In the post-COVID era, more teams are working from home than ever before. Your team morale doesn’t have to suffer simply because they’re virtual! Get your team energized with some virtual icebreakers. Your staff will walk away ready to lead and feeling content as they take ownership of their workday.
There are many services that provide solutions for virtual teams to break the barriers of isolation and create an office-like virtual environment that encourages productivity. In place of time at the office, these virtual icebreakers can be a powerful tool to help you connect with your team and enhance their satisfaction and collaboration with each other. Boardit, a powerful web-based application that brings innovation into remote collaboration in a form of clear and collaborative whiteboard can help your employees engage in team building activities and virtual icebreaker games.
Gamification is a powerful tool for these icebreakers that gives employees an incentive to participate. Try to arrange some sort of prize or leaderboard to incorporate into these icebreakers to keep the competition going!
Would You Rather
Would You Rather will get even your most camera-hesitant team member participating actively!
Because of its simplicity, this is easy to arrange. Simply prepare a list of “rathers” ahead of time (for example: Would you rather have the power of invisibility or the power of flight?) and have one person officiate and read off the “rather” for the round. Then, people can either verbally go around the e-circle (if your group is small) or comment in the chatbox their answers.
Commonalities
This virtual icebreaker allows team members from diverse backgrounds to connect on common ground and eliminate the feeling of isolation in virtual offices.
Assign your team into small groups (generally, groups of 4 can work best for this game!) Set a timer for a set amount of time. To make it challenging and to encourage a stream of conversation, try to keep it under 4 minutes. Instruct your small teams to list as many commonalities as they can onto one list that they all share - no exceptions! Read off the lists at the end.
This also allows you as the manager insight into your team’s needs and preferences. This can be extremely valuable to them, but to you as well!
Task Rabbit
This virtual activity encourages creative thinking and dynamic leadership! Break your group into teams and prepare a timer on your software. Prepare a list of tasks that are simple but require teamwork (for example: write a short story.) Give them one task per timed session and choose winners at the end of each.
Pitch Party
With a pitch party, your team will get to collaborate and perform under pressure. Break into small teams and prepare a timer. Give the team one item to work on a pitch for. This item can be from your company’s product line, or any other item you can think of. Group vote on who had the best pitch and award a prize!
Lunar Landing
This activity is out-of-this-world. Have your team break into small groups, and set your trusty timer! Have your team members each make an individual list of 5 things they can bring with them to the moon - and those lists should pool into one group list. The groups each share their list and defend their choices...the most voted for list wins!
Virtual icebreakers can provide valuable insight into your team’s leadership abilities and extend far beyond the limitations of working from home. Icebreakers allow your team to bond in new ways and forge new connections - enhancing team member satisfaction and collaboration. Give one a try at your next remote meeting!