If you’ve ever played a ‘name game’ in your head to help you remember everyone’s name in a group of people or to remember the name of someone you just met, then you’ve already got the concept of an icebreaker game down pat. Just take that name game and do it with everyone in a group so that everyone remembers all the names of everyone in the group and they work as a group to accomplish that. You have yourself an icebreaker game!

Unfortunately, icebreaker games are not used in every situation in which they would be helpful, and they would be helpful in just about every situation. Even if there is only one new face in the group, an icebreaker game would be helpful for both the new person as well as the seasoned group members. How?

Each person within the group would not be able to forget the name of the new person that they played an icebreaker game with, and the new person would not be able to forget the names of the other people in the group they were joining. New and old members of the group would also probably learn a little something new about everyone in the process even if you already knew the person’s name.

Ice breaker games can help to make new members comfortable with old, and old members comfortable with new so that the initial tension that happens with new members dissipates quickly and they can begin to work well with each other in a shorter amount of time than if they hadn’t played an icebreaker game. The sooner a group of people can get back to working well with each other, the sooner production can increase and group morale can boost to higher levels for each member individually and for the group as a whole!