Don't fear the Ice Breaker

It’s a funny thing. In my journey from Developer, to Development Manager, to (something like) an Agile Coach I find that I’m doing things that the “me” from 7 years ago would have balked at.

Deep breath.

I recently ran an icebreaker game at two separate workshops.

Ugh. Developer me, rolls his eyes and mutters something about touchy-feely soft skills…

And yet, and yet. In both cases it went very well! There was the inevitable awkward pause when I announced that we were going to play an energizer game – but people enjoyed it, and it set a really collaborative, productive atmosphere for the rest of the session.

If, like the Developer me you’re not sure where to start – here are some tips:

• Adopt an appropriate attitude. Keep it light-hearted, but positive and enthusiastic.
• For a technical audience you should probably avoid clichés like raft building and trust exercises. Search for something with an intellectual angle.
• Think about the outcomes you want from the game. Yes, it’s good to have a bit a fun, and yes, you want to encourage team building – but can you also include some Agile concepts? Could you use iterations, time-boxing or retrospectives? Don’t be afraid to adapt the game for your own team.

The game I organised was a variation of James Whitehead’s 3 Minute Name Game. I tweaked it a bit so that the participants had to cope with changing requirements half way through. Initially they were asked to find City names, but halfway I switched it to Animal names.

Being brave is a core capability for anyone moving towards Agile. Sure, it could bomb – but give it a go – you can only surprise yourself...