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And part of fostering that remote team communication is developing a personal rapport with the other meeting attendees. They establish easy ways to find things in common with people you may have never met in person. You can use them during meetings, one-on-one discussions, or even instant messages. This activity is a tried and tested way to help create connections and can be a great icebreaker for virtual meetings too! Where possible, invite participants to share their truths and lies in an online whiteboard or shared document to make it easy to play and to debrief with later. This is especially fun if you have a diverse team that celebrates a wide range of holidays!
- You can also help everyone get to know each other by using family-based icebreakers to start conversations with your remote team members.
- But with the below tips, you’ll come up with the best possible ice breaker questions.
- More fun than a simple introduction, virtual meeting icebreaker games help teams bond and foster connections.
- Mural is the visual work platform that allows all kinds of teams to do better work together — from anywhere.
- If your employees need to stagger their lunches, try to rotate the time you meet so everyone has an opportunity to participate.
Want to check in with your group but don’t want to get caught up in a time-consuming game? Draw Your Mood is a unique, creative way of gauging employee moods before a virtual meeting. https://remotemode.net/blog/15-effective-icebreakers-for-virtual-meetings/ You’ve probably seen companies using Caption This to encourage their audience to interact with their content. Well, it also works brilliantly as a fun virtual icebreaker.
The best ice breaker questions for virtual meetings
Nominate the next person to make a statement and continue until everyone has had a chance to make a statement. Start by sharing a list of items, some obvious and some less so. Ask each participant to choose 1-3 items they would take with them in order to survive on a desert island. 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.
Or, had a deep conversation about life, the universe, and everything with a bunch of colleagues in a kitchenette or by the watercooler? Then, he displayed people’s submissions on the screen and the team guessed who is who just from the three brands. It’s fun to identify people, plus everyone gets to share something about themselves. You’ll definitely learn a lot of interesting stuff about each other.
What is a virtual icebreaker?
It is ideally played with four to six people, although variations can be enjoyed with more depending on the size of the group. Large groups may break up into small groups and have the chance to communicate immediately with each other by playing this question game. They can get to know one another’s tastes and share a few of their favorites. In some cases, you’ll be surprised with answers such as “Hard” and “Stressful,” and that’s when you can reach out to them and see how you can help. They say a picture is worth more than a thousand words, but so do emojis!
- To help guide conversations, you could also provide a short list of ice-breaker-like questions to ask each other — especially if your team doesn’t know each other very well yet.
- Creating a solid team bond can be challenging when there are more than a handful of people at your workplace.
- From Grandma’s meatball soup to Rasam (a south Indian soup), you’ll be amazed at the diversity in recipes that your employees will share.
In this game, participants must find the one thing that they all have in common that is not related to work. This virtual icebreaker is fun because it requires extra effort to find out more about each person. You can begin with everyone just throwing random facts out there, asking questions, and seeing where they can make connections—even if it’s a stretch! For example, you might say, “I love to cook.” Another coworker might then say, “I’m a terrible cook, but I love to eat. My favorite food is Italian.” Someone else might chime in, “I speak Italian!
Start evaluating if your employees know how much you value them!
To do this ice-breaker, everyone should choose an image that represents their hometown, and set it as their virtual background or take turns sharing the image in the chat. So why are remote team building activities like icebreakers so important? Because social connection is important to your bottom line. With increased social connection comes higher employee engagement, less stress, and a generally healthier outlook on work and business.
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.
Two or three individuals can also play against each other simultaneously. It can be as simple as a pulse check to see how members of the team are doing, about what’s going to be covered in the meeting, or something silly. Have the meeting host play a song at the beginning of the meeting.
Doing this helps give structure while allowing creativity to flow throughout the activity. This game is mostly about sharing what each member of the group went through – in terms of work – during the week. With this question, you can help your team be more conscious about the present and remember what’s truly important.