Leadership Icebreakers
Word Scramble

Title & Description

Leadership Icebreakers - Word Scramble’s purpose is to demonstrate the importance of cooperation in the team, and is useful for you to observe you team’s group dynamics as they work together in to solve a problem.

Purpose

• For icebreaking purposes
• To observe team dynamics and cooperation

Team Size

About 10 or more

Materials Required

10 pieces of paper
Two pens
A large piece of paper
Marker
Dictionary (Optional)

Time Required

20-30 minutes

Instructions

1. Divide the group into two or more teams (about 5 a team)

2. Distribute the pieces of paper and one pen to each team.

3. The task: The instructor will write down 7 random letters on the large piece of paper.

4. When the time starts, the instructor will put the large piece of paper up for display. Each team must write down as many words that can be formed from the 7 random letters.

5. At least a 3-letter word must be formed; any 2-letter words get no score.

6. Allow for 3 minutes for the teams to come up with their words.

7. The scoring systems is as follows:

• 7 letter word – 40 points
• 6 letter word – 30 points
• 5 letter word – 20 points
• 4 letter word – 10 points
• 3 letter word – 5 points

8. At the end of the 3 minutes, go over the list of words that each team comes up with to see if the words are found in the English dictionary (use if necessary)

9. Repeat for about 2 more rounds with different sets of 7 letter words

10. At the end of the three rounds, tally the score. The team with the highest score wins.

Debriefing Notes

1. What kind of behaviours helped solve the problem?

2. What kind of behaviours increased communication within the team?

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