Meeting Ice Breakers - Your words are important...Meeting ice breakers are always fun - or at least they should be. This particular ice breaker is one of my favorites. This ice breaker can be used in any leadership management training class. The items you need are... ...Something very soft but firm enough to swing easily such as the center roll or wrapping paper ...One object such as a marker ...Four volunteers - this is always the hardest - so you may need to resort to selecting four people Meeting Ice Breakers - Step #1 After getting your four volunteers - send only two of them out of the room together and put them far enough away where they can not hear what is going on in the room at all. Especially the laughter a little bit later. Once they out of the room - explain to the classroom what you are going to be doing. Let them know you are conducting an experiment - to see which is the most effective way or teaching. The first way - negative reinforcement The second way - positive reinforcement Take the marker that you have and place it somewhere in the room where everyone can see it. Do not make it too hard to get to - but should be hard enough so that it will take some maneuvering to get to it. Meeting Ice Breakers - Step #2 Select one of your volunteers and let them know that they are going to be trying to guide one of the volunteers outside the room to the object. You will be timing them to see whether they can get their person to the object before the other two can. Then you hand them the center roll of the wrapping paper and let them know that every time the person they are instructing does not do exactly what they say - they are to hit them softly and tell them they are doing very badly. The “You are Doing Badly” can come in any form they wish - but must be negative to get them going in the right direction. Some other negative statements could be like - Come on anyone can do this - Are you listening to me at all - Why can't you do this - What's wrong with you - etc. They can not touch them except for softly striking them with the center roll of the wrapping paper. The other rule is that they can only use one word directions and the person receiving the directions is not permitted to know what they are looking for. These directions can be like forward - right - left - etc. Meeting Ice Breakers - Step #3 Now you call one of the volunteers back into the room. You explain to them that they are going to be receiving directions from a person. These directions are intended to lead them somewhere to find an object. That is all you tell them. You then introduce them to the person that will be giving them directions. You let them know they are being timed also - the object is to beat the other team. Then say go - watch the confusion as the volunteer that is receiving directions gets hit the first time and receives negative reinforcement from the other. Should be a great laugh for everyone as they make their way through the room. Meeting Ice Breakers - Step #4 After you have completed the first experiment - it is now time for positive reinforcement. Instruct the volunteer still in the room that will be doing the instructing - that they are to give one word at a time directions also - but - every time the person does what they are suppose to - give them a great deal of praise. Praise such as great job - you are doing perfectly - I can't believe how good you are at this - etc. Then call the other volunteer that has been out of the room back in. Explain the same thing you did to the first volunteer. Then tell them to go - and start the timer. Meeting Ice Breaker - Step #5 This ice breaker should be a good laugh for everyone - except for maybe the volunteer getting hit with the center roll of wrapping paper. Talk about how each of the volunteers receiving instructions felt from either the negative or positive reinforcement. Hopefully the positive reinforcement volunteer team did a little better - but even if they didn't the point is how they felt getting to the objective. If they had a choice would they continue a position where they were receiving negative reinforcement. This ice breaker is a great one for leadership management training. Thank you!
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