All groups, especially very large groups, perform better when the participants know something about each other. Even though time constraints prohibit traditional, self-spoken icebreakers for large groups (e.g., 60 people for two minutes each burns two hours), some time for social bonding remains effective.

Getting to Know One Another, Icebreakers for Large Groups

Embrace Icebreakers or Check-In activities to get everyone contributing sooner. Likewise, anticipate and plan for additional team-building activities later on as appropriate. Make it easier for your participants to enjoy and value one another. Similarly, prepare some quick exercises (such as “Lost on the Moon”)^[1] that prove “nobody is smarter than everybody.”

Consider the following simple, easy, icebreakers for large groups, even hundreds of people, to instill a broader sense of group consciousness and networking. The simple rule requires participants to stand when they can answer ‘affirmative’ to one of your pre-determined questions. For example, “Stand up if you had to fly to get here.”

Other questions that capture but a small sliver of potential questions you might ask include:

• Stand up if you have worked for this organization for five years.
  • Keep standing if ten years, twenty, etc.
• Stand up if you have one pet.
  • Keep standing if you have two pets, three pets, etc.
• Stand up if you were born in another country (or state, or city).
• Stand up if you lived in another country for more than one year.
  • Keep standing if five years, ten, etc.
• Stand up if you love music. Country? Jazz? Classical? Rap?
• Stand up if you have a tattoo
  • Keep standing if you have two, three, five, etc.
• Stand up if you have ever broken a bone.
• Stand up if your favorite James Bond actor is Sean Connery.
  • Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig . . .
• Stand up if you drive a Volvo.
  • BMW, Ford, Mercedes, etc.

Additional Icebreakers for Large Groups

Also, using the stand/sit method described above creates some healthy tension. The “Would You Rather?” approach generates high energy, even among people who presumably know each other quite well. This approach can also be used with smaller groups. For example,

• Would you rather be able to be invisible, or
  • Able to read others’ minds?
• Would you rather live without music, or
  • Live without television?
• Would you rather be four feet tall, or
  • Eight feet tall?
• Would you rather have a Texan accent and live in New York City, or
  • Have a New York accent and live in Texas?
• Would you rather marry your first boyfriend/ girlfriend, or
  • Someone your parents choose for you?
• Would you rather be granted the answer to any three questions, or
  • Be granted the ability to resurrect one person?
• Would you rather always show up 20 minutes late for everything, or
  • Always show up 90 minutes early for everything?
• Would you rather work for your oldest sibling, or
  • Your best friend?
• Live in a home without electricity, or
  • Running water?

Have some fun and create your own. These work with large groups because the directions are short and simple, as long as everyone can hear the question for standing up. In our experience, everyone will quickly quiet down and pay attention so they know when they are supposed to stand. You can also interject some of your personality or a preview of the day’s events based on your questions. Write back to us about your experience and suggestions when using icebreakers with large groups.

FOR SMALLER GROUPS

To get your subject matter experts participatory sooner by having them introduce themselves beyond names and titles. Always use Icebreakers during online meetings, providing participants with a way of connecting with one another. Have participants share their responses with the group.

• An undemanding yet effective method begins, “If I were a . . .”—for example, “If I were a gem, I would be a ____,” or “If I were a bird, I would be a _____.”
• Describe your dream career as a child.
• Explain how you got one of your scars (and where it is).
• If you could change anything about your childhood, what would it be?
• If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?
• If you were an animal, you would be a ___________.
• If you had a yacht, what would you name it?
• “My hero is . . .”; “My collection is . . .”
• If limited to five items, what would you bring with you on a desert island?
• Name a talent that you have that no one here knows about.
• Name your favorite James Bond or Elizabeth Bennet actor and explain why.
• Tell two truths and a lie—participants guess the lie.
• What is the one word you would use to describe where you are at?
• What is your favorite sport to play? Why?
• What kitchen appliance or tool would you be and why?
• What was the first concert you attended?
• What was your strangest paying job or chore?
• What would be the title of your autobiography?
• What’s on your reading list or nightstand?
• Who is the most fascinating person in history?

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^[1]See the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) website for a public domain challenge of prioritizing 15 items that need to be carried a long distance by foot when stranded on the surface of the moon: https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/166504main_Survival.pdf. 

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities every day during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

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Facilitation Expert

Terrence Metz, MBA, CSM, CSPF, PSP01, HTTO1, is the Managing Director of MG RUSH Facilitation Leadership, Training, and Meeting Design, an acknowledged leader in structured facilitation training, and author of “Meetings That Get Results – A Facilitator’s Guide to Building Better Meetings.” His FAST Facilitation Best Practices blog features nearly 300 articles on facilitation skills and tools aimed at helping others lead meetings that produce clear and actionable results. His clients include Agilists, Scrum teams, program and project managers, senior officers, and the business analyst community among numerous private and public companies and global corporations. As an undergraduate of Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and an MBA graduate from NWU’s Kellogg School of Management, his professional experience has focused on process improvement and product development. He continually aspires to make it easier for others to succeed.