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Icebreakers

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This job aid contains five icebreaker activities you can use to
kick off your next training session.

Just Like Me
Goal: To introduce participants in a creative, low-stress way.
Group Size: Maximum 15
Time Estimate: 15 minutes
Process
1. Ask participants to select an item from their briefcases,
purses, pockets, or wallets that represents who they are or
an important aspect of their lives.
2. After everyone has selected an item, have participants
take turns showing their items and explaining why that item
represents who they are.
Facilitator Notes
• Instead of having participants choose a personal item,
place a pile of small toys on the table and ask them to
select a toy from the table that represents who they are.
• You could use this in an online learning setting; have
participants look around their desks for an item that they
can use to introduce themselves.
Submitted By: Karen Lawson
126730.27260

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Icebreakers
Networking to Learn
Goal: To establish rapport among participants prior to starting
a learning event.
Group Size: Any size
Time Estimate: 15 minutes
Materials
• One prepared handout for each participant
• One pencil for each participant
• Flipchart pages posted on the walls
• Tape
• Markers
Process
Preparation: Before the session, develop a one-page handout
that asks participants to seek out three people who are not from
their departments and to learn the following:
• participants’ name and department
• something about what they do (position or title)
• one thing they ____(most like/actively use/appreciate)
about _____(topic)
• one question they would like answered in this session.
1. As participants enter the room, provide them with the
handout you prepared and a pencil. Get involved by
introducing participants you’ve met to new arrivals. Prompt
them to start their conversations.
2. If conversations are productive, allow participants to
network for a few minutes into the starting time of the
session.
3. Before you begin the class, ask participants to write their
peers’ questions on one of several of the flipchart pages
you have posted in the room.
4. While participants are writing their questions, ask those
who are not writing to share, aloud, those things their peers
have appreciated about the class topic.
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Facilitator Notes
• If participants come from various departments within a
large, multi-department company, it’s likely that they have
not connected with other people in your class. This activity
encourages networking across department lines.
• The activity helps to identify what the participants know or
want to know about the topic.
• If possible, conduct this activity in an open area, such
as a lobby, outside the classroom. This is easily done if
the room is in a hotel. If you conduct this in a classroom,
provide an open, chair-less space in which the partici-
pants can mingle; encourage everyone to start the class
there, rather than sit in a chair.
• Acknowledge the questions throughout the session,
placing a check mark next to each question that you
answer.
• As a variation, you may ask participants to write the
questions on sticky notes and affix them to the flipchart
pages.
• As you conclude the class, return to the flipcharts to
review the questions.
• Did you answer all the questions?
• If you did not answer a question, answer it if you can, or
promise to email the answer to participants after the class.
Submitted By: Paul Venderley and Shawn Roland
126730.27260
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ATD MEMBER-ONLY TOOLS

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AI
Icebreakers

D
Tweet Your Intro What’s Your Bag?
Goal: To introduce participants quickly. Goal: To use a creative icebreaker and introduce the session
Group Size: Any size theme.
Time Estimate: 20 minutes; depends on group size Group Size: Any size
Process Time Estimate: 15-25 minutes, depends on group size
1. Ask participants to write their own personal introduction Materials
tweets. • One small brown paper lunch bag for each person
• Markers
2. Tell them that when composing a tweet:
• Masking tape
• It can have a maximum of 140 characters. Process
• Abbreviations are accepted (“2” for “too,” “4” for 1. Ask learners to draw a picture or use words that describe
“for”). who they are: “What’s your bag?” Share your own example.
3. Give them six minutes to complete.
2. State they have five minutes to complete.
4. Go around the room and ask participants to introduce
3. Ask for volunteers to share their names and what’s on
themselves using their 140 characters. If you have a large
their bags; continue with everyone.
audience, break them into smaller groups.
4. Have participants add their names and hang their bags
Facilitator Notes
on a wall.
• This assignment can be given as pre-work.
• With minor adjustments, this can be used in a virtual 5. Use the “bag” theme throughout the session for things
classroom. such as: “Bag your negative issues”; “What’s in the bag” for
• If they have computers or smartphones and Twitter problem solving; draw roles out of a bag for role playing.
accounts (or can “borrow” the facilitator’s), let them tweet Facilitator Notes
their introduction using a unique class-named hashtag • Great for team building.
(for example #leadRU101). • For a large group, have them introduce themselves in
small sub-groups.
Submitted By: Renie McClay
Submitted By: Elaine Biech

126730.27260

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Icebreakers

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You and Your Evil Twin
Goal: To use a creative icebreaker to help create a “safe” Facilitator Notes
learning environment for participants. • It doesn’t matter which way the cardstock is folded, or
Group Size: Any even if everyone folds it the same way. (If anyone folds it
Time Estimate: 15-20 minutes the wrong way, as identified by the facilitator, blame the
Materials Evil Twins!)
• 8.5”x11” piece of cardstock for each participant’s name • If you have more than 20 participants, you may want to
tent have participants complete their introductions in small
• Markers for everyone groups.
Process • This activity generates a lot of laughs among the partici-
1. Ask participants to fold the cardstock in half and print pants, creating a comfortable learning environment.
their first names on one side of the card.
2. State they will introduce themselves to the class by Contributed By: Kathy Shurte
saying their names and appropriate adjectives to describe
themselves for each letter of their name. For example, my
name is Kathy and I am kinetic, attentive, timely, healthy,
and young-at-heart. (Participants can use the inside of their
name tent to capture the descriptors.)
3. Before you begin the introductions, announce to the
participants that you understand it is sometimes uncomfort-
able to try new skills, answer questions, or be the team
leader in a learning situation; therefore, participants are
invited to create their “Evil Twins” who can do no right.
4. Ask participants to name their Evil Twin on the backside
of their name tent.
5. Using the inside of the name tent as a workspace, have
participants come up with negative adjectives to describe
their “twin.” (My Evil Twin is Katrina, the kleptomaniac,
apathetic, tardy, rude, insensitive, negative, autocrat.)
6. Have participants introduce themselves and their Evil
Twins by saying both names and all the adjectives.
7. Throughout the training event, when you want to conduct
role plays or have people write on flipcharts (often stressful
for folks who don’t do it for a living), remind them that they
can blame their Evil Twin any time their performance is less
than stellar.
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