Here are some ideas to break the virtual ice, start conversation, and help make the meeting memorable. These shouldn’t be rushed, so make sure you leave enough time for genuine conversation around the answers during the meeting. Weekly team meetings or one-on-one conferences are about to get much more fun for remote teams. You don’t need to be in the same room to enjoy these icebreakers.
- Find or create a story with blank spaces, then have team members choose adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to fill in the blanks.
- The team wins when they are able to go around the circle without making any mistakes.
- Here are a few frequently asked questions about large group icebreakers.
- Get it wrong and risk being met with groaning team members or indifference.
- The next, team member number two, will introduce participant number one then themself.
- Gartic Phone gives you a short time frame to sketch photos based on other players’ prompts—and can result in some hilarious artwork.
- Simply ask everyone to send an emoji to the host or group chat reflecting how they feel that day.
There is no catching up or small talk and some people keep themselves muted for the duration of the meeting. You likely have unengaged employees because you have unengaging meetings. Change things up to create a more interactive meeting with virtual meeting ice breakers. As a kid, you might’ve managed to get along with others and connect on a deeper level purely by spending time playing video games together. The activities listed below can be great solutions for remote teams as well as leadership and executive meetings.
#16. What’s the last picture that you took?
In smaller groups, ask each person to select items, though with teams of over 10 people, it can be great to separate into breakouts and deliberate which items to bring as a team. The Desert Island is great for offering a framework for conversation with no single correct answer and which allows creative, individual responses. Virtual icebreakers can be particularly helpful for new team members who may feel isolated or disconnected in a virtual setting. Here are a few virtual icebreaker ideas that are ideal for welcoming new team members into the fold and to supplement your onboarding efforts. First, invite people to open up the chat in your video conferencing app.
This ice breaker requires a little planning beforehand and will likely go over better with a group you can count on participating. Then, each person can dress up, change their background, or try to find unique ways to incorporate the theme into the gathering. No matter what their personality types are (including introverts), the right features will give each attendee a clear opportunity to participate. Put an image on the screen and have everyone describe it with one word. This can either be a work-related activity or a side task that’s relevant to the meeting. Or another option is to ask fun questions using this framework.
What are some fun ways to start a virtual meeting?
A research study found 78.3% of people with bucket lists have personal goals they want to accomplish. Everyone can mention the top thing on their bucket list they haven’t done or have done to get to know each other. Ask your team to pick one to three essentials and ask everyone to explain why they chose them. Someone might show their dog’s favorite bandana because they’d never vacation without their pup. Another team member might reveal a bag of MnMs since they eat chocolate every day.
Ask everyone what their parents almost named them or what they wanted their name to be as a kid. If someone doesn’t have an answer to either question, they can also talk about their childhood nickname. Everyone on your team can mention one thing they did before turning 18. Maybe icebreakers for virtual meetings they faced their fears and tried out for the school musical or did math speed tests the fastest in third grade. People can bond over shared experiences or celebrate what every person has accomplished. They could mention them by name, or you could pick titles for a fun challenge.
Chat Waterfall
Would You Rather is among the most intriguing virtual icebreakers for remote teams. In this activity, the players present weird questions and take turns to answer. 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 feeling of disconnection in the workplace is startlingly common and is a leading cause of frequent employee turnover.
- Zoo Line-up is one of the most creative icebreaker ideas for Zoom meetings.
- Our People team has recently done a wine-tasting call and it was a great team bonding experience.
- Though this is mostly applicable to small meetings, there are ways to do this for large conferences.
- Start an icebreaker conversation about everyone’s favorite childhood costume if Halloween is coming up.
- For more serious meeting scenarios, ice breakers require a slightly different approach to maintain a desired level of professionalism.
- Once the spaces are filled, the host reads the story out loud.
- There are so many different opinions on movies that you can discover people on your team who share your same movies and others who are completely the opposite.
- This ice breaker for virtual meetings is perfect for a group that doesn’t have much time or doesn’t know each other very well.
