18 BEST VIRTUAL ICE BREAKERS FOR ONLINE MEETINGS

Virtual Ice breakers for online meetings:

With a good icebreaker, you can set the mood for the meeting, give your online participants a chance to speak, and make them more comfortable sharing and interacting throughout. For your inspiration, here are 18 ideas for virtual icebreakers that worked for us and were fun to participate in – even for the introverts!

1. Mood barometer

Remote work can be a lonely business. Show your colleagues that you care and ask your team how they are. Since not everyone may be comfortable with sharing this verbally, ask your team members via a poll. This way, you can be sure that everybody will participate and that their answers will be honest. For example, you can try a rating poll such as this one: “On a scale of 1-7, how are you feeling today? You can then use the results as a discussion starter and ask your colleagues something like: “I can see that not everyone is feeling at their best. Does anyone want to share their thoughts?”

2. Where are you joining us from?

If your teammates are scattered around the world, kick off your meeting by sending a virtual hi to each one of them. At the beginning of your Zoom call, run a word cloud poll on Slido with a question “Where are you joining us from?” As your colleagues post their locations, give them a special shout-out

By the end, the word cloud will create a nice collage of all the different places This virtual icebreaker is ideal for larger meetings or virtual events – the more locations, the better the word cloud will look.

3. Zoom background challenge

Share some laughs with your teammates on Zoom. Before your next all-hands or town hall meeting, set a theme and ask your colleagues to pick a virtual background image that, for them, represents it best. Get creative, there are infinite possibilities: Favourite movie scenes, 80’s disco, memes, dream vacation places, you name it. Seeing each other’s backgrounds will break the ice and give you something to talk about during the first minutes of the call. Zoom virtual backgrounds are also great for hiding a messy kitchen behind you, or a trespassing family member!

4. Home treasure hunt

Get your colleagues out of their chairs for a bit – they will appreciate a little physical activity. Give them a little task such as: “You have 25 seconds to fetch something yellow,” or “Get the weirdest thing in your apartment, then bring it back to show us”. This activity is fun and can reveal some fun facts about your colleagues!

5. How would you describe…?

You can also use word clouds to pick up your team’s thoughts and feelings. Open your meeting with a question such as: “In one word, how would you describe the past week/month?” This icebreaker is great for taking a pulse check of the overall atmosphere in the team and detecting possible downturns. Or you can even try something different like: “If you were to describe our company in one word, what would it be?”

6. Virtual body language

Having microphones muted during a video call is a good practice to avoid any disturbing background noises, but it often hinders spontaneous communication between people. Create a signal or multiple signal that will help people express themselves. For example, instead of clapping when celebrating something, shake hands in the air. Raise a hand into the camera when asking for a time to speak. To express love or happiness, do a little heart symbol by putting both hands together or a simple thumbs-up.

7. Team trivia quiz

Icebreakers also give you a great opportunity to get to know your colleagues better. Try a fun quiz with questions about your team. Collect interesting facts about each team member and then let other colleagues guess away. We are sure you will dig out plenty of fun stuff! We run this type of quiz when we introduce a new team member or as a holiday fun activity.

8. Play around with emoji reactions

Sometimes, it is hard to get a sense of how your team members are feeling – especially during larger meetings. Encourage your teammates to use emoji reactions during your Zoom calls. For example, at the start of your meeting, ask your colleagues to click the emoji that best describes their current mood.

9. Give kudos to your heroes

This is not only an icebreaker but a morale booster as well. And we all need that now and then, especially when working in isolation. Give kudos to the heroes in your team. Kick-off you are meeting with a word cloud poll such as: “Who was your silent hero this month?” Acknowledging people for the effort they are doing is a wonderful way to start a meeting. Expect lots of hearty “aaaw-s” and “oh-s”!

Tip: combine the word cloud with an open text poll, so that people can also leave a heart-warming message for their nominated silent hero.

10. Random question

Here is another one from the ‘Get to know your colleagues better’ series. Set up a new tradition and ask your team one random question each week or month. For example:

• What is the most useless thing you have in your home?
• What would your superpower be if you had one?
• What one thing should everybody stop doing right now?
• What is one song or artist that you are embarrassed to admit you like?

11. Highlight of the month

Here is another way to lift people’s spirits. Crowdsource your colleagues’ personal or professional highlights of the last week or month. As you kick off your meeting, ask your teammates to post their top moments in an open text poll. Then, display the highlights on the screen, and give a shout out to each one. It is good to remind people of all the remarkable work that they have done.

12. Screw-up of the month

Sharing is caring – and that should apply for both the good and the bad. Besides highlights, also share some of the failures of the last month. It makes for a great team-bonding experience. Using an open text poll, encourage your team to share a thing that did not go that well for them in the last month.

You can then open a discussion about all your lowlights and what you learned from them. As a leader, do not forget to contribute as well. Showing vulnerability is also a form of strength.

13. Coffee time

Have you heard of Fika? It is a Swedish word often interpreted as “a coffee and cake break”. For Swedes, however, it is much more than that. It is about taking a break from everything for a while and enjoying quality time with friends or colleagues over a cup of coffee or tea. Take Fika to an online environment. You can call it however you like – virtual watercooler talks, virtual happy hour, you name it. But be sure to schedule an informal team catch-up from time to time just to chat with your teammates about something other than work. In remote times, it will help people feel less isolated.

14. Two truths & one lie

This fun game is great for introducing new colleagues or getting to know each other better. Collect two true facts and one falsehood about a colleague and put it into a multiple-choice poll. Then, at the beginning of your meeting, ask your team to guess which one of the statements about this colleague is a lie. The quirkier the statement, the more fun this virtual icebreaker is.

PS: Do not forget to ask the person who the poll is about to share at least one story behind the statements.

15. Home fashion police

Another fun live poll to help you lighten the mood. Check up on your teammates’ work-from-home attire. It is popular folklore that people love wearing PJs all day long during a home office. How does your team stand on this fashion statement? Another similarly popular activity is “Take a picture of your shoes” that is equally hilarious. Starting a meeting with some laughs will help your teammates feel more connected. For recurring meetings, come up with a different fun poll each time.

16. Doodle away

Many say that doodling during the meeting helps people be more attentive and creative. At the beginning of your meeting, ask your teammates to grab a pen and a piece of paper and doodle away. When the meeting is coming to an end, have your teammates share their artwork with the rest of the colleagues by showing their papers into the camera.

17. Weekend photo contest

A slow start after the weekend? Run a quick weekend photo contest to get your teammates talking. Tell them to share a cool photo from their weekend.

You can then put people’s names in a Slido multiple choice poll and have your colleagues vote for the best shot!

18. Family portrait

Taking a group photo of you (even through video chat) is another way to have some fun. Take a different one each time — make funny faces, bring in your pets, do a crazy gesture, be creative.

Content per slido.com