If you want participants to think more carefully about who they are speaking to, this activity works well. Teams are given different audiences and asked to present the same information in a suitable way. It takes around 30–60 minutes and is best with 12–30 people.
How Long Does This Communication Skills Icebreaker Take?
Allow 30–60 minutes for this activity. It works well as part of a full-day training session or a broader communication skills workshop. If you are running a shorter session, reduce the number of presentations.
How Many Participants Is This Activity Best For?
This activity works best with 12–30 participants, divided into four or six teams.
What Does This Communication Skills Icebreaker Teach?
This activity helps participants practice adapting information for different audiences, summarizing key points, and presenting messages clearly.
How Do You Run This Communication Skills Icebreaker?
1. Present some content to your audience of participants.
2. Divide the participants into an even number of groups. There should be between 2 and 7 members in each team. Ideally, there should be between 4 and 6 teams in total.
3. Assign a different type of audience to each team.
The audience types that you choose should be relevant to the topic you are teaching, i.e., those for whom the topic is relevant.
For example, if relevant to the topic, one audience could be 15-year-olds, another could be young professionals, and so on.
This activity encourages participants to engage in audience analysis by guiding participants to look at specific needs, expectations, and communication preferences of their assigned group, whether that be executives or international clients.
4. Assign the same type of audience to a pair of teams, which will compete against each other.
5. Ask each team to work independently to prepare a presentation that is suitable for the audience that they were assigned.
During this process, each team learns the importance of message tailoring by adapting both language and content to resonate with their particular audience type.
6. Ask each pair of competing teams to deliver their presentations in turn.
Through this exercise, teams develop essential presentation strategies, such as structuring key points effectively and using tone and body language suited to their audience.
7. The teams that were assigned a different audience will watch and listen to these presentations.
8. At the end of both competing presentations, ask the other teams to select the presentation they think was the clearest and the most appropriate for the target audience.
The peer feedback component reinforces the role of feedback in communication, allowing teams to reflect on how clearly and appropriately their message was conveyed.
9. Ask the next pair of competing teams to deliver their presentation, and the other teams to act as judges.
10. Repeat the process until all teams have given their presentations.
11. At the end, summarize the main learning points and ask the class for feedback. Give participants a chance to share what they learned from the activity.
What Are the Benefits of This Communication Skills Icebreaker?
There are a few benefits to using this communication skills icebreaker:
- This activity is useful for training sessions on communication skills.
- This activity gives participants more ownership over the learning process and can help make the session more engaging.
- It also works well as an activity within a presentation skills workshop. (See the presentation skills training materials).
In essence, this icebreaker helps identify and overcome common communication barriers by making participants consider potential misunderstandings or cultural nuances that can affect message clarity.
Communication Skills Training
If you are developing your own training materials or courseware for a communication skills workshop, the resources below may be useful.
For a full collection of effective communication skills activities you can use in workplace training, explore our complete guide. You might also wish to use our free Communication Skills Training Session Plan to help structure your workshop.
You can also check out the pre-made, customizable training course materials titles that we offer on Communication Skills.
Titles include:
- Intercultural Communication – an especially useful topic in hybrid workplaces
- Active Listening Skills course materials
- See all communication skills training materials titles
- For more activities, templates, and resources, see our Workplace Communication Guides for managers, HR professionals, and trainers.
Ready-to-Use Communication Skills Training Materials
Looking for materials to run your own communication skills workshop? Our ready-to-use training materials are fully editable and designed for trainers, HR teams, and facilitators.
- Fully editable PowerPoint training slides
- Trainer notes and participant materials
- Workbooks, handouts, and practical training activities
FAQs
What is a communication skills icebreaker?
A communication skills icebreaker is a short, engaging activity used at the start of a workshop or meeting to build rapport and enhance participants’ communication skills. It can be great for helping you, as a trainer, to start the training off on a relaxed note, while still teaching principles such as active listening and audience awareness.
Who is this icebreaker for?
This icebreaker is ideal for trainers, HR professionals, educators, and workshop facilitators who want to build communication and presentation skills in groups ranging from 12 to 30 participants. It’s especially effective in corporate training, soft skills workshops, and team-building sessions.
