An engaged team is a motivated team. Studies have proven that production rates increase when team members are engaged and feel that they matter. Perhaps one of the most efficient ways to engage your team is through quick exercises like Icebreakers, which may contribute more during the hybrid work.
Icebreakers don’t just have to center around learning about your team members. They can also be used to share new skills and effective work patterns. Everyone learns differently. Icebreakers give everyone the opportunity to share their learning styles and how they interact with challenges in the workplace.
The following six icebreakers are perfect for getting to know each other better and fuel productivity.
1. MOOD BAROMETER: HOW ARE YOU FEELING TODAY?
Working remotely can be a lonely business. Start on a personal note 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?” Or, “What’s your energy level 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 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 meeting, run a word cloud with the question: “Where are you joining 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 is one of the best virtual icebreakers for larger meetings or virtual events – the more locations, the better the word cloud will look.
3. DRAW YOUR MOOD
Instead of verbally asking your colleagues how they are at the start of your meeting (which often results in a half-baked ‘fine’, or ‘okay’ here and there), ask them to draw how they are. It’s much more fun and you’ll spark creativity among your colleagues.
Here’s how to set up Whiteboard in Yealink Meeting:
Click ‘Share Screen’, choose ‘Whiteboard’ and click ‘Share’
Tell each participant to click ‘Annotate’ in the upper panel
Pick any type of annotation tools you like – drawing, shapes, texts – you name it!
4. HOME SCAVENGER HUNT
Get your colleagues out of their chairs. This icebreaker is fun and you’ll all get a chance to move around a little. Give your teammates 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”.
You can even take it a little further and play a full-scale virtual scavenger hunt. We recently played it in our Brand team and it was so much fun. Our colleague, Nadia, gave us 5 minutes to fulfill 20 tasks such as:
5. IN ONE WORD, 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 is one of the icebreakers that will help you take a pulse check of the overall atmosphere in the team and detecting possible downturns – especially handy in a virtual setup.
Or, you can even try something different like: “If you were to describe our company in one word, what would it be?”
6. TEAM TRIVIA QUIZ
Using virtual icebreakers during your meetings also helps you get to know your colleagues better.
Try a fun quiz with questions about your team. Collect interesting facts about each team member, then let other colleagues guess away. We’re sure you’ll dig out plenty of fun stuff!
