Ice Breakers!

 Ice Breakers

I am not a fan of ice breakers.  You might even say that, as a general rule, they annoy the heck out of me. I’m all for them when a group is meeting for the first time but after that, not so much.

For the last 3 years of my career I worked in a small office. When staffing was at its greatest we  had 7 members on our team and we all shared a communal office. This meant that we could hear what everyone else was doing unless they took the conversation into one of our other rooms. It also meant that when two people chatted casually, everyone else was essentially in on the conversation and these often turned into group chats with us getting to know each other pretty well.

What does this have to do with ice breakers? Well once a week or so we had a team meeting, a more formal gathering where the entire office could get a handle on what everyone else was doing. Great! I am all for having everyone on the same page. Except … every meeting started with an ice breaker. 

Yup, this small group would share some personal part of their lives each and every week in the form of an ice breaker.

Keep in mind that we were already living in each other’s pockets and all knew quite a bit about the others so sharing another tidbit should not be a big deal. But it was, at least to me. 

I have two main reasons for my dislike of the ice breaker in this situation.

One, we were meeting for a specific reason, we were all busy people, and I am a big fan of getting in and out of meetings quickly. Ask anyone who has ever sat through a meeting that I ran. I would give out the required information, take questions, comments, suggestions, and send folks on their way. In, out, done. An ice breaker takes up more time that some folks just don’t want to spare,.

Two, they can sometimes get quite personal. I have sat through ice breakers that have asked us to reflect on our lives and share the worst of something. Nope. Not happening. I really do not like reflecting on the worst of something in a public forum. I engage in enough self-flagellation in private without bringing these episodes out in public. If I wish to spend time going over them with another person I will do so on my own terms. As for the sillier ice breakers, well see my first reason. Yes, they can be fun but I’m usually present at a meeting to accomplish something and the silliness can take place in another context. Maybe when I do not have time sensitive tasks to accomplish.

This morning I was listening to, of all things, a sewing podcast. This particular podcast  always starts with an ice breaker. Yup, a podcast starting with an ice breaker. I’m not really sure why they use this term for their first few minutes but there it is. In the context of the podcast they seem to use a prompt provided by a listener and expound on it. O.k., interesting content but is it really an ice breaker? The hosts already know each other so my question is why call it an ice breaker? Is it breaking the ice with the listener or with each other? While I enjoy the podcast it always sends my mind to wondering why start with a named ice breaker? Other podcasts start with questions from listeners so why use this turn of phrase? Why?

So my question today is two fold. (O.k., it is actually two questions.) Give me your thoughts in the comments or on one of my social media accounts.

One:  Ice breakers: good, bad or either depending on the context. 

Two: Should this really be the term used for the start of a podcast with the same hosts for every episode?

Next time either Buzz Words or the first of many “wildlife” tales.