Top Ice breakers, and team building exercise.

1) Communication
Quite often there is a lack of communication among team members as well as management in the workplace. This is one reason to work on the team building skills within your company. Communication between your team members is one of the greatest assets that you can have in the workplace. Communication between team leaders and employees is just as important. When people do not spend time in discussion, they risk losing valuable information. Better communication at work can bring forth new and innovative ideas. Managers need to focus on this during team building. Icebreakers are a great way to open the doors of communication.

2) Motivating your Group or Team
Team building may be required when you do not have the level of productivity or quality that you desire for your business. Icebreakers are an essential way of bringing people together as a team. All team members need to be on the same page. Icebreakers can help get the information needed to each team member while involving them in the decision making process. Making changes are necessary when things are not going as well as they should. When you find that success or profit is taking a turn for the worse, you need to seriously evaluate the situation before you hand out orders to your team. Everyone needs to work together in order to remedy the issue. Icebreakers motivate your group into working better together.
3) Humor
Humor in the workplace or classroom has many beneficial effects including improved motivation, reduced anxiety and stress, the facilitation of collaborative working relationships, improved recall and learning of related information, and greater workplace enjoyment. Additionally, team leaders can use humor as a form of a mini break during meetings to reduce tension and provide team members the time to process complicated information. Icebreakers give the employees a chance to have fun while learning. Icebreakers help facilitate team problem solving. The use of humor enhances openness in the workplace or classroom and makes teaching more effective. In addition, appropriate humor related to course content can enhance learning. However, the inappropriate use of humor can have the reverse effect and create a hostile workplace.
4) Meet and Greet
When introducing new team members to the group, Icebreakers are an excellent way to ease the tension for the first time meeting introductions. The ideas behind icebreakers are to break down barriers and gain cohesion within a group. Icebreakers provide a fun and easy way for the group to relax and get to know each other. Icebreakers give the team members an opportunity to interact and meet people other than those they may have naturally gravitated towards.
5) Including the team members
Using icebreakers is a way of including your team members in the business decision process. In some cases managers or leaders will attempt to plan team building events without actually consulting the team. This is a mistake. The point of team building is empower and strengthen you team. By leaving the entire team out of the planning process, they may become uninterested and lack the enthusiasm that is needed to make the event a success. Poor planning is the factor behind many corporate failures. Don't let this happen to you. Include your team. There is a reason that you rely on them for their expertise and knowledge.
Your team building meetings must have a purpose and a significant point that is obvious to all who attend. If this is unclear you will have many confused people who are not sure what it is that you wish to convey to them. It should be very obvious to all present why they are gathered and what it is that you hope to achieve by having this event. Communication is very important here. Your team wants to have open lines of discussion in order to achieve greater successes. Present your goals to them with great clarity and allow time for feedback. You can learn plenty about your team by receiving feedback and ideas from those who are in attendance. A team needs to know what is expected of them before they can come through for you. Team building events should focus on the team and the team members as separate people that make up a whole cohesive group. When everyone knows their role and feels confident in their position, the results are outstanding. Never use competition between team members in your team building events. It will only encourage and create animosity. Co-operation should be greatly encouraged rather than competition. Save that for your true competitors. Dividing your employees in that manner will only work against you. Team building events are never guaranteed to be a success. By using icebreakers your success rate will greatly improve.

AFFIRMATIONS

This is a great activity for building trust and rapport in a work group or class. It also allows people to appreciate each other when they may not verbalize it otherwise. Start by taping a piece of paper to everyone's back and make sure everyone has a pen. Go around the room and write something appreciative or complimentary on everyone's paper. After everyone has written something about each other take the pieces off and read them aloud. Afterward, reflect on things that were either surprising or unexpected.

This ice breaker is a great way for a group to learn about each other. It also has the advantages of getting people up and moving, allowing participants to interact with more people than pair ice breakers, and gives the opportunity for everyone's individuality to show.
The game must be prepared in advance by the facilitator, who will make a list of traits. For example: "Has lived in Florida." Next to each trait, there should be a blank space for someone's name. Try to have as many traits as there are people in the group. The table should look something like this:

Trait : Name:

Has/Had an exotic pet, Josh

Skis or snowboards, Martha

Can ride a horse

Has been to another continent

For the activity, pass out the sheets and instruct participants to fill in the blanks. Remind them to only use each person's name once.
An addition to this game which is great for classes is to add another column to the table for each person's contact information. This way if students miss a class they have a list of people to contact.

Summary:
This is a great team building exercise. It helps show values and lets people know more about each other. "Your house is on fire, and everyone is safe. You have thirty seconds to run through the house and collect articles you want to save. Good for smaller groups. This ice breaker is best for ages twelve and up.

Instructions:
The host or hostess tells the group to imagine that their own house has caught on fire. Fortunately, no one was injured. They are to run inside and carry out three things that are most important to them within 30 seconds. Everyone takes a turn telling what the objects would be and why they took these items. The group then discusses each player's choices.