An Icebreaker for Making Connections

Making Connections is a simple icebreaker to connect group members through shared affirmations and getting to know each other.

The primary focus of this connections ice breaker game will be on a very different form of connection. Gather your group in a large open space.

Having gathered your group, explain that their ultimate objective is to create one large circle in which every person is physically linked with two others, left and right of them. Ask one volunteer to stand with one hand on their hip, and then share one or more statements about themselves to the group.

For example, a special award you’ve ever won, a particular travel destination you’ve visited, or a favorite book, movie, or song.

Encourage the rest of your group to listen carefully, and when someone hears a statement that they have in common, they are invited to link elbows (left elbow to right elbow, to allow people to face the same direction) with the first volunteer. This second person then shares something about themselves to the larger group, to attract a new person to link elbows with them, and so on.

This process of sharing and linking continues one one by one. Continue play until every member of the group has formed a common ‘link’ with another person.

Note, the last person to link to the very long chain of connections will be invited to share one or more statements about themselves which the very first volunteer will necessarily share in common, enabling these two people to link.

To finish, invite the group to reflect on the experience of the game. What new things did you learn about other members of your group in this exercise? What metaphors can you make about the connections and the circle that was formed at the end of the activity?

The topics of this publication: integration, interactions, disinhibition, distension, foster relationships