These games and activities are useful in introducing coworkers, warming up the meeting environment, and enabling participants to enjoy the virtual meeting. For remote team members, who interact less often than in-office workers, virtual icebreaker exercises also help them overcome jitters and be more comfortable interacting. From virtual icebreakers to remote team building activities, we have many opportunities to engage our employees and strengthen our teams. Generally, virtual icebreakers should be simple to conduct so that participants can fully enjoy and benefit from the ice breakers. The feeling of disconnection in the workplace is startlingly common and is a leading cause of frequent employee turnover. Additionally, higher turnover can cost businesses up to $1,200 per employee—just from a lack of engagement in the workplace!
Weekend Photo Contest
By scheduling employees to care for a virtual pet, you can increase engagement and help employees relate to each other better. While we can’t literally share a pet with our employees, we can share a virtual pet. With different apps and websites, we now have a way to collectively care for virtual pets.
“Two truths and a lie” 🤫
Just make sure the emphasis is heavy on family and light on feud (jokes!). Short introductions are a good way to take the pressure off people when getting to know one another and set expectations. For brevity’s sake, it’s best to break it down into simple categories such as first name, last name, and one fact about each person. Give your colleagues a thought-provoking question to ponder, then pair them randomly using breakout rooms (check whether your video conferencing tool allows for it). Take advantage of one of the visual collaboration tools such as Mural. We tried it recently during our Brand team meeting and it was an hour well spent – productive, creative, and fun.
- Here at Miro, we used this icebreaker game before a remote workshop about User Personas.
- These are all good strategies, but don’t forget about the professional warm-up.
- If your camera’s off, your guests could be online shopping in another tab, enjoying their morning coffee, or staring aimlessly into space.
- This icebreaker poses that age-old question of what we would do if stuck on a desert island while asking your team to think about what they would need to survive.
Family-Based Virtual Icebreakers
It’s hard to predict, but this one could get interesting, so our advice is to use only with established teams. Ask your teammates to share the celebrity that people say resembles them most, and include an image reference if possible. With a visual platform, you could also gamify the experience by having everyone vote anonymously for the most convincing doppelgänger.
The hidden benefits of fun at work
To play, each person will share three things about themselves, two of which are true and one of which is a lie. Everyone else in the group then has to try to guess icebreakers for virtual meetings which of the three things is the lie. Have everyone introduce themselves, and then share a short (1-2 minute) origin story behind one of their friendships.
virtual games for your next team building meeting
The list is organized into easy, medium and hard icebreakers and you should assign them to your team based on how well connected you already are. Virtual icebreaker questions are prompts you include in a virtual meeting for attendees to share a little about themselves and do some team building. But reports suggest 65% of virtual teams have never participated in virtual icebreakers or trust building activities during meetings. So next time you’re running a remote meeting, why not introduce a virtual icebreaker game to liven the mood. Spice up your virtual meetings and team bonding sessions with This or That – the AI-powered question generator that makes games easy and fun!
At the beginning of the meeting, everyone puts stickers on each image, guessing who each picture belongs to. Then you can start to figure out together which picture belongs to which person. When a correct guess is made, that person needs to share their story with the group. Include a video for the storytelling so everyone can connect the name, face, and story. This virtual ice-breaker is especially great for teams who have met before, but might not know every detail about the other meeting attendees. I guarantee people will finish this activity with a new connection or sense of understanding.
Answers to this question can reveal the breadth of participants’ tastes. They can also reveal how well they tolerate regular routines. This is a great question to ask because it shows what participants value. It can also provide opportunities to discuss use and design. We can easily get distracted when there’s a lot going on at work.
This gives your team the chance to connect with each other and explain their responses. Sometimes, more than one of your employees may have the same response. Just group them together and let your employees know they get more guesses. Since this pandemic began, employee engagement levels have been in flux. And research has shown that one of the key drivers behind this trend is often a diminished sense of community.
You never know who else is from your same part of the country, state, or even your same hometown. This is also a fun game for teams that have recently started working together online. It’s a great way to get team members (especially the introverts) to open up by asking them fun questions that break the ice. Ask your employees to schedule virtual coffee breaks with each other. A bit like stand-up – do them wrong and you can fall flat on your face.
After ten minutes, every interviewer shares their interviewee’s superpower back with the main group. While one partner tells the story, the original storyteller will be spotlighted on camera, but on mute. They will lip-sync and mime the story while their partner tells it—as if they’re the one speaking.
We’ve included icebreakers you can use with small groups of remote employees, ones for total strangers, and everything in between. These exercises are virtual versions of icebreaker games for large teams and icebreaker activities for small teams. These activities are also examples of virtual team building exercises, Zoom icebreaker ideas, and team building ideas for conference calls. The last person to bring back an object gets to select the next one.
Importantly, they mustn’t use the actual name of the city, state, or country. Recycling a trivia-based icebreaker can be an exciting way to start great conversations. Ask about a new topic at each meeting, like pitching a question about books, history, or pop culture. People will learn their strengths and weaknesses while laughing about the right or wrong answers. For a more directed experience, invite groups to make a personal wish, a professional wish for the company and a wish for someone else on their team.
Simply ask your participants a thought-provoking ‘this or that’ poll question with two options to choose from. Ask your team how they are in a different way this time – try it with a poll. These are great rapid-fire questions to energize your participants and kick-start a conversation. Everyone needs to think of small drawdown or failures and list the causes.
Playing an online version of Scattergories with remote team members is easy. Find a free website with the numbered die and category list. Everyone can record their answers through the site to play lightning rounds that get everyone talking. You can also help everyone get to know each other by using family-based icebreakers to start conversations with your remote team members. Ask your team for their office-appropriate takes before a conference call.
During spirit week, encourage your management teams to hold themed meetings. Invite employees to submit pictures of their own spirit day outfits and select a small group of winners. Creating a team movie featuring each of your employees is a great way to get your team connected. To get started, ask each of your employees to submit a short video. Before your meeting or training, come up with 5 to 10 questions for your employees to answer.
This activity is more of a conversation starter than a game. Split your team into pairs and ask them to share something from their bucket list. After some time has elapsed, you can ask each person to present their partner’s item to the group.
Use The Game Gal “This or That” to generate ideas for quick ice breakers for virtual meetings. Me Too is on the top list of virtual icebreaker ideas https://remotemode.net/ for meetings. This is one of my favourite activities for virtual team building. It’s quick, effective and can be modified for almost any scenario.