The Coastal Walk That Replaced Our Icebreakers
Icebreakers are typically at the top of the agenda when people are planning offsite events organized by their companies. The goal of icebreakers – structured conversation starters / games / introductions – is to help people get familiarized with each other so that they can start interacting quickly with one another; however, in our case with MICEcafe Journey, we found something more profound than any of those activities combined: Just walking on the coastline! An unanticipated walk on the coast turned out to be an incredibly bonding event for the team, which none of us had expected prior to participating in such a unique opportunity. Rather than trying to force conversation through these various structures, the combination of the ocean and sky coupled with pacing established a natural progression for dialogue between us all. As a result, we now see that rather than being created or engineered, true connections form from simply allowing and creating opportunities...