussion around factors regarding change e.g inevitability, desirability, necessity, resistance acceptance, etc.
   It is also fun & thought provoking.
   Hope this helps.

   Karin