Curiosity #49 - Time for the Biscuits

🎤 Quotable quotes:
“People don’t bond over PowerPoints. They bond over stories, laughter, and a little shared awkwardness.”

Which was your favorite:

• Ted handing out little plastic army men to his players as good-luck charms?
• Ted showing up at Rebecca’s office with a pink box of biscuits every single morning?
• Or the time he made the team play a goofy “rom-communism” game to remind them that happy endings are possible?

Those weren’t just quirks. They were icebreakers. Tiny moments designed to lower walls, spark laughs, and build trust.

Because Ted knew: if you can get people to loosen up, you can get them to open up. And when they open up, that’s when the real magic happens.

Icebreakers aren’t about the game. They’re about the glue. "Teams gotta bond!"

🏟 Why This Matters for You

The research backs it up:

• Teams that spend time on bonding activities show up to 50% higher productivity.

• MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab found the best teams don’t just share info—they share energy, laughter, and side conversations.

• Google’s Project Aristotle discovered that psychological safety (feeling safe enough to speak up) is the #1 predictor of team success. Icebreakers are one of the fastest shortcuts to that.

🧊 Three Steps to Better Icebreakers

1. Keep it short – 2–3 minutes max. If it drags, it’s not an icebreaker, it’s detention.

2. Make it personal (but safe) – Ask about favorites, firsts, or silly “would you rather” questions. No therapy sessions needed.

3. Connect the dots – After the laugh, point out why it matters: “That moment right there? That’s trust starting to form.”

The meeting after a good icebreaker feels different. People jump in quicker, listen longer, and laugh more.

And just maybe, you’ll discover your own version of a morning biscuit ritual—the thing that turns a group of people into a real team.

🫶 Stay curious,
— Nick & Marnie
Your army-man-handing, biscuit-bringing, rom-com-believing friends

More leadership musings

🍪 Biscuits with the Boss: 

Icebreaker time:  Question for your team (or your next Zoom):

👉 If you had to bring one completely useless but hilarious object to every meeting—like Ted’s plastic army men—what would it be?

(Go first and admit yours. Extra points if it’s something you actually own.)

🥊 Whistle Whistle (Tough Love from Roy Kent)

“Stop moaning about icebreakers being a waste of time. You know what’s a waste of time? Sitting in silence with people who don’t trust each other. So answer the bloody question, laugh a bit, and get over yourself. Then get on with the work.”

📚Beard’s collection:

📖 Parker, Priya. The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. Riverhead Books, 2018.
Because if you’re going to get people in a room, do it with purpose, not PowerPoints.

📖 Good, Derek, and Craig McFadyen. 101 Training Activities and How to Run Them: Icebreakers, Energizers and Team Building. Business Training Publications, 2018.
Because sometimes you need a grab-and-go playbook—without the groans or trust falls.

📖 Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. Random House, 2007.
If your ideas aren’t memorable, you might as well be whispering “offsides” into the void.

🌎 This week in Here - There - Every F’ing where 

We recorded this icebreaker at a recent Lead it Like Lasso training. This led into a lesson on communication and the participants used this activity as a start to sharing their communication preferences (and build their own communication guide). Fun times had by all!

We had a blast having a Lead it Like Lasso session for the Federal Innovators Salon. Here's a sneak peek at one of the breakout session slides (they figured out who they were and where this rang true - so many fun Ahas!)

And if you are an educator, we hope you listen to Dr. Fonz's podcast. We had a great conversation :)

Happy day!

Nick & Marnie