Since many companies have switched to remote working, meetings are now held virtually. In these meetings, we may even see colleagues we have never met.
In such cases, managers have a great responsibility. It may not be pleasant to start the meeting by talking business directly.
First of all, employees need to socialize and feel comfortable. Only in this way can they share all their ideas and criticisms without fear.
There are some fun games, activities and questions to provide to feel more connected and a sense of comfort for virtual teams.
Some Virtual Icebreaker Activities
You can use some games to soften the atmosphere in meetings. In this way, team members can meet each other.
Funny background
You can ask your employees to choose a fun background before coming to the meeting.
The first few minutes your team will have a lot of fun focusing on these. They will criticize for a while and give feedback.
You can even ask people who don’t know each other to comment on each other’s backgrounds to break the ice.
You can use many funny background on OCTAPULL. They will help you to increase your teammates’ motivation.
Breakout rooms
Breakout rooms are important for teamwork to be more efficient. It can also provide stronger ties among team members.
You can divide your team into small groups.
Fewer people who stay in the virtual room without a moderator will feel more comfortable and confident and start chatting on the topic you have determined.
After your colleagues get together a bit, you can visit the virtual rooms and join their conversation.
Guess whose desk it is?
In this game, you can ask one of your employees for a photo of his office. You get the estimates by asking who this table belongs to at the meeting.
While people are guessing, after a few minutes you’ll find there are jokes and laughter in the virtual meeting.
The last photo on your phone
Before you start talking about work, you can ask your employees to prepare the last photo they took on their phones
Take turns asking a few of your employees to show them the photo and see how much fun your team is having.
But remember, you can’t force anyone who doesn’t want to share their photo. Maybe it’s a private photo.
Two truths and one lie
This is now a classic icebreaker game. The meeting host asks the participants to tell two truths and one lie about themselves.
Other participants try to figure out which is true and which is false. Thus, employees start to get to know their teammates and realize what mode they are in when they lie.
They also learn new things about their colleagues. This strengthens the ties and provides a more friendly working environment.
Some Virtual Icebreaker Questions
You may want to start the meetings faster, but you may also want to break up that serious atmosphere.
Some quick questions also can be used to warm up the meeting as a fun icebreaker. Thus, team engagement can be provided. For example as a great icebreaker:
- What are you thankful for nowadays?
- What is your favorite movie?
- Have you ever met any famous person?
- What are you excited about today?
- Quickly state interesting facts you learned recently.
- Have you ever tried an extreme sport?
- Which skill would you like to have?
- What is your favorite city?
- Have you ever been in a car accident?
- What is your favorite photo from a vacation?
- React with an emoji describing your mood today.
- Have you ever received a present that you did not like?
- From which city are you attending the meeting?
- Tell me about your best friend.
- What is the biggest responsibility you have in your life?
You can also prepare a poll as an ice breaker by clicking here. You give a time limit to answer the questions and talk about them after a few minutes.
