Why Icebreakers Don’t Build Better Teams

Have you ever found yourself cringing through yet another icebreaker session at work? You know the drill, awkward introductions, trust falls, or maybe even an escape room challenge that leaves you wondering if these activities truly lead to better teamwork. 

Most of us have been there, assuming that the secret to a successful team lies in how much we like each other. But what if we’re missing the point entirely?

Renowned social psychologist and author Richard Hackman suggests that effective teamwork isn’t about how well team members click on a personal level. Instead, it’s about how the team is set up for success. 

Instead of relying on those awkward trust-building exercises, consider designing an environment that supports natural collaboration and thereby by better teamwork. 

This is exactly where the Indiahikes Collaborative Leadership Programme (CLP) comes in. Over six days in the Himalayas, teams face tough outdoor challenges where they learn, plan, and execute an expedition together. 

The goal is simple: reach a high summit as a cohesive team unit. The challenge lies in doing this by overcoming both natural obstacles and the complexities of working as a group. 

Unlike conventional team-building exercises, the CLP demonstrates that true collaboration is about working toward a shared goal rather than just liking each other. It’s a lesson that becomes clear when everyone’s success depends on collective effort.

How Shared Experiences Lay the Groundwork for Building Stronger Teams

An interesting study by NASA showed that experienced flight crews who haven’t flown together are more prone to catastrophic errors than inexperienced crew members who have flown as a team, even for just one flight. 

While this sounds contradictory, it goes to show how important it is for teams to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It becomes possible for people to do so when they go through and work through a shared experience. It is through such an experience that teams learn to communicate better and thereby perform more effectively. 

The Collaborative Leadership Programme (CLP) at Indiahikes is rooted in this idea. Lakshmi Selvakumaran, the head of Indiahikes’ Learning and Development Team, explains, “The CLP is ultimately about collaboration. Whether the team crosses a mountain pass or reaches a summit, their success is determined by how they’ve worked together throughout the journey. Traditional leadership often focuses on the individual, but collaborative leadership shifts the emphasis to the team.”

Shared Responsibility: The Core of Effective Teamwork

One of the most overlooked aspects of building a strong team is the concept of shared responsibility. A team’s bond around a common mission is far more important than their personal connections with each other. Mission cohesion, the alignment around a shared goal, is what drives success, not how much team members like each other. 

This is why icebreakers and team-bonding exercises often fall short. Without a collective purpose that everyone is committed to, a team can struggle to perform, no matter how well they get along.

In the CLP, participants are guided through the first day with structured learning on key trekking skills such as navigation, setting up camp, cooking, and backpacking. But as the days progress, they take full ownership of these tasks. 

By the end of the program, it’s up to the team to decide how best to use their time, plan their route, and ensure everyone reaches the summit together. This shared responsibility forces them to collaborate deeply, making use of each other’s strengths while learning how to manage individual weaknesses.

Ultimately, a rigorous program like the Collaborative Leadership Programme (CLP) is not an isolated experience. It becomes a lasting influence on how participants approach their work, relationships, and leadership roles long after the program ends. 

Lakshmi Selvakumaran who recently returned from leading a CLP for IIM Lucknow at Hampta Pass shared that when they had to pitch the campsite after a long day of trekking, and in the rain, they made compromises for one another and those who were fitter and less tired, took up the challenge of setting up the campsite for the rest of their team. 

How reflections are an important part of building a team

Daily reflections play a crucial role in this experiential learning process. Participants evaluate their performance as a team, discuss what went well and what could be improved at the end of each day. These discussions lead to a deeper understanding of the elements required for successful teamwork, helping them grow as a cohesive unit.

For example, in the last CLP, they could not make it to the pass crossing on time in spite of repeated discussions and confirmations the previous day that they would all wake up at 4 AM. It was 7:30 by the time they managed to leave the campsite for the Pass. When they finally couldn’t complete the pass crossing, it did lead to some insightful reflections. 

They mentioned that they underestimated the situation, and even acknowledged that some of them were too lazy to wake up on time to make it to the pass. Some were honest enough to mention that they were selfish and didn’t even think about others in their team. 

When they got a second chance to make it to the pass crossing, they did not see themselves as a team of 6 different groups, but rather as one collective team of 40 members and supported one another to reach the summit together. They waited for even the slowest members so that they could go up as a team. This is the kind of change we have consistently seen over 12 years of conducting the CLP.

The entire process of experiential learning is one where participants complete an activity, reflect on how they did it and what they could do differently, do it again and learn from this process. Learning is not limited to the specific situation in which it takes place. It can be carried forward to other areas of learning, work and life in general.

Trust Exercises Don’t Build Trust

In the end, the secret to effective group performance isn’t about icebreakers or how well people like each other, it’s about how well a team is designed to collaborate, how they share responsibility, and how they trust each other through real-world challenges. When teams come together around a shared mission, with each member fully invested in the group’s success, they thrive.

In a programme as intensive as the CLP which is based on an experiential learning model, the idea is to help participants take back experiences, reflections and insights about themselves, their strengths and weaknesses which will help them in different walks of life and different situations both in their personal and professional life. By understanding themselves better, they’re able to adapt, grow, and lead more effectively in any situation they encounter.