50 Zoom Icebreakers For Your Next Meeting: Activities and Questions For Team Building
With employees working remotely, others in the office, and some alternating between the office and remote, it can sometimes be difficult to build relationships and nurture a positive culture at work.
However, you can use Zoom ice breakers to build relationships and diffuse tension between workers whether you’re operating a 100% remote team or running a hybrid model.
There are a lot of different ways you can utilize Zoom icebreakers during your meetings. Some Zoom icebreakers are designed for specific purposes, like team building or brainstorming. Others are more general, and can be used in any setting where people need some time to warm up before diving into the main topic of discussion.
How do you make a Zoom meeting fun and engaging?
There’s no limit to the number of icebreakers you can include in your meetings. These can be anything - like having everyone introduce themselves, telling a funny story, or discussing what they would do with $100 million dollars if they won the lottery. Whatever icebreakers you decide to go with, remember that the best icebreakers are ones that you and your team enjoy.
From large groups to small virtual meetings, here are ice breakers for Zoom meetings that you and your team can use.
What are some good icebreakers for virtual meetings?
Virtual meetings have become popular for many businesses and workers around the world. They offer a number of benefits, such as saving money on travel expenses, being able to work from anywhere, and more. But, some people have concerns about virtual meetings because they don't feel like they get the same connection with coworkers that they would if they were in person. Thankfully, these Zoom icebreakers will keep your virtual meetings engaging and eliminate the concerns that people may have.
Icebreaker activities
1-minute intros
Asking participants in a virtual meeting to introduce themselves in one minute is a great exercise to get everyone talking. You can set a timer to add an extra challenge and ensure everyone stays within time. This is ideal for when you’re starting a virtual meeting.
What’s your nickname?
Asking people about their nicknames can be an opportunity to know more about them while breaking any tension in a virtual meeting. It can also be a precursor to more personal conversations about the person.
Where in the world are you?
Finding out where a team members live is a great Zoom icebreaker for remote teams. You get to learn more about the city and/or country where they’re working from.
See the view from my virtual office
This is an excellent Zoom icebreaker to see the daily view or desk setup that your remote team uses for work. This could be an office at home or their desk at a co-working space.
Show and tell: pet edition
Some people may find it difficult to connect, b you bring their pets into the conversation, they have a common thing to talk about. This is a great activity that will not just break the ice in a virtual meeting, but help team members build relationships as well.
Zoom charades
Charades is a game where players act out words or phrases while others try to guess what they are acting out. It's the perfect way to break the ice and have some fun with your remote team.
Share a random picture of your environment
This is a challenge where you ask everyone to take a random picture of an object next to them and upload it on Zoom or a Slack channel. This is fun and creates lively moments in your virtual meetings.
Choose your favorite skill or talent
Use an online presentation tool or a brainstorming platform to create different skills. Present to your team and ask them to select their favorite. These can be hobbies like cooking, swimming, horse riding, comedy, baking, or gardening. It’s a great exercise to discover the hidden talents of your team while also brightening a virtual meeting. You can even see if anyone wants to show off their talent to the team!
A virtual scavenger hunt
Here, teams are challenged to find and take photos of items that are hidden in a physical environment. Another way to play a virtual scavenger hunt is to have them look for clues using the internet, like in Bar None Games’ Mini Game Adventure. This game is a great way of getting people to work together, as it requires creativity and teamwork.
Virtual Water Cooler
A virtual water cooler is an online chatroom where remote teams can get together to have a chat and play games. This is a great way for remote teams to interact with each other and make them feel like they are not working in isolation.
Icebreaker questions
These are Zoom meeting ice breakers that require the team to provide short answers. They come in the form of questions or statements and can be used in virtual meetings as quick ice breakers and morale boosters.
What is your favorite film, tv series, or book?
What are your favorite foods?
What is your funniest memory with your best friend?
What is the craziest dare you have ever taken?
What were your teenage anthems?
If you could be eating any food in the world right now, what would it be?
If you were a store at the mall, which would you be?
What is your worst date story?
Which of your past Halloween costumes is your favorite?
Do you have any guilty pleasure shows that you watch?
Tell the team a knock-knock joke.
What is the strangest item near you?
What commercial jingles or theme songs get stuck in your head?
If you could choose your own nickname, what would it be and why?
If you had an unlimited amount of money, what unnecessary thing or experience would you indulge in?
If you could eliminate one food from the world, what would it be?
Share your best celebrity impression!
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would the song be and why?
If you were sponsored by a brand, which one would you want it to be?
What topic do you know a lot of random trivia about?
Dogs or cats?
Apple pie or cheesecake?
What weird thing do you feel nostalgic for?
If you were a vegetable, which one would you be and why?
What is the scariest movie you have ever seen?
If you were featured on the news, what would the reason most likely be?
Would you rather visit Jupiter or Saturn?
What is your favorite physical activity?
What is one animal that you are amazed by?
What smell do you hate that others seem to like?
What would you want to do if you retired?
What is a trait that you have picked up from your parents?
What food do you love that others typically do not?
What are some of your favorite games to play?
Share a funny meme with the group via Zoom or Slack.
Coffee or tea?
Hot or cold weather?
What are good group ice breakers?
When working with a large team, it’s important to have icebreakers that will engage everyone in virtual meetings. These icebreakers should be short and sweet so a lot of your team members are able to take part. Here are Zoom ice breakers for large groups.
Virtual coffee hours
The idea of a virtual coffee hour is to provide a time for remote workers to meet virtually to relax and chat over coffee. Coffee hours can be used as a way to foster relationships with your remote team. They can also be used as a way to improve communication and collaboration.
Two truths and a lie
Let participants tell two truths about themselves and one lie. Then other members of the team are tasked to identify the truths from the lie. This is a fun and exciting ice breaker for Zoom meetings.
Trivia game
Trivia is a great activity that can be used to break the ice and get people collaborating in a creative way. It’s also a great way to learn about your remote team members and find out what they are interested in.
Book a virtual team building activity for your team
At Bar None Games, we offer you and your team exciting, high quality live trivia games and virtual team building events.
These virtual activities are designed in a way that allows you to customize them to your team’s liking by choosing from various categories, difficulty levels, and games. With our many professional hosts, you’ll be sure to have an excellent team building session with your team.
