Icebreaker activities are a fun way to get to know your colleagues and set a friendly tone for meetings. They work just as well online as in person!
What’s an icebreaker?
Just as the name implies, an icebreaker is an activity that’s designed to smash through the chilliness that prevents natural interactions among participants at an event. After an icebreaker, we know our colleagues a little better than we did before, and we can use what we’ve learned to build deeper relationships with them. Plus, they’re just plain fun!
Why icebreakers are needed now more than ever
With so many of us working from home, remote meetings are how we keep business moving forward. While remote meetings have a lot going for them, it’s not always easy to build the sense of camaraderie you can get during in-person meetings. And with the ability to mute both one’s microphone and video, it’s a lot easier for participants to pretend they’re at the meeting when in fact they might be surfing the web, playing on their phones, or not even there at all!
Getting to know the people we’re meeting with helps us to develop a sense of community and shared mission. This is so important now that we’re not occupying the same physical space!
Four easy icebreaker ideas
You don’t have to spend hours preparing your icebreaker activities! Keep it simple and the participants will provide the entertainment. Here are four icebreaker ideas:
1. What’s that thing?
Ask a meeting participant to talk about something you can see in the background of their video feed. If they’re using a virtual background, ask why they chose that particular scene.
2. Would you rather…?
In this game, you ask people to choose between two extremes. These questions can be tailored toward the meeting topic (but in a lighthearted way) or can be designed to elicit funny responses. Don’t forget to ask people to elaborate on their choices! Here are a few questions to get you started:
- Would you rather be able to talk with all the animals or speak every human language?
- Would you rather have two full meeting days and three days of no meetings, or have a two-hour meeting every day?
- Would you rather have all the time in the world or all the money in the world?
- Would you rather have three arms or three legs?
- Would you rather be able to always remember people’s names or always remember their birthdays?
3. Two Truths and a Lie
This one’s a classic! Ask each person to relate three “facts” about themselves, one of which isn’t true. The others have to guess which statement is a lie. For example, I might say, “I once vacationed in a French priory,” “I was a champion swimmer in high school,” and “I speak fluent Spanish.” The group takes turns guessing which “fact” is the lie (Spoiler Alert: 1 = true, 2= lie, 3= verdad). This game is a great way for people to learn more about one another and, hopefully, to form deeper bonds.
4. Who’s that?
Have each person in the meeting type a unique, unexpected, or interesting fact about themselves and sent it to you in a private chat. Read each fact aloud and let everyone guess who wrote it. After they guess, ask the writer to identify themself and provide some context for what they wrote. You never know what you’ll learn about your teammates!
Why it’s important
Icebreakers do more than provide a bit of needed fun. They help people to remember that there are real humans, not just video feeds, at remote meetings. And often they reveal truths about our colleagues that we can use to forge deeper bonds with one another.
#inthistogether, indeed.