7 of our favorite ice breakers

Written by Niki Juhasz

Every couple of months, our all-remote team joins together for virtual happy hours. Or, as my colleague Ashley calls them, snacky hours, since Forthright founder Katie sends us delightful snack boxes to enjoy during these get-togethers.

During our last snacky hour, Katie asked us to come prepared with our favorite ice breaker. Hilarity – and learning about each other – ensued.

Today, I’m sharing more about why community-building activities benefit your organization – and some of our winning ice breakers, too.

How Ice Breakers Will Help Your Organization

While ice breakers can be a lot of fun, they are also extremely beneficial to your organization. And as usual, we have the data to prove it.

Stronger Relationships. Researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill found that shared laughter strengthens our relationships, and communicates to others that we have similar worldviews. This is especially important for advocates, because we often work with difficult topics and bring different lived experiences to our shared work. Fun ice breakers can help bridge the gap and start us off with a feeling of camaraderie.

People Feel Heard. When we share information about ourselves, we are more likely to feel heard and to build positive connections with one another. Leaders at Cornell University share that in turn, these types of connections can build better rapport and relationships.

Increased Collaboration. According to data from Salesforce, 86 percent of leaders believe ineffective collaboration is one of the biggest reasons businesses or initiatives fail. Ice breakers can help build productivity, communication and positive collaboration.

Less Stress. As cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott explains, when we laugh together, it improves our mood and makes both our physical and emotional response to stress less intense.

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Needless to say, from silly ice breakers to our shared #FridayHappy Slack channel (full of baby pictures, animal videos and funny tweets) we are *big* believers in having fun while we work.

A Few Of Our Favorite Ice Breakers

So that brings us to some of the ice breakers we shared during our last snacky hour!

What is your go-to karaoke song and why? Those of you who have attended my Simplifying Messaging for Your Community training know mine is definitely ABBA – and I’m not ashamed to sing it from the rooftops.

How would you describe your job to a five year old? Some of my favorite answers from our teammates about our work at Forthright:
- I help people think about what they’re going to say before they say it.
- I tell important stories.
- I help children and families get what they need.

What book do you wish you could reread for the first time? From A Wrinkle in Time to Island of the Blue Dolphins, we took a serious journey down (a literary!) memory lane.

What’s your most regrettable style choice? Now this, THIS is where the laughter really rolled. Think everything from stirrup pants to bubble shorts paired with a blazer and shoulder pads, to a serious “everything fairy” phase. Y’all, we were a stylish bunch.

If there was a fire in your home, what are the two non-human things you would grab? We got to see pets during this question. 10/10 would recommend.

Which character are you most like from TV shows? From Parks and Rec to West Wing, we went deep into our favorite shows – and how we’re like our favorite characters!