Clone: An Icebreaker That Does Not Suck

Written By Susannah Staats

what do you think this sheep is thinking about?

I love when the curtain rises. I love openers. I love icebreakers. I love welcomes. I love all the ways as facilitators and designers of gatherings we get to create the container and kick-off relationships of a new team. We can help set the tone of conversation from the very first minute.

I also know that whatever we call it, those openers can solicit eye-rolls and groans. SO boring. SO trite. SO awkward. They are a waste of time. They suck for introverts.

Well, tomorrow I am going to be in my happy place and I get to run the opener for Facilitation Lab SF. I was thinking about what I wanted to run, the goals of the gathering, what the rest of the agenda was going to entail.

I settled on a game called “Clone”, with deep gratitude to my time at Playworks for teaching this to me as an adult version of a classroom game.  Why did I choose this opening game?

  • Observation: I’ve attended this event only once before but it was clear people wanted to practice new facilitation techniques, but even more  they wanted community and to get to know each other 

  • Knowledge Sharing: This is a facilitation lab, and in my experience this opener is really sticky to remember, easy to implement, and a great one to have in a facilitation toolkit … so I wanted to share

CLONE (opening game for medium-sized groups)

Group Size: 8 - 18

Equipment: None

Time: 8-10  minutes

Variations: for this version I prompt people share a favorite snack when introducing themselves because the goal really was about connections, but you can change up the prompt to make it more relevant to the theme or work-product of the meeting if that feels most helpful or relevant to your group

Goals

  • Use fun and a little silliness to get a new group comfortable working together

  • Practice being imperfect … names will invariably get mixed up and this is part of the fun

  • Breaks down organizational or social hierarchies

  • Facilitator notes: 

    • Try not to let people delay the start too much by asking for more specific information - just jumping in is the best way to start

    • People sometimes shake everyone’s hand once and think that they are “done”, so encourage people to keep doing as many information exchanges as possible before time is up

    • This game asks people to leap into social interaction without a lot of “rules” so you can use it to learn a lot about the individual and group risk-taking dynamics of a new team

    • Asking for additional clarity can sometimes be a way to avoid starting for those who have more social anxiety or need more instructional support. Find a way to circle back to any person(s) if needed so that you can assess if you need to adjust any future instructions or activities to accommodate their learning or participation 

Prep

  • Name tags for everyone

  • Gather the group in a large enough place for the group to gather standing and decide the boundaries of the game

  • Share the rules and demonstrate the greetings with a volunteer

  • Ask for any clarifying questions 

How to Play

  • At a given signal everyone goes around introducing themselves to one another 

  • Participants go up to as many people as possible during the allotted time

  • Each time they shake hands

  • Two rounds of exchanges happen while shaking hands:

    • The first person says, “Hi, my name is _________. And I like [a favorite snack]”

    • The second person says, “Hi, my name is _____________. And I like [favorite snack]””

    • The first person says, “Nice to meet you _____ NAME”  

    • The second person says, “Nice to meet you _____ NAME”

  • Once that exchange happens, the partners split up and find someone else to introduce themselves to.

  • They both turn to greet a new partner using the name and food of the person they just met

  • Players go around trying to meet as many other players as possible in the time allotted. Your “name” will change each time. Because you are now a CLONE :-)

  • Debrief:

    • After all the group has gone for the allotted time, create a circle and have each person introduce themselves with the name and food that they had most recently “cloned” into

    • Then go around a second time and have each person introduce themselves with their real name and the food they started with

Gratitude to the original source of this game from the Playworks Game Library Link: Hi, My Name Is …

Susannah Staats
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