Name Wave
An icebreaker is a facilitation exercise intended to help a group begin the process of forming themselves into a team (Furman, Bender, & Rowan, 2014). Name Wave is an impromptu icebreaker game that helps the group leader and participants learn their fellow members’ names and may also provide hints about their personality traits.
Description of Activity
The group forms a circle and then the leader of the group introduces him or herself, saying their name and doing an action (anything he/she likes) along with it. For example, the leader might say "Becky" while saluting at the same time. Starting with the person immediately to the leader's right, each person repeats the leader's name along with the action. The effect is that of a …show more content…
In Tuckman’s beginning stages of group development, he explains how individuals may feel levels of anxiety, fear, confusion, curiosity and/or enthusiasm (Kass, 1996). In line with this theory, before beginning the icebreaker, the leader should try to help reduce feelings of anxiety by encouraging group members to be spontaneous. Assure the group participants that they do not have to worry about their originality, it will flow naturally. The goal is to be able to express their own uniqueness and style by creating the first idea that occurs to …show more content…
Repeating each person's name and chosen action can increase the likelihood to remember others’ names, and an action going along with the name it can help make people more likely to remember the members names. Another goal is understanding personality types. Since this game puts people in a position where they have to come up with an action without prior notice, the action that the person does can reveal a lot about their personality and enable members to get to know each other. A third goal is group engagement, Name Wave is a fun and interactive way for people to get to know one another. People’s choice of action may cause laughter, breaking the ice even more through sharing silly moments. Furthermore, one has to pay attention to the person introducing themselves since they will have to repeat their name and action. This keeps the members of the group engaged and interested in how their co-members will present themselves.
Proposed Outcome
While individuals may think that Name Wave is a meaningless icebreaker, this game has all kinds of hidden self-expression outcomes. Ackerman suggests that the individual has both a private “inner self” and a social "outer self” that emphasizes externally oriented aspects of his or her personality. When clients are in a group setting, they present their outer self as a way of adapting to the pressures and demands of the group context (Shulman,
An icebreaker is a facilitation exercise intended to help a group begin the process of forming themselves into a team (Furman, Bender, & Rowan, 2014). Name Wave is an impromptu icebreaker game that helps the group leader and participants learn their fellow members’ names and may also provide hints about their personality traits.
Description of Activity
The group forms a circle and then the leader of the group introduces him or herself, saying their name and doing an action (anything he/she likes) along with it. For example, the leader might say "Becky" while saluting at the same time. Starting with the person immediately to the leader's right, each person repeats the leader's name along with the action. The effect is that of a …show more content…
In Tuckman’s beginning stages of group development, he explains how individuals may feel levels of anxiety, fear, confusion, curiosity and/or enthusiasm (Kass, 1996). In line with this theory, before beginning the icebreaker, the leader should try to help reduce feelings of anxiety by encouraging group members to be spontaneous. Assure the group participants that they do not have to worry about their originality, it will flow naturally. The goal is to be able to express their own uniqueness and style by creating the first idea that occurs to …show more content…
Repeating each person's name and chosen action can increase the likelihood to remember others’ names, and an action going along with the name it can help make people more likely to remember the members names. Another goal is understanding personality types. Since this game puts people in a position where they have to come up with an action without prior notice, the action that the person does can reveal a lot about their personality and enable members to get to know each other. A third goal is group engagement, Name Wave is a fun and interactive way for people to get to know one another. People’s choice of action may cause laughter, breaking the ice even more through sharing silly moments. Furthermore, one has to pay attention to the person introducing themselves since they will have to repeat their name and action. This keeps the members of the group engaged and interested in how their co-members will present themselves.
Proposed Outcome
While individuals may think that Name Wave is a meaningless icebreaker, this game has all kinds of hidden self-expression outcomes. Ackerman suggests that the individual has both a private “inner self” and a social "outer self” that emphasizes externally oriented aspects of his or her personality. When clients are in a group setting, they present their outer self as a way of adapting to the pressures and demands of the group context (Shulman,