Ice breaker questions are used as a way to get to know your team members. You can pose a variety of queries — work vs non-work-related, surface-level vs. deep, closed vs. open-ended — to learn more about each person and build rapport with the group.
Importance of Icebreakers in a Work Setting
Icebreakers bring interaction and human connection to remote work which is paramount to a happy and productive team. Employees communicate and perform better when they have sufficient opportunities to bond with each other. Along with virtual backgrounds for teams, icebreakers are an effective way to simulate being in-person.
Icebreakers Your Team Will Actually Enjoy
No disrespect to “Getting to Know You BINGO” but to fully engage your employees and get the most out of team-building activities, you’ll need fresh and interesting ideas such as these ten virtual icebreakers.
1. Virtual Escape Room
Virtual escape rooms have become increasingly popular and are perfect for fostering team collaboration and creative problem-solving techniques. Your employees will have a blast as they decipher clues to escape the room before time runs out.
2. MTV Cribs: Remote Office Edition
Inspired by the MTV series, team members record quick videos to showcase their homes and offer glimpses into their personal lives.
3. Team Trivia
Give your team ample opportunity to show off their random knowledge. Vary the themes, offer prizes — anything that boosts the fun factor!
4. Bucket List Show and Tell
You can tell a lot about a person by the items on their bucket list. Share and discuss your lists. Highlight similarities, ask follow-up questions and add items inspired by others’ responses. Minimal Zoom backgrounds are best for this activity to reduce distractions.
5. Company Crystal Ball
Ask the team to peruse newspapers and magazines for headlines that could pertain to the company in the future. The results can give useful insight into employees’ views about the organization and help identify goals and priorities.
6. Personality Tests
Go for traditional ones like the Myers-Briggs Personality Test or opt for obscure, nonsensical quizzes. How else will you find out which Marvel character your coworker is?
7. Things
For this game, a reader provides a single prompt starting with “things,” such as “Things You Shouldn’t Try in the Dark.” Players anonymously submit their answers which the reader then shares aloud. Each person tries to guess who gave what response.
8. Virtual Pub Crawl
Instead of pubs, everyone visits the same website and chats about it. Every 15-20 minutes, navigate to a different URL. Choose sites with interesting content to spark lively conversations.
9. Pancakes vs. Waffles
Engage in friendly debates about mundane topics. When one side wins by earning a majority of the votes, add a new competitor. Look for debates to become more animated the longer you play.
10. Coffee Shop
Team members chat while making their favorite morning brews. Bonus points for the fanciest concoction! Some icebreakers are purely entertaining while others require more professionalism.
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