You can choose from various different session types or themes. Take advantage of one of the visual collaboration tools such as Mural. We tried it recently during our Brand team meeting and it was an hour well spent – productive, creative, and fun. These are great get-to-know-you games and longer team-building activities that will both entertain and bring the team closer together. Sometimes, a question just doesn’t land—maybe it’s too niche, or the group isn’t warmed up yet. Have a few backup questions ready (especially fun or quirky ones) or pivot to something more relatable.
Object Meditation is a calming and mindful way to open a meeting and encourage everyone to be present. They say “A Calm Mind is an Effective Mind” and with a calmer mind, you can better explore those challenges in life with calmness and centered awareness. Learn how to transform your team’s goals into measurable outcomes with powerful OKRs.
Teams must move a ball across a tarp riddled with holes, without dropping it. Each participant holds the tarp, and success depends on constant coordination and communication. It’s light on setup but rich in insights about how people collaborate under shifting conditions. With a partner, find the 3 most unlikely / unusual / unique things you have in common with each other.
A list of virtual icebreakers wouldn’t be complete without a group photo! This one’s as much fun through a video chat as much as it is in real life. And you can repeat it time and time again by taking a different picture each time — make funny faces, bring in your pets, do a crazy gesture, be creative.
A good conversation starter should be open-ended, instead of closed. Choose questions that need more of an explanation or description. 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. Then, he displayed people’s submissions on the screen and the team guessed who is who just from the three brands.
Not only is this interesting, but it’s a team bonding activity that provides an avenue for people to know each other more intimately. As a group, try to say the alphabet out loud, one letter per person, at random, without any assigned order. It’s harder than it sounds, and even better when attempted with eyes closed. It quickly builds attentiveness, collaboration, and a shared sense of accomplishment. The more intimate environment allows for deeper conversation, more active listening, and better recall of who said what.
‘Which three hashtags would best describe your work personality? This one gets people to be creative and show their humor a little bit. For questions that will get people more relaxed and interactive, bring some humor into it. Ask questions that everyone can relate to, and get their imaginations going. This question tells you what the person’s values are, and what philosophy guides them in life.
These questions will help foster stronger bonds during meetings or events. Participants form small teams and are given 20 minutes to create a product or service idea, complete with a pitch and business plan. They present their idea to “sharks” (managers or peers) who decide whether to “invest.” This dynamic team building ice breakers enhances creativity, public speaking, and teamwork. Provide teams with a stack of random images, such as abstract art, everyday objects, or silly scenes. The challenge is for each team to create a coherent and engaging story that ties all the pictures together. They present their narrative to the group, and everyone votes on the most creative or entertaining story.
To take team bonding to the next level, make a game out of explaining your answers in great detail. Make sure you aren’t just asking “intense” icebreaker questions; throw some funny icebreaker questions into the mix, too! The funniest icebreakers are lighthearted questions that open up the conversation and help your team warm up to one another.
Using an icebreaker at the start of a team meeting is a great way to encourage group members to be present and get things started on the right foot. Effective opening activities energize the group, helping them ‘arrive’ mentally and leave behind whatever task or thought they were previously working on. By continuing to engage your team and providing opportunities for collaboration, you can turn a simple icebreaker activity into a more cohesive, connected, and high-performing team.
But it’s better to have a clear picture of the emotional state of those in attendance before the meeting starts. This ice breaker can help the leader better guide them through the meeting. No, it’s not an ice breaker to name your favorite type of bucket.
Prompt attendees to take a selfie with someone they haven’t Youmetalks met. Post using your event hashtag or upload to your app’s activity feed. Works especially well at receptions and breaks, and gives your social stream a boost. Museum Hack leads online storytelling workshops that are fun, fast-paced and surprisingly cool. By using groups of just a few people, you can ensure each person gets space to share and the relationships that are built on this foundation can be meaningful indeed.
Or you could tweak that too if you were a car, or if your coworkers were cars, etc. You’re probably seeing how these ice breaker questions are almost a stealthy way to analyze your team and work environment. Revamp nametags by asking attendees to list a challenge they’re trying to solve (“building a hybrid team”) and an area of expertise (“virtual onboarding”). It invites helpful conversations and grounds networking in purpose, not small talk.
This is a simple facilitation tip that I’ve found effective when ensuring icebreakers are quick and effective. In many icebreakers, its quite common for people to each contribute to a game or question one-by-one. Rather than having people look to you as facilitator and create unnecessary downtime, trying having each person end their “turn” by selecting who goes next.
We accept our feelings, leaving behind what we doesn’t serve us right now. Slowly move into deeper territory by naming traits and concepts that resonate with your audience. With established groups, invite participants to share their own welcome, focusing on helping everyone in the room feel safe and welcome.
Go back and forth between clicking and rubbing in order to replicate the sound of rain and then invite the group to stop and enjoy a break in the shower. Start the Name Game by having the group sit in a circle where they can see everyone else clearly. The next person continues, but after saying their own name, they repeat the first person’s name.