How to start a workshop that feels human from the first minute
The icebreaker that trades performance anxiety for nostalgia, good vibes, and real connection.
Most icebreakers have the same problem. They ask people to perform. Come up with a fun fact. Say something creative on the spot. Be interesting, right now, in front of your colleagues.
It shuts people down. And the awkward silence that follows? That's not connection. That's the opposite.
When Ruben Gasky shared this activity with me, I knew immediately it had to be in the app. Because it does something most openers don't: it gives people something real to share, without asking them to manufacture it on the spot.
The picture is already there. The story writes itself.
So here's the activity. Ruben uses it at the start of every single workshop he runs. And after trying it myself with a group of 150 people, I can tell you: seven out of ten of them picked it over every other option I gave them.
Ruben Gasky is Vol. 02.
This week's activity
Ruben GaskyHow it works
Let the group know you're starting with an icebreaker, and briefly explain why it's valuable if needed.
Ask participants to take their phone, open their photo app, and scroll to their first (or one of their oldest) photos.
Give them 1-2 minutes to choose one they feel comfortable sharing and think about the story behind it.
Start by going first to model the activity. Then invite each participant to share their photo and tell a simple story about it for 1 to 2 minutes.
Show a visible timer to reinforce the time limit. It helps set the tone for the whole workshop.
When to use it
- →Opening any workshop, training, or offsite
- →Re-energizing a team that has worked together for a long time
- →Team retreats where real connection is the point
Watch the tutorial
Ruben walks through the full activity on this episode · Watch on YouTube →
Go deeper
Ruben spent 20 years as a professional entertainer and keynote speaker, including a summer driving a motorbike on a tightrope 40 meters above the ground in Saudi Arabia. For the last five years, he's been applying everything he learned on stage to help teams meet better and work better together. He's building the Meeting Mastery Academy.
Most connection activities fail for the same reason: they hand people a blank page and ask them to fill it in under pressure. Fun fact. Interesting story. Something your colleagues don't know about you. The result isn't creativity. It's anxiety dressed up as participation.
The Time Traveller solves all of that. The picture is already there. It already happened. You already cared enough to take it. All you have to do is show it and say a few words. Skiing with your daughter when she was two. That renovation you finally finished. That holiday you needed more than you realized.
Ruben put it this way: there's no better way to engage people than having them talk about themselves, but you have to remove the thinking first. The picture does exactly that. It hands the story to the person, so they can share it instead of crafting it. And when people share something real, even something small, the room shifts. You can feel it. That's the atmosphere you want to carry into everything that comes next.
Workshop Deck App
From activity to full workshop
Time Traveller is a Connect activity, the first phase of the 6C framework. But a workshop is six phases, and each one needs to land.
Designing a workshop means wrestling with three questions: where do I start, does the flow make sense, will it actually deliver?
The Workshop Deck guides you through all six phases of the 6C framework so your agenda has real structure from opening to close. And if Time Traveller isn't the right fit for your next workshop, there are more Connect activities inside the app waiting for you, alongside battle-tested activities for every other phase, all proven by hundreds of facilitators in the room.
Ruben is Vol. 02. More expert facilitators are coming, each one bringing the activity they trust most when the stakes are high. Small library. High trust. Zero overwhelm.
Hope you enjoy this one.
Mehdi
P.S. This is Vol. 02 of Signature Activities. Every edition: one expert, one activity, zero filler.
P.P.S. Already inside the app? The Time Traveller is live. Open it, try it in your next session.