Icebreakers that don't suck

Chances are, you have at least one memory of rolling your eyes at a forced “icebreaker activity,” or maybe you’ve led an icebreaker activity that led everyone in the room to emotionally “check out” for a bit. It can feel mortifying to be on either side of a poorly executed icebreaker activity, so whether you’ve been the eye-roller or the eye-rollee, it’s a totally common thing to happen, and you’re definitely not the first. It’s hard to come up with great icebreakers, and even harder to deliver them well! So here are some tips that’ll help you avoid that dreaded silence.

Ashley KirsnerNovember 2, 2021icebreaker questions, icebreaker for office, icebreakers for office, icebreakers that don't suck, icebreaker that doesn't suck, icebreakers, icebreaker, office icebreaker, office icebreakers Comment

Icebreaker questions you can use anywhere

Whether you need an icebreaker for a classroom, boardroom, or living room, we’ve got you covered. Here are some options that get people to open up without making them feel like they’ve been put on the spot.

10 Questions to ask your S.O. (or other loved ones) on Valentine's Day

As if figuring out what to do on Valentine’s Day isn’t hard enough, a lot of us have some additional pandemic-related parameters this year. So, we’ve come up with ideas for how to have a low-key but meaningful Valentine’s Day at home with your partner. (BONUS: If you’re not with a partner, you can absolutely pick and choose whatever pieces of this feel right to do with a friend or other loved one— we’ve even put together some adapted question prompts at the end of this to ask your friends, family, and other close people).

Ashley KirsnerFebruary 4, 2021icebreaker, icebreakers, icebreaker questions, icebreaker prompts, Valentine's, Day, Valentine's Day, S.O., relationships, relationship advice, relationship tips, cheap Valentine's Day, easy Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day ideas, Quarantine Valentine's Day ideas, Quarantine Valentine's Day, Pandemic, pandemic, pandemic Valentine's Day ideas, questions to ask your boyfriend, questions to ask your girlfriend, questions to ask your partner, what should i do on Valentine's Day, cheap Valentine's Day ideas, easy Valentine's Day ideas, love, date ideas, date idea, what to do on Valentine's Day, questions for Valentine's Day, icebreakers for Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day icebreakers, Valentine's Day friends, friends, friend, what to do on Valentine's Day with a friend, how to spend Valentine's Day with a friend, spending Valentine's Day with a friend, Casper ter Kuile, ritual, rituals, Skip the Small TAlk, Skip the Small Talk, skip the small talk, blog, blog post, skip the small talk blog post, skip the small talk blog, questions, question prompts, dating questions, questions to ask on a date, questions to ask your wife, questions to ask your husband, questions to ask your firends, questions to ask your friends, questions to ask your husband on valentine's day, questions to ask your wife on valentine's day, questions to ask your husband for valentine's day, questions to your wife for valentine's day, questions to ask your friends on valentine's day, questions to as your friends for valentine's day, questions to ask on valentine's day, valentine's day icebreakers, icebreakers for valentine's day Comment

10 questions to ask your mom on Mother's Day

Mother’s Day can be a great excuse to connect with a woman who helped raise you. Of course, everyone has a different relationship with their mother (we’d love to take this opportunity to remind you of our article on metaconversations in case you think it’d be helpful to tweak something in your relationship with your mom), but for those of you who want to take the chance to get closer to the matriarch in your life, we’ve put together some questions to help create meaningful conversations that you might not have had with her before. Feel free to pick and choose the questions that feel right-- we recommend going with your intuition about what questions would work best for the kind of relationship you have with your mom.

Five Thanksgiving icebreakers that don't suck

Ah, the holidays: A time when we hope our lives will look like those wholesome cartoon specials we watched as children, but also a time when anxieties about getting stuck in conversation with people who hold different political and moral ideologies might keep you from doing that happy dance from A Charlie Brown Christmas.

This Thanksgiving, we encourage you to take some time to connect with others in ways that feel authentic without feeling emotionally exhausting. To help the conversation flow, we offer you some ice-breakers that will get others to share about themselves while subtly nudging everyone’s mood in a positive direction. So if you do end up having the “here’s why racism is bad” conversation with Uncle Joe, you’ll have a buffer of positive experience--and perhaps some common ground--that’ll make it easier for you to communicate with one another.

TIPS, STORIES, AND insPiration