Does anyone have any fun ice breaker games that they could share? We're looking for something short and fun for several groups of under 10 people.

There's always the old standby "Introduce the person next to you", although I'm not particularly fond of that one.

I like the one where you have to come up with something for every letter of the alphabet, using only the items on your body or in your possession (ie, in a purse.) Then different tables tell what they have for A-F, G-K, etc.

Put the name of a famous person on their backs and have them walk around. They can ask each other person one question about who they are. Once they have asked each person one question, they can start asking each person a second question. They cannot guess who they are until they have asked each other person at least one question. As they guess who they are, they may sit down. You have gifts of increasing silliness for them as they sit down. The first few gifts might actually be something nice, but by the last person, you might be giving away the lint from your clothes dryer.

We did this one at the Dale Carnegie course -- it's a tool to help remember names.

Each person introduces him/herself and has to come up with a "word picture" that matches the name. For example, the instructor's name was Shepard, and his clue was a German Shepherd dog. For longer names, you can have 2 or 3 different pictures all strung together. Of course, right now I can't think of any like that.......

Ask what animal they'd like to be & why. I was once asked in an interview this question using fruit instead.

Have everyone share one surprising thing about themselves.

Have each person write down 2 truths & one falshehood about themselves. Have others try to guess which one is the falsehood.

Brainteasers are fun - they can work as a team or individually. I have a bunch of them. PM me & I can send you some of them if you'd like.

If it's a group you know, have them all tell you what they wanted to be when they grew up. Have them match the person and career at the meeting & have a prize for the person that answers the most correctly.

You could give each person a name and they have to find the match. Here's an example: someone could be Fred Flintstone and someone could be Wilma Flintstone. Those two people have to find each other. You could have Shaggy and Scooby. Or Picasso and Renoir if you don't like cartoons. Just two things that go together and make the people find their match.

I also have a couple of different easy trivia questionnaires that you can encourage the people to discuss with the neighbors. One is figuring out the advertising slogan and the other one deals with men vs. women.

Have each person, ahead of time, give you a personal, unique fact about themselves. For example, the one i particiapted in, one person had been a state swimming champ, someone else had won a jeep in a radio contest. Once you have all of them, make a list (without the persons name) and have everyone try to match the person to the trait.

I took cartoons (single picture with a caption) and pasted each of the cartoons on one index card and each of the captions on another. Then for the icebreaker, each attendee was given either a cartoon or the caption. They then had to mingle with each other and match up a cartoon with its caption. It works better if you can find banking-related cartoons.

I've been through dozens of courses where they played these type of games, and I don't like them. I know that HR and training types, love this touchy feely kind of stuff, but it drives me bonkers. I don"t know if it's because I'm a guy or because I work in a very fast paced operations environment, but I just hate this stuff.

One year at Christmas time I attended a meeting where the ice breaker was going around the room and veryone sharing their best Christmas rememberance. This was great until it got to the guy that said he didn't have any because he was Jewish....there was dead silence.

The "Draw a pig" thing is always funny. And when you read the meaning of it, it gets even funnier.

Here is a fun one. You need a roll of toilet paper. Pass it around and ask each person to take what they need. Some will take allot some will take only a few pieces. After everyone has what the "need", here's the catch for each piece of paper each person has they have to tell something about themselves. This is allot of fun and guareented laughs. Ecspecially for the ones that took a bunch.

I usually use an ice pick.

I'm not a guy and I hate it too. I think it is personality types. I take a deep breath and join in, then go back to my office and grumble!

I can't imagine being in a finance environment where you work with people all day, and yet not wanting to interact with people????

I interact with people all day long and enjoy it. It's the forced silliness that makes me uncomfortable. Always has, even as a kid, and always will. Lots of people enjoy it, others don't.

I can be silly with the best of them, but usually in an environment with close friends.

I participated in high school theater, and at the beginning of every year, we did these types of activities so everyone could get to know each other. One I remember vividly (and was quite fun) was where we all sat in a circle and one person started with "My name is X and I like Y". The second person had to then repeat the first person's name and what they liked, then add their name and what *they* liked. You proceeded around the circle, each person having to remember all the names and likes so far before adding themselves. By the end of the game, you knew everyone's name at least, and had a few laughs. Sometimes people misremembered the "likes" in hilarious ways. I had said about myself "My name is Kris and I like to fill up the bathtub with water, turn on the shower and pretend I'm in a submarine that's been hit" (a Steven Wright joke). Several people later, I was hearing "That's Kris, and she likes to pretend she's a U-Boat Commander."

To this day, I still remember some of those names and likes, hehe.

Put Swanky Frank, Kaybee, Anon and me in the group where you just get to the subject matter; it's a mistake to assume these techniques appeal to everyone in every group.

Curmudgeons Unite!!

I knew I liked you Ken!

I think I am joining the group of Swanky Frank, Kaybee, Anon and Ken. I hate to play these (yuk)games. Just walk me around and introduce me to everyone. That is good enough. I outgrew games in grade school.

I don't care that others enjoy them. It's just not my style. Just like when I was pregnant, my family knew not to surprise me with a shower and that there would be no silly hats made from bows! I just enjoy other things!

Personally, I don't mind ice breakers when they involve a group of people working together for a short time. But I am phobic about public speaking so any ice breaker that involves me having to stand up and talk makes me very uncomfortable and has an affect on how I view the rest of the training session.