Ice-breaker 1

Overview

Ice-breakers (IB) are spaces where individuals can join in and have interactions in a free-flowing manner. IB should take place prior to the sessions beginning to facilitate informal interactions between the participants and the team. 

The IB session is the first set of sessions which will include introducing the participants to the program, explaining each step of the methodology, and helping the participants get to know the team and each other better.

Ice-breaker 1 (IB1) will be the first interaction between you and the participants. IB1 is not only important to make the participants comfortable with you, but also to help them be comfortable around each other. 

To facilitate this, you as a moderator will have to take the onus of starting the conversation and welcoming participants to the first interaction of ‘A F.A.I.R. Space’.

While participants will get comfortable around you over time, you should try your best to create a space where the participants are also getting to know each other better. 

Keeping this in mind, IB1 would broadly consist of three components:

  1. Introduction: This would include introducing yourself and your teammates to the participants. 
  2. Breakout rooms: This would include conversations between participants in breakout rooms where participants could be given ice breaker questions they can answer. 
  3. Open house: This would be an open conversation between all participants where they could speak on anything that they are interested in. 

Session Structure

IB1 is aimed at creating an informal environment where participants can feel comfortable interacting with everyone. Depending on the number of participants, the session should be structured in a manner to ensure personal interactions. 

In case there are more than 10 participants, the session should be divided in multiple breakout rooms. The breakout rooms should be given a question that the participants should answer and subsequently summarise on chat in the main session. This would ensure that participants are interacting in smaller groups and at the same time being in touch with everyone. 

To ensure more personal interactions, there should be 3 rounds of breakout rooms sessions i.e., each participant should go to 3 separate breakout rooms over the course of the session. Each breakout room round should have different questions to encourage conversations.

The questions for each round of breakout rooms should be casual and explorative of the participant’s personal preferences. Questions could include, “What is your favourite movie”, “What is your favourite food?”, and “Where would you prefer to go on a holiday?”. Such questions ensure easier conversation and helps participants identify common interests. 

To facilitate this, the broad structure of the session would be:

PartTime AllocatedObjective
Part 1: Introduction10 minutesIntroducing yourself to the participants and welcoming them to the program. This session is also where the breakout room exercise should be explained.  
Part 2A: 1st round of breakout rooms15 minutes + 5 minutesThe first round of breakout rooms should be created. Participants should be provided with one question that they should answer. 
The first 15 minutes should be conversations in the breakout rooms. The next 5 minutes should be participants summarising their answers on chat for everyone to read. 
Part 2B: 2nd round of breakout rooms15 minutes + 5 minutesThe second round of breakout rooms should be created. Participants should be provided with one question that they should answer. Groups in this round should be different than the groups in the first round.
The first 15 minutes should be conversations in the breakout rooms. The next 5 minutes should be participants summarising their answers on chat for everyone to read.
Part 2C: 3rd round of breakout rooms15 minutes + 5 minutesThe third round of breakout rooms should be created. Participants should be provided with one question that they should answer. Groups in this round should be different than the groups in the first and second round.
The first 15 minutes should be conversations in the breakout rooms. The next 5 minutes should be participants summarising their answers on chat for everyone to read.
Part 3: Open HousePost breakout roomsOpen House where participants speak on those issues that they are most interested in. Irrespective of the designated time allocated to the session, the Open House should be encouraged to continue even beyond the stipulated time. 

Logistics

Logistics for organising IB1 includes the following:

  1. Invitation email and WhatsApp message
  2. Calendar invite
  3. Message on WhatsApp Group

Each of these communications should be sent at regular time intervals in the days preceding IB1. Here are the templates for the communications.

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