Working remotely can be a dull affair. Compared to the office, you often don’t have someone to banter with while doing work. As such, managers should be ready to step in and help their teams have a bit of fun. Here are some great virtual icebreaker activities you can do to keep everyone in high spirits.
Chat-based icebreaker activities
While waiting for work-related instructions and updates, you can do these quick virtual icebreaker activities over chat. Since you only need to type in your answers, you can participate in between tasks, giving you a breather.
Emoji check-in
Ask each member of your team how they are feeling right now. They will then respond with emojis instead of words.
To add a twist to the game, you can also ask how they are feeling about a specific subject. For example, you can ask members how they feel about the current project.
Two truths and a lie
This activity is another quick game that you can do on chat. Managers often use it to help people get to know the new recruits on the team. But you can also use it to catch up with colleagues after a long period of working remotely and see if they still know each other.
To start, each member will post three things about themselves. Other members will then have to guess which two items are true and which one is not. After the team makes their guesses, the poster will then reveal the correct answer.
The desert island scenario
The game will stimulate your team’s critical thinking and decision-making skills. Additionally, you get some insights into each member’s way of thinking.
To start the game, list down seven different items. Make the objects as challenging as you can to get everyone thinking. Now, split your team into smaller groups. The scenario would be that they are stuck on a desert island and need to pick three objects from the list of seven. Let them discuss their choices in a private chat channel. After a set time, have everyone back at your main chat room and share their choices.
Icebreaker activities: Sharing stuff
This next set of icebreaker activities focuses on your team sharing things among yourselves. It is an effective way to give your colleagues updates on your status after not seeing them for a long time.
The tour guide
Tour everyone on the team around your home office. There are several ways that you can do this. First off, you can shoot a short video of your surroundings. You can also do a live stream session during a video conference meeting.
Encourage your members to be more creative. For instance, they can talk like it’s an actual episode of MTV Cribs. Or they can point out some funny things that they discover around their work areas. You can even go further and let members tour everyone around their entire house.
Show and tell
Another fun sharing activity that you can do is show and tell. Each member will present an object that they own and talk about why it is of importance to them. Alternatively, they can be a bit sillier and share an embarrassing photo and tell the story behind it.
Image from Kids Out And About.
After the member has shared their story, let your other team members ask some questions. This will kickstart a fun little conversation that will help everyone know each other more intimately. Just make sure to set a time limit, or the conversation will go a lot longer than expected.
Physical icebreaker activities
Just sitting there and typing your responses to the icebreaker activities can get boring fast. So, it would always be a good idea to add some physical components to your session. The next activities are all about that, letting you break some sweat before starting the next round of company meetings.
Shake down
This short exercise session is a great starter if you are doing a virtual meeting in the morning. You can also get your team to do this at any time of the day when you think that they are feeling beat up.
To start, get everyone on the team to stand up on the floor. Make sure that they are in a large enough space to move around in. Ask everyone to perform eight shakes of their left arm and follow with eight shakes of their right arm. Count each shake loudly as a group. Repeat the whole routine with your legs, starting with your left leg then the right.
End the exercise with a big group cheer. Ad a bit more flair by asking everyone to do a signature pose of their own for the webcam. This will give them a bit more of a lighthearted feel. You can also give them some a breather before they return to their work.
Dance, dance, dance
If you want to inject more energy into your tired team, this next icebreaker activity will be a good choice. As is with other activities, your team will also get a lot of laughs out of this one. You do need to make sure that everyone is game to strut their stuff in front of the webcam.
Start by dividing your team into several groups. Play any music through the conference app. One member of each group would then act as the leader and start dancing. The other members will follow the leader\’s steps. When the music changes, a new leader then takes over. To add more excitement, change songs every twenty seconds.
Keep your team pumped up with these icebreaker activities
These icebreaker activities are a fun way to keep your team’s daily work routine from getting stale. Do these activities regularly to help them get into gear and work more cheerfully. And be sure to check out other great strategies to help your team boost their performances.