35 Fun Icebreakers for Virtual Meetings

Icebreakers are great for increasing the bond between existing team members and integrating new team members. If you have a virtual team, then you can use icebreakers for virtual meetings to bond with your team members.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have started using virtual or hybrid teams, and in those situations, making bonds with team members requires dedicated effort.

How Do You Motivate Teamwork in a Virtual Environment?

Bonding is key to motivating any work environment, whether actual, virtual, or hybrid. Bonding connects team members, increasing collaborations, and then the employee will perform with better efficiency.

You can motivate your team members through bonding using many techniques, such as icebreakers. These are intentional activities and motivate teamwork in a virtual environment as well.

What is an Icebreaker?

An icebreaker is an activity or game designed to encourage conversation and help team members get to know each other. You can use Icebreakers at the beginning of meetings, training sessions, team-building exercises, and social events. 

You can use Icebreaker via chat, video, or other communication tools with your virtual team.

Icebreakers can be one of three types:

1. Questions: These are one-line questions that you can use to break an awkward silence and start the conversation. If you must break a silence quickly, then icebreaker questions are a great help.
2. Activities: An activity is an exercise used to help a group get to know each other, create a more comfortable atmosphere, and facilitate communication.
3. Games: Games foster a competitive spirit that energizes team members. They can bond with other teammates during the game, which increases cohesion. Planning games takes time and effort, but the results are great in the long term.

In today’s blog post, we will discuss 35 icebreakers for virtual meetings.

15 Icebreaker Questions for Virtual Meetings

It requires no effort to use icebreaker questions to break silence or easily start a conversation during virtual meetings.

Here are 15 icebreaker questions to ask at your next virtual meeting:

1. How are you? This is the most basic question used to start a conversion. You can ask it formally or informally. You can ask this icebreaker question during normal, hybrid, or virtual meetings and then follow up with other icebreakers.
2. Where are you located? Since you are in a virtual meeting, the participants must be in different geographic locations. You can enquire about their locations to learn more about them. Going to different places is exciting and fun; your virtual team members will enjoy learning about these places.
3. What is your favorite hobby? Everyone likes to talk about their hobbies. You can ask team members to discuss their hobbies so everyone can know their colleagues’ interests and create a bond.
4. Do you watch TV? If yes, then what is your current favorite show or sport? Most people watch TV in their free time. You can ask your team member if they watch TV and let them explain their favorite TV show and why they like it. They can alternatively explain their favorite sport. This will help team members with similar interests connect.
5. What is your favorite food? You can ask team members to talk about their favorite food. In this way, you can learn different types of food from different locations, try them yourself, and then connect with other team members to discuss food further.
6. Do you have pets? If your remote team members have pets, they will love to discuss them. You can encourage them to talk about their pets with you and other team members.
7. What is your favorite travel destination? These days, people travel a lot, and they like to share their experiences. You can talk about travel experiences and future vacation destinations. I work and live in Kuwait. Here, people travel to foreign countries and like to share their experiences. Icebreaking questions related to travel are good conversation starters for some people.
8. Tell us something unique about your culture. Since you and/or your team members may not be aware of each other’s culture, you can ask team members to explain their cultural uniqueness. This way, you and your team members can learn about different cultures and connect with your teammates.
9. Tell us something unique about your country. Every country is unique, and team members can discuss theirs easily. So, you can ask this icebreaker question during a virtual meeting and learn the uniqueness of different countries. This can be an exciting experience for you and your coworkers.
10. Describe your perfect weekend. You can ask about your team members’ idea of their perfect weekend.
11. Share a fun fact about yourself that others don’t know. Team members can share their fun facts to create a humorous virtual environment and connect with each other.
12. What do you do in your free time? This is an easy question; even a shy team member won’t hesitate to open up! They can share their routine (e.g., reading books, watching television, walking, or cooking). You can ask this virtual icebreaker, then lead the conversation further.
13. What are the most adventurous things you have ever done? Team members can share their adventures and learn about others. In this way, team members can understand the inner nature of their colleagues.
14. Are you a good cook? Some people like to cook. If any of your team members are good cooks, they will love to share their recipes. Your virtual team members can learn from them.
15. Where do you plan to go on your next vacation? If someone in your virtual team is a traveler, they can open up and share their experiences. This can be a great icebreaker question for many team members.

10 Icebreaker Activities for Virtual Meetings

If you have a large virtual team and the work environment has become a little monotonous, you can have a break for icebreaker activities to infuse new energy in your team members.

The following virtual icebreaker activities are useful to motivate your coworkers:

1. Two Truths and a Lie: In this activity, a team member will tell two truths and a lie about themselves, and other team members will guess which statement is false.
2. Virtual Scavenger Hunt: This is the most popular activity for virtual teams. The moderator can ask participants to find items online and share them.
3. One-Minute Introduction: You can ask virtual team members to introduce themselves in one minute. Short introductions help take the pressure away from team members as they get to know other people. This is a fun activity.
4. Quick, Fun Poll: You can conduct a fun, lighthearted poll to alleviate pressure and energize the virtual meeting environment.
5. Share a Fun Fact: This is a classic icebreaker that you can use for your virtual team. Participants can share a fun fact about themselves.
6. Most Embarrassing Moments: This is my favorite! You can ask team members to share funny, embarrassing moments with the team so they can enjoy them. The team members may hesitate to share their embarrassing moments, so you can start with your own, and others can follow suit.
7. Show and Tell: Team members can show any item of their choice and tell an interesting story behind it.
8. Story Building: A participant starts a story with a sentence, and each team member adds another sentence until the story is completed.
9. Guess the Background: A team member shares a zoomed-in image of their surroundings, and others guess where they are.
10. Pet Parade: Team members introduce their pets, then say their names, fun facts about them, their special behaviors, etc.

10 Icebreaker Games for Virtual Meetings

Games have competitive natures and can bring more joy than icebreaker activities and questions. If you have a large team, you can divide them into groups or play the game individually to energize your team members and break the monotonicity.

You can use the following icebreaker games to energize your virtual meeting:

1. Virtual Trivia Battle: You can divide participants into teams and host a competitive trivia quiz, with points awarded for correct answers.
2. Speed-Typing Race: Participants compete by typing a specific sentence or set of words accurately and quickly.
3. Digital Scavenger Hunt: You can create a list of items or tasks for teams to find or accomplish online within a set timeframe.
4. Name-That-Tune Showdown: You can divide your team into several groups to identify songs played in a rapid-fire sequence and gain points for correct titles or artists.
5. Picture-Puzzle Challenge: Teams solve picture-based puzzles or riddles, earning points for correct solutions.
6. Online Board-Game Tournament: Play virtual versions of classic board games (e.g., chess, Scrabble, or Monopoly), with teams competing against each other.
7. Code-Breaker Competition: Participants solve coding or puzzle challenges, with points awarded for each successfully cracked code.
8. Minute-to-Win-It Challenge: Host a series of quick, one-minute challenges for teams to complete, with points awarded for successful completion.
9. Geography Bee: Test participants’ geography knowledge with competitive quizzes or map-based challenges.
10. Online Spelling Bee: This virtual icebreaker game tests participants on how to spell difficult words.

The Importance of Using Icebreakers for Virtual Teams

Icebreakers break the silence in virtual teams, energize them, and motivate them to perform better. Your team members can connect with them using an icebreaker, and it will create a cohesive team.

A cohesive team always performs better. Icebreakers break the silence, help team members connect, and help team members know the nature of other coworkers.

The following are the key benefits of using icebreakers:

1. They Create a Positive Atmosphere: Icebreakers help lighten the mood and create a positive, welcoming environment. Breaking the initial hesitation can make people feel more comfortable and open to communication.
2. They Promote Inclusivity: Icebreakers can be inclusive by allowing everyone to participate—regardless of their background, experience, or personality. This can help individuals feel valued and included in the group.
3. They Encourage Communication: Icebreakers encourage people to communicate and interact with each other. This is particularly valuable when individuals may not know each other well or may hesitate to initiate conversation.
4. They Facilitate Virtual Team Building: Icebreakers are great team-building activities. They allow team members to get to know each other on a personal level, which can strengthen relationships and improve collaboration.
5. They Set a Positive Tone: Icebreakers can set a positive tone, thereby making meetings more enjoyable and productive. They can also be useful in transitioning from casual conversation to more focused, goal-oriented discussions.
6. They Encourage Creativity: Some icebreakers involve creative or out-of-the-box thinking, which can stimulate creativity and innovation. This can be particularly beneficial during brainstorming sessions or when seeking fresh perspectives.

Summary

A virtual work environment lacks the interactivity of real-time work, so you must use icebreakers to build your virtual team and motivate your team members.

You can use the fun icebreakers given in this post for your next virtual meeting.