The best ice breakers for work get everyone moving, laughing and connecting in the first few minutes, with nobody left watching from the side. Eran Thomson, founder of PowerProv, opens workshops with three favourites: Crazy Eights, the Name Game, and Friend and Enemy.
Watch the video to hear Eran explain each one. Below is what each game does for a team, and how to pick the right one for the group in front of you.
- There's no single best ice breaker. The right one depends on the group dynamic, the number of people and the outcome you want.
- Crazy Eights is a physical warm-up that lifts energy and starts people making eye contact across the room.
- The Name Game suits new starters, offsites and teams who've only met on Slack. The names stick for years.
- Friend and Enemy gets a whole room laughing and puts everyone on the same level, whatever their job title.
- An ice breaker opens a session. The skills a team keeps come from what happens next.
What Makes a Good Ice Breaker for Work?
A good ice breaker does three jobs. It wakes people up, it connects them to each other, and it puts everyone in the room on the same level. If it only fills time, it hasn't done its job.
Eran Thomson's short answer to "what's the most powerful ice breaker?" is that there's no one correct answer. It depends on the group dynamic, the number of participants and the outcome you want. He compares a PowerProv session to a good DJ set: break the ice, warm people up, get them moving, then send everyone home with a smile and skills they can use.
Research backs the idea that what a group does together first changes what it does next. In three experiments published in Psychological Science, Scott Wiltermuth and Chip Heath found that people who acted in synchrony with others cooperated more in the group exercises that followed. And Leigh Thompson's research, written up in Harvard Business Review, found that people brainstorm more creatively after sharing an embarrassing story, because it lowers their inhibitions.
All three ice breakers below are games a group plays on its feet. None of them is a question to go around the table with. If that's what you need, PowerProv has a separate list of ice breaker questions.
Crazy Eights Is the Energetic Cup of Coffee
Crazy Eights is a fast physical warm-up that lifts the energy in a room and starts people connecting. PowerProv uses it in most workshops. Eran calls it "the energetic cup of coffee" and jokes that it's "like the hokey pokey but weirder."
Everyone stands in a circle and shakes their right hand eight times, then their left hand, right foot and left foot, counting out loud. Then the group does it again from seven, and keeps counting down.
There are three rules. Count loud. Count fast. And on every count, look someone across the circle right in the eye. That last rule is the point. In Eran's words, it's "the beginning of human connection" in the room.
The physical side matters too. PowerProv's view is that "a well oxygenated brain is a high functioning brain", and a team that's awake does better work in whatever comes next.
Crazy Eights comes from improv theatre, where casts use it backstage before a show. In a PowerProv workshop nobody is asked to perform or be funny. The exercise is there to get a business team ready to listen, think and work together.
“High energy, totally absorbing and a super-fun way to get us even better connected.”
The Name Game Helps People Who've Never Met
The Name Game is the ice breaker to use when people don't know each other yet. Eran recommends it for new starters, for offsites that mix different teams, and for colleagues who've worked together on Slack but never met in real life.
Standing in a circle, each person picks an adjective that describes them and starts with the same letter as their first name. Eran becomes "Excellent Eran". Then each person adds a big physical move to go with the name, and the group goes around the circle sharing both.
From there, PowerProv's facilitators use the names and moves to practise active listening and the ensemble mindset, passing them across and around the circle. Eran saves that part for the workshop.
Even the simple version works. Eran's promise is that years later, people will still walk up to each other in the hall and say "Excellent Eran".
Friend and Enemy Levels the Room
Friend and Enemy is a physical ice breaker that gets a whole group moving and laughing at once. It also removes hierarchy for a few minutes, which is harder to do than it sounds.
Everyone silently picks two people in the circle, an A and a B. For this exercise only, A is their new best friend and B is their worst enemy. On "go", each person has to protect their friend from their enemy by staying physically between them at all times.
The result is chaos, the good kind. People run, laugh and end up squished together in the middle of the room.
“In that moment, everyone is equal.”— Eran Thomson, founder of PowerProv
That's why Eran calls Friend and Enemy a leveller. Status anxiety and hierarchy drop away because everyone, from the newest graduate to the most senior leader, is busy with the same simple task. It also gets people out of their shells and out of their comfort zones without putting any one person on the spot.
How Do You Choose Ice Breakers for Work?
Choose ice breakers for work by starting with the group, not the game. Ask who's in the room, how well they know each other, and what you need from them straight afterwards.
| Your situation | Ice breaker to try | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Low energy, or the start of a long session | Crazy Eights | Gets the blood flowing and starts eye contact across the room |
| New starters, a mixed offsite, or a team that's only met online | The Name Game | Gives everyone a name people remember and a reason to pay attention to each other |
| A room with a clear pecking order, or people stuck in their shells | Friend and Enemy | Puts everyone on the same level and gets the whole group laughing |
Friend and Enemy needs space to move, so clear the chairs first.
Short on time? PowerProv also has a set of 5-minute activities, and a guide to fun team bonding for when you want more than an opener.
If you want more options, PowerProv has written up five more exercises you can run with your own team.
When Should You Bring in a Facilitator?
Bring in a facilitator when you want more than a good opening. An ice breaker opens people up. It doesn't teach a team to listen better, back each other's ideas or handle a hard conversation.
That's the gap between an ice breaker and real team building activities. In a PowerProv workshop, the ice breaker is the first track in the DJ set. What follows is a sequence of exercises that build communication, collaboration and confidence, so the team leaves with skills it can use at work the next morning.
The results are measured. According to PowerProv's Personal Power Index™, 98% of participants improve their collaboration, listening and self-confidence. PowerProv has run workshops for 13+ years, for teams of 10 or more, and they're introvert-friendly by design.
“I loved seeing my team go outside their comfort zone and get more closely connected and confident.”
- Pick the ice breaker for the group, not the other way round. Crazy Eights for energy, the Name Game for people who haven't met, Friend and Enemy to level the room.
- The ice breaker is the opening, not the outcome. PowerProv workshops start with the fun and go on to build skills a team is still using months later.
Want a facilitator to run these with your team, and everything that comes after? Book a discovery call, or see how it works first.
Read the full video transcript
Let's talk about ice breakers. Icebreaker games, icebreaker activities, and icebreaker games for adults. I'm Eran Thomson, founder of PowerProv. We are Australia's most loved team training provider. And people often ask us, what's the most powerful icebreaker for a business team? I think there are so many great exercises in our toolbox that we use, but I'm going to share three of my favourites. And if you stick around to the end, I'll give you a link in the comments to download five free exercises you can run right now with your team.
So, what is the most powerful icebreaker? The short answer is there's no one correct answer. It depends on the group dynamic, the number of participants, and the desired outcomes that you're leaning for. Everything we do at PowerProv, I like to describe as sort of like a good DJ set. We break the ice. We warm you up. We get you moving and grooving. We get out on the dance floor feeling great. And then we send everybody home with a smile on their face and a new toolbox full of skills and techniques that everyone can use to support each other, hold each other accountable, and move forward with a "we, not me" way of working.
So, what is the most powerful icebreaker for work? Well, one of my favourites is an exercise called Crazy Eights. If you've ever been to an improv show, you may have heard people backstage doing this one, but never seen them do it. I always joke in our sessions that it's like the hokey pokey but weirder. But what it is, really simply, I call it sort of the energetic cup of coffee. We shake our right hand eight times, shake our left hand eight times, shake our right foot eight times, shake our left foot eight times, and we count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And we do that all the way through, from eight to seven to six to five to four to three to one to zero.
The rules of Crazy Eights are that you must count loud, you must count fast, and because you're in a circle facing each other, you try and connect with someone across the circle for each count. So you look them right in the eye and go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And then someone else around the circle. And this is the beginning of human connection. Just starting to find each other and seek each other out and accept a connection from each other across the circle as we're getting started.
So that's Crazy Eights. That's one of my favourite ice breakers that we do most sessions. It's a physical warm-up. It's designed to get the blood flowing, because we believe a well oxygenated brain is a high functioning brain. And a big part of what we want you to be able to do in our workshops is play at the top of your intelligence. So that's part of why I love that one.
Another great icebreaker activity for work, if you are in a group of people who may not know each other, or you've had new employees start, or it's an offsite where you've got a bunch of different people who may have collaborated or communicated on Slack but have never really connected in real life for the first time, which we're seeing more and more of, is a game I call Friend and Enemy [Eran means the Name Game here, and corrects it in the recap]. Like Crazy Eights, it's run in a circle. The rules are simple. Every person has to come up with an adjective that describes them that begins with the same letter as the first letter of their first name. I'll say that again. It's an adjective that describes them that begins with the same letter as the first letter of their first name. So my name is spelled Eran, E R A N. And so my adjective might be excellent, and I am now Excellent Eran.
Once everyone knows their two-part names, they create a big move to go with that name. So my move might be like, Excellent Eran, and we go around the circle and everyone does their move and their name. And then we play with that by using active listening, ensemble mindset, physicality, being present, being aware, to move the names across the circle and around the circle. I'll save that for our workshops to show you how it really works. But it's super fun. The basic gist is that everyone gets an adjective and a move, and I promise you, if you run this exercise even just as I've described it, years later people will be coming up to you in the hall and going, Excellent Eran.
And then the third icebreaker activity or icebreaker game for adults for work that I want to share is called Friend and Enemy. Now, Friend and Enemy is fun because it's a physical icebreaker. Not only does it get people physically moving and warmed up, but it connects people and bonds people in a way that they probably never have done before at work. The way it works is again in a circle. This is a group exercise. Everyone goes around the circle and in their mind picks an A person and a B person. And then, just for the session, the A person is their new best friend. So suddenly everyone in the room has a new best friend. That feels nice. But then the B person is their worst enemy. We make sure we say that's just for this exercise. But suddenly everyone in the circle has a best friend and a worst enemy. And when we say go, their job is to run into the circle and protect their friend from their enemy. The way they do that is by staying physically between them at all times.
Now, if you're imagining this in your head right now, you're seeing chaos. And that's exactly right. It is chaos. The giggle-ometer is always peaking in the red. Everyone's laughing. People are running around. People are getting squished and compressed in the middle. People are finding themselves compacted into the corners. It's super fun. And what it does, in addition to being a great icebreaker, is it's also a leveller. If you think about status anxiety in a room or hierarchical bias in a room, in that moment, everyone is equal. Everyone is level, just trying to do their own singular task. And another great takeaway from that exercise, outside of the icebreaking element itself, is how it connects people physically, literally as a huddle in the middle of the room, but also gets people out of their shells, out of their comfort zone, moving and grooving. That's part of the reason why I really like it.
So that's Crazy Eights as an icebreaker, Friend and Enemy as an icebreaker, and the Name Game as an icebreaker. We have so much more that we can talk about and share, and different exercises we can run with your team. But for now, that's my top three favourite icebreaker activities for work. If you want to know more, or you want to get in touch, or you want to book a workshop for your team, I invite you to click the link below or find us at PowerProv.com.au. Thanks for watching.
Sources
- Synchrony and Cooperation · Psychological Science (Wiltermuth & Heath, 2009)
- Research: For Better Brainstorming, Tell an Embarrassing Story · Harvard Business Review
- Personal Power Index™ · PowerProv
Frequently asked questions
What are some really good ice breakers?
Three really good ice breakers for work are Crazy Eights, the Name Game, and Friend and Enemy. Eran Thomson, founder of PowerProv, uses them to open workshops. He says there's no one correct answer, because the best choice depends on the group dynamic, the number of participants and the outcome you want.
What is a good icebreaker game for adults?
A good icebreaker game for adults gets everyone involved without putting anyone on the spot. PowerProv's Eran Thomson recommends Crazy Eights, where the whole group shakes hands and feet and counts out loud together. Nobody performs alone or has to be funny. PowerProv's workshops are introvert-friendly and are not comedy workshops.
What are some funny ice breakers?
Friend and Enemy gets the biggest laughs of the three ice breakers PowerProv shares. Everyone secretly picks one person as their best friend and one as their worst enemy, just for the exercise, then tries to stay between the two. The result is happy chaos, with the whole group moving and laughing at once.
What are some good icebreakers for a team away day?
For a team away day or offsite, PowerProv recommends the Name Game. It suits groups with new starters, or people who've worked together on Slack but never met in person. Each person pairs their first name with an adjective and a big physical move, and those names tend to stick for years afterwards.
What are some quick and engaging icebreakers?
Crazy Eights is a quick, engaging ice breaker that PowerProv uses in most workshops. Everyone stands in a circle, shakes each hand and foot while counting out loud and fast, and makes eye contact across the circle. Eran Thomson calls it the energetic cup of coffee, because it wakes people up and starts connecting them.
What are some fun games I can play at work with my coworkers?
Crazy Eights, the Name Game, and Friend and Enemy are three fun games to play at work. All three are run standing in a circle. PowerProv has also written up five more exercises that teams can download and run themselves. For skills that last beyond the game, PowerProv runs workshops for teams of 10 or more.
