Icebreakers - Interesting Introductions

Icebreakers are used to introduce people in a group who are new to each other and are expected to interact meaningfully. It is also used when a group needs to loosen-up before engaging in an activity.

This Icebreaker is called Interesting Introductions.

Preparation: Make out slips with common nouns like: chair, lion, peacock, knife, telephone etc. There should be one slip for each member of the group. Fold this slips and put them in a bowl.

Process: Invite the group to stand in a circle. Hold the bowl of folded slips to the participants and ask them to pick up one each. Tell them not to read what’s in the slip until further instructions. Once each of them has picked a slip, allow them to open it and see what’s written on it. They are not to speak it out aloud.

Their task is to introduce themselves by name and find similarities between themselves and the common noun written on the slip of paper. They have to reveal these similarities with the rest of the group. For instance, if someone is called ‘Jay Lord’ and has picked the slip with ‘knife’ written on it, his introduction will be: ‘I am Jay Lord. I am like a knife because I am sharp and I can cut through loads of information to find the pattern hidden it it.’

The game is played until everyone has introduced itself in this manner. The idea is for the participant to find an attribute in the common noun which highlights a positive characteristic in himself/herself. Negative characteristics are unacceptable.

The game should take half-an-hour to play with a group of 35-40.

You’ll find more such games in the e-book ‘New Training Games’ at: http://www.experiential-learning-games.com/newtraininggames.html

Leena Kapoor an educationist by profession is a skilled human resource trainer. She has authored the website http://www.experiential-learning-games.com - On her website she has described games and activities that trainers can use in their own trainings. She also specializes in training for creativity.