The Art of Choosing Ice Breakers
Sometimes I think it’s both interesting and surprising that we talk about ice breakers so much. They’re such a small thing about what we do. And yet, I think everyone who’s ever tried being agile knows that psychological safety is the most critical ingredient to success. I’m reminded of a blog post I’ve written on the topic previously, The Power of Ice Breakers for Team Building and this quote I’d like to expand upon:
Building trust has a lot in common with making friends. Learning more about each other creates deeper bonds. Practicing the act of sharing with others helps it to become part of a normal routine. The more we share, the more we know about each other. Getting comfortable enough to be vulnerable in front of others is an important first step to building psychological safety. The more we laugh and have fun together, the more memories we have with each other. The more knowledge and experiences we share, the stronger a team becomes.
But how does a Scrum Master or Agile Coach know which ice breakers will help nudge the team forward, given their challenges, the mix of people and the needs of the team? This, I’d say, is an artform in itself. One that is worthy of some experimentation and takes some time to get good at. Choosing the wrong ice breaker can make people feel unduly uncomfortable, but finding the right one can be a catalyst for change on your team. Let me suggest a few simple ideas to illustrate what I mean.
What if you have brand new team members or very shy people?
Or worse, what if you, as a scrum master, are brand new and don’t know the team well enough to decide what sort of ice breaker will generate the most conversation, sharing, and results? I like keeping it simple with the “show me a picture on your phone” ice breaker, or something similar. The key aspect here, being delicate with the various unknowns, is one that allows the individuals to share as little or as much as they like; something deeply personal or something completely innocuous. And remember, any sharing is good sharing.
What if the team has been together a long time?
Teams bore of the same trite exercises so it becomes harder to find something inventive and new. Naturally, as a team increases their safety, they don’t really need a gimmick or an “exercise” to generate conversation, it just happens naturally. But, if you were to chose one, what would you do? How about something like “Name something most people don’t know about you?” or “What are your obscure or hidden talents?” or (for remote teams) “What’s the most random thing in your room right now and why?” With these questions you may learn that someone you know has gone skydiving, has a carborator in their kitchen, or knows how to juggle! And… your team will have new energy, new conversations, and new connections as a result.
How can you accelerate psychological safety for a team?
Now, this is probably an unfair or impossible question, but if we consider that the most amount of sharing generates more vulnerability and greater comfort and ultimately more trust and collaboration, then what exercise amps that up the most? My favorite is the Lifeline Exercise. Similar to the photo ice breaker above, this one allows every team member to share as much or as little as they are comfortable, but encourages great engagement.
The Lifeline Exercise
Each team member starts with a blank piece of paper (or whiteboard or miro board) then draws a line horizontally across the paper. The left side of the page represents when you were born and the right side represents the present day. The idea is to explain the highlights and lowlights people are willing to share about their whole life. Anything they may think is of interest, a milestone, an achievement, or just an important memory. The horizontal line should be roughly proportional to your age over time. Pick whatever events from your life you are willing to share and depict whether they were positive or negative experiences based on their relative height above or below the horizontal line (e.g. “medium height: went to elementary school in Buffalo at 6yo” or “very low: middle school was miserable at 12yo” or “highest relative point: got married to my love at 30yo” or “lowest point: got fired from my first job at 35yo” or “medium: started playing piano at 11yo”) Put short descriptions next to each dot so you can tell the story. And when you’re done, connect the dots to see the line of ups and downs visually.
As a facilitator, give everyone about 15–20 minutes to prepare their timeline (remind them that it’s rough and imperfect and focused on their important experiences) then ask everyone to share their story one at a time. Usually something like 10 minutes gives adequate time for each person to walk through the points they decided to share. What I love about this exercise is that everyone tends to share things they’ve not said before and it creates great celebrations, an outpouring of empathy, and lots of vulnerability and trust building as everyone gets to know each other that much better.
However you choose to use ice breakers and tools like the Lifeline Exercise, I hope you find success with your teams, seeing them share more freely and increasing the levels of trust and safety.
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Hi, I’m Brian Link, an Enterprise Agile Coach who loves his job helping people. I call myself and my company the “Practical Agilist” because I pride myself on helping others distill down the practices and frameworks of the agile universe into easy to understand and simple common sense. I offer fractional agile coaching services to help teams improve affordably. See more at FractionalAgileCoach.com
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