How to use Icebreakers:

At the beginning of a meeting, choose one of these questions, or think up one of your own and ask everyone to respond. Often, it is helpful if the facilitator (or someone who is good at this) starts first. 

Ways of choosing who to go next:

1. You could go around the circle, giving people a chance to "pass" if necessary (then you could go back to them at the end and see if they have thought of something).

2. Once someone has given their answer they can choose the next person. Sometimes it's helpful to encourage people to choose someone they don't know or someone they know the least so newcomers don't get chosen last.

3. If the meeting is in person, you could use a nerf ball or stress ball or some other non lethal projectile to toss to the next person. That gives people a chance to do something other than just sit!

Here are some ideas for icebreaker questions:

• What gives you hope?

• What item of clothing best represents how you've been doing lately?

• Favorite story / experience / memory with water (or whatever the subject of the meeting is) 

• Favorite childhood memory 

• A lesson you learned recently 

• Your favorite dish 

• What dish do you usually bring to a potluck and why?

• What is your favorite thing for self-care?

• What is your favorite outdoor activity? 

• What is a favorite hobby? 

• Rose and Thorn: give an example of something good and something bad relating to the topic at hand (perhaps start with the Thorn and end with the Rose?), maybe something that gives you hope and something that discourages you 

• What has amazed you about this work?

• Tell your favorite bad joke!

Consider having a walking meeting if you only have a few participants. Some communities have walking tracks or river walks.

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If people are having trouble understanding different points of view, consider creating some role playing sessions, where different scenarios are set up and people take different roles than their usual point of view.

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Consider what steps will lead to the desired outcome:

Sam Kaner, in writing about participatory decision making, talks about combining Divergent processes (opening up people’s thinking of the problem) and Convergent processes (bringing people back together).  He describes a “Groan Zone,” which creates disorientation and discomfort as we hear ideas different from our own. It is helpful to think about it as an accordion;  open up the thinking process (divergent) and then come to a conclusion (convergent). People tend to feel better when there is  some kind of closure. So, the idea is to use some techniques for Divergent processes,  such as:

• Idea listing

• Structured go-arounds

• Dyads to quads (pairs of people talking, then each pair find another to talk with and share ideas)

• Small group discussions

• Presentations and reports

• Open discussion

This is then followed by Convergent facilitation tools, such as:

• Clustering

• Sorting

• Prioritizing: dots (put dots on your top three)

• Common themes

• Decision matrix

• Color coding: Red/yellow/green (People can code their understanding of a topic. Red means they did not understand the topic, or that they don't agree with a point of view. Yellow means they partially understood the topic or partially agree with the point of view. Green means they thoroughly understood the topic or agree with a point of view.

Using activities that get people moving, out of their chairs, and interacting with each other will keep the energy in the meeting at a high level.

To create small groups that are more diverse, have people count off to split up people who are sitting together. This will tend to create more points of view and lively discussion.

Instead of having a notetaker write everything down, use sticky notes for people to jot down their answers and have people move around to place them on poster-sized sheets.