You will be happy you included a few icebreakers in your call. This system gives each participant clarity on who is going next and when it is their turn. Here is a list of short virtual ice breaker questions you can use as bonding activities in virtual meetings or conference calls. For example, you might prompt with “your name, your role, and where you consider home.” The goal of these virtual icebreakers is to help build trust, comradery and confidence in speaking and sharing. Agree? Icebreaker questions are an easy way to increase engagement in a virtual meeting. Here’s a few ideas. Try out fun, well-known virtual backgrounds and have meeting members guess the location (perhaps a well-known coffee shop from a TV show, a historical location, or … And if designed with care, icebreakers can be ideal. A system could look like this: Not only creates a system like this more engagement, it’s also easy to follow, your meetings are faster and you people are generally happier. Many of us have experienced online meetings to be dull and unenergetic, with many video screens off. In person, you can form a circle, while on video you may not even know what order your people are in. Informal catch ups without an agenda are a great way to bond team members together and replace the water cooler chats typically happening in a real office environment. Employees rarely need anything more than their laptops to hold virtual meetings, which is great as more folks take advantage of remote work policies . If the group is large, break out into smaller groups. Having microphones muted during virtual meetings is a good practice, but it also hinders people expressing themselves. If you want to use virtual backgrounds as an icebreaker for your events, you have to do some preparation work. Home » Blog » Resources » Virtual Icebreaker Questions. By the way, other ways to break the ice include telling icebreaker jokes and playing online team building games. There have been many articles written on the topic, so I’ve scoured the internet to bring you the best ideas I could find, categorized by the purpose of the activity. Fear not, these 10 virtual meeting ice breakers are exactly what you need. What work from home habit is most successful for you? Icebreaker questions are an easy way to increase engagement in a virtual meeting. What is a best practice when working from home? 12 Ice Breakers and Ideas to Shake Up Your Digital Meetings. Personally, we love the Homer Simpson one on the bottom left. Check-ins and icebreakers also help build relationships and now more than ever we need to be feel a sense of human connection. But hey, we all need a morale booster every once in a while, especially when working in isolation. Pandemic Check-Ins & … What is the first website you remember visiting? Take a break from everything and enjoy some quality time with your friends/colleagues over a cup of coffee/tea or a glass of Champagne. 1. This is where Zoom icebreakers can help get your meetings off to a good start with your virtual team! You can use any of the questions on this list or create your own. What is the most interesting online article you’ve read lately? Staying focused and engaged can be difficult. So, check out our list of virtual icebreaker questions. As 2020 continues on, virtual meetings have become a normal part of many people’s work life. Heck, some of them could even work as first date questions–which is kind of the point, since icebreakers are supposed to help people get to know each other better. Have you ever left a 1 star review online? Use these meeting icebreakers responsibly (and successfully) You might find that some of these questions can be repurposed for other types of meetings or other scenarios. A friendly competition will energise your team and add a fun-factor. Overall, virtual ice breakers are a fantastic way to foster deeper emotional, personal connections to teammates. One of the biggest challenges of remote work is trying to find a balance and turning your home into a work place. Icebreakers are usually performed at the beginning of a meeting or team session and involve a group of people. Which blog written by a single author is your favorite? CEO of teambuilding.com. Would you rather work from the beach or a mountain cabin? A virtual spin on the classic icebreaker. © 2021 TeamBuilding, All Rights Reserved. Interesting questions make for great icebreakers, especially virtual ones. The right music can help to create an excellent experience for your next virtual meeting. Many check-ins and icebreakers can be adapted to virtual meetings and working in an age of a pandemic. Virtual ice-breakers are the same, but they are done via video calls. Whether that’s to welcome new team members, make virtual meetings less awkward, help absolute strangers collaborate during workshops, or even get students to play nice with each other in a classroom. What is your favorite “work from home” exercise? This way, your audience can prepare and will be more engaged throughout the event. Why do you need icebreakers for remote teams? What is your earliest memory of the internet? 12. Because let’s face it, no one wants to have their pet | toddler | wife or all of them walk in on an important sales call. By the way, other ways to break the ice include telling icebreaker jokes and playing online team building games. If you’re using Zoom, just play the music on your computer, click ‘Share’ and tick the checkbox ‘Share computer sound’. We hope these icebreakers have provided some ideas and inspiration for your virtual meetings – we would love to hear of examples you have used and how they have worked! The only rule: The team is only allowed to use the chat box. These icebreakers are perfect for getting to know each other. While the virtual activities will be different for your team, the purpose of the icebreaker (or sometimes ice breaker) is the same—to energize and engage the team. Check out below the top 10 virtual meeting ice breakers that can really get your meetings off on the right foot. This team-building activity is a virtual … Icebreakers seem to have lots of people squirming in their seats, me included. On a scale of 1 – 10, how experienced are you with remote work? Virtual Coffee or Tea Break. You might have a clear agenda and talking points for your virtual meeting, but sometimes team members don’t want to talk over someone else. Digital icebreakers for more engagement in your remote team. Don’t do icebreakers for every meeting. This post includes our list of ice breaker questions for virtual meetings. Some icebreaker activities listed below are suitable as regular intros for, say, the weekly team meeting. They become cumbersome and dreaded if it’s something you do every time you have a virtual meeting… Let’s face it, the web is full of guides, content & articles on ice breakers for virtual meetings or on how to engage your virtual meeting audience. But use virtual icebreakers sparingly. What is the most unique thing you have within reach of your desk? It’s a good idea to mention that you will open the sessions by some sort of virtual background challenge. There is a lot of benefit to running them … Virtual icebreakers are quick, online team-building activities that help you connect with your remote team on a personal level during online meetings. This is a favourite in my team. Or they can be boring, painful and have participants praying … But virtual meeting fatigue makes it especially challenging for leaders and facilitators to foster ongoing engagement and innovation within their teams. Virtual Meeting Fatigue: We know the most successful organizations of today are able to continually tap into the energy, motivation, and creativity of their people. 3. For the past few weeks, we tried to refrain from jumping on the remote working content bandwagon. But if anyone is using a different virtual background, why not have a little competition and vote for the best ones? This ice breaker for virtual meetings is a great warm-up for any brainstorming session of some sort. Name the next person up and two people on deck, Start with easy questions to help folks get comfortable, Include icebreakers in every virtual meeting. While you’re probably aware that Meetingselect has started doing virtual venue tours, we recently tried something different during our own virtual meetings. Where is your dream location to work from? 5 Videoconference Meeting Icebreakers to Make Meetings More Fun Video conferencing isn’t exactly new, but the technology today is a lot more lean and agile compared to the old days. Rated 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. To keep camaraderie amongst remote team members high and to smoothly introduce new remote coworkers to one another, it is smart to kick off remote meetings with virtual icebreakers until all team … Ice-breaker is a game or activity that you can do with your team members to get to know each other and start the conversation. 12 Quirky Last-Minute Christmas Gifts For Meeting Planners, Planning Accessible Meetings & Events: The Ultimate Checklist, Digital Venue Promotion Ideas That Still Work in 2021, Editorial Guidelines For Guest Bloggers & Suppliers, 8 Simple Tips For Planning An Effective All Hands Meeting, If no one is talking, you’re free to talk 💬, Someone else is talking, raise one finger to indicate you want to go next ☝️, If someone has their finger raised already, raise two fingers (and so on) ✌️, You agree with someone, show your thumbs up 👌, To express love, gratitude or happiness, put both hands together in a hear symbol ❤️. Last Updated on January 4, 2021 . Have everyone in your team make a funny gesture, bring in their pet, wear a silly hat or show the team their favourite coffee mug. In fact, over the last couple of weeks, our team has found ourselves suffering from Zoom burnout and endless video calls. This works great for smaller team meetings. It not only gets people talking, it can also create the right energy or vibe. Virtual Team Meeting Ice Breaker List 1. Showing the personal side of things can help bond people together and create some authenticity. Icebreakers are an important part of any training program, as they encourage people to participate from the start of a session, to get to know each other and to feel comfortable working with others. What is your most popular social media post? An icebreaker is an activity, event, or game that is designed to break down social barriers, make others feel more comfortable, and facilitate social interaction. Another variation, if you have everyone working from home, is to find 10 items that everyone has in their immediate area — we all sitting on a chair, we all have a notepad, etc. Virtual Backgrounds for Zoom, Microsoft Teams & Co. are the latest craze. Celebrating the end of another week in lockdown or a recent win? This is fun and also makes great content for your social media or internal #WaterCooler channel or company newsletter. This is a game for the fast thinkers. So instead of having only a few people speak, agree on a queuing system where people can basically make their point. Do you have any remote work productivity hacks? Who’s the quickest in naming 5 things starting with any given letter, like: Any name, any place, any animal or any company related information? To make video calls a little more fun and also help stay connected, here are some quick & simple ice breakers you can try today: Quick Ice Breakers For Virtual Meetings 1) Have People Show You Around Their Workspace. 7. The other attendees each make a guess as to which statement is the lie. August 18, 2020. The list is organized into easy, medium and hard icebreakers and you should assign them to your team based on how well connected you already are. Here are 21 free to use icebreakers for online teaching that you can use. You can use any of the questions on this list or create your own. You’re probably seeing how these ice breakers are almost a stealthy ... results (no one’s likely to frame these pictures), but they’ll be playful, which is a great atmosphere to start a meeting. Virtual icebreakers loosen up meeting attendees and can lead to more comfortable, productive remote meetings. Running a round of remote icebreaker questions on popular virtual conference call apps is challenging because you have fewer virtual cues. And when there isn't a global pandemic, we do local activities too. Would you rather start early or work late? The solution is for the host or facilitator to start by saying they will go first, followed by the next two people on deck. Have someone in your team quickly show the others around their house or work space. What better way to break the ice during your virtual meeting than a fun trivia quiz. At the start of every weekly team meeting, you can have 1-3 questions from different topics. The Importance of Virtual Ice-breakers A virtual Ice-breaker is a great way to keep your remote teams engaged and learn more about each other. Have all the participants write down two truths and a lie about themselves. Virtual Tours. Have each participant read out their statements, while the other participants try to guess which statement is a lie. It’s a great way for team members to get to know each other better and break from the monotony of the daily grind. With these 3-minute-activities you can help to avoid the trap of isolation. Once you get to the third person, name the next two people on deck and so on. And a darn good one... we hire brilliant people, provide extensive training, and develop one of a kind experiences. These questions are a subset of icebreaker questions and virtual team building activities. When meeting face-to-face, this often happens informally through chit chat before the meeting officially starts. Icebreakers have a ton of potential to elevate your meetings, but bad icebreakers can fall flat and suck the energy out of the virtual room. Advantages of our virtual icebreakers As a group, you need to come up with a list of 10 things that everyone has in common — we are all wearing shoes, own a MacBook, etc. Who is the last person you talked to in IRL? What is the story behind the background on your phone? Update: Download a PDF of these questions. Digital icebreakers enhance your virtual meetings by creating an engaging atmosphere. What is the most challenging part of working from home? Which website do you spend the most time on? You pass the jar around and each team member has to remove a lolly from the jar. Other Zoom meeting icebreakers involve quick virtual tours such as the one employed by Martin Seeley, CEO of MattressNextDay. Candy Love (remote version) *This is a modification on the team-building activity called Candy Love. “Two Truths and A Lie” is a classic ice breaker game that has been used in classrooms, training, and various types of meetings for decades. You’d have a coffee and a natter in the office so why not have a virtual coffee? I’ll receive a quick chat message with “Fancy a coffee?” and I’ll reply with “I’ll put the kettle on” Virtual icebreaker questions are prompts you include in a virtual meeting for attendees to share a little about themselves and do some team building. In remote environments, remember that virtual meetings or online workshops are often the only time your team sees and speaks to one another directly without text. Where would you choose to haunt for all of eternity? Reading Time: 4 minutes. Use these icebreakers to unify teams, get meeting buy-in and learn more ... or if you coworkers were cars, etc. If you’re looking for virtual ice breakers for Zoom, try this exercise to set the tone … | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy, icebreaker questions for virtual meetings. For those unfamiliar with the activity, Candy Love is a team-building activity or icebreaker where you have a jar of coloured lollies — like M&Ms. Meetings industry insights you won't delete. In his Zoom icebreaker, each person in the meeting takes turns to give a quick virtual tour of their home office or work desk. Not good... To make video calls a little more fun and also help stay connected, here are some quick & simple ice breakers you can try today: One of the biggest challenges of remote work is trying to find a balance and turning your home into a work place. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010. They also help your team bond and get to know each other better. If you’re not doing them regularly, it is definitely something to consider adding to each Zoom meeting you host. My company, TeamBuilding , has run thousands of icebreakers—both internally and for clients like Apple, Amazon, … Favorite color. We run world class online team building events that remote teams love. To be a little obvious, teambuilding.com is a team building company. In 2021, we are running virtual events for teams all over the world. Delivered to your inbox once per month. Virtual meetings can be good ways to bring a team together, build morale and brainstorm. What is the last YouTube video you watched? They give you insight into your teammates’ personalities or moods. Meetingselect selected for the Techleap Rise Accelerator Programme, Dutch Meetingselect Completes Acquisition of German MICE Access & Launches Workspace Bookings, Meetingselect wins Best Global Meeting Management Platform 2020, Get inspired for your next meeting by Apollo Hotels & Leonardo Hotels, 11 Unusually Creative Ideas For Hotels To Increase Hotel Revenue, European Meeting Cities: 5 Destinations You Might Not Have On Your Radar, How to Host a Virtual Christmas Party (+ 8 ideas), 8 Quick Ice Breakers For Virtual Meetings With Your Team. What is the best thing about the internet? Icebreakers for virtual are useful for a variety of reasons: They create an opportunity for everyone to speak at the start of the meeting, which, science shows, greatly increases the chances of everyone speaking up again DURING the meeting. If your team is already well acquainted skip to the “Regular” section for some fun icebreakers you can use over and over again! When you are meeting virtually, it is important to remain connected to each other’s lives. What is your go-to excuse for being late to virtual meetings? Have them explain their setup and why it works for them or what they when taking a little break. Finally – don’t forget to include your voting URL (add link to blog post on URL) on every ice-breaker slide so your audience know where to place their vote/participate! Each participant takes a turn and makes two true statements and one false one, in any order. It will make your team look forward to the next one. We’ll also take a look at when, why and how to use them to ensure that your meeting is productive and fun. Quick icebreakers for online meetings, (that don’t suck) 17 July 2020 14 October 2020 | by ewebber. You will be happy you included a few icebreakers in your call. How to Become a Certified Meeting Professional?