meeting, icebreaker, facilitation, Toby Elwin, blog, US Coast Guard Cutter Healy

The best meeting icebreaker to break the ice

Know your audience is a constant refrain. But sometimes, as a facilitator, trainer, or consultant, you may not, always, know your audience knows each other or what they will do together.

The icebreaker’s intent? Loosen things up, meet people, set the stage for effective work. Meeting icebreakers can be as painful as a bucket of ice down your shorts. Icebreakers run the risk of turning people off before you have even started the heavy lifting on why you are there.

Here is an icebreaker I have run for a least 10 years with consistent success setting up collaboration.

beacons of gondor, social media, organization development, Toby Elwin, blog

This social media fad will ruin organization development

Social media is the most important communication and collaboration tool since the smoke signal.

The organization development world has been invaded by social media. The organization development profession is in a, social media, world of trouble because social media delivers all the intended qualities of OD, but more organic, more genuine, and more impressive community results than OD has ever been accepted to do.

When evaluating social media, it is time to move beyond fight, flight, or friend.