Ice Breaker Speech

Why is This Speech Important?
The Ice Breaker speech has three aims:
1. Introduce yourself.
Your ice breaker speech topic is you - something about your life, your job, your hobbies, your unique interests, your family, or any combination of these. You are an absolute authority on this topic, and everyone in the audience will learn something about you.

Why is This Speech Important?
2. Begin to conquer the fear of speaking in front of a group.
It is nerve-wracking when speaking in front of a new group. If you feel this nervousness, remember that the audience is always supportive and understanding. Nobody is grading you, and nobody will mind if you stumble through 99 “Um”s and “Ah”s. If you get up, say something, and sit down, you have succeeded in this project.

Why is This Speech Important?
3. Provide a “base line” of your current strengths and weaknesses.
Some new people have no public speaking experience, while others have years of presentations behind them. No matter where you fit into this spectrum, your goal is to improve from your starting point. This first speech helps the audience members and the instructor gauge your current strengths so that they can make specific recommendations to help you improve.

Tips and Techniques
1. Ask for Help
If you have a mentor, don’t hesitate to ask them for help. If you don’t, feel free to ask any other member of the audience. Perhaps they can share what they spoke about for their Icebreaker. Perhaps they can help you select a topic. Perhaps you can practice it privately before the meeting.

Tips and Techniques
2. Practice Helps
You don’t need to practice the speech 35 times, and you don’t need to have it memorized. However, your nervousness will be reduced considerably if you give it a couple of practice runs out loud (even if your only audience is you).

Tips and Techniques
3. Timing
The recommended time for the Ice Breaker speech is three to five minutes. It may seem like a long time, but in later projects, you’ll start wishing you had much more time to deliver your message. Don’t worry too much about going under or over time. Just aim for somewhere in that range.

Tips and Techniques
4. Notes
There are no rules on the use of notes. If you need notes, use them. If you don’t need notes, don’t. Either way, don’t worry about it. It’s okay if you read your ice breaker from a script (just try to look up once in a while), if you refer to cue cards, or if you talk without notes.

Tips and Techniques
5. Don’t Expect to be Barack Obama!
This is your first challenge. Nobody expects you to be a world-class orator. Just do your best. Once you have established your “base line”, then you can aim to raise your skill level in future projects.

Tips and Techniques
6. Speak Up and Slow Down
Two common effects of nervousness are mumbling words and racing through the speech. Try to avoid these, but don’t worry if you can’t help it.

Tips and Techniques
7. Humour Reduces Your Nervousness
If you are comfortable incorporating humor into your ice breaker, go for it. The laughs from the audience will reduce your nervousness. An easy way to do this is to make a self-depracating joke at the start. (If nobody laughs, don’t worry about that either… it’s something to work on later.)

Tips and Techniques
8. Apologizing
You may feel an urge to apologize to your audience (e.g. for uttering too many “Um”s, for losing your place, etc.). There is no need to do so! Often, the audience doesn’t notice the little glitches, and it is much better for you to ignore them too.

Topic Ideas for Your Ice Breaker Speech
Idea #1: Chronological
For many people, a series of chronological snapshots of their life is the easiest to write and deliver.

Topic Ideas for Your Ice Breaker Speech
Idea #2: Topical
Discuss a series of elements of your life to provide a “sampling” of your life. For example, you could open up by talking about your family, then discuss your career, and conclude with your hobbies.

Topic Ideas for Your Ice Breaker Speech
Idea #3: Common Thread
Select a common thread that runs through your life, and share brief stories where this common element appears. It might be a signature phrase, a philosophy that guides you, or even something obscure like peanut butter. (i.e. imagine stories through your life where peanut butter played a role)

Topic Ideas for Your Ice Breaker Speech
Idea #4: One Key Event
Focus on one critical event which took your life in a completely different direction.