It’s an easy and fun way to raise funds while fostering a sense of community. A casual community BBQ or picnic can bring people together to support a cause. Employees can bring their lunch while listening to an expert speaker or participating in a presentation on various topics. A lunch-and-learn is a great way to provide valuable information while still offering a relaxed environment.

#19 Team Trivia Quiz

How many times do you think great work goes unrecognized in the office? “Unsung heroes” dedicate time to recognition and appreciation, doubling up as a great icebreaker for any newbies in the office. Here’s a lively way to get the ball rolling for fun conversations. “Find Your Pairing” naturally leads people to get to know one another, great for newcomers who might feel some first-day jitters. Getting your employees fired up for a meeting—online or in-person—is about as easy as getting a dog excited for a bath. JD enjoys teaching people how to use ZoomShift to save time spent on scheduling.

• This activity requires patience, awareness, and teamwork, making it a great way to build focus and connection in a fun, low-pressure way.
• Explore the best team building activities in Nashville for teams of every size and budget.
• Share you screen and one by one have your group guess which item belongs to which team member.

Towering Questions

Here are some engaging and practical icebreaker games that can help small groups bond, spark creativity, and boost team spirit and collaboration. Everyone shares their favorite quote and why it means something to them. It’s a simple game that encourages personal sharing without getting too serious. Each person shares their favorite movie, book, or hobby and talks about why it’s their favorite.

You can opt to run the activity yourself or have one of our event coordinators virtually host it for you. And if you’re team is a bunch of trivia lovers, you might want to check out our list of the best virtual trivia games for work. Now, it’s up to you and your remote team of virtual detectives to crack the case. You can also create a Slack channel for async updates and wins between meetings, where people can post small victories or ask for resources. This only works if your team culture is genuinely supportive.

The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team. From virtual tastings to immersive team experiences, discover how companies are rethinking end-of-year celebrations. Schedule a time to chat with the HOST Events team today. Have everyone take this University of Pennsylvania Brief Strengths Test.

This person shares their screen and navigates while everyone follows along. Give your team a 60-minute vacation from their desks by touring world-class museums together. Major institutions offer free virtual tours that are legitimately impressive, featuring high-res imagery, 360-degree views, and guided audio. It’s also a good idea to appoint a host or emcee to introduce each person’s performance. You’ll want to connect separately through a video app or your phone, so that you can talk to the people in your room.

Ask participants to use emojis to convey how they feel about the upcoming meeting or a specific topic. It’s a fun and expressive way to gauge the group’s mood. Ask a “Would You Rather” question, such as “Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?” Participants take turns sharing their choices and reasoning. It’s a fun way to discover unique preferences within the group. Ask each participant to briefly describe how they’re feeling at the moment, whether it’s happy, excited, tired, or something else.

It may sound counterintuitive, but research shows that embarrassment leads to more (and more diverse!) ideas. Matt Mochary, a career coach for CEOs, also promotes the practice of sharing shameful moments to build a sense of deep trust within your team. After a minute or so, the Office Manager must decide whether the participants have guessed correctly, and if they are right, they earn a point. The Office Manager then chooses another person to take their place, and a new round begins. Introduce a topic or challenge and encourage participants to unleash their creativity through visual brainstorming, using virtual whiteboards or drawing tools.

If you’re looking for fun, unique, or themed ideas, you’ll find them here. Have each person share a skill they’re great at and one they’d like to learn. It’s an easy way to encourage knowledge sharing, and you might find someone who can help you improve a new skill. These activities are perfect for small groups and encourage conversations around professional goals, strengths, and learning opportunities. Each person shares the story behind their name—its meaning, who they were named after, or any special significance. This game helps bring out personal stories and sparks some surprising insights.

In a virtual setting, two people start a dialogue (either on-camera or via chat), but the rule is they can only respond with questions. If someone makes a statement or hesitates too long, they’re “out,” and the next person jumps in. Sometimes, the purpose of a virtual icebreaker can be as simple as getting people talking or to learn one another’s names before dropping into breakout rooms. Whatever the format, the goal is always to help your team be present in the meeting and begin making connections. That’s why this ice-breaker is a fun way to get people engaged and excited to share a personal tidbit (and bonus points, it has nothing to do with work).

This quick activity holds great potential for personal ambitions. Sometimes it’s clear that icebreaking sessions are slightly more difficult because people come in stressed about something or distracted by an outside event. So why not create a mindfulness icebreaker that encourages everyone to slow down, Talkliv reviews and “check-in” with themselves? Press pause on proceedings, and have them write down any worries, energy levels, or anything that’s taking up too much space in their mind.

“Are you a spreadsheet person or a whiteboard person?” Share results and discuss. Gable’s office management tools help you coordinate who’s in the room and who’s remote, so you can plan meetings that actually include everyone. Ask a question like “What’s one word that describes our team?” Everyone submits simultaneously. Everyone submits a caption via chat or a shared doc. Everyone flips their camera to show what’s outside their window (or their workspace setup).

Before the virtual meeting, prepare a list of trivia questions, preferably about general topics, not confined to a single category. All you have to do is prepare a series of ice breaker questions, listen to the employees’ answers, and let the conversation flow naturally. To create a stronger bond, opt for virtual icebreaker ideas that engage the entire team. A team that has fun together eventually grows to like each other, which, combined with a healthy workplace culture, can improve team dynamics dramatically.

Very often, the best teams are made up of diverse members with unique insights and perspectives. If your large team has many international members, using “Teambuilding on the map” is a great way to get conversations flowing. Have everyone go around the group and share some bucket list items they would like to do in their lifetime. It can be anything from traveling to a certain part of the world to learning a new skill to achieving an important aspiration. One person is in the “hot seat,” and everyone in the meeting asks them one (work-appropriate) question about anything.

The facilitator or the person leading the program randomly reads every story and group members guess who the writer is. This is a great way to get to know each other and find out new things, even if you’ve worked together for a long time. This can be used as a teambuilding activity or a way to introduce participants to each other.

This activity spreads positive energy and helps everyone feel appreciated. Choose a light personality quiz that everyone takes. It’s a fun, no-pressure way to learn more about each other’s tendencies and personalities.

That question always elicits the same automatic and socially conditioned response of “good” or “fine,” whether true or not. For example, someone who is upset might use the word “angry.” But if they dig deeper, they’ll find the word “frustrated” to describe their feelings. To facilitate discussion, pull up a photo of the emotional wheel, also known as the Plutchik wheel, developed by psychologist Robert Plutchik. According to Plutchik, people experience eight core emotions, including sadness and joy, anger, and fear.

If people will be judged for not hitting goals or mocked for personal ambitions, skip this one. You can also proactively set aside time, perhaps at the beginning of a team meeting, to listen to a few tracks from the playlist together. It can serve as a fun, bonding activity and provides an opportunity for team members to discuss why they chose certain songs.

9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. A great, remote-friendly exercise for a team to work together and share opinions. Creating a sentence relating to a specific topic or problem with each person contributing one word at a time.

For example, “Common Ground” is a fun virtual ice breaker that reveals more about each person. One of the biggest complaints about virtual icebreakers is that they waste valuable time. Many big corporate houses utilize this lucid yet persuasive activity to start workshops, meetings, or brainstorming sessions. It insists the participants share their thoughts with the other team members. In this section, we’ve collected icebreaker activities that are expressly collaborative in nature and which encourage puzzle solving and team work in an experiential way.