Do you want to bring some joy to your team meetings? Virtual icebreakers are short activities that can help you create a positive environment, facilitate human connection, and energize an online group. Also, they can be a great way to prepare your team for productive collaboration.
Below are 5 hands-on icebreakers you can use to activate your team members’ kinesthetic senses and make your meeting more engaging!
- Paper Towel Hammocks
Ask everybody to take 5 minutes to experiment and find the heaviest/largest/weirdest thing(s) they can support hammock-style on a single layer of paper towels. Then, taking turns, ask people to show off their accomplishment to their colleagues. - Flush Your Fears
Ask each person to get two squares of toilet paper and take 3 minutes to write down two of their biggest fears (one they’re comfortable sharing publicly and another private one). Then, taking turns, ask people to share with the rest of the group their public fear. Be open to receiving and giving comfort if that feels appropriate for your group at this time. Finally, ask everybody to turn off their videos and take 2 minutes to mindfully flush their two fears down the toilet by thinking about at least one way they can face and/or overcome them. - Space Experiences
In space astronauts float, so they don’t always orient their bodies in the same way as each other. Ask everybody to turn their computers/mobiles at odd angles (hopefully different from one another). Then, taking turns, ask people to share with their colleagues the most meaningful experience they’ve had related to a celestial object (sun, moon, stars, etc). - Improvisational Chefs
Ask each person to bring 5 random items from their pantry and set them up in front of their camera. If people don’t have access to food at the moment, ask them to instead think of which ingredients they’d choose. Once everyone has returned, give people 1 minute to make up a recipe they could prepare with those ingredients. It’s ok if people come up with what seem like crazy recipes, the most important part of this icebreaker is they use their creativity. Then, taking turns, ask each person to share with the rest of the group their recipe, with whom they’d eat it, and in what context. - Songs As Gifts
Choose a word that represents something you want to give your team as a gift (like “success”). Using your team’s preferred music platform, create a public playlist and ask everybody to add a song that embodies for them your chosen word. Then, taking turns, ask people to say which song they chose and why it reminds them of that word. Moving forward, your team will have a playlist to remind them of their colleagues and their stories.
If you try one of these out, let us know how it went by tagging #SmithAssembly on social media or by emailing us at team@smithassembly.com!