Start Strong, Be Smart - How To Build Connection Between People And Session Topic Without A Nonsense Icebreaker?

Connect people with people and people with the session topic

One of the ways I like to start a session is to connect people with people and people with the topic of the session in the first 5 minutes.

Here are the 5 steps on how to start a strong session:

1. Small group share: make groups of 2/ 3 persons out of your group; small group sharing creates psychological safety

2. Listen and talk: answer in turns to the question: "Our .......is like what?"

   Replace dots with your session topic

3. Give a number: ask someone to give a number between half of the participant’s number and the total number of participants

4. Share in the big group: shout out x times what you discussed about that topic - the persons who listened are sharing what they heard from their group partners

5. Connection done: everybody is connected with each other and with the session topic

   

Why is this method working?

• It creates psychological safety, people’s relatedness button (from the SCARF model) is pressed positively because they find similarities between their opinions and find a sense of belonging to the same group with which they will spend the next hours/days.

• People like expressing their thoughts, and opinions, they feel heard right from the start of the session.

• Active listening is warming up for the whole session - one person shares what they heard from their group partners, not what they said

• Having this x number of shoutouts gives autonomy to the group of who wants to share and who does not - it’s not mandatory that each person shares

• In case you were ever a participant where the facilitator used an “icebreaker” which had nothing to do with the session and you were more confused than connected afterward, you know what I mean with nonsense icebreakers - give them a meaning and people will remember them for the meaning and what they meant in the whole session outcome - otherwise they might remember it but have no meaning attached and the session was not valued out of them

Variations:

• You can use various materials as well in case you have the time, logistics, and so on: Lego Serious Play, Playmobil Pro, Facilitape, Climer Cards

• When possible, the same method would be great to use as a strong ending, customizing it depending on your session

• The leading question can vary depending on the session topic

• Finding similarities of answers in each small group would skip the numbering step and reducing answers to the number of small groups (good as option when you have less time)

Which other connection activities do you use? Share with me in the comments:

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Andra