I need a fun energiser/icebreaker to use for an Away Day for approx 90 HR staff. The purpose is to have a fun element of the day but also to emphasise the point about perception. For example people who haven't previously worked together may know their colleagues and have formed a perception that is totally different to how that colleague is. This will lead to the affect that perception has on working together. Remembering that the away day will have 90 people attending
Jane Buckels
3 Responses
Find a friend…
This one takes a bit of time, although once people start pairing up it usually resolves itself pretty quickly….
In advance get each participant to volunteer 3 or 4 pieces of interesting information about themselves, preferably that they think the others might not know.
Type or write these onto a postcard for each participant (stops people being found because their handwriting is recognised – although with 90 people that might not be a problem).
On arrival distribute the cards randomly.
The task is to find whoever is represented on your card by going round asking questions – if you were really keen you could define the type of questions to be asked (Open, Closed, etc…). They can swop ‘intelligence’ – or even trade it – to speed the process up. I suspect you can work out all sorts of interesting variations…
As they find someone, they partner up to find the second person’s subject…..
Buzz Bingo
I have a game I call ‘Buzz Bingo’. Everyone gets a bingo card; the squares don’t contain numbers but statements like ‘Has a red car’, ‘Has a daughter’, ‘Likes horse racing’ and even riskier categories like ‘Has been arrested’. People cross off their squares by finding people who fit the category, which means they have to go round asking these questions of people. There are prizes for the first to fill a row, a column and their entire grid. You can tailor the categories to fit your event. If anyone wants a copy, email me: mail@dickbarton.co.uk.
truth and lies
Each person writes down 3 things about themself on sticky labels, that are not likely to be known by the others. Two of these should be the truth and one should be a lie. People circulate and try to guess which is the others ‘lie’. For a group this size, it may be that there should be a small ‘prize’ for the first person to get 3 or 5 right. It helps people look at the perspective they may have of someone, especially if unexpected people have done some quite wild things in their past.