Method guide · Progress through phases
Ice Breakers
Create a small point of connection before the main topic, allowing people to choose a manageable subject or not speak.
- People
- 2–50
- Base procedure time
- 15 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Begin together; Build working relationships.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
An opening activity that creates small connections before the main topic. Use it with people meeting for the first time or from different organisations to make conversation easier before asking for opinions. Each person chooses animals, a place they want to visit, or a strength they can contribute; private-life or bodily information need not be disclosed. People speak briefly in twos or threes and display only the connection they want everyone to remember. The result is names people can use and a list of connections. Do not use it for confessions of distress, competition, physical contact, or compulsory speaking.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Choose an activity0–2 minutes from the start (2 minutes)
Action: Choose. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Introduce yourself2–5 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Introduce. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Talk about the subject5–11 minutes from the start (6 minutes)
Action: Talk. Participation: Groups of 2–3.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Connect points of contact11–14 minutes from the start (3 minutes)
Action: Connect. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Move to the main topic14–15 minutes from the start (1 minute)
Action: Move. Participation: Everyone.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
Facilitation steps
- For 2 minutes, let each person choose one of 3 subjects and explain their freedom not to speak or to change subjects.
- For 3 minutes, each person gives their name, preferred form of address, and reason for being here in no more than 20 seconds while others listen without evaluation.
- For 6 minutes, groups of 2–3 take up to 90 seconds per person on chosen subjects. Listeners offer one similarity or question they want to ask.
- For 3 minutes, each person writes one word about a connection they permit to be public, posts it on the opening board, and reads it with their name.
- For 1 minute, the facilitator presents the main question and confirms that connections from the opening activity need not be used.
If something changes
If
Even one participant cannot choose a topic and remains silent.
Then
Offer a blank card and the choice of a small work-related hope or simply listening.
If
One person in a pair speaks for more than 90 seconds while the other has not spoken.
Then
The facilitator signals a stop and gives the listener 90 seconds on the same or another chosen subject.
If
Before display, a sticky note contains personal information or someone else’s information.
Then
Offer rewriting it as one word the author permits to be public or taking it home without posting it.
Preparation
Materials
- One selectable topic card per person from 3 types: animals, places, and strengths
- One grouping-number card per person indicating a group of 2 or 3
- One 75 × 75 mm connection sticky note per person
- One A3 opening board per venue
Room and setup
- Seats facing each other in twos or threes, with passages at least 60 cm wide
- One topic-selection stand near the entrance per venue, at least 90 cm wide
Adjust for people and time
With 2–6 people, take turns in one circle. With 7–50, use number cards for groups of 2–3 with sizes differing by no more than 1. Provide one topic card and connection note per person and one opening board per 20 people. Above 20, replace spoken whole-group sharing with everyone posting and silently reading their own notes, not representative presentations.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Private-life or bodily disclosure is not needed. Do not use the activity for physical contact, competition, distress confessions, or compulsory speaking. Allow listening, topic changes, withholding a note, and rewriting information before display. Do not force later use of the connections.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Open Practice Library: Ice Breakers — Roman Martin and Jorge Tudela
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/ice-breakers/
Adaptation under CC-BY-4.0; changes made. Individual contributors credited; published images, logos, and external activity examples not used.
- Open Practice Library license notice
https://openpracticelibrary.com/about/
CC-BY-4.0 notice except where noted. The Japanese source records that Codex checked the individual page footer on 2026-07-24.
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY-4.0 licence text
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the Open Practice Library practice identified below. The manuscript's recorded references and the source page checked for this notice are shown separately.
Changes: explanations, timings, instructions, materials and branches were edited for this site. The English edition translates that Japanese manuscript; it is not a verbatim translation of the original practice.
The checked source footer names CC BY 4.0 but links to CC BY-SA 4.0. The official site source code contains the same mismatch. This has not been confirmed with the rights holders. This notice does not change the terms of the original material.
This site's contributions to the identified adaptation and English translation are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Credit the creators, identify the source and licence, indicate changes, and share adaptations under the same terms. This does not remove separate source terms or third-party rights.
This is not a blanket licence for the whole site, other original manuscripts, third-party photographs, logos, external templates or trademarks. The source's Except where noted qualification remains applicable.
Names are used descriptively to identify the source. No endorsement or approval by Open Practice Library or its contributors is implied.
See the linked legal code for its no-warranty and other provisions.
The additional contributor names are handles from the fixed official practice source. They are not inferred real names or a reconstruction of collapsed editor labels. The earlier attribution limits remain recorded.
Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Roman Martin, Jorge Tudela
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @rmarting, @jtudelag
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Ice Breakers.
Source lineage
CC BY-SA 4.0 — this site's adaptation and translation contributions · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.
Original source log (Japanese)
2026-07-24 · Recorded participant count: 1
2026-07-24の受入宣言に基づく一括記録(15手法)。個別セッションの実測値ではない。