25 fun icebreakers for virtual meetings

Ensure it’s a city where none of your coworkers live before giving them 10 minutes to find the airport. Everyone can submit suggestions over chat or mic while the team leader navigates the map. It’s a communication-based team-building exercise that gets everyone warmed up over a silly exercise. People sometimes feel awkward about chiming in during a meeting because they’re not together in person. Disengaged employees cost businesses $450 and $550 billion annually, so utilizing icebreakers saves companies money and forges better relationships.

For large group meetings, break attendees up into groups of 3-6 people, and have each small group complete the icebreaker. Joking aside, virtual icebreakers can foster team closeness, and I do use (and enjoy!) them when done right. So below, let’s look at 12 virtual icebreakers your team won’t hate. This is an incredibly simple game, but it can also create space for great conversations that help teams of any size or maturity get more familiar with one another and have some laughs too!

What lies ahead?

With this question, you can help your team be more conscious about the present and remember what’s truly important. You never know if someone is struggling with something or has something nice to share. Ask everyone in the meeting to describe their current feelings/situation with an emoji – or a string of https://remotemode.net/ emojis. But we might not know what others are dreaming of, or even if we have something in common with our colleagues. You just need to ask everyone on the call to grab a piece of paper and a black marker. Then think of an animal, object, or whatever comes into your mind that you think they can draw.

We love Artwork Achieve’s prompt, “Illustrate a cause or current event that you are passionate about.” Allow 10 minutes for creating and 10 minutes for sharing and discussing. Govloop has a counter-intuitive icebreaker that actually leads to lots of laughter. Tell everyone they can’t smile during the first five minutes https://remotemode.net/blog/15-effective-icebreakers-for-virtual-meetings/ of the meeting. You’ll be amazed at how humorous some people become when they’re told not to smile. Water Cooler Trivia gives you and your team weekly trivia quizzes that spark conversation and competition. The trivia is super-customizable so you can choose the categories and difficulty that work for your team.

fun icebreakers for virtual meetings

These fun and interactive activities can help lighten the atmosphere, spark conversations, and keep everyone engaged throughout the meeting. By including these interesting icebreaker questions for virtual meetings, you can create a welcoming and relaxed work environment. Because of the increasing prevalence of remote work, these questions have become an essential strategy for building relationships and fostering a collaborative work environment.

This idea from Lifehack requires minimal effort and minimal funds. To play, pass a roll of toilet paper around and have everyone rip off how much they would usually use. When the toilet paper makes it all the way around the circle, have everyone count their squares.

Virtual trivia night

Some guests may have hidden talents they can showcase; holding a talent show allows your guests to show off their talented creative side! Each person describes a rose, thorn and bud in their professional life! A rose is a positive aspect of work, a thorn is a challenge you have with work, and a bud is an idea or thought you have. Each group needs to try to build the tallest, free-standing structure! Each team gets 20 pieces of spaghetti, 3 feet of tape and string and a marshmallow.

Many companies prefer to start or end their meetings with icebreaker games or a quick game of trivia to break the ice. This makes everyone feel energised before the meeting and even end the meeting on a positive note. Icebreaker games help your guests become comfortable and more familiar with their colleagues, whether in person or through virtual meetings.

Ahead of the meeting, have your team upload a background based on a theme and have everyone guess where the photo was taken or what it depicts. For best results, pair these questions with Chat Waterfall, call on people to speak or break people into smaller groups to talk among themselves. Dropping a question into a group without structure or clear rules of engagement can be met with an awkward silence. I prefer to use these kinds of questions in breakout rooms or in smaller groups and to tailor the specific questions to fit the team I’m working with. To play, the facilitator will first generate several would you rather questions,  write the questions on different cards, and finally, label each card with a number.

• But you don’t need to search around for some great questions.
• To start quizzing your coworkers, get more information at The Go Game.
• The goal is to have the team guess the word or phrase based on the drawings, creating a fun and engaging experience for all participants.
• Create an inexpensive memory wall using a white board and sticky notes.
• Get over the stiff vibes of a Zoom meeting with a quick online game that everyone can enjoy like this one.
• Simply ask your participants a thought-provoking ‘this or that’ poll question with two options to choose from.