So what are the best icebreakers for your in-person, remote, and hybrid workshops or meetings? All great workshops and meetings start with a good icebreaker. You can’t just put a bunch of people in a room and expect them to be creative—you have to warm them up first. With so many people working remotely, this is a fun and easy way to start conversation about where people are located and what their current work environment is like. Ask everyone to take a photo of the view from their closest window.

Starting with eight shakes of the right arm, then eight shakes of the left, eight shakes of the right leg, then eight shakes of the left. It continues with a round of four shakes of each limb, then two, then icebreakers for virtual meetings one, ending in a big cheer. A good energizer when time is limited and the main aim is to get people moving. 9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members.

If you could choose to have any superpower, which would you choose?

That’s why virtual team building activities and virtual ice breakers have become so popular in the past year, and we don’t see that changing any time soon. Plus, in order for a meeting to be productive, there has to be an open and clear line of communication between participants. And part of fostering that remote team communication is developing a personal rapport with the other meeting attendees. These virtual templates can be used in a variety of situations, ranging from online classes and online meetings to virtual team building activities and remote social events. Typically, virtual icebreaker templates will include introductions, personal preferences, games, photo sharing, and group discussions.

  • It allows everyone a moment to reflect on their personal successes and to hear and learn about the achievements of their colleagues.
  • Pick some of these easy icebreaker questions below to start a virtual meeting off the right way.
  • We love Pictionary as an icebreaker because it gets the creative juices flowing.
  • Sharing is caring – and that should apply to both the good and the bad.
  • Try making this activity part of a group routine at the start of every team meeting for bonus points.

Instead of cringing at someone saying “You’re on mute”, your team will get a comedic kick once they X it off their Bingo sheets. Your team is guaranteed to have fun while staying highly engaged. Ensure that all members of the team are able to participate and all content is suitable for the diverse range of people within the team, as well as workplace rules and etiquette. You can make it even more fun by trying to make the participants smile and laugh. Everyone knows how to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, and many people might even have a winning technique that they rely on.

Ice Breaker Short Stories

(We doubt this will be a problem.) Send everyone a link to a personality quiz you think they would like. Since there are probably over a million quizzes circulating, we know there will be one to pique your interest. Everyone can take the quiz and then reveal their results to the group. Have everyone explain why they agree or disagree with the results.

Seeing each other’s backgrounds will break the ice and give you something to talk about during the first minutes of the call. These are great get-to-know-you games and longer team-building activities that will both entertain and bring the team closer together. It’s much more fun and you’ll spark creativity among your colleagues. You can use a Slido word cloud for that, but instead of words, your participants will submit an emoji. This works best with larger meetings and events when a large number of emojis gets submitted.

Short on time? Try an icebreaker question

Every member of a team is also an individual, and in this game, participants are invited to imagine themselves as the member of a pirate crew! Start by sharing the image of the crew of a pirate ship and ask each person to choose who they most identify with. Then ask everyone to share, either in the chat, verbally on in breakout groups.

With established groups, invite participants to share their own welcome, focusing on helping everyone in the room feel safe and welcome. Explain that they will get to know each other through their keys. A great way to get to know each other is to have participants place themselves on an imaginary map laid out in the room representing the country according to where they grew up. Ask them to share one internal value they got from that place, and why that is important for them.

Zoom Icebreaker Games & Activities

As people introduce themselves, ask them to pick a 1-2 minute anecdote that was embarrassing for them in the past, and what they learned from the experience. This offers teammates a way to share a personal (and probably funny) story without much risk, and gives everyone a chance to talk about not only themselves but their friends. Have everyone introduce themselves, and https://remotemode.net/ then share a short (1-2 minute) origin story behind one of their friendships. Just having more meetings isn’t the answer (in fact, it can even make the problem worse). The key is to build intentional and meaningful collaborative experiences into your work. These experiences can take many forms, but one effective approach is to use icebreakers to kick off a meeting.

ice breakers for conference calls