We are all so busy that we forget about simple things such as asking our colleagues how they are doing. You can start your meeting with this question and go one by one to know more about their day or current situation.

One option is to play “two truths and a lie.” Each person takes a turn sharing three facts about themselves, two of which are true and one of which is false. The other participants then have to guess which fact is the lie. Finally, don’t forget to follow up with participants after the meeting. A quick thank-you note or follow-up email can help to show your appreciation for everyone’s participation. Add a fun GIF related to a joke or specific moment of the meeting. Team building questions are designed to incite exchange and interaction between team members. To do so, avoid closed questions or simple yes or no questions.

Chew On This Icebreaker

This can mean incorporating polls, breakout rooms, and Q&A sessions into the agenda. That’s why I advise you to do a bit of research before using this icebreaker. This method is effective because it gives unique insights into some fantasies of your audience. Immediately, you will get an idea of who the other person is and what interests them. Many people are working from home nowadays, especially due to the coronavirus. The workspace of a person tells many stories about them. Though there’s prep work to do for this icebreaker, the results could be well worth the effort.

Before the meeting, let your employees know what supplies they’ll need or, even better, send your participants a kit for the session. That means selecting the right questions, getting teams together, facilitating trivia rounds, and keeping track of the score. During your circle of appreciation, call out one employee’s name. Ask the person shown to the right of them to start the circle and list one thing they are grateful for about that person. A virtual circle of appreciation allows your employees to recognize each other and helps them feel more appreciated.

Virtual Ice Breakers For Fun Team Meetings

In person, you can form a circle, while on video you may not even know what order your people are in. Your team might be feeling the Zoom fatigue at this point. You can help mitigate the effects by utilizing other virtual avenues for virtual ice breaker questions.

Ice breakers are a great way to start a virtual meeting and get distributed teams to feel more connected. Zoom meetings can be extremely awkward—many faces staring at the screen without saying anything. Or, https://remotemode.net/ in some cases trying to save the conversation with a random comment. And the thing about awkward meetings is that no one wants to talk or share their ideas because the environment simply feels weird.

Quick Ice Breakers For Large Groups That Are Fun? Heck Yeah!

It’s a great way to get team members to open up by asking them fun questions that break the ice. Choose from a range of community-built plugins and widgets to get your team talking.

Team activities can take more time to plan, but they’re fantastic for delighting attendees and nurturing a positive team feeling. Get our best insights on how to boost your team collaboration and improve any of your creative sessions, delivered bi-weekly straight to your inbox. YouTubefeatures hundreds of informativeTED Talksthat team members can all benefit from listening to and discussing together. A host can even have discussion questions regarding the TED Talk prepared to present to the team via Zoom. Have your leadership summits and professional development seminars been cancelled until further notice?

The Ultimate Employee Onboarding Checklist & Free Templates To Keep Things Organized

Set aside 15 minutes, ask the same question of everyone — or vary the question from person to person — and really get to know your team. If you’re using multiple choice questions, provide four possible answers and ask participants to place their colored dot next to the correct answer. Or just add True or False as text boxes to the board. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.

If you were looking for some team icebreakers – this would be the one. Everyone in your team gets to see each other’s side through responses to icebreaker questions—and that can be heartwarming and generate some good laughs, too. Yes, you can have so much fun with ice breaker questions. They could be about cool things to do as a team, funny work-from-home experiences, favorite movies or hobbies, imaginary situations, and even riddles and tongue twisters. Icebreakers are, well, a great way to break the “ice” at the beginning of a work meeting or the start of an activity. Get-to-know-you prompts provide an opportunity for the members of your group – especially if they don’t know each other – to begin to feel more comfortable with one another.

Guess My Hometown

Awards banquets and parties give you the chance to recognize your employees for a job well done. However, in this virtual awards ceremony, you aren’t exactly recognizing their hard work. Not all of us have the icebreakers for virtual meetings amazing guitar talent some were blessed with, but we all love to pretend. Hosting a virtual air guitar competition evens the playing field. Ask your employees about the absolute worst movie they’ve watched.

• Participants can use virtual sticky notes to write their answers and elaborate with pics and GIFs.
• I had each team member anonymously write something they’ve done and felt guilty about during the week that they haven’t told anyone.
• Team building has been shown to help employees develop better relationships and increase engagement.
• These pictures will give you a quick peek into where and how people work by helping you see their life in real time.

They’re also a great antidote for the feelings of disconnection that so many remote team members experience. From funny ice breakers to asking the right questions, virtual ice breakers can be just as effective as in-person ones. With tools like Hugo on your side, you can reclaim fun, productive team meetings no matter how distributed your teams are. There are many online team-building platforms for remote teams. Plus, many team-oriented and collaboration companies offer ice-breaking questions, games, and activities that you can use for your virtual meetings. From virtual icebreakers to remote team building activities, we have many opportunities to engage our employees and strengthen our teams.

Bonus #6 The building Connections Icebreaker

The trivia is super-customizable so you can choose the categories and difficulty that work for your team. You can even choose a “personalized” category like Coffee, NYC, or Tech that their professional question-writers will write just for you. Bring in the head of your department or project and give everyone 15 minutes to ask any questions they have, no holds barred. This icebreaker gets everyone thinking about the topic of your meeting. It might even clarify some of the issues the meeting aims to solve.

For the best results, have your team share pictures of their creation and send a short employee survey so everyone can vote for their favorite. You can replicate this experience virtually either by hiring a local artist to virtually host a painting session or having an artistic employee volunteer to host. Using Zoom, you can host karaoke night with your employees. To do this, first send out an open-ended employee survey asking your team what their preferred karaoke songs are. Before you host your virtual circle of appreciation, create a document and create a box for each employee with their name.

Working remotely can make team meetings a bit awkward. Sometimes people speak without realizing they’re muted, or no one is sure who should speak first. Without a good way to break the ice and get everyone talking, the sound of crickets can become very evident. Virtual icebreakers are particularly useful for team meetings or training sessions where your participants don’t know each other well. Using icebreakers in these low-stress situations can help increase connections between members.

Your team can still learn something new from the comfort of your home offices. Fellow is the meeting productivity and team management software where teams gather to build collaborative agendas, record decisions, and keep each other accountable.

Virtual Game

” But they aren’t the crux of your meeting, nor should they be. Other main themes, talking points, and action items should be the focus. And with Fellow, you can easily create meeting agendas that incorporate all the necessary elements, share them with your team, and get right to work. This game requires a bit of preparation and shows a more personal and emotional side of the participants.