Activities must feel professional, relevant, and definitely not silly. These subtle ice breaker games build rapport while positioning your team as collaborative and thoughtful. This has made it to our top 12 favourite icebreaker games because it is the adult version of scavenger hunt, a game we all loved playing as kids. It’s great when used at the beginning of a meeting to encourage participants to get to know each other.
Virtual & Online Icebreakers
Teams write down their guesses, and the most accurate group wins. This activity is simple to set up, encourages focus, and often leads to amusing discussions. Each participant creates a paper plane, with prizes awarded for the longest flight, best design, and funniest crash. This team building icebreaker is simple, low-prep, and guarantees a lot of laughs. While the many benefits of icebreakers are well documented, there are also a number of pitfalls to avoid, too. It’s always a good idea, for example, to start with more simple icebreakers in newly established teams and work your way up.
- Last but not least, this icebreaker is one of our favourites for small groups of adults because it involves your team getting up, getting involved and getting active.
- Teachers, coaches, and youth leaders — SignUpGenius is free to use and makes organizing classroom volunteers, field trips, team snacks, and school events genuinely easy.
- These games are perfect for encouraging out-of-the-box thinking, innovation, and creativity.
Consider documenting which games resonate with your team. Create a simple shared document listing favorites, noting which activities work best for which contexts. This becomes an internal playbook that helps new managers and ensures continuity even as team composition shifts. Once per quarter, ask your team which icebreaker games they’ve enjoyed and which fall flat.
Participants will call out another person’s name and pass a ball to them. The longer you play this high-energy ice breaker game, the more balls or other props get added into the mix. The game can be played with a small or large group of participants in a virtual meeting or online setting.
Chain Reaction is an engineering and teamwork challenge that encourages creativity, problem-solving, and cooperation. Participants form teams and answer trivia questions on a variety of topics. Mystery Sound is a fun and interactive auditory game that challenges participants’ listening skills and knowledge. It’s often used as an engaging and educational activity. Zoom In, Zoom Out is a visual perception and quick-thinking game often used as an engaging and competitive activity.
Provide participants with funny or random images (e.g., awkward stock photos or cartoon scenarios). Each person or team creates captions for the images, which are then shared with the group. The funniest or most creative captions win small prizes. This activity sparks laughter and allows participants to flex their creative muscles.
Another hands-on game, this is just what it sounds like – trying to hit a bullseye target. Put up a large bullseye target in the space that you’re working in, and have people throw foam balls to try and hit it. If you want it to be more “icebreaker-ish” then have each person announce their name and role before tossing the ball.
To keep the game moving and the energy high, give each person a one or two-minute time limit to share their statements. Encourage wild (but believable) lies and genuinely surprising truths. For example, a lie like “I have a pet rock” is less fun than “I once won a hot-dog-eating contest against a professional wrestler.” The Paper Tower is a collaborative team-building game that tests creativity and problem-solving skills. It’s ideal for work settings where you want to encourage innovation. Quick Draw is a fast-paced drawing game similar to Pictionary, but without teams.
Hot Takes Only 🔥
No need to worry about awkward moments – these games Catherine Pass about BestDates are designed to keep things natural and fun. Here is a collection of engaging virtual icebreakers designed to help remote teams build stronger personal connections and improve collaboration. It also creates space for folks to share unique qualities in a safe container. This activity also works great with remote teams in breakout rooms – in such cases, have each group report back to help bring the whole team back into coherence.
A powerful workshop for self-reflection and trust-building. A classic non-verbal challenge where the group lines up by birthday without speaking. Excellent for improving communication and problem-solving skills. Sit everyone in a circle and have them hold up five fingers. One at a time, go around the circle and each person says something that they haven’t done (traveled to a different state, gone surfing, etc.).
” Participants will stand up if they can answer yes to the statement. You can then choose to either ask another prepared question as facilitator or invite one of those people who answered yes to come up with another question. Icebreakers are short activities designed to get a group warmed up and engaged at the beginning of a workshop or meeting. Heather Harper has a Masters in Occupational Psychological from the University of Manchester. She currently works as an editorial writer specializing in organizational psychology – helping teams work better together. To create a child-friendly sports day you need a space large enough to host a number of events.
This is one of the best virtual icebreakers for large meetings or virtual events. Whether you’re leading a quick Webex or Zoom meeting, a team workshop or a larger hybrid session, online-friendly icebreakers can make it easier for everyone to take part. Virtual icebreakers are short, interactive activities that help people connect and participate in online or hybrid meetings.
For more fun and engaging ways to spend time together as a team, check out our post on workshop ideas you can run with your team. Start the Name Game by having the group sit in a circle where they can see everyone else clearly. The next person continues, but after saying their own name, they repeat the first person’s name. This continues with each person repeating one more name. Reassure people towards the end that it’s ok if they get stuck & encourage the others to jump in to help if anyone is lost. This collection of 25 conversation questions is a great starting point for helping a group get to know each other or open a meeting dynamically.
These practical tips help any team leader run activities confidently. All-hands meetings, town halls, and company offsites present unique challenges. With + participants, traditional round-robin sharing becomes impossibly time-consuming.
Ask them to make a sign that would signal their mood to everyone around them, and then hold it up. For example, if someone is a bit out of sorts on a Monday morning, they might write “Tired”. If someone is really excited, they might write something like “Pumped! ” If someone is anxious about presenting later, they might draw a nervous-looking face. Then, have each person stand and explain what’s on their sign and why.