At Red Door, we pride ourselves on our ability to break down barriers – it’s what we do on a daily basis in our escape rooms! With the world working remotely, we wanted to share our favorite ice breakers that can work well on zoom/google/skype calls to keep your remote meetings light and fun. Our mission is to help people deepen their relationships through creative entertainment and we know these ice breakers can do just that for your team!
Here are 4 icebreakers that will help break barriers, build trust, and foster camaraderie for your work teams:
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE
- Have your team sit in a circle (or break into virtual rooms if you use zoom!). If you have a larger team, you can break into smaller circles.
- You will need a facilitator who judges the winning “lie” statement.
- Ask your team to take a few minutes and think of three fun facts about themselves, two of which should be true; and one lie. The point is to try and create a falsehood that tricks the other players into believing it is a truth, or to share something that no-one knows and wouldn’t even consider being true.
- The facilitator will select someone to go first and state their three personal “facts”. After they are done the facilitator will ask for a vote, or they can go around the circle and ask each person which statement they think is the lie. Afterwards, the person who is speaking about themself will reveal which statement was the lie!
NO SMILING
- Have your team sit in a circle or join a virtual call together.
- Ask for a volunteer to sit in the middle and instruct them that they cannot laugh or smile in any way.
- Have people around the circle ask for the volunteer’s attention and try to make them laugh. Tell a work appropriate joke or a funny story and see if you can get them to crack. On a video-call, you can easily “unmute” one at a time and try to get the chosen individual to laugh.
- If the person smiles or laughs, the team member who told the joke can take their place in the circle (or you can ask for another volunteer). Rinse and repeat!
ONE WORD
- Break your team up into smaller teams (again this works well with zoom breakouts) and give them each 10 minutes to decide on one word that describes your company culture.
- Next, each team will create a 30 second elevator pitch as to why the word they have chosen is the best. Make sure to time them!
- After each group has presented, hold a vote over which word is the winner (you aren’t allowed to vote for your word!). If you have a tie, allow a 2 minute discussion between groups to decide why they think their pick is the correct one.
ONE COMMON THING
- Break your team into small groups (again, this works best with Zoom breakout groups). Instruct each group to take 5 minutes to make a list of as many things as possible that they all have in common. Outside of the box is better!
- After the five minutes is up, ask each team what they have in common.
- After each commonality, ask if there are any other groups that also have that thing in common (ie. broken a bone, played soccer). The presenting team only gets a point if there are no other teams that have that item in common!
- Tally the points and award the winner!
Use these fun icebreaker activities to start your meetings, training sessions, or team building events by putting everyone at ease and beginning the bonding process early. If you are looking for more team building ideas, visit our blog to see 3 More Great Ice Breakers. Enjoy the deeper connections and more relaxed atmosphere you have promoted!
