The first 10minutes of a meeting or team event really sets the tone. Research has shown that it’s important for introverts to speak in the first 10min in order to level the playfield between introverts and extroverts.

After developing many corporate workshops, the #1 Most Effective Ice Breaker we’ve found is having everyone share their Name Origin Story. Something we all have in common is that none of us got to choose our birth name, which is the first identify we were given.

For small teams, this can be a round robin exercise. For larger groups, people can share in the chat and a few people can volunteer to share their special story, or the host can put everyone into 4-6 person break rooms for a few minutes to share one of the following:

• What does everyone’s name mean in their own culture or heritage?

• What did your parents tell you about why they chose your name for you?

• How does your name reflect or maintain your family tradition?

• Is there a funny story about a spontaneous naming or renaming?

• Did you change your name upon moving to a new country or after marriage?

• Did you pick a nickname for yourself to differentiate yourself or for another reason?

In May we hosted Chinese Calligraphy for many teams with this ice breaker, and no matter how well people think they know their colleagues, they always learn something new!

One assistant revealed that she was THE princess of their tribe in Africa and her colleagues never knew that!

On a few occasions, people texted their mom or dad at the beginning of the workshop and came back before the hour was over and learned something new about themselves!

Multiple people were named after their nurse at the hospital!

LOTS of people are named after their parents' favorite actor or actress from a movie or show around when they were born.

One woman told ys Debra means Bee in Hebrew and we were able to cross pollinate and tell that to another Debbie who didn't know what her name meant!

Try this ice breaker with your team! Or we are happy to host Chinese Calligraphy for your team and look at how identity can evolve through the lens of Chinese history!

We begin with the Name Origin ice breaker, then learn to say and write Chinese together before looking at the 3,000 history of how Chinese Calligraphy has evolved, and lastly everyone will invent a new Chinese Character that represents them. Check it out here

#icebreaker #teamactivities #teamengagement #identity #name #creativity #sharing #vulnerability