Perfect Phrases for Icebreakers: Hundreds of Ready-to-Use Phrases to Set the Stage for Productive Conversations, Meetings, and Events

Summary and Conclusion

Writing this has been a fun journey for Diane and me. The concept started with one vision and continued to evolve. We hope its final evolution is useful to you. Pick and choose. There are some icebreakers here Diane would never use, and there are icebreakers here I would never use. At least we think we wouldn’t. I say that because some icebreakers we initially resisted have since grown on us.

In the opening, we used the icebreaker of “If you were an animal, which one would you be” as an example of a trite meeting opener. Since then, a colleague told me how she uses it effectively at high-level business meetings. Then, out of the blue my own husband started talking about what animal he would be if given a choice. It was ...