fun problem solving ice breakers

101+ Ice breaker games & activities for team meetings to try at work in 2024

If you've ever found yourself trapped in a virtual or physical room, staring at your coworkers as if they were aliens from another planet, you're not alone. Meetings can be as cold as the Arctic, but fear not, for we're about to melt that ice faster than a microwave on full power.

To set the stage for our adventure into the world of great icebreakers, let's turn to a bit of wisdom from none other than Michael Scott, the iconic Dunder Mifflin regional manager from "The Office":

"Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy. Both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me."

While Michael might not be the pinnacle of management wisdom , his quirky take on leadership is surprisingly applicable when it comes to team meetings. After all, the best way to lead your team is to have them genuinely enjoy your meetings rather than dread them. And that's where icebreakers come into play.

Now, let's get down to business. If you're reading this, you're on the lookout for some fantastic icebreakers to thaw out those awkward silences and transform your team meetings into events everyone looks forward to.

What is an icebreaker?

An icebreaker is a term often used in various social settings, including team meetings, workshops, conferences, and gatherings. It refers to a structured activity or technique designed to help people get to know each other, build engagement , and feel more comfortable in a group setting, especially when they may be unfamiliar with each other or starting a new interaction.

The primary goal of an icebreaker is to break the initial "ice" or tension that can exist in a group of people who are meeting for the first time or who haven't interacted much before. Icebreakers come in various forms, such as:

• Introduction games: These involve participants sharing some personal information or fun facts about themselves.
• Team-building activities: These involve collaborative tasks or challenges that require teamwork.
• Question and answer sessions: Participants take turns answering interesting or thought-provoking questions.
• Games and puzzles: Fun games or brain teasers that require group participation.
• Storytelling exercises: Participants share personal stories or experiences related to a given topic.

Purpose of icebreakers

Icebreakers serve a multitude of purposes in team-building events, meetings, and professional settings. They are not just about breaking the ice but about creating a vibrant, inclusive, and productive atmosphere where participants can connect, communicate effectively, and achieve common objectives. Let’s take a look at why they come in so handy-

Building relationships and rapport

Icebreakers are excellent tools for team bonding and fostering a sense of camaraderie. In team meetings, they can help team members, including new hires or colleagues from different departments, get to know each other more personally.

This interpersonal connection goes a long way in building trust and rapport among team members.

Easing tension and reducing anxiety

There can be an initial sense of tension or anxiety in many situations, especially when people meet for the first time or discuss challenging topics. Icebreakers act as social lubricants, helping individuals relax and feel more at ease . This relaxed atmosphere is conducive to open and honest communication.

Fostering effective communication

Effective communication is the backbone of successful teamwork and collaboration. Icebreakers encourage participants to engage in conversation, share ideas, and listen actively.

By breaking down communication barriers, they create a space where team members can express themselves more freely and confidently.

Enhancing engagement

Meetings and professional gatherings can sometimes become monotonous and uninspiring. Icebreakers inject energy and enthusiasm into these events. Participants are more likely to remain engaged throughout the meeting when actively involved in fun and interactive activities.

This, in turn, leads to better retention of employees and ideas discussed during the meeting.

Promoting inclusivity

Icebreakers can help create a more inclusive environment by ensuring that all participants have a chance to contribute. In larger meetings or diverse groups , some individuals may be hesitant to speak up. Icebreakers provide everyone with an opportunity to participate, regardless of their background or personality.

Stimulating creativity and innovation

Some icebreakers involve creative or problem-solving activities. These exercises encourage participants to think outside the box, come up with unique solutions, and explore new perspectives. This can be particularly valuable in brainstorming sessions and innovation-focused meetings.

Improving team dynamics

For teams, whether they're newly formed or have been working together for a while, icebreakers can be instrumental in improving team dynamics . They help identify common interests, strengths, and weaknesses within the remote team members, allowing for more effective collaboration.

Boosting morale and motivation

When employees feel that their contributions are valued and that they are part of a cohesive team, their morale and motivation tend to be higher . Icebreakers contribute to a positive work environment where employees feel excited about attending meetings and contributing to the organization's goals.

Enhancing learning and retention

In educational and training settings, icebreakers can create an environment where participants are more receptive to learning . Icebreakers can set a positive tone and improve information retention by engaging them at the beginning of a session.

Considerations for using icebreakers

When incorporating icebreakers into team meetings or other professional settings, it's essential to consider several factors to ensure that these activities are effective and appropriate for your specific audience and objectives. Here are some key considerations for using icebreakers:

1. Purpose and goals

Clearly define the purpose of the best and fun icebreaker games. Are you aiming to build relationships, ease tension, foster creativity, or achieve some other specific goal? Understanding your objectives will help you choose the most suitable and great icebreaker game or activity.

2. Audience and group dynamics

Consider the composition of your group. Are they familiar with each other, or are they meeting for the first time? Are there cultural or diversity considerations to keep in mind? Tailor your icebreaker to suit the demographics, personalities, and dynamics of your audience.

3. Time constraints

Be mindful of the time available for your meeting or session. Icebreakers should be appropriate in length and not take up an excessive amount of time that could detract from the primary agenda.

4. Physical and virtual settings

Whether your meeting is in-person or virtual , choose icebreakers that are suitable for the setting. Virtual icebreakers, for example, should leverage online tools and platforms, while in-person meeting icebreakers may involve physical activities.

5. Relevance to meeting agenda

Ensure that the icebreaker relates to the main topics or goals of the meeting. This alignment helps participants see the value of the icebreaker in the context of the overall discussion.

6. Comfort and inclusivity

Create an environment where all participants feel comfortable participating in the icebreaker. Avoid activities that may put individuals on the spot or make them uncomfortable.

7. Sensitive topics and boundaries

Be cautious when selecting icebreakers, especially in diverse groups, to avoid potentially sensitive or offensive topics. Always respect personal boundaries and cultural sensitivities.

8. Variety and creativity

Keep things fresh by varying the types of icebreakers you use. This prevents predictability and maintains participant interest. Creative and fun icebreakers can be particularly engaging.

9. Facilitation and instructions

Provide clear and concise instructions for the fun icebreaker game. Ensure that participants understand the rules and purpose of the activity. If you have a large group, consider having facilitators or small groups to manage the process.

10. Debriefing and reflection

After the meeting icebreaker, take a moment for reflection and discussion. Encourage participants to share their thoughts and feelings about the activity and how it relates to the meeting's goals.

11. Feedback and adaptation

Solicit feedback from participants about the effectiveness of the icebreaker. Use this feedback to adapt and improve future icebreaker activities.

12. Measuring impact

Consider how you will measure the impact of the icebreaker on the team meeting it's objectives. Did it achieve the desired outcome, such as improved team cohesion or enhanced creativity?

13. Frequency

Don't overuse icebreakers. They should be used strategically and not become a routine that loses effectiveness. Reserve the ice breakers for meetings where they can make a significant difference.

14. Technology considerations

In virtual settings, assess the technological capabilities of your participants. Choose icebreakers that don't rely heavily on advanced technology to ensure everyone can actively participate, regardless of their technical proficiency.

15. Energy levels

Take into account the energy levels of the group and the timing of your icebreaker. High-energy activities may be more suitable at the beginning of a meeting, while a calming icebreaker might be appropriate after a lengthy discussion to re-energize participants.

16. Icebreaker alternatives

Consider having alternative icebreakers in mind in case the initially planned activity doesn't resonate well with the group. Being flexible allows you to adapt to the dynamics of the meeting and the participants' reactions.

17. Remote team considerations

For teams working remotely, choose icebreakers that not only foster connection but also combat feelings of isolation. Activities that encourage sharing personal experiences or insights can help create a sense of camaraderie among team members, even in a virtual environment.

18. Icebreaker customization

Tailor icebreakers to align with the specific goals of your team or organization. Customizing activities based on the company culture or current challenges can enhance their relevance and impact.

19. Icebreaker follow-up

Consider incorporating elements of the icebreaker into future discussions or team-building activities. Referencing shared experiences from icebreakers can reinforce connections and create a cohesive narrative for the team.

20. Icebreaker adaptability

Anticipate the unexpected and be ready to adapt your chosen icebreaker on the spot. Flexibility in modifying activities based on the atmosphere or unexpected developments ensures that the icebreaker remains engaging and effective. Remember that the key to successful meeting icebreakers is thoughtful planning and consideration of your audience and objectives. When executed effectively, icebreakers can create a positive, engaging atmosphere that contributes to the success of your meetings and professional interactions.

What are the 4 C's icebreaker games?

The 4 C's icebreaker indicate four primary goals which they are primarily used for. Here’s a breakdown of them.

1. Collaboration

The first "C" in the 4 C's icebreaker stands for collaboration. The activity aims to encourage participants to work together as a team to achieve a common goal.

Collaboration involves sharing ideas, skills, and resources, and it promotes a sense of unity and cooperation among group members. This element of the icebreaker emphasizes the importance of teamwork.

2. Creativity

The icebreaker activity encourages participants to think creatively and outside the box. It often involves problem-solving tasks or challenges that require innovative solutions and creative mindset.

Fostering creativity in a group setting can lead to fresh ideas and approaches, which can be valuable in various professional contexts.

3. Communication

Effective communication is crucial in any team or group, and this aspect of the icebreaker focuses on improving communication skills.

Participants are encouraged to express their thoughts, listen actively to others, and provide clear and concise information. Strong communication within a team enhances understanding and prevents misunderstandings.

4. Critical thinking

Critical thinking involves analyzing information, evaluating options, and making informed decisions. Participants are often presented with challenges or scenarios that require them to think critically and make choices based on the information provided.

This component encourages participants to use their problem-solving and decision-making skills.

How is icebreaker for team meetings linked to employee engagement?

Icebreakers for team meetings are closely linked to employee engagement , playing a vital role in creating a positive and productive work environment.

Employee engagement is all about fostering a deep connection between employees and their work, their colleagues, and the organization as a whole. Here's how team-building icebreakers can contribute to and strengthen this connection:

1. Enhancing communication

Effective communication is a cornerstone of employee engagement . Icebreakers encourage team members to communicate in a relaxed and informal setting. When employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas, they are more likely to engage actively in team discussions and offer valuable insights.

2. Creating a positive work environment

Icebreakers inject energy and enthusiasm into team meetings, making them more enjoyable. When employees look forward to meetings and feel a sense of excitement, it contributes to a positive work atmosphere . This positivity can extend beyond meetings, impacting day-to-day interactions and overall job satisfaction .

3. Reducing workplace stress

Icebreakers can help alleviate workplace stress by providing a break from routine tasks. Engaging in fun and light-hearted activities during a meeting can act as a stress-relief valve, allowing employees to return to their work with a refreshed mindset and reduced tension.

4. Encouraging employee voice

Employee engagement is closely tied to the idea that employees feel heard and valued. Icebreakers that involve sharing ideas and experiences empower employees to express themselves. When employees feel their opinions matter, they are more likely to be engaged in their work and in the organization's success.

5. Boosting morale and job satisfaction

Engaged employees are more likely to have higher morale and job satisfaction . Icebreakers contribute to a more enjoyable work experience, making employees feel that their workplace is not just a location to complete tasks but a place where they can connect with colleagues, have fun, and grow as professionals.

6. Strengthening team dynamics

Strong team dynamics are essential for employee engagement. Icebreakers can help identify team strengths and weaknesses, promote collaboration, and build a sense of unity. When employees feel like they are part of a cohesive team, they are more motivated to contribute their best efforts .

7. Fostering a sense of belonging

Icebreakers create opportunities for team members to learn more about each other on a personal level. This deeper understanding fosters a sense of belonging within the team. When employees feel a strong connection to their colleagues, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to the team's collective goals.

8. Cultivating creativity and innovation

Employee engagement thrives in an environment that values creativity and innovation. Icebreakers that challenge teams to think outside the box and solve problems in a collaborative way can contribute to a culture of innovation.

Engaged employees are more likely to embrace new ideas and contribute creatively to the organization's growth.

9. Enhancing adaptability

In today's dynamic work environment, adaptability is a crucial skill. Icebreakers that require quick thinking, flexibility, and problem-solving can help develop and enhance these adaptive skills among team members.

Engaged employees who are adept at navigating change contribute positively to the organization's overall resilience.

10. Strengthening leadership and trust

Icebreakers often involve elements of leadership and trust-building. When employees experience effective leadership within the context of an icebreaker, it can positively influence their perception of leadership in the broader organizational context.

Trust between team members and leaders is a cornerstone of employee engagement and organizational success.

101+ Fun icebreakers activities and games for team meetings

Now that we know what makes icebreakers important and their huge impact on employee engagement. Here are the top ones to get you ready for your next meeting.

Icebreaker questions for virtual meetings

• What's your ideal remote work setup?
• What's the most interesting thing you've done lately outside of work?
• If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?
• Share a fun fact about yourself that most people don't know.
• What's the last book you read or movie/tv show you watched?
• What's your favorite work-from-home snack or beverage?
• Share a memorable work achievement or success story.
• What's your go-to productivity tip for remote work?
• If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?
• What's the best virtual team-building activity you've participated in?

Icebreaker activities for virtual meetings

• Two truths and a lie: Participants take turns sharing two true statements and one false statement about themselves. Others guess which statement is the lie.
• Virtual scavenger hunt: Create a list of items or themes, and participants have a limited time to find and show these items on their webcams. The first one to complete the list wins.
• Polling questions: Use a polling feature in your virtual meeting platform to ask fun and engaging multiple-choice questions. Participants can vote and see the results in real time.
• Online pictionary or charades: Use online drawing or charades tools where participants take turns drawing or acting out words or phrases for others to guess.
• The emoji challenge: Participants describe how they're feeling using emojis only. Others guess the emotions or situations being conveyed.
• Virtual bingo: Create bingo cards with fun and work-related topics, such as "Has a pet," "Loves coffee," or "Went on a vacation recently." Participants mark their cards as they find colleagues who match the descriptions.
• Show and tell: Each participant shares an interesting item from their workspace and explains its significance. It could be a souvenir, a piece of art, or a gadget.
• Themed backgrounds: Encourage participants to set a themed virtual background for the meeting, such as a vacation destination, favorite movie scene, or childhood photo. They can briefly explain their choice.
• Timeline of life events: Participants create a visual timeline of significant life events using images or emojis. They then share their timelines and discuss the events with the group.
• Group storytelling: Start a collaborative story where each participant contributes a sentence or two, taking the narrative in unexpected and imaginative directions.

Icebreaker games for virtual meetings

• Online trivia quiz: Host a trivia game using a platform like Kahoot! or Quizlet. Prepare questions related to various topics and let participants compete to see who knows the most.
• The emoji story challenge: Share a series of emojis that represent a story or phrase. Participants take turns guessing what the emojis mean and contribute their own emoji stories.
• Guess the background: Encourage participants to use creative virtual backgrounds. Others guess the location, theme, or significance of each background choice.
• Virtual puzzles: Create a digital jigsaw puzzle with an image or message related to your meeting's theme. Participants work together to solve the puzzle.
• Zoom charades: Participants take turns acting out words or phrases without speaking while others guess what they're trying to convey.
• Word association: Start with a random word, and each participant must quickly type a word that they associate with it. The game moves fast, and it's a fun exercise in creative thinking.
• Virtual board games: Play digital board games like Chess, Scrabble, or Monopoly using online platforms or apps designed for multiplayer gaming.
• The name game: Choose a category (e.g., movies, cities, animals) and take turns naming items from that category alphabetically. Each participant must continue the sequence.
• Virtual escape room: Join an online escape room experience together. Participants work as a team to solve puzzles and "escape" within a time limit.
• Digital show and tell scavenger hunt: Assign each participant a specific item to find in their home and present during the meeting. You can set a timer for added excitement.

Icebreaker games to get to know each other in team meetings

• Two lies and a truth: In this game, each team member takes turns sharing two false statements and one true statement about themselves. The rest of the group must guess which statement is true. It's a fun way to learn surprising facts about colleagues.
• The commonalities game: Create a list of unique or uncommon experiences, interests, or skills, and have team members privately select any that apply to them. During the meeting, participants share their selections and discover commonalities with others.
• Human bingo: Distribute bingo cards with various traits or experiences in each square (e.g., "Speaks multiple languages," "Has run a marathon"). Team members must interact with each other to find someone who matches each description and sign their name in the square.
• Story of my name: Ask team members to share the story behind their names, including any cultural or personal significance. This activity not only helps break the ice but also promotes understanding and appreciation of diverse backgrounds .
• The timeline game: Each team member creates a visual timeline of their life events using a virtual whiteboard or drawing tool. They share their timelines, and others can ask questions or comment on significant moments.
• The memory lane challenge: Ask each team member to bring an item or photo from their past that holds special meaning or a memorable story. They share the item and its story with the group, fostering a deeper connection through shared experiences.
• Bucket list sharing: Invite team members to share one item from their personal or professional bucket list. This exercise encourages open discussion and can reveal shared aspirations and interests.

Icebreaker games to kick off office meetings

• Office scavenger hunt: Create a list of items or clues related to the office environment. Team members must search for these items or answer questions about the office. The first person or team to complete the hunt wins a small prize.
• Office trivia: Prepare a set of trivia questions related to the company, office culture, or colleagues. Team members take turns answering questions, and correct answers can earn points or recognition.
• Mystery guest: Invite a surprise guest, such as a senior leader from remote team or an employee from another department, to join the meeting briefly. Team members can ask the guest a few questions to learn more about their roles and experiences.
• Office bingo: Create bingo cards with office-related events or scenarios, such as "Someone mentions a recent project" or "Someone makes a reference to a company value." As the meeting progresses, participants mark off items when they occur.
• Office charades: Similar to traditional charades, team members take turns acting out office-related terms, such as software tools, project names, or common office situations, without using words. Others guess what's being acted out.
• Show and tell: Ask team members to bring and briefly share something from their workspace that represents their personality or interests. It could be a book, a piece of artwork, or even a favorite office gadget.
• Company history toss: Prepare a set of questions related to the company's history, milestones, or achievements. Team members take turns tossing a soft object (like a foam ball) to each other. The person who catches it must answer the question before tossing it to someone else.

Icebreaker office games that are humorous

• Funny introduction: Have each participant introduce themselves with a humorous or fictional job title. For example, "I'm John, the Chief Coffee Drinker."
• Caption this: Share a funny or quirky image, and ask participants to come up with humorous captions for it. Vote for the funniest caption.
• Wacky storytelling: Start a story with a ridiculous or unexpected sentence, and then have each participant contribute one sentence at a time to continue the story. The goal is to create the most absurd and funny narrative.
• Comedy sketch: Divide participants into small groups and assign them a humorous scenario or theme to get the creative juices flowing. Each group must create a short comedy sketch or scene to perform for the rest of the team.
• Stand-up comedy night: Give team members a few minutes each to share their best (clean and office-appropriate) jokes or funny anecdotes. Laughter is guaranteed!
• Meme battle: Challenge participants to create office-related memes and share them during the meeting. The funniest meme, as voted by the group, wins.
• Pun-derful pictionary: Play a game of Pictionary with a twist. All the clues must involve puns, wordplay, or humorous interpretations.
• The office Olympics: Create a series of silly and lighthearted challenges that participants can do from their desks or homes. Examples include paper airplane competitions or virtual "desk chair" races.
• Impersonation game: Ask each participant to impersonate a famous personality, colleague, or fictional character briefly. Encourage creativity and exaggeration for comedic effect.
• Comedic icebreaker questions: Use ice breaker questions for work that are inherently funny, such as "If you could have any superpower for work, what would it be?" or "What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten on a business trip?"

Fun ice breaker games for team building

• Team puzzle challenge: Divide participants into small teams and give each team a jigsaw puzzle. The catch is that each, one team member each gets a different puzzle piece and must collaborate to complete the entire puzzle within a time limit.
• Human knot: Have participants stand in a circle, and each person randomly grabs the hands of two others across from them, creating a "human knot." The challenge is to untangle the knot without letting go of hands.
• Office olympics relay: Create a series of mini-games or challenges that teams must complete in a relay format. These challenges can include paper toss, chair racing, and more.
• The great egg drop: Provide teams with limited materials (e.g., paper, tape, and straws) and an egg. Their task is to build a contraption to protect the egg from a drop of a certain height. The team with the most intact egg wins.
• Escape room challenge: Participate in a virtual escape room experience as a team. You'll need to collaborate to solve puzzles and "escape" within a time frame.
• Storytelling chain: Start a story with one participant, and then have each team member add a sentence or phrase to continue the narrative. The story can get quite creative and entertaining.
• Tug of war trivia: Combine a classic game of virtual tug of war with trivia questions. Correct answers move the rope in your team's favor, adding an exciting twist to the game.
• Human bingo-team version: Instead of individual bingo cards, create team bingo cards with teamwork-related achievements or qualities. Teams must find colleagues who fit the descriptions and mark them on their cards.
• The ball and string challenge: Provide each team with a ball and a string with the goal of guiding the ball through a series of obstacles or into a designated target area, all while holding onto the string.
• Building the tallest structure: Give teams a set of common office supplies (e.g., paper, tape, rubber bands) and challenge them to build the tallest freestanding structure they can within a time limit.

Icebreaker games to improve teamwork and collaboration

• Chain reaction challenge: Teams are given a set of materials, and each team's task is to build a chain reaction machine. Each part of the machine must trigger the next, promoting cooperation and creative problem-solving.
• Group jigsaw puzzle: Provide each team with a section of a larger jigsaw puzzle. The teams must collaborate to assemble the complete puzzle, emphasizing the importance of working together seamlessly.
• Team drawing challenge: Each team is given a portion of a larger image to replicate, but they cannot see the full image. The teams must communicate effectively to ensure that their pieces align correctly to reveal the full picture.
• Minefield: Create an obstacle course in a designated area (real or virtual) filled with "mines" (obstacles or objects). Teams must guide a blindfolded teammate through the course using only verbal instructions, reinforcing trust and clear communication.
• Office Olympics: Host a series of office-themed challenges, such as paper airplane contests, desk chair races, or sticky note darts. Teams compete in these playful activities, fostering teamwork and friendly competition.
• Collaborative story writing: Teams work together to create a cohesive story, with each team member contributing only one word, sentence or idea at a time. The resulting story reflects the collective creativity and collaboration of the group.
• Cross-functional teams: Form teams with members from different departments or roles within your organization. This encourages diverse perspectives and collaboration among individuals remote teams who may not typically work together.
• Blind drawing challenge: Pair team members, with one person describing an object, and the other has to draw it based on the description alone. This game emphasizes clear communication and active listening.
• Tower building: Provide teams with materials like spaghetti, marshmallows, and tape. The objective is to build the tallest tower within a time limit. Collaboration and creativity are key to success.
• Back-to-back drawing: Pair team members and have them sit back-to-back. One person describes a simple image to the other, who must draw it based on the verbal instructions. This exercise highlights the importance of clarity and teamwork.

Icebreaker games for small groups

• Would you rather: Participants take turns posing "Would You Rather" questions to each other, leading to interesting discussions and insights into preferences.
• Name that celebrity: Write down the names of well-known celebrities or historical figures and place them on participants' foreheads without them seeing. Participants take turns asking yes-or-no questions to guess their identity.
• Interview introductions: Pair participants and have them interview each other for a few minutes. Each person then introduces their partner to the group, sharing interesting facts learned during the interview.
• Story starters: Start a story with a single sentence, and have each participant add one sentence at a time. Continue until you've collectively created a humorous or imaginative story.
• 20 Questions: One participant thinks of an object, person, or place, and the others take turns asking yes-or-no questions to guess what it is. The goal is to guess correctly within 20 questions or fewer.
• Commonalities game: Provide a list of unique experiences, skills, or hobbies. Participants privately select which items apply to them, and then they discuss their commonalities as a group.
• Word association: Begin word game with a single word, and have participants take turns saying the first word that comes to mind. It's a fast-paced game that can lead to surprising connections and laughter.
• Picture sharing: Ask participants to share a photo or image on their devices that represents a memorable experience or a personal passion. Each person explains their chosen picture to the group.
• Memory test: One participant starts by saying, "I went to the market and bought..." and then mentions an item. The next person repeats the sentence and adds another item, continuing the pattern. Participants must remember and recite the growing list correctly.

Icebreaker questions for team collaboration

• Team superpower: If your team were a superhero squad, what would be its collective superpower? Discuss how each team member contributes to this imaginary superpower.
• Collaborative dream project: Envision a dream project that requires the unique skills and expertise of every team member. Describe the project and the role each person would play.
• Team-building success story: Share a memorable moment when your team successfully collaborated to achieve a goal or overcome a challenge. Celebrate the teamwork that made it possible.
• Role reversal: If you could switch roles with a team member for a day, who would it be, and why? Discuss how gaining different perspectives could benefit the team.
• Team values alignment: Discuss the core values that unite your team. How do these values guide your collective decision-making and interactions with each other and external stakeholders?
• Team spirit animal: If your team were an animal, what animal would it be, and why? Explore the characteristics that make the chosen animal a representation of your team dynamics.
• Team playlist: Create a collaborative playlist with songs that represent the spirit and energy of your team. Each team member can contribute a song that embodies the team's vibe.
• Collective achievement vision: Share your team's vision for a collective achievement or milestone you aspire to reach in the future. Discuss the steps needed to turn this vision into reality.
• Team-building destination: If your team were to go on a team-building retreat, where would you choose to go, and what activities would you engage in to strengthen teamwork?
• Team cheers: Come up with a unique team cheer or phrase that encapsulates the enthusiasm and unity of your team. Encourage everyone to participate in creating and adopting this team mantra.

Icebreaker questions for creativity and innovation

• Creative collaboration: Imagine collaborating with a famous artist, scientist, or inventor on a project. Who would you choose, and what kind of project would you work on together?
• Fictional innovation: If you could bring to life any fictional technology or innovation from books, movies, or TV shows, what would it be, and how would it benefit society or your team?
• Redefining a common object: Choose a common everyday object and brainstorm ways to completely redesign or reinvent it. Share your creative concepts to transform the familiar into something extraordinary.
• Reverse brainstorming: Instead of finding solutions, brainstorm the opposite – identify ways to create a problem or challenge. This approach can lead to unique insights and unconventional solutions.
• Future workplace vision: Envision the future of the workplace in 2030. What technological advancements, work structures, or collaboration tools do you foresee playing a significant role?
• Innovative team name: If your team were to be renamed to reflect its innovative spirit, what would you choose? Share your creative and imaginative suggestions for a team name that captures your uniqueness.
• Creative process showcase: Share a glimpse into your creative process. How do you approach problem-solving or generate new ideas? Discuss any rituals, methods, or sources of inspiration you rely on.
• Dream invention pitch: Pitch an invention that you believe would revolutionize the way people live or work. Describe its features, benefits, and the problem it solves.
• Collaborative art project: If your team were to embark on a collaborative art project, what medium would you choose, and what theme or message would the artwork convey? Explore the artistic side of teamwork.

Icebreaker questions for professional development

• Learning journey highlight: Reflect on a significant learning or growth experience in your professional journey. How did it shape your skills or perspectives?
• Mentorship moments: Share a valuable piece of advice you received from a mentor or colleague that had a lasting impact on your professional development.
• Skill exchange wishlist: If you could learn any skill from a team member, what would it be, and why? Discuss the potential benefits of skill exchange within the team.
• Book recommendation: Recommend a book that has greatly contributed to your professional development. Share why it's a must-read for your colleagues.
• Professional superpower: If you could have one professional superpower, such as exceptional time management or the ability to master any software instantly, what would it be, and how would it benefit your work?
• Learning from setbacks: Discuss a setback or challenge in your career and the lessons you gained from overcoming it. How did it contribute to your resilience and adaptability?
• Career bucket list: Share an item from your professional bucket list. It could be a specific achievement, skill acquisition, or career milestone you aspire to reach.
• Conference dreams: If you could attend any professional conference, anywhere in the world, which one would it be, and what insights or connections do you hope to gain?
• Skill swap session: If you could organize a team skill swap session, where each member teaches a skill to others, what skills would you offer, and what would you want to learn?
• Professional legacy: Reflect on the impact you hope to leave in your professional field. How do you want to be remembered for your contributions and achievements?

13 Games for work meetings that you should try

Engaging in team-building activities during work meetings can contribute significantly to achieving this goal. Here are 13 carefully curated games designed to add a touch of excitement, interaction, and creativity to your work meetings.

• Two truths and wish: This game encourages team members to share two true statements about themselves and one thing they wish were true. It not only promotes authenticity but also provides insights into individuals' aspirations.
• Dream vacation destination: By asking team members to share their dream vacation destinations and reasons behind their choices, this game allows colleagues to connect on a personal level, fostering a sense of camaraderie.
• Office pet peeves: Sharing lighthearted or humorous office pet peeves provides an opportunity for team members to bond over common experiences, promoting a positive atmosphere.
• Skill exchange wishlist: Promoting professional development, this game encourages team members to express the skills they would like to learn from their colleagues, fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing and growth.
• Cultural celebration: Highlighting diversity and inclusion, this game invites team members to share significant holidays, traditions, or celebrations from their cultures, creating a more culturally aware and respectful work environment.
• Innovative team name: By brainstorming creative team names that reflect the team's innovative spirit, this game encourages collaboration in a fun and imaginative way.
• Reverse brainstorming: This unique approach challenges teams to think in the opposite direction, fostering creativity and allowing for unconventional problem-solving.
• Professional legacy: Reflecting on the impact team members hope to leave in their professional field promotes goal alignment and a shared sense of purpose.
• Office bingo: Injecting a sense of fun and friendly competition, Office Bingo turns regular meetings into an engaging activity. Colleagues mark off items on their bingo cards as they occur during the meeting, adding an element of surprise and entertainment.
• Team puzzle challenge: This collaborative challenge involves providing each team with a section of a larger jigsaw puzzle. The teams must work together seamlessly to assemble the complete puzzle, emphasizing the importance of teamwork.
• Chain reaction challenge: Teams are given a set of materials to build a chain reaction machine, promoting creative problem-solving and cooperation among team members as they strive to make each part trigger the next.
• Collaborative art project: Igniting the artistic side of teamwork, this activity involves teams working together on a creative art project. It encourages communication, shared vision, and a sense of accomplishment upon completion.
• Learning journey highlight: Reflecting on significant learning experiences in one's professional journey, this game facilitates the sharing of insights and lessons, fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.

Ice breaker games for meetings serve as powerful tools in enhancing employee engagement within a workplace. These activities, whether used in team meetings, office gatherings, or virtual interactions, offer numerous benefits that contribute to a more motivated and cohesive workforce.

First and foremost, icebreakers break down barriers and create a more relaxed and open atmosphere. They enable team members to connect on a personal level, sharing anecdotes, interests, and experiences that might not surface during typical work discussions.

This deeper understanding of colleagues fosters trust and strengthens workplace relationships.

Moreover, icebreakers improve communication and collaboration skills. By encouraging active participation and fostering effective dialogue, these activities promote clearer and more empathetic interactions among team members.

This heightened communication leads to better problem-solving, enhanced decision-making, and a more inclusive work environment .

Santhosh is a Jr. Product Marketer with 2+ years of experience. He loves to travel solo (though he doesn’t label them as vacations, they are) to explore, meet people, and learn new stories.

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Fun icebreaker questions and games for all teams

Icebreakers are a fantastic way to get team members acquainted with each other—especially if teams work remotely or there are new faces in the office. We often spend more time with our coworkers than family or friends. But teams don’t always know the best icebreaker questions or games. You can use these simple team-building activities to quickly help diffuse anxiety or awkward silences in meetings. Ice breakers are especially valuable for remote teams that conduct virtual meetings via video conferencing since team building is even harder when the whole team is distributed. Read on to find out how easy it is to create funny, insightful, and meaningful icebreakers.

• What are icebreakers?

Icebreakers are team-building exercises that aim to bond team members and facilitate collaborative work. They can ease team cohesion and even boost friendship and goodwill among the group. They can be questions that elicit profound answers, or fun games that help small groups connect through laughter.

Why businesses consistently use icebreakers

Every organization can benefit from simple and fun icebreaker activities. These team-building events can help whether you have a new team, welcome a new team member, or just want to work more closely together and facilitate team bonding. The best icebreakers allow attendees to warm up, understand each other, and face work challenges as a team. They are also super useful when you are starting remote meetings — they help the team bond and get ready for the task at hand.

Here is how you can use icebreaking games in your team:

To get to know each other

Getting to know your coworkers can be a powerful catalyst for better work results. Icebreakers are a lot more fun than just having everybody introduce themselves. They can help your team learn everyone’s names, understand each other’s backgrounds and interests, and then start a meaningful conversation.

To break down the “work” barrier

Many coworkers only interact with each other in a formal setting, which can lack the personal and human depth of regular conversation. Interactive icebreakers can significantly connect team members and help them feel more comfortable around each other. Humor and personal connection have long been used to “break the ice” in social settings. Laughter and sharing help us relax, whether we’re in the same room together or half a world away.

To interact with new faces

New member on the team? Maybe there’s a whole new team? An icebreaker can speed up the cohesion process so people feel comfortable and ready to work with each other. Interacting with new coworkers can be intimidating and challenging, but bonding over interests like sports or pop culture or family similarities comes easily using icebreaker questions and games.

To bond as a team

Icebreakers also provide a great opportunity for participants to voice expectations and concerns, and address the topics of meetings. They open up, empathize with their colleagues, and work together better. Icebreakers are a proven way to focus and motivate the team.

To encourage creative thinking

Icebreaker games help creativity to flourish. Coming up with fun stories instead of just following a meeting agenda sets the tone for the rest of the meeting. Participants are more likely to come up with good ideas, be more creatively confident, and express themselves without fear.

• Icebreakers are more important than ever

Icebreakers are especially important for virtual teams that can’t all physically interact with each other. They can reduce the inherent challenges of working in distributed teams in a fun, easy way. Remote team members may not know one another, and may not have shared office space or personal interactions. But a quick virtual icebreaker activity can start things off right!

• 12 great icebreaker questions to ask in groups

Icebreaker questions can be fun or funny, deep and meaningful—or both. People’s answers can be surprising indicators of values and personality. They can also show team members’ work styles, and how they collaborate with colleagues.

Here’s the full list of icebreaker questions:

1. What was your favorite childhood movie? 2. What is one item you couldn’t live without? 3. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? 4. If you were an animal, what kind would you be? 5. If you could have dinner with anybody in history, dead or alive, who would it be, and why? 6. What unusual or quirky things do you do regularly? 7. What’s your favorite 80s movie? 8. What’s your unusual talent? 9. If you were stranded on a desert island, what band or music would you want? 10. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? 11. What’s your biggest guilty pleasure? 12. What’s the greatest challenge you overcame?

1. What was your favorite childhood movie?

What did the movie make you think and feel at the time? This question can show what makes experiences memorable to the participant.

2. What is one item you couldn’t live without?

What made you choose that item? This is a great question to ask because it shows what participants value. It can also provide opportunities to discuss use and design.

3. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Answers to this question can reveal the breadth of participants’ tastes. They can also reveal how well they tolerate regular routines.

4. If you were an animal what would you be?

This is a great question because choosing an animal to identify with can reveal participants’ thoughts on what traits these animals have. Why are these traits desirable? How do they relate to us humans?

5. If you could have dinner with anybody in history, dead or alive, who would it be, and why?

By choosing a historical, literary, artistic, political, sports, or entertainment figure, this question shows the characteristics and achievements participants value. What is it about this person that inspires you?

6. What unusual or quirky things do you do regularly?

This probing question can show self-confidence in revealing vulnerabilities. It can also reveal characteristics uniquely suited to solving workplace issues.

7. What’s your favorite ’80s movie?

This question can show how participants spend time outside of work. Also, it can show their lighter sides, as well as how seriously they take themselves.

8. What’s your unusual talent?

What do you do better than anyone you know? This question can reveal how participants view themselves, and their strengths.

9. If you were stranded on a desert island, what band or music would you want?

Do you play music? This is a great question to find out people’s tastes and hobbies outside of work.

10. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

This question can reveal people’s breadth of travel and experience. In addition, it can show their openness to new cultures and people.

11. What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?

Answers to this question can reveal much about people’s values. It also can show how comfortable they are sharing their weaknesses.

12. What’s the greatest challenge you overcame?

What did you learn from it? People’s answers to this show their resilience, diligence, and perseverance.

• 10 great icebreaker games

Icebreaker games can be a fun way to refine goals and dissolve monotony in meetings. Employees may come in already stressed about work tasks. Using tools as simple as a piece of paper, a whiteboard, or a shared document, these quick games can help team members motivate and focus ahead.

Here’s the list of icebreakers games you can try:

1. Rock paper scissors tournament 2. Interview a partner for 5 minutes and then tell the group about them 3. Aliens have landed 4. The birth map 5. Mindfulness icebreaker 6. Two truths and a lie 7. A picture of your life 8. 10 common things 9. Scavenger hunt 10. Guess the artist 11. Marshmallow challenge 12. Line up 13. One-word exercise 14. Flat lay your desk 15. A tour guide

1. Rock paper scissors tournament

This twist on the classic game is played by two people. The losers of each game then go on to cheer for the winners who go on to the next rounds, until the final two compete to the cheers of everyone. It can show people’s reflexes, responsiveness, and spontaneity, and can even be a springboard for brainstorming. The game energizes the team and emphasizes teamwork and collaboration.

2. Interview a partner for 5 minutes and then tell the group about them

Ask about their hobbies, what especially stimulates or challenges them at work, and other important interests in their lives. Switch places and do the same for your partner. This game highlights listening and communication skills and can help team members discover common interests with one another.

3. Aliens have landed

This icebreaker can be useful for teams with remote participants with language and cultural differences. Tell the group to imagine aliens have landed on Earth and want to learn about your company. But since they don’t speak your language or understand your product, it needs to be explained with five symbols or pictures. Ask each participant to upload five simple images that best describe and communicate your company’s products and culture to a shared document/folder. Take a few minutes and look at all the images. Are there common themes?  Aliens Have Landed is a great game to play to break the ice with your remote team.

4. The home map

This is especially great for international teams. Print a map of the world or upload it to a shared document or visual workspace, like Miro. At the beginning of your meeting, ask everyone on your team to put a sticker or a pin on the map to show where they’re from. Then encourage everyone to share a short story about what they love most about that place. If they traveled around growing up, as which place they loved the most.

This great activity shows the diversity of voices represented on your team. It allows people to share their cultural values and reveals what everyone shares, no matter where in the world they live.

5. Mindfulness icebreaker

Participants write down ideas, thoughts, or feelings they’ve brought to the meeting. People often enter meetings stressed about tasks they’re working on or other issues. This helps them check in with themselves, and process these thoughts and feelings. They then rip up their answers, which allows them to maintain their privacy, and then focus on group tasks ahead.

6. Two truths and a lie

This popular game has team members guess which of your three statements is a lie. It can encourage colleagues to pay close attention to your personal traits and stories. As well as attention to detail, it also encourages focus on consistency.

7. A picture of your life

Add every member of the team to a shared document or an visual workspace before the meeting begins, and ask them to post a picture of something from their life. It can be anything that will tell a story about who each member is or how they work: a picture of the shoes each member is wearing, the view out their window or a photo of their desk. Then ask them to share the story behind their picture.

Here at Miro, we used this icebreaker game before a remote workshop about User Personas. The task was to share a picture of something on your desk that tells a story about who you are or how you work. In addition to this, we shared one thing we learned recently. It was fun and surprising in some cases, allowing us to get to know each other more and set the casual atmosphere we needed for the workshop.

8. 10 common things

This game is good for starting a brainstorming session. Divide your team into small groups and ask them to come up with a list of 10 things they have in common. If you prefer to keep the topic more business-oriented, limit the list to work or industry-related topics.

It can be as simple as, “We all wear shoes,” to something more specific like, “We were all hired in 2020.” Regardless of the answers, it will create a bond, generate discussion and laughter, and get the group thinking creatively. Allow time for each group of remote workers to share their list with the larger team in the visual workspace. This will create an electric, dynamic atmosphere, well suited to brainstorming.

9. Scavenger hunt

This versatile game often has fond childhood associations and can be done anywhere, whether in the office or outside. In many creative ways, it uses a variety of skills, strategic thinking, and problem-solving methods, to find the hidden items. It can especially help people who might have different styles or don’t normally work together and bond together as a team.

10. Guess the artist

Before your meeting, ask every remote employee to create an image or find a picture they can use to tell a unique story or fact about their lives. Everyone should upload their images to a visual workspace in advance. At the beginning of the meeting, everyone puts stickers on each image, guessing who each picture belongs to. Then you can start to figure out together which picture belongs to which person. When a correct guess is made, that person needs to share their story with the group. Include a video for the storytelling so everyone can connect the name, face, and story.

When a correct guess is made, that person needs to share their story with the group.

11. Marshmallow challenge

This well-known icebreaker game has teams build the tallest free-standing structure out of dry spaghetti, tape, string, and a marshmallow (which must be on top). It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving strategy.

12. Line up

In this game, participants must quickly line up without any written or verbal cues, or any other help. The criteria are predetermined and include factors such as height, hair color, or eye color. This game encourages nonverbal communication and teamwork, and tasks get more complicated as the team grows closer.

13. One-word exercise

Starting from your designated meeting topic, pick a phrase that relates to the central theme. Have participants write down a word that they associate with it. This game allows everyone to share hesitations and expectations, and then focus on the task ahead.

14. Flat lay your desk

This is a remote team-building exercise we picked up from 6Q team . “You could get your team members to take a flat lay of their desk and share it with the rest during your team meetings ,” they suggest, adding, “A flat lay is basically a photo of items from directly above, and these items are usually arranged or styled on a flat surface.” Sharing the story behind an object can also be a good way to learn more about your colleagues’ personalities.

15. A tour guide

When your team members are remote, it can be a great idea to schedule an actual tour of each remote employee’s location! They can show their office space, guide the team through their home, or co-working space, or, if technology allows, livestream from a place they love in their city or town. You can use a live streaming service or a social network like Snapchat or Instagram. This exercise is great for building empathy and giving each remote team member some context to understand their colleagues’ backgrounds (particularly great for international teams). Just make sure your team is on board and has access to the technology needed to do this game before attempting.

To learn more, check out Miro’s  Icebreaker Game Guide

Create icebreakers for your team.

Personal interactions are the key to building positive relationships and results. By facilitating strong connections with colleagues, you can increase employee fulfillment and ensure success at work. Icebreakers can work for any type of organization. Best of all, they don’t have to be complicated. With the Miro Icebreaker Template , you can make them easily!

• How Miro helps remote teams collaborate

The greatest projects are created when teams collaborate, and when individuals can share their creativity with ease. Miro’s visual workspace and templates and tools help create the most amazing products faster, by allowing remote teams to quickly understand how best to work together.

Whether you are an agile product team, UX and UI designer, project leader, marketer, or developer, you can collaborate with your distributed team in real time — just as if you were in the same room. You can use the infinite canvas and a wide range of tools to organize your teamwork in a visual way:

• Сreate agile boards (user story maps and retrospectives)
• Manage backlog
• Brainstorm and organize ideas
• Create wireframes and mockups
• Collect references
• Create flowcharts and diagrams
• Get feedback on visuals
• Work with sticky notes

You can also use collaboration features like simple sharing options, real-time collaboration, mentions, comments, and integration with Slack, JIRA, Google Drive, and other tools. Join thousands of businesses that use Miro to boost collaboration!

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• Why businesses consistently useicebreakers

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6 activities and templates to unite your cross-functional team.

8 agile games to boost team building & creativity

10 virtual games for your next team building meeting.

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35+ Icebreaker Questions and Games for Remote and In-Person Meetings

We’re not fans of cheesy—unless we’re talking about pizza. Nobody looks forward to worn-out icebreaker games and questions they’ve heard a million times, even if they miss socializing with their team around casual topics. Asking cliche questions may get you a few eye-rolls but not true engagement and team bonding.

If you’re looking to break the ice in a relevant and fun way and lighten up the atmosphere in your team meetings, here’s a list of awesome virtual and hybrid icebreaker activities to help you set the right tone and boost creativity and teamwork.

Icebreaker questions for external meetings

External meetings may have a more professional tone than internal team meetings, depending on who you’re meeting. For example, if you’re speaking to partners or investors, the questions you’d typically use to warm up your team aren’t appropriate. The set of icebreaker questions for this purpose should be relevant and serious but also engaging.

Here are a few icebreaker questions to help you ease into the meeting, whether it’s face-to-face or via Zoom.

• What do you think about (insert the latest industry news)?
• What do you see as the biggest challenge facing your industry right now?
• What are your thoughts on our latest product or service offering?
• How do you stay up to date with the latest trends and developments in your field?
• What do you hope to achieve in this meeting, and what outcomes are you looking for?

If you’re meeting with an external collaborator you outsource specific tasks to, here are a few ideas on how you can break the ice at the beginning of your meeting.

• What’s an interesting thing you’ve learned/read this week?
• What are your professional plans/goals for this year?
• Have you faced any professional challenges recently, and how did you overcome them?
• What inspired you professionally this week?
• How do you usually manage your workload?*

Fun icebreaker games for virtual meetings

Remote team meetings usually take a few minutes to actually start, but you don’t need to sit in silence while everyone joins and settles in. This is the perfect time to get your team members to relax and prepare for the chat. Before you start with the first item in your agenda, here are a few quick ice-breaker suggestions that don’t take more than five minutes nor require physical presence.

Question of the week

Similarly to team building activities, icebreakers can help build connections among team members . Starting the meeting with the question of the week can set the mood for the rest of the call and allow your team to get to know each other on a more personal level. To make this simple icebreaker inclusive, create a section in your meeting agenda where anyone from the team can add their suggestion for the question of the week prior to the meeting.

A few ideas:

• What was the highlight of your weekend?
• What’s a book you’ve read several times and why?
• What’s one goal you have for the upcoming week?
• What do you secretly enjoy eating/listening to/watching but don’t want to admit?
• Who do you consider your role model?
• What’s a fun fact about you that few people know?

Two truths and a lie

This icebreaker game is well-known, but here’s how you can make it more interesting for teams that have been working together for a long time. Instead of stating two truths and one lie in the first person, have your team members do it for a co-worker. Then, the rest of the team has to guess who this person is and then guess which statement isn’t true. This fun game will ensure a daily dose of laughter and help your team bond.

Desert island (but make it work-related)

You’re probably familiar with the “What would you bring to a desert island” game, but try the work edition with your team. Ask your co-workers to share three items they’d bring to a desert island if they had to work from there. The answers might inspire your shopping list the next time you decide to give your home office a makeover. If you don’t want to talk about work, you can choose any other topic: food, books, people, household items, etc.

Would you rather (remote and hybrid work edition)

We’ve already heard all the classic would you rather questions like: would your rather give up chocolate or french fries”? But what about work preferences? This game is perfect for team meetings in which you’ll present new hires so that everyone gets a chance to learn something new about the rest of the group. Here is a list of questions you could ask:

• Would you rather work from a coffee shop or a co-working space?
• Would you rather have a late night or an early morning meeting?
• Would you rather choose flexible working hours or a flexible workspace?
• Would you rather work in your pajamas or dress up for a meeting?
• Would you rather work with a bad Wi-Fi connection or in an uncomfortable chair?

What’s in a name?

This icebreaker game can also be a great conversation opener for co-workers who know each other well. Each team member gets assigned the name of another co-worker and then has to come up with an acronym for it, but only using words they think describe this co-worker.

For example, if a person’s name is Callie, their colleagues could write Competitive, Ambitious, Loyal, Light-hearted, Intelligent, or Enthusiastic.

Best icebreakers for small groups

When a meeting involves a small group of people, it’s easier to ensure everyone gets to interact with each other. You’re also likely to have more time at your disposal, which means you can unlock your creativity and come up with unique games and activities to boost your energy before the meeting. Here are a few of our favorite icebreakers for small teams.

AI writing assistant

ChatGPT is the hottest topic nowadays, so why not use it to have fun with your team? You can ask the tool to write a poem about your team or a team member. You can divide the team into pairs and organize a competition for the best movie pitch based on specific prompts, with your co-workers as the main characters. This guarantees lots of laughter, so you can be sure the meeting will continue in the same manner. If showcasing your team on social media is aligned with your company culture , you can even share the poem or movie pitch on your company profile.

Pictionary might be challenging to play in big groups, but a quick round of drawing on a whiteboard in teams of two can work well. If some team members join virtually, they can use a virtual whiteboard available in tools like Google Meet and easily play the game with the team on-site. You get bonus points for drawing and guessing work-related or company-related terms!

Quick brainstorming session

Here’s another good icebreaker suitable for hybrid teams . On-site meeting participants can use sheets of paper, while team members joining remotely can use an empty Google doc or a virtual whiteboard. The goal of brainstorming activities is to give your team a prompt to get their creative juices flowing and let them work on developing an idea around it for a specific amount of time. You can carry this out in pairs or individually, but either way, brainstorming will activate everyone’s problem-solving mode, so new strategies and ideas may emerge during the meeting.

Conversation starters and icebreaker games for large group meetings

Large group meetings can also start with amusing icebreaker activities. For easier management, you can divide the team into smaller groups. To incentivize participation and dedication, you can announce a reward for a team that comes up with the best solution. If you’re running a big group meeting, make sure you act as a facilitator or designate another team member to have this role to make sure everyone understands and follows the rules of the activity.

Here are a few quick games you can play before diving into your meeting agenda.

A virtual scavenger hunt

A scavenger hunt can be organized virtually, which makes it perfect for hybrid teams . Whether they’re participating in person or from home, your team members will be using their computers to find the items from the list you’ll provide. These items can be some random facts like: “What’s the deadliest animal in Australia?” or something work-related, like: “A blog post on [insert topic that’s important in your industry]”. The team that finishes first gets a symbolic reward!

Celebrate your win

Not all activities need to make your team laugh, but they should definitely make everyone feel good and motivated. This is why sharing your co-workers’ wins is a great way to start a meeting. Have a team member start the round by sharing one thing they achieved in the previous week that they’re proud of. The next person should congratulate them and share their own win. Repeat until everyone has had a chance to share their accomplishments.

A quick round of “Have you ever?”

The more people are involved in this quick icebreaker game, the funnier it will be. You can start by asking one of your co-workers a question starting with “Have you ever...” but make sure the topic is work-related to make the game relevant and fun. Here are a few ideas:

• Have you ever fallen asleep during a meeting with your camera off?
• Have you ever worked from a country other than yours?
• Have you ever had a snack stash at the office?
• Have you ever worked all day in your pajamas?
• Have you ever brought your pet to the office/worked with a pet in your lap?
• Have you ever embarrassed yourself at work?
• Have you ever played a prank on a co-worker?
• Have you ever slept in on a workday and missed a morning meeting?

Icebreaker activities for outdoor gatherings

The jukebox game.

What’s a better way to boost your team’s mood than playing some music? Have your team prepare YouTube or Spotify on their phones so they can play different songs as response to your questions. Ask things like:

• What was your favorite song when you were a teenager?
• What’s a perfect song for the first dance at a wedding?
• What’s your life theme song?
• What song describes your morning mood?
• What song gives you summer vibes?
• What song were you listening to on repeat so much that you can’t listen to it anymore?

Marshmallow challenge

If you haven’t heard of the marshmallow challenge, here’s a brief explanation. It’s a design thinking activity that involves building the tallest free-standing structure possible with only marshmallows and spaghetti. The challenge was created by Tom Wujec, a business visualization expert, as a way to encourage innovation and creativity in teams.

The challenge typically involves teams of 4-6 people who are given 18 minutes to build a structure using 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of tape, a yard of string, and a single marshmallow. The marshmallow must be placed at the top of the structure, and the team with the tallest structure at the end of the time limit wins.

The challenge is designed to encourage collaboration, communication, and creative problem-solving, as teams must work together to come up with a design and execute it quickly. It also highlights the importance of prototyping and testing, as teams often need to try multiple designs before they find one that works.

This game can easily be played outdoors, but you’ll need as many tables as you have teams.

Finish the lyrics or...

Get wet! This funny icebreaker should be played in warm weather only because someone is bound to get water spilled on their head at some point.

Create a list of popular songs you believe most people know and divide them into several levels based on popularity. Have your team members take the “hot seat” one by one and start singing or simply telling the lyrics of the easy-level songs. When you stop, the person sitting in the chair should finish the lyrics. If they can’t, they get a water balloon tossed on their head!

We only recommend this game if no team members had visited a hair salon before the meeting.

Charades are another classic, but this game is undoubtedly more fun when played outdoors. There’s enough space for your team members to be as creative as necessary to explain their word, movie, book, object, TV show. You can have themed charades or imitate each other, while other co-workers must guess who’s being imitated.

You can divide the team into smaller groups for this game or have them play it individually, depending on the team size.

Enjoy your team meetings with Gable

If you’ve already gone through all the virtual icebreaker ideas, maybe it’s time to tap into the on-site ones. Don’t let the fact that you don’t have an office stop you: Gable has a solution.

Gable helps you book, manage, and ensure maximum use of flexible workspaces no matter where your distributed team is . Organizing hybrid and in-person meetings doesn’t need to be an administrative and logistics nightmare anymore. You can now make on-site team gatherings happen in just a few clicks.

Learn how sourcing and booking flexible office spaces works with Gable .

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• Human Resources

20 icebreaker games and activities for every team

• 31 Aug 2021

As your team’s de facto spirit guide, icebreaker games are definitely your friend. But please, promise us one thing: don’t bring down the mood with boring icebreakers. Don’t go around the circle asking people to awkwardly introduce themselves. That’s stressful for everyone and doesn’t do much to actually bond your team.

Push the envelope and try bolder activities instead.

We’re talking meaningful get-to-know-you games that actually help create a sense of belonging and positive team culture. Or out-of-the-box ideas that work well in a remote setting, like  making videos  that take your icebreakers up a notch. (Don’t worry. We’ll give you plenty of tips for that!)

These 19 icebreaker games are tailor-made to help your people think deeper, connect, and maybe even look forward to team meetings. Win, win, win.

Fun online icebreakers

These icebreaker activities are a perfect fit for remote teams and teams working from home.

1. Scavenger hunt

Break the ice with a game that doesn’t require too much brainpower. List off a few items and send your team on a quest around their house or office to find something that matches.

Ask your team to hunt for something specific like “a broken phone charger” or leave a little room for creativity with items such as “something that represents your favorite hobby”.

A scavenger hunt is a great way to get a little insight into what your people like to do outside of work. Your team just might find shared hobbies and interests to bond over.

Who it works for:  Remote teams or people working from a home office.

Level up with video:  Turn your scavenger list into a video or build the hype for your upcoming scavenger hunt with a video that covers all the must-know details.

2. Two truths and a lie

Two truths and a lie is a great way to get to know new people. The premise is simple: everyone gets a chance to share three things about themselves — two that are true and one that’s a lie.

It’s the perfect balance of getting-to-know-you material and ice-breaking creativity. After each person states their facts, have the group try to discern the truths from the lie.

Who it works for:  Teams (either remote or in-person) who don’t know each other well.

3. Kahoot quizzes

University lecturers know what’s up when it comes to hyping up a room full of people — it’s all about  Kahoot . Kahoot quizzes are easy-to-access live quizzes that anyone can take part in from their own internet-connected device.

As the host, you’ll create the quiz content yourself, so the sky is the limit. If your team just finished an important training, use this as an opportunity to reinforce the material in a fun way.

Create a sense of camaraderie with your staff by grouping people together, or pit them against each other and see who can rise up the leaderboard.

Who it works for:  Particularly effective for teams who need specialist know-how to work well. Shore up their industry knowledge in a fun way.

Level up with video:  Take team quizzes to a whole new level with a personalized quiz video.

4. Jackbox.tv games

Jackbox.tv  games are similar to Kahoot quizzes but a lot less serious. You can buy a suite of games on your laptop or gaming console. To play, your team just needs access to a device and the password to get into the team game. All games can be played remotely or in person.

The most popular Jackbox.tv game has to be  Drawful  (with a player limit of 8), where each person draws a different obscure phrase and racks up points if their competitors guess it right. No prep is needed to play Jackbox.tv games.

Who it works for:  Teams who need to improve their communication.

Level up with video:  Create a  video montage  of everyone’s Drawful sketches and guesses (they’re usually quite funny) and play it at your next meeting.

Create videos that drive action

Activate your audience with impactful, on-brand videos. Create them simply and collaboratively with Biteable.

Really makes you think…

These getting-to-know-you games are a great way to level up your team’s critical thinking. Hype up your team in advance with a video invite full of the need-to-know details.

5. Team trivia

Trivia ignites the competitor in everyone, and it’s the perfect way to pull people out of their shells. If your people are a little shy about creative activities, trivia is the perfect team-building game that doesn’t require them to put themselves out there too much.

There are plenty of sets of trivia questions you can borrow from the internet. Or, you can custom-make trivia questions that help your team get to know each other (like “When did Ellen join the team?” or “What type of coffee does Dan drink?”).

Who it works for:  New teams who need to get acquainted; remote teams looking to build camaraderie from afar.

Level up with video:  Do your trivia sesh right by turning your questions into a video quiz. You can even include snippets of video or images for multimedia questions.

6. Problem/solution

For a problem/solution game, break people into small teams and assign each team a different problem. Be ambitious with the problems you assign. Make it big enough to be complicated, with many possible solutions.

Try questions like “How would you prevent animals from ending up at the pound?” or “If the government implemented a healthy eating initiative, what would be most effective?”.

Teams have 15 minutes to come up with a plan that’s as comprehensive as possible and present their ideas to the larger group. The aim isn’t to solve the problem entirely, it’s to think around different approaches and the possible outcomes that arise from each.

Who it works for:  Remote or in-office teams that need to practice working and problem-solving together closely.

Level up with video:  Introduce the problem with a video perfect for online teams. Press play to explain the rules and what the solution should look like, then send teams off into their breakout rooms to come up with an answer.

Debating the different sides of an argument is a skill that doesn’t have to end after high school.

Teaching your team how to form an argument and debate each other respectfully is an investment that’ll pay off ten-fold. Creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable and able to raise (and resolve) a disagreement is a bonus.

Set up two teams of three and assign a moderator. To ease any possible friction, don’t declare a winner. Instead, make your debates simply about having a well-formed argument. It can work well to create debate topics relevant to your industry so everyone already has the expertise to argue either side.

Who it works for:  Both in-person and remote teams.

Better in person

These activities are best saved for when you can gather in the same room. Use the office or turn these ideas into a team outing — either way, use a video to share the who, what, when, wheres.

8. Structure

This is a seemingly easy challenge that might test your team once they get started.

Break everyone into small groups (three per group work well here). The aim is simple: use whatever materials you can find to build the tallest structure. The way people interpret the rules and treat their competitors without a strict etiquette guideline is always revealing.

This icebreaker is also a great way to flex a different part of the brain. For employees who work on laptops all day, using your hands is a refreshing change of pace.

Who it works for:  Big teams with space to stretch out.

Level up with video:  While everyone is running around trying to build their structure, play an infographic video in the background that gives out valuable hints and tricks.

9. Electric fence

Warning: neither a fence nor electricity is needed for this one. Just grab a piece of string or yarn and suspend it across a walkway. The string represents an electric fence, and the goal is to get everyone in the team over without touching it.

To succeed requires a bit of team organization and a lot of practical sense. It’s interesting to see the roles people naturally fall into when faced with a new challenge.

Who it works for:  In-person teams who need a little more cohesion.

10. Silent line up

No, not that kind of lineup (we hope). This one is exactly as advertised. No one is allowed to talk but the group needs to find a way to wordlessly communicate and get into a line in the right order.

The easiest version of this challenge is to have everyone line up according to height. But you can kick it up a notch by asking them to line up according to date of birth or when they started working at your company.

Who it works for:  In-person teams.

Icebreakers for team bonding

These icebreakers are perfect for teams who’ve known each other for a while but need to connect on a deeper level.

11. Unique and shared

Unique and shared is an easy way of building links between your team members. For the first round, divide everyone into randomly assigned groups of two or three. During each subsequent round, increase the group sizes.

The goal for each round is to find a commonality between all people in that group. It can be something as easy as “We all work on the same floor of the office” or as obscure as “We all saw Shrek 2 in the cinema on opening weekend”.

The trick is, no one can use the same shared trait twice. As the groups grow in size, they’ll need to share more and more information to find a common link. Assign points on a sliding scale based on how quickly groups find their shared trait.

Who it works for:  In-person teams. This icebreaker game also works for remote teams if you can put them in smaller breakout rooms.

12. Critical conversations

Facilitating deep and critical conversation is a great way to help your team align on a deeper level. But it ain’t easy!

For this getting-to-know-you activity to succeed, spend time researching critical (and work-appropriate) questions beforehand. During the activity, pitch a few of the best questions to your team.

Questions like “What’s more important in the long run, kindness or ambition?” or “What advice would you give your younger self?” can pull thoughts out of the team and help them get to know one another’s values.

As the moderator, your job is to ensure everyone has a chance to speak equally. Otherwise, this icebreaker can easily become a contest for the spotlight.

Who it works for:  Established teams who work together in-person. It’s always better to have these types of conversations face-to-face.

Level up with video:  Create a quick  animated text video  displaying the rules of engagement (asking people to be respectful and open-minded, for example), followed by a 10-minute countdown timer to keep the meeting on track. (Discussions like this can go all day if you don’t put boundaries around them.)

13. Describing blind

In the lead up to this getting-to-know-you game, collect a few weird items that would be difficult to identify just from touch (mind puzzles, strange toys, or obscure tools are always a winner).

Divide everyone into teams of two. Give one person on each team a piece of paper and a pen, and sit them where they can hear — but not see — their partner. Ask the second teammate to close her eyes, then place an object in her hands. She must describe the object while their partner attempts to draw it.

This is such a hard challenge, but a great way to highlight potential communication problems between people. Once your team gets the hang of it, they’ll want to do it over and over until they improve, so make sure you have enough items on hand.

Who it works for:  In-person teams who need to improve their communication.

Getting-to-know-you games

Brand new teams usually need a bit of help getting comfortable with each other. Use these getting-to-know you games to loosen things up and begin building a sense of camaraderie.

14. Teammate introduction

As a new hire, it can be stressful getting up in front of the whole team to introduce yourself. Take the pressure off your new team member and make a video about them instead.

Film an interview where you ask them a bit about themselves, their new role, and their work history. And don’t forget to clearly display their name for everyone to absorb — most of us are bad at remembering new names.

Who it works for:  Any team with a new addition

15. Name game

No one remembers names the first time they hear them, especially in a high-pressure situation. If you have a new team or a workshop with new people, do them all a favor and start with a name game.

The game starts with one person saying their name. The person to the right of them in the circle (or the Zoom grid) says the first person’s name and adds their own. The next person continues the chain, saying the first two names and adding their own. And so on.

If someone forgets a name in the chain, start again (but start with another person so everyone gets a turn). The game finishes when you make it around to everyone and end with a full list of names.

Who it works for: New teams or groups, remote or in-person.

16. Speed dating

Speed dating is the quickest and easiest way to help big groups of people get to know each other.

Set up a long table with pairs of chairs facing each other all the way down. The group on one side of the table should be stationary, the group on the other side should move one chair to the right at the sound of the buzzer.

Give each round a minute and start them off with a few easy questions. Cat or dog person? Favorite dessert? Best travel experience? It’s amazing how much these quick interactions help build connection and create a more relaxed atmosphere.

Who it works for:  New in-person teams who’ve never met before.

17. Getting-to-know-you bingo

This icebreaker is so much fun but does require a fair bit of prep work from the moderator. To prepare, find an online template for bingo and populate it with facts you know about individual team members.

Include things like “Someone who orders chai lattes” or “Someone with a birthday in October”. It’s best if you make a few variations of the bingo sheet and distribute them randomly to slow the game down.

If people start racing to get through, you can add extra rules to make it trickier. Try things like not allowing them to ask the question directly. For example, you can’t say “When’s your birthday?” but you can say “What would the weather normally be like at your birthday party?” to hone in on a bingo square.

Who it works for:  In-person teams who are new to each other but not to you.

Creative play icebreakers

Sometimes it pays to have fun, especially at work. Use these icebreaker ideas to shake things up and let your team enjoy themselves.

18. Murder mystery

There are two versions of murder mystery — one that’s more low-key and one that’s more elaborate. Both versions take some time, so it’s best to save this game for a longer workshop or a company retreat.

In the easy version, you can play with no props and no required reading. Set up a  game of Werewolf  and see how your team interacts to uncertain alliances.

If you really want to put on a show, find a more elaborate murder mystery structure. (There are plenty of free versions online.) As the host, you’ll have to do a lot of legwork to progress the story and resolve the mystery, but it’s a lot of fun.

Who it works for:  In-person teams who need to loosen up.

Level up with video:  Create a video that guides your team through the mystery or sets the mood with atmospheric music and backgrounds. (Try searching “creepy” in Biteable’s  stock video footage library …if you’re brave enough.)

19. Draw your coat of arms

This icebreaker activity is perfect for helping staff get to know each other’s values. It also helps managers understand how staff perceive themselves and their role in the office.

It’s pretty simple. Provide drawing tools and print off a  coat of arms template  for people to fill in. Coats of arms were created for important families in medieval England and worn by knights so they, and their heroic deeds, could be distinguished on the battlefield. As such, they contain a lot of symbolism.

You can ask your staff to think about the animal that represents them, the colors they like, even the saying that resonates with them the most as a motto. After they’ve finished drawing, have them explain their choices to the group.

Who it works for:  Remote or in-person teams who need to get to know each other.

20. Movie pitch

Movie pitch is pretty much what it sounds like. In movie pitch, each person has to pitch a movie based on prompts. It’s a creative exercise to make your group laugh, loosen up, and get to know each other.

Here’s how it works: choose a motif — A block of cheese? A plot twist involving a pair of twins? — that must be included in the story. Give everyone a few minutes to prepare their pitch. (Keep it short.) If you want, the moderator can award an Oscar for best pitch after everyone’s had their say.

Who it works for:  Teams who already know each other a little; teams working in a creative field.

Level up with video:  Task your team with making their pitch into a movie trailer. (You can give them the video template below as a starting point.) Then, crack open the popcorn machine and set up a viewing of all the movie trailers (they are, after all, the best part of the movie).

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200 Icebreaker questions for work (funny, random, deep and more)

Awkward silence will derail your team-building event faster than you can say “would you rather.” And so, capturing your employee’s attention in the first few seconds is critical for extracting the full potential from any team-building exercise.

Sparking lively conversations with icebreaker questions is the best way to engage your employees from the start.

Icebreaker questions are essential tools to have in your belt. They ease tension, reduce anxiety and pave the way for lively discussions or debates. When combined with fun icebreaker games , you cultivate a lively atmosphere in which your employees build new relationships and develop new skills.

What are the best icebreaker questions for work?

Choosing the right types of icebreaker questions for your event is critical as failing to strike the right chord with your group could leave them feeling awkward or disengaged. 

With countless icebreaker questions are at your disposal, it’s up to you to decide which ones are most suitable for the type of event you’re hosting and the group you’re addressing.

To help you choose the right questions for your event, we’ve separated this list of 200 icebreaker questions into the following categories:

Funny icebreaker questions

“would you rather…” icebreaker questions, reflective icebreaker questions, icebreaker questions for remote teams, quick icebreaker questions.

• Icebreaker questions for coworkers

Strictly-business icebreaker questions

Silly icebreaker questions, random icebreaker questions.

• Christmas icebreaker questions ‍

Sometimes, the best way to break the ice is with a good laugh. These questions are designed to build light-hearted energy and dismantle any walls your employees may have started building once they heard the words “team building.”

• What is the worst fashion decision you ever made?
• If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life what would it be?
• If you could change gender for a day what’s the first thing you would do?
• What’s your biggest irrational phobia and why?
• If you became president today, what’s the first bill you would pass?
• If you could have any superpower what would it be?
• Who was your first celebrity crush?
• If you could be somebody else for a day who would you be?
• If you were a wrestler what would your entrance theme be?
• If aliens landed on earth today and offered to abduct you, would you go with them?
• If you could time travel, where is the first place you would go?
• If you could live in any historical period, which one would you choose?
• If you could be reincarnated as any animal, which one would you choose?
• Which famous actor would play you in the movie of your life?
• Which famous person, dead or alive, would like by your side during a zombie apocalypse?
• What is the worst date you’ve ever been on and why?
• What’s a common phrase used in your family that nobody else uses?
• What are your most commonly used emojis?
• If you could teleport anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
• If you could appear on any game show, which one would you choose?

Need a team boost? Our team-building questions article has got you covered. ‍

When asked a “Would you rather” question , you must make an impulsive decision based on two equally appealing (or unappealing) scenarios. Questions like these can deliver great insight into someone’s preferences, moral code, ethics and priorities.

They’re also great conversation starters. Because people tend to disagree, it can be fun to watch the debate ignite and evolve.

• Would you rather be stranded on a desert island alone or with your worst enemy?
• Would you rather be at the beach or in the mountains?
• Would you rather be great at physical activities but stupid or a genius with terrible coordination?
• Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future to meet your great-great-grandchildren?
• Would you rather have more money or more time?
• Would you rather talk like Yoda or breathe like Darth Vader for the rest of your life?
• Would you rather be without elbows or knees?
• Would you rather lose the ability to lie or believe everything you’re told?
• Would you rather always arrive at a red light or experience slow internet every time the sun goes down?
• Would you rather speak to animals or know other people’s thoughts?
• Would you rather be always cold or always hot?
• Would you rather own a yacht or a private jet?
• Would you rather take the red pill or the blue pill when approached by Morpheus in the Matrix?
• Would you rather have lots of small bad things happen to you throughout the month or have one day per month where lots of bad things happen to you?
• Would you rather wear divers flippers or boxing gloves for the rest of your life?
• Would you rather only be able to whisper or only able to shout?
• Would you rather laugh every time someone said something sad or cry every time someone said something funny?
• Would you rather your life had a cinematic soundtrack or a sitcom laughter track?
• Would you rather live in Middle-Earth from The Lord of The Rings or the Wizarding World from Harry Potter? 
• Would you rather come face to face with a polar bear in the arctic or a snake in the desert? ‍

These are great questions to ask if you're looking to build deeper connections with your team. They can also help you to understand what makes an individual tick. 

By understanding the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of your workforce you can allocate tasks more effectively, cultivate a more engaging office environment and build stronger interpersonal relationships.

• When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?
• What’s something you always thought you would do but never have?
• If you could give your child-self one piece of advice what would you say?
• When was the last time you felt like everything was going your way?
• What phrase or cliché do you most live by?
• What’s something you learned about yourself in the last three months?
• If you could see yourself through the eyes of somebody else for a moment which person would that be?
• Which part of your personality do you usually hold back and why?
• What’s something that most people don’t know about you?
• What was the last thing you did that you were proud of?
• Can you think of a time you said “No” to something when you wish you said “Yes”?
• When was the last time somebody did something for you that you greatly appreciated?
• Who do you look up to most in life?
• What do you do to unwind after a long day at work?
• If you’re feeling down, what’s the simplest thing somebody can do for you to cheer you up?
• What’s something you couldn’t live without?
• If you could rid the world of one thing what would it be?
• What’s a small act of kindness you were once shown that you’ll never forget?
• What’s one activity that grants you pure escapism?
• What’s a common piece of advice you don’t agree with and why? ‍

The benefits of remote work are gradually becoming indisputable, with remote companies experiencing perks such as increased employee satisfaction, lower employee turnover rates, improved performance and more.

But maintaining employee engagement has proved difficult for remote teams. With pressing issues such as poor communication channels, shrinking networks and weak company cultures, team leaders are having to work harder to drive engagement .

Facilitating more frequent employee interactions with Zoom meetings , virtual team-building events and corporate offsite retreats is the solution. But with employees already spending hours staring at their computer screens, something more is needed to maintain engagement and keep screen fatigue at bay.

The following icebreaker questions are designed to get your virtual team-building event off to a flying start and hook your employees in those critical first seconds.

• If you could learn any language from another country which would you choose?
• What’s the most important thing you have on or near your desk right now?
• What’s one productivity tool you couldn’t live without?
• Are you more productive in the evening or the morning?
• Do you have any routines for improving your energy and focus?
• What is your go-to drink or snack while working?
• What’s one thing you wish could be automated about your job?
• Which website do you most often defer to when procrastinating?
• How do you get motivated for difficult tasks?
• What are some strategies that you’ve found to be helpful in your recent work?
• What’s a common slang phrase that’s used where you live and what does it mean?
• Would you rather someone took a boring task off your to-do list or invited you to participate in a project of great interest to you?
• Do you listen to music while you’re working? If so, what type of music do you most like to listen to?
• What goals are you currently working towards outside of work?
• What’s something that puts you in a state of flow?
• If you had a magic button on your desk that could bring you whatever you wanted, what would you summon?
• Do you have a desk mascot? If so, please show it to us and tell us more.
• Which strange position do you most commonly find yourself sitting in?
• Do you have any household pets? If so, introduce us to them!
• Be honest. How often do you work from your bed? ‍

Kicking off a meeting , brainstorming session or interview with a quick icebreaker question is a useful way to relieve tensions from the get-go. 

These questions aren’t designed to spark an hour-long monologue about an employee’s abiding fear of Terracotta tiles. Rather, the answers should be quick and concise and offer a little insight into an employees likes and dislikes.

• What’s your biggest claim to fame?
• What’s your best party trick?
• What is a weird fact that you know?
• Who is your favourite comedian?
• Who is your favourite actor?
• What is your favourite book?
• What is your favourite movie?
• What is your favourite song?
• Who is your favourite music artist?
• What is your favourite season?
• What is your favourite public holiday?
• What is your favourite animal?
• What’s the best place you ever visited?
• What is your favourite musical instrument?
• What hidden talents do you have?
• What’s your favourite cuisine?
• What’s your biggest phobia?
• Who was your favourite school teacher and why?
• Are you a lone wolf or a social butterfly?
• Do you prefer the beach or the countryside? ‍

Ice-breaker questions for coworkers

These fun "Who's most likely to" questions are designed for teams with pre-established relationships and an existing level of camaraderie . They’re particularly good to use at the beginning of a team-building exercise with smaller teams who already know one another.

• Who’s most likely to make a cup of tea for themselves without asking anybody else?
• Who’s most likely to arrive late to the office?
• Which person would you rely on most to help you in a crisis?
• Who’s most likely to bring home-baked goods to the office?
• Who is the most productive at work?
• Who procrastinates most at work?
• Who is most likely to write a book?
• Who’s most likely to get too drunk at the staff party?
• Which person comes to work looking the smartest?
• Which person comes to work looking the most scruffy?
• Who drinks the most coffee?
• Who’s the most likely to win a wellness challenge?
• Who has the funniest laugh?
• Who would you sing a duet with at karaoke?
• What’s the simplest thing somebody can do to cheer you up at work when you’re feeling down?
• Who keeps their desk the tidiest?
• Who’s most likely to get into an argument with the manager?
• Who’s most likely to become a crazy cat lady (or man) when they’re older?
• Who would scream the loudest on a rollercoaster?
• Who has the biggest (and fullest) wardrobe in their bedroom? ‍

Strictly-business icebreaker questions are useful conversation starters that could be used before meetings or during an onboarding session to gain insight into the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of your employees.

The answers you receive can be extremely useful and help to guide your decision making. After all, your employees are more aware than anyone about areas of your company that require change or improvement.

• What motivates you most to come to work?
• What’s the most important thing about your job?
• Who has influenced you most when it comes to your work ethic?
• What was your first job and what was your experience?
• How do you prefer to start your day?
• What’s the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
• Which professional skill are you currently working on?
• What’s one thing that surprised you about working for this company?
• What’s one improvement you would like to see at this company?
• What’s a work-related accomplishment you’re proud of?
• What thing do you do every day that often goes unnoticed?
• If you could change one thing about the office what would it be?
• What’s your biggest pet peeve?
• If you were the manager for a day what would you change or do differently?
• Do you feel like your work is sufficiently acknowledged and rewarded?
• How can people come to you for help and what can you help with best?
• What’s your go-to tactic for unwinding after a stressful day?
• Who do you usually go to if you need help with a work-related task?
• In what kind of environment are you most productive?
• How do you motivate yourself to take on difficult tasks? ‍

Silly icebreaker questions allow your employees to express themselves with answers to unimportant questions. These questions are designed to be fun, with no right or wrong answer.

By asking some of the following questions, you help your employees to learn something about their colleagues they may otherwise not have, in turn, creating new connections and stronger interpersonal relationships. 

• What “old person” habits do you have?
• What was the moment you realised you were officially an adult?
• What’s the strangest tradition in your family?
• What’s the worst meal you ever cooked?
• What’s your most embarrassing moment?
• What’s the naughtiest thing you got away with doing as a kid?
• What trendy phrase or expression did you use the most when you were younger?
• If you were a gangster, what would your gangster name be?
• What is the best prank you ever pulled (or was pulled on you)?
• What’s the silliest thing you ever did when you were drunk?
• If you could only watch one TV show for the rest of your life which one would you choose?
• If you could be the main character in any movie who would you be?
• What sound or feeling gives you the shivers?
• Which accent do you find the least attractive?
• If you were alive in the middle ages how would you make your living?
• If you could go back to the stone age, what cave-painting would you make to confuse future mankind?
• If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?
• What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?
• What’s an unusual skill you would love to master?
• You can only have one condiment for the rest of your life. Which one do you choose? ‍

Asking random icebreaker questions can catch your employees off guard and test how they might react to unexpected scenarios. These questions are great for sparking open discussions about meaningless topics which can improve public speaking and debate skills.

• If you came home and found a penguin in your freezer what would you do?
• If the world was about to end in 24 hours, what would you do?
• If money was no object, what are the first three things you would buy?
• If you were suddenly shrunk to the size of a grain of rice, what would you do to draw attention to yourself?
• If your life was a musical, in what genre would you like the songs to be?
• If your house caught on fire, what’s the first object you would run to save?
• You walk into a pub and three people are sitting at the bar: your high-school bully, your ex-partner and the local conspiracy theorist. Who do you talk to?
• If you could give a Ted talk on one thing, what would it be?
• If you could choose to stop ageing at any age which would you choose?
• If you could join mankind's maiden voyage to Mars, would you go?
• If you could have wings or breathe underwater, which would you choose?
• What do you think was the most important invention in history?
• What’s your favourite all-time movie quote?
• If you could direct a blockbuster movie, what would it be about?
• What’s your strategy for breaking an awkward silence?
• You walk into a bar and see your crush. She doesn't know who you are yet but you want to approach him/her. What do you say?
• If you could have one weapon in a zombie apocalypse what would you choose?
• If you had to choose, which animal would you say you most look like?
• Do you prefer to text somebody regularly or have phone calls less often?
• You’re on the run from Interpol, where do you choose to hide? ‍

Christmas icebreaker questions

The Christmas period is perhaps one of the most popular times of year to capitalise on shared feelings of togetherness with team-bonding activities. Whether you’re hosting an office Christmas party or a productive work retreat , having a few Christmas-themed icebreakers up your sleeve is always useful.

• If you could only listen to one Christmas song for the rest of your life what would it be?
• Are you more like Santa Claus or the Grinch?
• What thing did you do this year that would put you on the naughty list?
• If you could receive any present this year what would you get?
• What age were you when you stopped believing in Santa Claus?
• How did you find out that Santa Claus isn’t real?
• What do you like and dislike the most about the festive season?
• What’s your favourite part about Christmas dinner?
• If you could, would you ban Brussel sprouts forever?
• How big is your Christmas tree this year and where have you put it?
• Present a show-and-tell about your favourite Christmas decoration.
• What is your favourite Christmas movie?
• What’s the best Christmas present you ever received?
• Do you do all of your Christmas shopping online or in-person?
• How early (or late) do you start preparing for Christmas?
• What snacks did you put out for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve when you were younger?
• What food is a must-have on a Christmas buffet table?
• Did you ever go abroad for Christmas? If so, where did you go?
• Have you ever regifted a present?
• What’s your favourite drink at Christmas time? ‍

Icebreaker questions: are they useful for team building?

Icebreaker questions can serve a range of functions depending on which ones you choose but their potential for facilitating effective team building is limited. Team building is about more than sparking lively conversations. To build trust, strengthen relationships and develop essential soft skills, you need to organise dedicated team-building activities .

Modern team building activities aren’t the same cringe-worthy, trust-fall exercises they once were. Today, countless team-building activities have been developed to target specific skills such as problem-solving, public speaking and communication, each one more unique, engaging, and effective than the last. ‍

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37 Fun Zoom icebreaker games for virtual meetings

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25 engaging ice breakers for virtual meetings (that won’t bore your team!)

Virtual ice breakers can be an effective method of kicking off a project, onboarding a new team member or enlivening your team meetings. Choose the right method and you can get your meeting off to an energizing start that encourages participation and builds connections . Get it wrong and risk being met with groaning team members or indifference.

In this post, we'll share some proven virtual icebreaker games used by real facilitators and help you find the right method for your virtual team. Whether you need a short activity to kick off a conference call or to help onboard new team members without making things awkward, we have you covered!

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When teams start their meetings and workshops effectively, the outcomes and overall enjoyment of a session follows suite. An effective virtual icebreaker not only helps a team warm-up and arrive in the session, but it also helps build alignment and set the tone for the team meeting ahead. But how can you choose the right one for your remote team? What do you need to look for when choosing a virtual icebreaker ?

Read on to discover what makes an effective icebreaker for virtual teams and how to run them effectively. We’ll also share instructions and tips for 25 ready-to-use activities you can employ in your next video call or online meeting!

What is a virtual icebreaker? 

Virtual icebreakers are activities or games that are designed to help break down barriers and kick-off virtual meetings or events in a productive, welcoming manner. They are great for building relationships, warming up groups and establishing connections among remote teams.

The purpose of a virtual icebreaker can vary depending on the session you’re running, but generally, the goal is to create a comfortable and engaging atmosphere which prepares your virtual team for the work of the session ahead.

Virtual icebreakers can range from simple, short activities that invite participants to check-in with the group or share their progress, to more complex games that require teamwork and collaboration.

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.

Why virtual icebreakers are important

All sessions benefit from an effective opening. When kicking off a virtual meeting, we have additional work to do in order to position the session for success. When working remotely, our attention is often split between windows, laundry and what meeting is coming after this. Connection is harder in a virtual environment where it’s more challenging to fully engage with others or easily read body language.

This is where virtual icebreakers come in. By using interactive activities to kick off meetings or team events, you can help your remote team fully arrive in the space and bridge gaps between your teammates . If you’re struggling with overall engagement and participation from your remote team during meetings, maybe you’re missing the right icebreaker!

Virtual games can also serve to encourage behaviours or introduce concepts that will be useful for later in the meeting. Creative team building activities can get your group primed for out of the box thinking. Ice breaker questions can help improve connections ahead of a collaborative workshop.

Virtual team ice breakers can also be effective ways to catch up and save time later in the meeting. A quick check-in round can help surface issues, wins and potential discussion points. They can also help set expectations and ensure alignment before the group moves forward.

In all cases, these activities encourage communication and contributions from your entire virtual team. For this reason alone, their inclusion at the start of a meeting can be transformative.

Ready to design an online session around your chosen icebreaker?  SessionLab makes it easy to  build an agenda in minutes . Start by dragging and dropping blocks, add timings and share your completed agenda with your participants for an engaging session.

What makes a good virtual icebreaker?

Not all virtual icebreakers are created equal. Some are great for helping established teams kick-off a video conference, others are best employed when helping remote team members get to know each other.

In addition to knowing your audience and purpose, there are a few things you want to look out for when selecting online icebreakers . Helpfully, all of our virtual icebreakers have been developed with these in mind!

Here are a few key qualities that make for a good virtual icebreaker:

• Simplicity : The best virtual icebreakers are simple to explain, easy to run and participate in. Generally, you want to spend only a short time breaking the ice with your group, and so simplicity is vital. This can be dependant on your audience and session, but a general rule of thumb I try to follow is that you shouldn’t take more than thirty seconds to explain your icebreaker and it should be simple enough that everyone in the group can grasp it easily. The net result is an ice breaker that is both engaging and time-effective too!
• Inclusivity : A good virtual icebreaker should be inclusive for all team members, regardless of their backgrounds or experiences. It should not rely on cultural references or inside jokes that may exclude some team members. Think too of your audience’s needs and differences. Not all participants will feel comfortable or able to participate in a dance party. Choose an icebreaker that is right for your group and design for inclusivity – add alternatives and choose activities suitable for all attendees.
• Relevance: Every activity in your agenda should be relevant to the group you are working with. An icebreaker that is designed to help learn people’s names can be great for newbies, but for teams that have worked together for a long time, it can feel like a waste of time. It can also help to think about the shared interests and experiences of your virtual team and choose an activity that will resonate. Lastly, try and choose an icebreaker that fits with the session you are running. If you’re running a problem solving session, pick a creative icebreaker. If you’re running a weekly stand-up, a quick energy check-in might be more appropriate. In any case, pairing the icebreaker with the theme of your session to keep it relevant will help it land with your audience.
• Interactivity: Try and choose an activity that encourages team members to participate and collaborate, rather than simply listening or watching. Remember that your virtual meeting is not the only time your team will be looking at a screen that day. Keeping things fresh and creating an opportunity for a novel interactive experience can help your group be present. Getting people talking and interacting early can also pave the way for deeper collaboration later on.

Tips for running virtual icebreakers

To ensure that your virtual icebreakers are effective and enjoyable, keep the following tips in mind:

• Be mindful of time : Virtual icebreakers should be brief and to-the-point, especially if you have a large team or a busy agenda. Use SessionLab’s Time Tracker or an online stopwatch to effectively timebox your icebreaker and keep on track. Ideally, you don’t want to cut someone off mid response, but it’s also important to remember that this is just the first part of a larger workshop or meeting.
• Ask participants to go on camera : Where possible, invite your team to go on camera while participating in any virtual games. The instant feedback of a smile or a laugh can really elevate the sense of connection and improve team bonding. In some cases, this step is optional, though note that some games require cameras, and so you should select your ice breaker accordingly.
• Go first and model an ideal response : Some virtual icebreaker games are easier to grasp when demonstrated. As a leader, it’s often helpful to go first and show your team how to break the virtual ice. Being vulnerable and demonstrating the kind of responses you’d like to see can also help remote teams build team rapport and be a little braver in their responses.
• Give positive feedback : Thanking participants for getting involved and noting contributions can help create a positive feedback loop and encourage further interactions. This almost should go without saying, but its worth noting how important this can be for setting the right tone for the meeting and making it feel good for everyone to contribute.
• Encourage participation : Make sure that everyone has a chance to contribute and that no one feels left out or excluded. In some groups, this might mean calling on people to jump in or simply leaving space and being comfortable with a little silence instead of prematurely bringing an activity to a close.
• But make it okay for people not to participate too! As with any activity, non-participation is okay if it’s agreed upon by the group. Forcing people to contribute if they’re not comfortable can be detrimental to team rapport so definitely consider this point depending on your group and design activities to be as comfortable as possible by default.
• Ask the group to select the next participant : in sequential activities, where people take it in turns to answer a question or take part in a game, try to encourage each person to call on someone else to go next. This not only keeps things moving but it also encourages people to talk to other team members, rather than simply to you as a facilitator.
• Use breakout groups : when groups get over a certain size, certain icebreakers end up taking too long and can stop being fun or dynamic. Consider using breakout groups and running your virtual icebreaker in parallel with groups of over 10-15 people, or when the icebreaker calls for more in-depth responses and discussion.
• Use music : just as a film score is a vital accompaniment to the images onscreen, music can elevate your choice of virtual game. Play relaxing music at the start of a session to set a calming tone, or put on something with a beat to build energy during an active game!

Short virtual icebreakers

Short virtual icebreakers are activities that are designed to take only a few minutes, but still provide an opportunity for groups to connect and engage with each other at the start of a meeting. Here are a few examples:

Remote: Change 3 things

Getting people to pay attention during a virtual team building session can be challenging. This icebreaker is designed to perk up remote teams, ask them to pay attention and also have some fun too!

Start by getting the whole team on camera and ask everyone to observe other team members closely. Next, ask everyone to turn off their camera and change three things in 30 seconds. They might change something about their appearance, perhaps with a hat or costume change, or move something in the background! When everyone is done, get them back on camera and ask other team members to spot the differences and guess what has changed.

Remote: Change 3 things   #energiser   #energizer   #warm up   #remote-friendly   Light, energising exercise that helps the group to observe the other people on the call.

Take a Picture of Your Shoes

What we wear and how we move through the world can say a lot about us as individuals. This activity is a quick and simple way to get meeting attendees quickly warmed up by simply asking them to take a picture of their shoes and share it with the group. Set a time limit and encourage creativity – wacky shoes or fun photographs are absolutely encouraged.

If you have time, ask for a few people to share a story behind their shoes or even get people in breakouts to discuss in small groups. You can even modify this activity to have your group vote on the best pair of shoes or story! We love the fact this icebreaker is incredibly simple but always invites fun and creativity into the meeting.

Take a Picture of Your Shoes   #energiser   #teambuilding   #icebreaker   #remote-friendly   Get to know the other members of your team and share something interesting about yourself in this quick energiser activity.

Rollercoaster Check-in

Checking in is one of the best ways you can quickly break the ice and start your session off on the right foot. When working in online meetings, it can be helpful to include interactive, visual elements to any activity.

For this virtual icebreaker, invite your team to an online whiteboard and draw a line resembling the ups and downs of a rollercoaster. Next invite each member of your group to place a picture or a post-it on the rollercoaster to represent where they are and how they’re feeling. Simply asking people to be aware of how they’re feeling is a great addition to any morning routine!

You might then ask people to share why they put themselves where they did, or simply use this as an opportunity to gauge overall energy in the room. I find it particularly effective to return to the rollercoaster at the end of a session and to ask people how their position might have changed.

Rollercoaster Check-In   #team   #opening   #hyperisland   #remote-friendly   This playful method creates a powerful shared picture of the feelings in the group. Checking-in is a simple way for a team to start a meeting, workshop, or activity. By using the metaphor of a rollercoaster this alternative version supports participants to think differently about how they are feeling. People place themselves at different points on the rollercoaster, explaining their dominant feeling right now.

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament

Running a familiar game in a virtual setting is one of my favourite ways to start a meeting. Not only do you get to play with expectations, but it can prove to be a great conversation starter too!

In this online version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, randomly select a pair to face off in your video call and play a round. The winner stays in the game while the loser turns off their camera and becomes a cheerleader for another player. Keep playing until you have only one player remaining!

This fun virtual icebreaker is best played in gallery mode on Zoom so all participants can see each other and while it can sometimes descend into chaos, it is guaranteed to get people involved and generate laughter too.

Rock, Paper, Scissors (Tournament)   #energiser   #warm up   #remote-friendly   This is a fun and loud energiser based on the well-known “Rock, Paper, Scissor” game – with a twist: the losing players become the fan of the winners as the winner advances to the next round. This goes on until a final showdown with two large cheering crowds! It can be played with adults of all levels as well as kids and it always works! 

Chat Waterfall

In remote meetings with large amounts of participants or you are very short on time, asking people to speak up and share on camera can be tricky. Chat Waterfall is an effective way of getting contributions from large groups and avoiding cross-talk.

First, invite people to open up the chat in your video conferencing app. Next, ask an icebreaker question, but instruct people not to send their answer until you say so. Give a few moments and then have everyone press enter at the same time. The result is a wonderful cascade of answers you can then choose to highlight as a facilitator. Add a follow-up if you can or sum up the results as a segue for your next activity.

Chat Waterfall is an incredibly flexible icebreaker activity: whether you want to use it to start an in-depth discussion or just get people virtually communicating quickly.

Chat Waterfall   #zoom   #group mind   #virtual   #remote-friendly   Using the chat in zoom, participants share ideas / challenges and then additions / solutions.

One Word Method

This is one of my favourite activities for virtual team building. It’s quick, effective and can be modified for almost any scenario. The game works by having one person start a sentence with by saying a single word. The next person then jumps in to add the next word to the sentence and play continues with each person in the room contributing a single word until the sentence is complete.

Sentences can end up random, funny or nonsensical, but for an added challenge, set a theme for the group to follow and see if the group can collectively create a sentence that makes sense!

I particularly like setting a theme that matches the purpose of the workshop and using this to segue in a discussion, but it can also be fun to just see what strange places virtual teams go with this!

One Word Method   #product development   #idea generation   #creativity   #icebreaker   #online   #warm up   Creating a sentence relating to a specific topic or problem with each person contributing one word at a time.

Virtual icebreaker questions

Sometimes, all you need for a good icebreaker is an effective conversation starter that lets people get to know each other and start communicating. Whether it’s about what’s on their bucket list, whether they’re a dog person or cat person, or simply what fictional character they most identify with, these kinds of questions are tried and tested.

For best results, pair these questions with Chat Waterfall, call on people to speak or break people into smaller groups to talk among themselves. Dropping a question into a group without structure or clear rules of engagement can be met with an awkward silence. I prefer to use these kinds of ice breaker questions in breakout rooms or in smaller groups and to tailor the specific questions to fit the team I’m working with.

Conversation Questions   #connection   #icebreaker   #trust   #meeting facilitation   #opening  

Virtual ice breakers for new team members

Virtual icebreakers can be particularly helpful for new team members who may feel isolated or disconnected in a virtual setting. Here are a few virtual icebreaker ideas that are ideal for welcoming new team members into the fold and to supplement your onboarding efforts.

The Desert Island

Creative games that allow your team to demonstrate their problem solving skills while collaborating can be an engaging way to kickoff a session. This icebreaker poses that age-old question of what we would do if stuck on a desert island while asking your team to think about what they would need to survive.

Start by sharing a list of items, some obvious and some less so. Ask each participant to choose 1-3 items they would take with them in order to survive on a desert island. In smaller groups, ask each person to select items, though with teams of over 10 people, it can be great to separate into breakouts and deliberate which items to bring as a team. The Desert Island is great for offering a framework for conversation with no single correct answer and which allows creative, individual responses.

The Desert Island   #relationships   #icebreaker   #teamwork   #remote-friendly   Many of us have played a game similar to this before – if you were stranded on a desert island, what essential items would you choose to survive? Participants are given a list of items to choose from and must work together to decide which items will help them stay alive. A great, remote-friendly exercise for a team to work together and share opinions.

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity

Icebreaker activities that go a little deeper and encourage individuality are great for helping teams get to know each other. In this fun game, each team member is given space for drawing the answers to four questions you’ll ask. You can run this using a virtual whiteboard or by asking participants to draw on paper and share their completed image with the whole team.

Start by sharing four questions with the team: for example, What do I bring to the group? What do I need from the group? What is your hobby? What is your vision for this group? Give each person 5-10 minutes to draw their answers and then bring the group back together to share what they’ve drawn. This activity encourages connection and is a great way to introduce something tangible and visual into a remote working environment.

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity   #team   #icebreaker   #get-to-know   #teambuilding   The Four Quadrants is a tried and true team building activity to break the ice with a group or team. It is EASY to prep for and set up. It can be MODIFIED to work with any group and/or topic (just change the questions). It is FUN, COLORFUL and works every time!

Who are you? The pirate ship exercise

Every member of a team is also an individual, and in this game, participants are invited to imagine themselves as the member of a pirate crew! Start by sharing the image of the crew of a pirate ship and ask each person to choose who they most identify with. Then ask everyone to share, either in the chat, verbally on in breakout groups.

This exercise can be as quick or as deep as you need and I love that it is easy for everyone to participate while also encouraging some critical thinking. Why do I feel more like the lookout than the Captain? Such games can prime team members work in the rest of the session and give rise to more ideas too!

Who are you? The pirate ship exercise (dinámica del barco pirata)   #team alignment   #team   #remote-friendly   #teamwork   #warm up   #icebreaker   This an easy but powerful exercise to open a meeting or session and get participants to reflect on their attitudes or feelings about a topic, in the organization, team, or in the project.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity

For teams looking for a more in-depth icebreaker, this activity is a great way to share strengths, weaknesses and preferred ways of working with the group. It’s especially effective at the start of a team building session where you want to build relationships, though it works equally well when inviting people to get to know each other.

Start by posting the 9 dimensions (Adventure, Career / Profession, Community Service, Creative Outlets, My Environment, Family & Friends, Health & Fitness, Personal Growth, Spirituality) in your virtual whiteboard or Google Doc for the team to copy. Next, ask everyone to add a coloured dot to each dimension based on whether they’re crushing it or have room to improve.

Finally, invite everyone to share one dimension for each coloured dot if they’re comfortable and have a short debrief on what everyone learned. By sharing and being vulnerable in this way, teams can learn a bit more about their colleagues and start to strengthen their relationships as a result.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity   #icebreaker   #teambuilding   #team   #remote-friendly   9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.

Snapshot of my Life

Photographs can do a lot of heavy lifting for remote teams, effectively bridging communication barriers and building connections. In this game, invite your team to break the virtual ice by sharing a photograph from their life with the group. For new team members, this method can be a memorable way of getting to know their virtual colleagues!

You can modify this exercise by encouraging anonymous posting and having the group guess who each photo belongs to, or ask the group to share around a particular theme. With groups where trust is high, ask each team member to share one of the most recent photographs on their phone and tell a story about it.

A snapshot of my life   #remote-friendly   #energiser   #teambuilding   This exercise is great for building empathy amongst team members, and giving each participant a deeper understanding of their colleagues’ backgrounds (particularly great for international or remote teams). It’ll also set a casual atmosphere for the workshop ahead.

Guess the Desk

A companion method to the above, Guess the Desk asks that participants take a photograph of their workspace and anonymously post it to the group. Next, have the group guess which desk belongs to whom and then invite the desk owner to talk a little bit about their workspace.

This activity can be great during an onboarding call or first meeting, as it naturally flows into conversations about how to work effectively and tech set-up, which can help position new members of the team for success. It can also serve to truly humanize everyone in the virtual team and kickstart team bonding you can follow up with later in the session. Who doesn’t like seeing the cute knickknacks, mementos or cool tools their colleagues are using!

Guess the desk   #remote-friendly   #energiser   #teambuilding   An energiser game for remote teams where participants share images of their work set-up and attempt to guess opponents’ desks while bluffing their own!

Virtual icebreakers to get people moving 

Virtual meetings often involve sitting in front of a computer screen for extended periods of time, which can be physically and mentally draining. Virtual icebreakers that involve movement can help to energize team members and improve their focus, productivity and general mental wellbeing. Even a quick stretch can do wonders for engagement!

Here are a few examples of virtual icebreakers to get people moving:

Stand up if

Combining movement and questions can be an effective way to warm-up both the body and the mind. In this virtual icebreaker activity, start by making a statement to the group such as, Have you ever climbed a mountain? If this statement is true, you must stand from your chair. Nominate the next person to make a statement and continue until everyone has had a chance to make a statement.

After a few statements, I like to invite the group to include a stretch or other optional movement when speaking, which other team members must then try to follow. Be sure to invite groups to be creative with their statements and perhaps take over towards the end to use statements which then apply to the session at hand.

Stand up if   #icebreaker   #sharing   #opening   #energiser   #online   #remote-friendly   short, fun, energizing team activity

One of the quickest icebreakers I’ve ever run, Shake down is as simple and effective as they come and it has the bonus of encouraging physical activity among your virtual team! Begin by asking the group to stand if they’re able and then shake each of their limbs eight times in turn. After shaking both arms and legs, then repeat the cycle for four shakes, two shakes, then a final shake with a ninja kick or big cheer.

This game is proof that icebreakers do not need to be complicated in order to be fun, and I love that it can often shake a group awake and get them involved off the bat. It’s especially good for meetings in the after-lunch slump!

Shake Down   #hyperisland   #energiser   #remote-friendly   In this short and very physical energizer, the group shakes out their bodies one limb at a time. Starting with eight shakes of the right arm, then eight shakes of the left, eight shakes of the right leg, then eight shakes of the left. It continues with a round of four shakes of each limb, then two, then one, ending in a big cheer. A good energizer when time is limited and the main aim is to get people moving.

Follow the Follower

Encouraging movement and a little silliness can be one of the best ways to kick off a session where you need everyone to be present and willing to engage. Follow the Follower is a game that can be played virtually just as well as it can by people in the same location.

Start by designating one person as the leader and ask them to lead the group in a movement – yoga poses, terrible dance moves, whatever they like! After 10-15 seconds, the leader designates someone to take over, who chooses a new movement that everyone has to follow. Include music if you like but for best results, include a quick debrief at the end to give everyone a chance to reflect on what it was like to follow and indulge in a little bit of chaos!

Follow the Follower   #zoom   #virtual   #physical   #teambuilding   #connection   #energiser   #opening   #remote-friendly   #ericamarxcoaching   One person is designated as the leader.  Others copy exactly how the leader moves.  The leader calls on a new person to be the leader, and so on. Follow the follower variation is when the leading gets passed to the entire group and no single person is leading.

Modelling the characteristic simplicity and fun we want to see in our virtual icebreakers games, Touch Blue invites the group to find an object in their physical space matching a prompt and then bring it quickly back to the video call and show the camera. The last person to bring back an object gets to select the next one.

By using prompts like “touch something blue” or “touch something hot or noisy,” you can invite participants to be creative while sharing something from their lives. In some groups, you might ask groups to use their whole house and retrieve things from their kitchens or bathrooms. In any case, try to have space for folks to share stories about their favourite items and connect during the game!

Touch Blue   #energiser   #fun   #remote-friendly   Touch Blue is a classic energiser that is quick and easy fun for remote teams too! Challenge participants to find objects on their desk that match the attributes you select and have fun doing so!

Looking Around

This quick virtual game does double duty by encouraging participants to both do a little stretching while also learning a valuable lesson about the danger of previous associations.

Begin by asking your group to stand-up and let them know you’ll be giving them instructions for where to look. Lead them through a round of randomly saying directions while they follow your instructions. Next, make a change and let them know that down now means up and up means down while left and right remain the same. Lead another around and bask in the laughter and mistakes the group makes while warming up! If you’re feeling brave, add further wrinkles by inserting other instructions such as reverse, repeating the reverse of the previous action, or double, repeating the next action twice.

Looking Around   #thiagi   #concepts   #remote-friendly   #energiser   Here’s another jolt that explores one of our favorite themes: You have to unlearn something old in order to learn something new. A nice thing about this brief activity is that you don’t need any supplies or equipment.

Icebreakers for Zoom breakouts

Some virtual games are most effective when used in small, self contained groups where it might be easier to be vulnerable or simply quicker to share and discuss. Other times, breakouts might be necessary just because of the sheer size of your group!

While most of the games in this article can be used effectively in breakout groups, the virtual activities below are those that especially benefit from the format, whether you’re using Zoom or other video conferencing tools. Let’s take a look!

Unique Thing in Common

Finding we have things in common with our colleagues is a gift. In this virtual ice breaker for Zoom, get people into pairs and invite them to find the most interesting or unexpected thing they have in common. This can work effectively with people who know each other well or people meeting for the first time, but be sure to highlight the need for a unique or unexpected thing in common.

If you have time, encourage returning groups to share their facts, though let them know in advance of going into breakouts. Some of the facts that can come up may want to stay between those people in the breakout!

Unique Thing in Common   #virtual   #zoom   #connection   #trust   #active listening   #opening   #get-to-know   #teambuilding   #remote-friendly   #ericamarxcoaching   With a partner, find the 3 most unlikely / unusual / unique things you have in common with each other.  Each pair chooses one to share with the group. 

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

For groups who enjoy friendly competition or when wanting to encourage collaboration, a virtual scavenger hunt can be a great way to kickoff a session. Begin by preparing a list of things each team will need to gather online, such as a favorite movie from the year of each team member’s birth or a Google Maps image of everyone’s childhood home. (You’ll find a full list in the method below.)

Next, give your group a time limit (you may want a shorter timeframe and list when using this method as an icebreaker) and put everyone in breakouts. For bonus points, invite each group in your virtual scavenger hunt to give themselves a unique name and crown a winner based on how well each team has performed!

Virtual scavenger hunt   #energiser   #teambuilding   #remote-friendly   A fun team-building energiser that encourages groups to recreate the scavenger hunt experience in a fully remote environment! 

Discussions in virtual meetings are often more productive when moving into breakouts. For this virtual icebreaker game, start by collecting a heap of inspirational, relevant quotes in an online whiteboard or Google Doc. Next, put people in breakouts and invite them to choose a quote to discuss with the group. They might cover that the quote means to them, whether they think the same, or simply wonder what it has to do with the session ahead.

This icebreaker is great to use at the start of a session where the group may need to use critical thinking and get into some deep discussions. It provides a safe space to practice and get warmed up!

Quotes   #icebreaker   #energiser   #online   #warm up   #remote-friendly   For participants to get acquainted with each other in a meaningful way

Happiness Exercise

Looking for a virtual meeting activity that is guaranteed to raise some smiles? The Happiness Exercise is an incredibly simple invitation for people to share happy experiences in a breakout and discuss them in small teams. You might include a theme or framing question to help guide what people share, but in my experience, it’s best to trust the groups to share whatever comes to mind and let conversations flow naturally.

By using groups of just a few people, you can ensure each person gets space to share and the relationships that are built on this foundation can be meaningful indeed.

Happiness exercise   #teambuilding   #icebreaker   #warm up   #remote-friendly   This exercise is a simple application of the principles of Appreciative Inquiry.

Everyone is a Liar (Two truths and one lie)

This classic icebreaker works just as well online as in real life, though I’ve found it most effective in breakout rooms. The most interesting conversations that arise from this game are often about discussing the two truths that came up, rather than simply finding out if we’re right or wrong.

Start by asking the group to come up with two truths and a lie about themselves and then invite the other people in their breakout room to guess which is which by asking some lie detector questions. This activity is a tried and tested way to help create connections and can be a great icebreaker for virtual meetings too! Where possible, invite participants to share their truths and lies in an online whiteboard or shared document to make it easy to play and to debrief with later.

Everyone is a Liar (Two truths and one lie)   #warm up   #icebreaker   #remote-friendly   #online   Starting a meeting or after a break in a group where participants don’t know each other or don’t know much about each other

Three Wishes

Oh, what we might do if we all had our wishes come true! In this virtual game, you’ll use the idea of a genie that can grant three wishes as the basis for a small group discussion. In breakouts, invite your team to share the three wishes they’d make and why.

This is an incredibly simple game, but it can also create space for great conversations that help teams of any size or maturity get more familiar with one another and have some laughs too! For a more directed experience, invite groups to make a personal wish, a professional wish for the company and a wish for someone else on their team. These wishes can make for interesting discussions that can feed into the rest of your workshop.

Three wishes   #get-to-know   #icebreaker   #remote-friendly   The activity serves as a brief energiser during a workshop, and helps to get creativity flowing. At the end of this method, each team member will be a little more familiar with each other.

Breakout Room Tag

Tired of just chatting in your Zoom breakouts? This fun game is a virtual spin on a playground classic that encourages your team to jump between breakouts and attempt to not get caught! Start by choosing one person to be “it” and let them know they need to count to ten and say someone’s name in order to tag them and make them “it.” Put people into random breakouts and then let the chaos begin!

For even more fun, try the freeze tag version in the method below. Not only does this game create a sense of excitement but it can be a great way to teach people how to move between breakouts and get familiar with your video software!

Break-out Room Tag   #large group   #virtual   #zoom   #remote-friendly   #energizer   #high energy   #ericamarxcoaching   Everyone plays tag, using breakout rooms in Zoom

In Conclusion

A good virtual icebreaker can set up your virtual meeting for success. Set the right tone during kick-off and your team can be more prepared to participate. Break the virtual ice effectively and you’ll help people start talking and engaging without further prompts.

Looking for more effective icebreakers? This collection of icebreaker games is a great source of more ideas that will work in both remote and live settings.

Did you have a favourite virtual icebreaker that isn’t featured? Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear about what works for you and your team. Want to discuss facilitation approaches in more detail? Join our community to connect with other facilitators and talk all things facilitation!

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40 Fun Ice Breakers for Virtual Meetings

Want to inject some energy into your meetings? Your solution is right here! Spice things up with these 40 creative ice breakers for virtual meetings!

In today’s world of virtual and hybrid meetings, it can be challenging to connect with everyone and keep things engaging for every team member.

Without being in the same room, it is easy for people to feel disconnected or distracted. This is where effective virtual icebreakers come in!

We have assembled 40 fun ice breakers that are not just about breaking the ice ; they are designed to create authentic connections and build deeper bonds between team members, creating synergy and benefitting your organization as a whole.

Let us not delay! More details await.

What are Virtual Icebreakers?

Virtual icebreakers are introductory activities designed to ease interaction and build rapport among participants in online activities and settings, such as meetings, webinars, and training sessions.

These activities aim to set a positive tone by breaking down initial barriers between team members who may never see each other face to face. They also foster a sense of connection and create an engaging atmosphere conducive to collaboration.

Virtual icebreakers come in various forms, from quick and easy activities prompting participants to share thoughts to more involved games demanding teamwork and cooperation.

Quick Virtual Icebreaker Questions

Get ready to spice up your virtual meetings with these quick virtual icebreaker questions!

1. Would You Rather…?

“Would You Rather…?” questions ignite lively discussions and add fun to any gathering by presenting participants with two hypothetical scenarios to choose between.

This engaging icebreaker encourages people to share their preferences . It also sparks conversations and healthy discussions and reveals unique insights about each participant.

Here are a few intriguing examples to get the conversation flowing.

• Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?
• Would you rather journey back in time to meet your ancestors or forward to see your descendants?
• Would you rather be able to speak all languages fluently or play every musical instrument perfectly?
• Would you rather live in a world where it is always daytime or nighttime?
• Would you rather have the power to control the elements or have the power to teleport anywhere instantly?

2. Quiz Question of the Day

Why not kick things off with a fun quiz question of the day? Quizzes make great icebreakers , so starting your meeting with a brain teaser will surely excite your colleagues.

Participants can take turns answering the question, sharing their knowledge, and even competing for the correct answer.

This game not only adds an element of fun to meetings but also promotes learning, team bonding, and ongoing engagement among participants.

3. Mood Barometer

Instead of the usual “ How is everyone doing? ” which often gets just a few responses, try a different approach this time – like using a poll.

A “Mood Barometer” involves presenting a captivating trivia question at the start of each meeting. This activity encourages active participation and stimulates the collective intellect of the group.

After answering the question, participants can rate their energy levels using a quick poll. The poll allows facilitators to gauge the group’s enthusiasm and adjust the meeting dynamics accordingly.

Here are some example questions and discussion prompts to kickstart the session.

• What is the capital city of Australia? (Have you ever visited the capital city of Australia?)
• In which year did the Titanic sink? (What do you find fascinating about the story of the Titanic?)
• Who painted the Mona Lisa? (Do you have a favorite painting by Leonardo da Vinci?)
• What is the tallest mountain in the world? (Have you ever climbed a mountain or dreamed of doing so?)

4. In One Word, How Would You Describe…?

“In One Word, How Would You Describe…?” prompts participants to condense their thoughts into one word.

This icebreaker fosters concise communication and meaningful discussions. It also encourages creativity and provides valuable insights into individuals’ perceptions and emotions.

The facilitators can use word clouds to represent participants’ responses to enhance engagement visually. This creates a collective reflection of the group’s thoughts and feelings.

Here are some examples of questions tailored for pulse checks and team reflections.

• In one word, how would you describe your mood today?
• How would you summarize your energy level right now?
• What word comes to mind when you think about our current project status?
• Describe your expectations for today’s meeting in one word.
• What word best captures your overall well-being at the moment?
• In one word, how would you describe our team’s communication style?
• What word comes to mind about our team’s collaboration efforts?
• Describe the culture of our team in one word.
• How would you summarize our team’s recent achievements in a single word?
• What word best represents the atmosphere of our team meetings?

5. Where Are You Joining From?

If your teammates are spread across the globe, why not start your meeting by sending each of them a virtual greeting?

Kick things off with a word cloud, asking, “Where are you joining from?” This works wonders for large meetings or virtual events – the more locations, the more colorful the word cloud will be.

As your colleagues eagerly share their locations during the virtual icebreaker, acknowledge each contribution with a personalized shout-out.

By asking this question, facilitators acknowledge the diverse backgrounds of participants and create an opportunity for individuals to share a bit about themselves and their geographic location.

6. Rank Your Favorites

You can get people involved by having them rank their favorite things , whether from their childhood or otherwise – the options are limitless.

Use a ranking poll question, include as many options as you would like, and allow your participants to prioritize them. Here are some examples of ranking poll questions tailored for team bonding.

• Rank your favorite types of cuisine from 1 to 5 (1 being the most favorite and 5 being the least favorite): Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Japanese.
• Please rank the following outdoor activities in order of preference (1 being the most desired and 5 being the least preferred): hiking, cycling, camping, kayaking, and rock climbing.
• Rank your top three favorite movies of all time (1 being the most favorite and 3 being the least favorite).
• Please rank the following genres of music according to your preference (1 being the most preferred and five being the least preferred): pop, rock, hip-hop, jazz, classical.
• Rank your preferred relaxation methods from 1 to 4 (1 for the most preferred and 4 being the least preferred): reading, watching movies, exercising, meditating.

7. Good Old Times

Tap into nostalgia by asking about childhood or teenage memories for an easy conversation starter. This conversation always sparks laughter and fond recollections.

Here are some conversation starters for the “Good Old Times” activity.

• What was your favorite childhood TV show or cartoon?
• Did you have a favorite toy or game growing up?
• What was your most memorable family vacation or trip?
• Can you remember a funny or embarrassing moment from your childhood?
• Who did you admire or look up to during your childhood?

After everyone shares their answers, invite volunteers to explain their choices. This activity will ignite lively discussions and even spark debates over the best candy or movie.

8. Emoji Introduction

Here is another engaging activity to gauge the mood of your team members – invite them to express their emotions using emojis .

Whether representing their name, role, or current mood , each person selects a series of emojis that best encapsulate their identity or how they feel in the moment.

This is an excellent virtual icebreaker for a quick and inclusive activity. It is also perfect while waiting for others to join the meeting.

Short Virtual Icebreaker Activities

Say goodbye to dull meetings and hello to instant engagement with these short icebreaker activities!

9. Unsung Heroes

“Unsung Heroes” is a heartwarming short virtual icebreaker activity aimed at recognizing and appreciating the contributions of colleagues .

This activity breaks the ice and lifts everyone’s spirits, which is much needed, especially when working remotely.

Show appreciation to the unsung heroes in your team. Start your meeting with a word cloud poll asking, “Who was your silent hero this month?”

Recognizing people for their hard work is a fantastic way to kick off a meeting. Prepare for plenty of heartwarming reactions and a smooth, morale-boosting start to any meeting!

10. Highlight of the Month

Here is a wonderful way to uplift everyone’s mood. Invite your colleagues to share their personal or professional highlights from the past week or month.

With this virtual icebreaker, you can discover what others have been up to and celebrate their achievements together.

As you begin your meeting, encourage your teammates to share their highlights using an open text poll. Then, showcase these highlights on the screen and give each one a well-deserved shout-out.

Recognizing and appreciating the actions of your team members is essential for fostering a positive and supportive work environment.

11. What Are You Thankful For?

Here is a heartwarming activity perfect for occasions like Thanksgiving or boosting team spirit during special meetings.

Encouraging team members to express gratitude and appreciation for each other fosters a positive and supportive team culture .

Kickstart your meeting with this question using either a word cloud or an open text poll, and await your team’s responses.

Display these heartfelt submissions on screen and encourage your colleagues to share the reasons behind their choices.

Creating a positive and welcoming atmosphere at the beginning of a meeting sets the tone for productive collaboration and open communication.

12. Guess Whose Desk?

Let us dive into a fun way to bond with your colleagues by getting a glimpse into their home workspaces. This virtual icebreaker combines “Guess Who?” elements with a virtual house tour akin to “MTV Cribs.”

“Guess Whose Desk?” is an engaging, short, virtual icebreaker activity that invites participants to explore their colleagues’ home workstations through an interactive guessing game.

In this activity, facilitators collect photos of each participant’s workspace and share them anonymously with the group.

Based on the visual clues in the photos, participants then took turns guessing whose desk belonged to whom.

13. Travel Bucket List

“Travel Bucket List” is a delightful short virtual icebreaker activity that ignites wanderlust and fosters engaging conversations among team members.

In this activity, each team member is invited to share one destination they would love to visit and briefly explain why it is on their bucket list.

This simple yet effective exercise reveals participants’ interests and aspirations and opens the door to meaningful conversations about travel experiences, cultural interests, and adventurous pursuits.

14. Digital Show and Tell

“Digital Show and Tell” is an engaging short virtual icebreaker activity inspired by the traditional show and tell format.

In this activity, participants are requested to share an interesting item from their digital space , such as a favorite app, website, or gadget.

The participants take turns presenting their chosen item. They will explain why they find it intriguing or valuable.

15. Time Capsule

“Time Capsule” is a captivating, short, virtual icebreaker activity that prompts participants to reflect on the present moment and curate items for a virtual time capsule.

Each team member is invited to share an item they would contribute to represent the current period, whether related to work, a personal memento, or even a screenshot of their current screen.

Participants offer glimpses into their daily lives, interests, and perspectives by selecting and presenting these items. This activity fosters deeper connections and understanding within the group.

16. Team Photo

No virtual icebreaker collection is truly complete without a group photo! It is always a blast, whether in a video chat or in person.

Participants are encouraged to engage in a virtual photo session where they can strike creative poses, use virtual backgrounds, or incorporate props to add humor and personality to the snapshot.

You can do it repeatedly by snapping a new picture each time—try funny faces, bring in your pets, or do something wild.

17. Memory Lane

“Memory Lane” offers a touching virtual icebreaker to strengthen team connections and foster empathy.

Each participant shares a childhood memory or significant life experience during this activity, sparking personal connections and a deeper understanding among team members.

This activity encourages open communication and vulnerability, paving the way for more meaningful interactions and collaborative relationships.

18. What’s the Last Picture That You Took?

Here is another virtual icebreaker that will be a hit: Have your colleagues grab their phones and find the last photo they took.

Invite your colleagues to share the photos in your Slack channel or hold it up to the camera. Finally, ask them to share the story behind the picture ( if it is not too personal! )

This icebreaker is a simple yet delightful activity that encourages conversation and helps everyone get to know each other and their interests better.

19. Weekend Photo Contest

Are you feeling a bit sluggish after the weekend? Get the team chatting with a speedy weekend photo contest.

Sharing snapshots from the weekend can be a delightful way to kick off a meeting and bring a personal touch to the team dynamic.

Whether a snapshot of a scenic hike, a delicious homemade meal, or a fun outing with friends, each photo offers a glimpse into participants’ lives outside work.

20. Five Favorites

“Five Favorites” is a lively virtual icebreaker to uncover shared interests and build connections among team members.

During this activity, participants share five beloved items from categories like movies, books, foods, or hobbies .

Through this sharing, individuals showcase their unique preferences, fostering camaraderie and encouraging meaningful discussions.

This icebreaker promotes attentive listening and sparks engaging conversations as teammates explore mutual interests and exchange recommendations.

21. Random Question of the Week

Here is another excellent icebreaker to help you bond with your colleagues: Start a new tradition by asking your team a random question each week or month.

In this activity, facilitators or team members pose a thought-provoking or fun question to the group at the beginning of each week.

These random questions can cover various topics, from favorite childhood memories to dream travel destinations or even hypothetical scenarios.

Virtual Icebreaker Games & Team Building Activities

Check out this selection of icebreaker games and team-building activities for your virtual team-building .

22. Team Trivia Quiz

Give a trivia quiz a shot with questions about your team members. Gather intriguing facts about each person, then let your teammates guess who is being described. You are bound to uncover loads of interesting tidbits!

In this activity, team members take part in a trivia quiz featuring questions about their teammates. The trivia quiz covers personal interests, hobbies, achievements, and fun facts .

Making virtual trivia quizzes a recurring activity adds an element of fun and excitement to virtual meetings while providing opportunities for ongoing learning and connection among team members.

23. Two Truths and a Lie

“Two Truths and a Lie” is an interesting activity that promotes better understanding and connection among team members.

Gather three statements about each person: two facts and one cleverly crafted lie . Encourage your colleagues to make their lies not too obvious to keep everyone guessing.

This activity encourages active listening, observation, and critical thinking as participants share personal anecdotes and attempt to discern fact from fiction.

24. Show and Tell

Drawing inspiration from the cherished childhood tradition of “show and tell,” this activity offers a delightful opportunity to deepen team connections.

Inviting colleagues to select an object with personal significance or an exciting story can foster a deeper connection and understanding among team members.

Allocate each team member 3-5 minutes to share their chosen item with the group, encouraging lively storytelling and engagement.

25. Struggle Sharing

Sharing successes and setbacks within a team fosters transparency, trust, and collaboration . Openly discussing achievements boosts morale and motivation.

“Struggle Sharing” is designed to foster openness and connection. It also promotes stronger bonds among team members and creates a sense of unity in facing obstacles together.

Consider dividing your team into smaller groups, utilizing breakout rooms in virtual settings to encourage candid discussions about professional and personal struggles.

Afterward, reconvene to reflect on the lessons learned from these experiences, turning setbacks into opportunities for collective growth.

26. Background Challenge

Have some fun with your team during your next virtual meeting! Pick a theme and ask everyone to choose a virtual background that best fits it.

Let your imagination run wild! The options are endless, whether it is your favorite movie scene, 80s disco vibes, hilarious memes, or dream vacation spots.

Sharing these backgrounds will break the ice and give you something fun to chat about as the call begins.

27. Guess Who?

Let us dive into “Guess Who?” —an interactive game that brings a guessing game to life, centered on each team member’s tastes and choices.

During this activity, participants drop hints about themselves while their peers attempt to match the clues to the right person. The hints can range from favorite foods to hobbies or dream travel spots.

Successfully guessing reveals intriguing insights about colleagues, enriching mutual understanding and team spirit.

This game thrives on active involvement, offering a playful platform for team members to showcase their unique personalities.

“Guess Who?” is about embracing individuality and strengthening team bonds through shared experiences and connections.

28. Never Have I Ever

While you are all gathered in the virtual bar, why not spice things up with a game? If you are familiar with “Never Have I Ever,” you know how much fun it can be— especially with some juicy questions it poses.

Here is how it works: You will hold your hand so everyone can see your fingers. Then, one person will read out questions like: “Never have I ever gone skinny dipping.” If you have done it, you will put one finger down.

This icebreaker is perfect for getting to know your colleagues better and sharing laughs while swapping funny stories behind each finger that goes down!

29. Visual Brainstorming

Let us talk about another engaging virtual icebreaker: visual brainstorming. Instead of simply tossing ideas around, why not try a more visual approach?

Participants use virtual whiteboards or other interactive platforms in this activity to collectively generate and share ideas, solutions, and strategies.

This activity promotes teamwork, creativity, and engagement, making it an invaluable tool for enhancing team collaboration and communication.

30. Coffee Time

“Coffee Time” is a relaxed and informal activity promoting virtual water cooler moments and fostering casual conversations among team members.

In this activity, participants are encouraged to join a virtual meeting or chat room at designated times, similar to gathering around the office coffee machine.

Make it a point to schedule occasional team catch-ups, allowing you to chat with colleagues about topics beyond work. These moments can help alleviate feelings of isolation, especially in remote work setups .

31. Meet Up in a Virtual Bar

If remote work setups prevent you from enjoying an after-work drink with your colleagues in person, why not try a virtual alternative?

“Meet Up in a Virtual Bar” allows team members to explore immersive video chat platforms or virtual environments designed to simulate the ambiance of a cozy bar setting.

Participants can engage in relaxed conversations, share anecdotes, and unwind after a busy day, all from their homes.

32. Donut Friends

Remember those spontaneous hallway conversations or deep chats by the water cooler with your colleagues? While we wait for those moments to return, consider giving Donut a try.

Donut, a Slack app, randomly pairs two or three colleagues for a scheduled video call. You can use this time for virtual coffee chats, peer learning sessions, or discussions about recent books.

What makes it great is that it connects you with teammates you might not interact with regularly , fostering new connections and friendships in the workplace.

33. Pair and Share

“Pair and Share” is a fantastic virtual icebreaker that encourages deeper conversations among team members, perfect for those familiar with breakout rooms.

Pose a thought-provoking question to your colleagues and then randomly pair them up using breakout rooms if your video conferencing tool supports it.

Give each pair a few minutes to discuss the topic before reconvening in the main room to share their insights with the team.

This activity helps team members connect on a deeper level by sharing personal stories and experiences. It goes beyond typical icebreakers , fostering empathy, understanding, and collaboration.

“Pair and Share” promotes meaningful talks and gives a comfortable space for introverts to share their thoughts in pairs rather than in front of the entire team.

34. Name That Sound

Are you seeking a more intriguing guessing game? Why not try your hand at identifying sounds? This activity stands out as a more challenging yet immensely gratifying virtual icebreaker!

Here is how it works: Turn off your cameras, leaving only audio on, and then produce a sound near your microphone. Your colleagues will listen in and attempt to guess its source.

Through audio-only interactions, this activity offers a unique and engaging experience that promotes teamwork, communication, and fun among team members.

35. Group Storytelling

“Group Storytelling” is designed to test improvisation skills and foster collaboration among team members. Challenge your creativity with this engaging icebreaker.

In this activity, participants collaboratively build a fictional narrative by taking turns adding to the story. Each addition enhances the story, fostering teamwork and creativity among participants.

Each member contributes a sentence or paragraph, building upon the ideas introduced by others to develop the plot and characters.

36. Online Games

Engaging in online team-building games adds a touch of fun and camaraderie to remote work, fostering interaction among coworkers just like in a physical office.

Participants can engage in various games, including trivia challenges, roasting sessions, and interactive icebreakers to promote camaraderie and teamwork.

Online games allow team members to relax and enjoy themselves together. They provide a welcome respite from work, fostering friendly competition and socializing among colleagues.

37. Virtual Pictionary

“Virtual Pictionary” is a lively game where participants take turns drawing on a virtual whiteboard or using online drawing tools while others guess the representation.

In this activity, participants take turns drawing on a virtual whiteboard or using online drawing tools while others attempt to guess what the drawing represents.

Teams race against the clock to correctly identify the drawings as the timer counts down, fostering creativity, teamwork, and quick thinking.

“Virtual Pictionary” provides a fun and interactive way for team members to connect, collaborate, and showcase their artistic skills in a virtual setting.

38. Virtual Wine Tasting

Even working remotely, you can still enjoy classic wine sessions. While it may seem challenging in a virtual setup, it is entirely doable.

Simply agree on a specific brand or type of drink, or each person can choose a different one to share their unique tasting experience.

This activity brings back the joy of social gatherings and creates a shared experience that fosters camaraderie and teamwork among team members.

“Virtual Wine Tasting” is an excellent addition to virtual happy hour ideas , providing a unique and enjoyable way for colleagues to bond and unwind.

39. Home Scavenger Hunt

Let us kick off this team-building activity by getting everyone up and moving. This virtual icebreaker is enjoyable and creates an opportunity for everyone to stretch their legs a bit.

Assign your teammates a simple task, like “You have 25 seconds to find something yellow,” or “Grab the quirkiest item in your apartment and show it to us.”

“Home Scavenger Hunt” injects energy into teams through a lively virtual scavenger hunt. This activity sparks enthusiasm and competition and encourages creativity and problem-solving skills.

40. Virtual Escape Room

Are you looking for an immersive team-building adventure? Consider a virtual escape room .

Just like the real deal, it is thrilling and challenging. Your team will collaborate to solve puzzles and crack codes to “escape” the room.

Organizers select themes and platforms that offer interactive and immersive experiences, transporting participants into captivating scenarios where collaboration and communication are vital for success.

This activity promotes problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork , enabling collaboration and camaraderie among team members as they work together to achieve a common goal.

Key Takeaways on Ice Breakers for Virtual Meetings

As you navigate the world of virtual and hybrid meetings, remember the power of connection and camaraderie.

Do not hesitate to try out different icebreakers to keep your team energized and connected .

With our curated list of 40 Fun Ice Breakers for Virtual Meetings , the possibilities for fostering engagement and strengthening bonds are endless.

Whether through quirky questions, creative challenges, or heartfelt conversations, each icebreaker offers a unique opportunity to promote team bonding and elevate the virtual meeting experience.

Embrace these opportunities to spark meaningful connections and foster a sense of belonging in your team, ensuring every virtual or hybrid meeting is filled with laughter, collaboration, and shared experiences.

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51 Icebreaker Games Your Team Will Actually Enjoy

Picture this scenario - you have organized a meeting or event with a group of newcomers. Everyone in the room sizing each other up, making small talk about the weather, and awkwardly waiting for the real event to begin. Sounds a bit too familiar, isn’t it?

This is where icebreaker games come into the picture. You can quickly turn this awkwardness into laughter, creativity, and meaningful connections with the right icebreaker game.

In this post, we'll look at the magical power of icebreaker games to liven up any event. We'll also share a list of 51 of the best icebreaker games and activities to energize your next gathering.

Key Takeaways

• Concept of Icebreaker Games

Quick Icebreaker Games for Work

Icebreaker games for team building, icebreaker games to know each other, icebreakers for energizing the team, ice breaker games for virtual teams, what are icebreaker games.

• Breaking down barriers and easing the initial awkwardness
• Energizing people and preparing them for active collaboration
• Allowing people to share interesting details about themselves
• Encouraging creativity , problem-solving, listening skills, and more
• Forming connections between people that last beyond the game

Icebreakers work magic because they rely on universal human desires. We all want to have fun, be creative, work together toward a goal, share stories about ourselves, and make meaningful connections. Well-designed icebreaker games seamlessly tap into these desires without participants even realizing it.

Importance of Icebreaker Games in Team Building

Icebreaker games play a key role in bringing new teams together and establishing rapport between team members. Well-designed team-building activities provide a structured way for colleagues to start conversing and collaborating. They are especially impactful for new team members, as they allow individuals to:

• Learn names and basic biographical information about teammates
• Find common interests, experiences, or beliefs
• Experience initial success by working creatively toward a common goal
• Begin communicating and problem-solving together
• Share stories, perspectives, and strengths with the group
• Develop trust through vulnerability and active listening
• Lay the groundwork for cooperation and future team building

Effective icebreaker activities create cohesion among team members, making them feel comfortable communicating, problem-solving, and sharing ideas. These activities foster positive relationships built on trust and mutual understanding.

With regular use of thoughtful team-building icebreaker games and activities, colleagues can form bonds that enable truly collaborative success.

Icebreakers encourage learner participation by satisfying basic needs like safety and belonging. According to Maslow's hierarchy , meeting lower-level needs allows one to move to higher levels, like self-actualization. When learners feel secure sharing without ridicule, they can actively engage in the learning process.

We have provided the list of icebreaker games in 5 categories below. Each category contains a table that can help you navigate the list at a glance. Let's have a look at those awesome games now.

Energize your team and foster a positive work environment with these fast-paced icebreaker games designed to encourage collaboration and add a dash of fun to your workplace interactions.

1. Emoji Story

Emoji Story is a fun and creative way to encourage communication and creativity. It's often used as an icebreaker or team-building activity and can be played in person or virtually.

How is the game played? Participants create a story using only emojis; others have to guess the story based on the emojis used. How many members are needed? The game can be played with 2 or more participants.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the complexity of the story and the number of participants, but typically takes 10-20 minutes.

2. Bucket List Bingo

Bucket List Bingo is a motivational and fun game designed to encourage people to pursue their life goals and try new experiences. It's often used in personal development and self-improvement contexts.

How is the game played? Participants are given bingo cards with various bucket list items. They mark off items as they complete them in real life.

How many members are needed? The game can be played individually or with a group, so the number of participants can vary. How much time does it take? The game can last as long as participants continue to complete items on their bucket lists.

3. Human Knot

Human Knot is a classic team-building game that promotes communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. It's often used as an icebreaker to help groups get to know each other better.

How is the game played? Participants stand in a circle, reach across, and grab the hands of two different people. The group must then work together to untangle themselves without letting go of each other's hands.

How many members are needed? A minimum of 5 participants is required, but larger groups work well. How much time does it take? The game usually takes about 10-15 minutes.

4. Pictionary Relay

Pictionary Relay is a competitive and entertaining drawing game that encourages creativity and quick thinking. It's often used in social gatherings and as a party game.

How is the game played? Participants take turns drawing words or phrases without using letters or numbers while their team tries to guess what they're drawing.

How many members are needed? The game is typically played with two or more teams, with multiple participants on each team.

How much time does it take? Rounds usually last 1-2 minutes each, and the game can be as short as 15 minutes or longer, depending on the number of rounds played.

5. Cultural Share

Cultural Share is a cultural exchange activity that promotes understanding, appreciation, and awareness of different cultures. It's often used in diverse settings to foster inclusivity and celebrate cultural diversity.

How is the game played? Participants take turns sharing something about their culture, such as traditional food, clothing, customs, or anecdotes.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with any number of participants, making it suitable for small or large groups.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of cultural sharing, but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

6. Zoom In, Zoom Out

Zoom In, Zoom Out is a visual perception and quick-thinking game often used as an engaging and competitive activity. It's well-suited for virtual meetings or gatherings.

How is the game played? Participants are shown an image that is gradually zoomed in or out, and they have to guess what the image is as quickly as possible.

How many members are needed? This game can be played with two or more participants.

How much time does it take? Each round typically lasts a few minutes, and the game can continue for as long as participants are engaged.

7. Mystery Sound

Mystery Sound is a fun and interactive auditory game that challenges participants' listening skills and knowledge. It's often used as an engaging and educational activity.

How is the game played? Participants listen to various sound clips or recordings and attempt to identify the source of the sound.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with two or more participants.

How much time does it take? The game can be adapted to different timeframes, but each round usually lasts a few minutes.

8. Common Ground

Common Ground is a team-building and ice-breaking activity designed to help people discover shared interests, values, or experiences. It's often used to foster connections and build rapport among participants.

How is the game played? Participants are presented with a list of statements or questions and must find commonalities with others in the group.

How many members are needed? The game can be played in small or large groups, so the number of participants can vary.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of statements or questions and the depth of discussions, but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

9. Skill Share

Skill Share is an educational and community-building activity that encourages participants to exchange knowledge and talents. It's often used to promote learning and social connections.

How is the game played? Participants take turns teaching or demonstrating a skill or talent they possess to others in the group.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with any number of participants, making it suitable for various group sizes.

How much time does it take? The game's duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of skill sharing, but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

10. Memory Lane

Memory Lane is a storytelling and bonding activity that helps participants connect on a personal level. It's often used in group settings to promote empathy and understanding among participants.

How is the game played? Participants take turns sharing a significant memory or experience from their past, and others listen and discuss.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of memory sharing, but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

Strengthen the bonds within your team with these engaging icebreaker games. Whether you're kick-starting a new project, enhancing communication, or simply looking to build camaraderie, these activities are a great way to promote collaboration and unity among team members.

11. Build a Story

Build a Story is a creative and collaborative storytelling game that encourages imagination, communication, and teamwork. It's often used in creative writing and team-building exercises.

How is the game played? Participants take turns adding sentences to a story, with each sentence building on the previous one to create a collaborative narrative.

How much time does it take? The duration varies depending on the length of the story and the number of participants, but it's typically a 15-30-minute activity.

12. Desert Island Picks

Desert Island Picks is a conversation and decision-making game that encourages creative thinking and discussion. It's often used in team-building, icebreaking, and decision-making activities.

How is the game played? Participants choose and discuss the three things they would bring with them if they were stranded on a desert island, explaining their choices.

How many members are needed? This game can be played individually or with a group, so the number of participants can vary.

How much time does it take? The game typically takes 15-30 minutes, depending on the number of participants and the depth of discussion.

13. Team Trivia

Team Trivia is a competitive and knowledge-testing game often used for entertainment, team bonding, and fun learning.

How is the game played? Participants form teams and answer trivia questions on a variety of topics. Teams earn points for correct answers.

How many members are needed? The game is designed for teams, and each team can consist of two or more participants.

How much time does it take? The duration varies depending on the number of questions and teams but typically lasts 30-60 minutes.

14. Balloon Tower

Balloon Tower is a team-building and engineering challenge that promotes creativity, problem-solving, and cooperation. It's often used in team-building and group activities.

How is the game played? Participants use balloons and other materials to construct the tallest tower possible within a set time frame.

How many members are needed? The game is best played with teams consisting of three or more participants.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the complexity of the challenge but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

15. Escape Room Challenge

Escape Room Challenges are immersive and engaging activities that test problem-solving, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. They're often used for entertainment and team-building events.

How is the game played? Participants work together to solve puzzles and riddles to "escape" from a themed room within a set time limit.

How many members are needed? The game is typically played in small groups, with a recommended minimum of 2-6 participants.

How much time does it take? Escape Room Challenges are designed to be completed within 60-90 minutes.

16. Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunts are interactive and entertaining games often used for team-building, social events, and outdoor recreational activities.

How is the game played? Participants follow a list of clues or instructions to find hidden objects or complete challenges in a designated area.

How many members are needed? Scavenger Hunts can be played with small or large groups, and the number of participants can vary.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the complexity of the hunt but can range from 30 minutes to a few hours.

17. Role Reversal

Role Reversal is an empathy-building and creative exercise that encourages participants to see things from different perspectives. It's often used in diversity training and communication workshops.

How is the game played? Participants take on roles or personas that are different from their own and act accordingly. This can involve acting out scenarios or discussions.

How much time does it take? The duration varies based on the complexity of the roles and the depth of interaction but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

18. Blind Drawing

Blind Drawing is a communication and teamwork activity highlighting the importance of clear and effective instructions. It's often used in team-building and communication training.

How is the game played? Participants are paired up, with one person describing an object or scene to their partner, who must draw it without seeing the object.

How many members are needed? The game is typically played in pairs, so at least two participants are needed.

How much time does it take? Rounds usually last 5-10 minutes, and the game can be as short as 15 minutes or longer, depending on the number of rounds played.

19. Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction is an engineering and teamwork challenge that encourages creativity, problem-solving, and cooperation. It's often used in team-building and group activities.

How is the game played? The Chain Reaction game provides teams with game boards, idea cards for simple machines, and supplies to construct chain reaction contraption segments that will connect across groups.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the complexity of the chain reaction but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

20. Team Timeline

Team Timeline is a historical and collaborative activity that promotes group discussion and shared understanding of a topic's history. It's often used in group meetings and educational settings.

How is the game played? Participants create a timeline of significant events or achievements related to a project, organization, or topic, and they discuss the events together.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with small or large groups, and the number of participants can vary.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of events and the depth of discussion, but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

21. Two Truths and a Wish

Two Truths and a Wish is an icebreaker and team-building activity that encourages self-reflection and getting to know others in a fun and engaging way. It's often used in group settings to foster connections.

How is the game played? Participants take turns sharing two true statements about themselves and one thing they wish to achieve or do in the future.

How many members are needed? This game can be played with small or large groups, and the number of participants can vary.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of discussion but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

22. Life Timeline

Life Timeline is a personal storytelling and bonding activity that helps participants connect on a deeper level by sharing their life journeys. It's often used in team-building, personal development, and social settings.

How is the game played? Participants create a visual timeline of significant events and milestones in their lives, which they then share and discuss with others.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of timeline creation and discussion, but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

23. Personal Logo

Personal Logo is a creative and self-expression activity that encourages participants to reflect on their identity and values. It's often used in personal development, team-building, and branding exercises.

How is the game played? Participants design a personal logo or emblem that represents themselves and their values, and they explain the meaning behind it.

How many members are needed? The game can be played individually or with a group, so the number of participants can vary.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the complexity of logo creation and explanations but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

24. Name That Person

Name That Person is a knowledge and guessing game that tests participants' general knowledge and trivia skills. It's often used as an entertaining and educational activity.

How is the game played? Participants provide descriptions or clues about a famous or notable person, and others have to guess the person's identity.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of rounds and participants but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

25. Find Your Pair

Find Your Pair is a matching and interactive activity that encourages communication and getting to know others in a playful way. It's often used as an icebreaker and team-building exercise.

How is the game played? Participants are given a list of pairs of related items or concepts, and they must find the person in the group who matches their pair.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of pairs and participants but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

26. Speed Networking

Speed Networking is an activity designed for people to make new connections and exchange information or ideas quickly. It's commonly used at networking events, conferences, and professional development sessions.

How is the game played? Participants engage in rapid, timed conversations with each other, usually around a specific topic or set of questions. After a brief chat, participants switch partners.

How many members are needed? The game is typically played with a group of participants, and the number can vary based on the event or setting.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the amount of time allocated for each conversation, but it is often structured within 30-60 minutes.

27. Who Am I?

Who Am I? is a guessing and deduction game that encourages interaction and fun conversations. It's often used as a party game or icebreaker.

How is the game played? Participants wear a label on their forehead or back with the name of a famous person, character, or historical figure. They ask yes or no questions to figure out who they are.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with a small or large group of participants.

How much time does it take? Rounds usually last 10-15 minutes, and the game can continue for as long as participants are engaged.

28. Guess the Hobby

Guess the Hobby is a recreational and sharing activity that helps participants discover common interests and learn about new hobbies. It's often used in social settings and as an icebreaker.

How is the game played? Participants take turns describing a hobby they enjoy without revealing its name, and others have to guess the hobby based on the description.

29. Map Your Origin

Map Your Origin is a geographical and storytelling activity that fosters connections and cultural awareness. It's often used in diverse group settings to celebrate participants' backgrounds.

How is the game played? Participants mark their hometown or place of origin on a map or globe and share stories or information about their hometown.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of discussions but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

30. Baby Photo Guess

As the name suggests, Baby Photo Guess is a playful and nostalgic activity that encourages bonding and laughter among participants. It's often used in social gatherings, family reunions, and as a fun icebreaker.

How is the game played? Participants share a baby photo of themselves, and others must guess who the baby in the photo is.

How much time does it take? The game typically takes 15-30 minutes, depending on the number of participants and the depth of discussions.

31. Dance Off

Dance Off is a fun and energetic activity that promotes self-expression and entertainment. It's often used at parties, gatherings, and as an icebreaker.

How is the game played? Participants take turns showcasing their dance moves, and others can join in or take turns dancing. The group often votes for the best dancer.

How many members are needed? This game can be played with a small or large group of participants.

How much time does it take? The duration can vary depending on the number of participants and the level of competition but typically lasts 15-30 minutes.

32. Quick Pose

Quick Pose is a creative and artistic activity that encourages improvisation and imagination. It's often used in art classes, as a social activity, or for creative development.

How is the game played? Participants take turns posing in response to specific themes or commands, and others may take pictures or draw the poses.

How much time does it take? The game typically takes 15-30 minutes, depending on the number of rounds and participants.

33. Simon Says

Simon Says is a classic listening and concentration game that promotes attention to detail and quick thinking. It's often used as a fun and engaging icebreaker.

How is the game played? A designated leader (Simon) gives commands to the group, and participants must only follow the commands preceded by "Simon says." If Simon gives a command without saying "Simon says," participants should not follow it.

How much time does it take? The game typically lasts 10-15 minutes, with multiple rounds if desired.

34. Musical Chairs

Musical Chairs is a competitive, lighthearted game promoting agility and quick decision-making. It's often used at parties, children's events, and a fun competitive activity.

How is the game played? Participants walk around a circle of chairs while music plays. When the music stops, they must quickly find an available chair to sit on. One chair is removed in each round, and the last person standing wins.

How many members are needed? The game works best with a group of participants, and the number can vary.

How much time does it take? The game's duration depends on the number of rounds and participants but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

35. Freeze Dance

Freeze Dance is a lively and interactive game that combines dancing and quick reactions. It's often used at parties, children's events, and as an energetic icebreaker.

How is the game played? Participants dance to music, but when the music stops, they must freeze in their current pose. The last person to freeze or the person caught moving is out.

How many members are needed? The game is designed for a group of participants, and the number can vary.

36. Paper Plane Race

Paper Plane Race is a fun and creative activity that promotes design, engineering, and friendly competition. It's often used as a recreational and team-building game.

How is the game played? Participants create paper planes and compete to see whose plane can fly the farthest or land closest to a target.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of rounds and participants, but a single round typically takes 10-15 minutes.

37. Juggling Challenge

The Juggling Challenge is a skill-based performance activity that promotes coordination and agility. It's often used as a recreational and entertaining display of talent.

How is the game played? Participants learn or showcase their juggling skills with balls, scarves, or other objects.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with one or more participants.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the skill level of the participants and can range from a few minutes to an hour.

38. Quick Draw Duel

Quick Draw Duel is a creative and competitive drawing game that promotes artistic expression and quick thinking. It's often used as a social activity, party game, or icebreaker.

How is the game played? Participants engage in a drawing contest, with each round featuring a different theme or word that they must illustrate within a time limit.

39. Charades

Charades is a classic and entertaining guessing game that encourages creativity and communication. It's often used as a party game, icebreaker, or team-building activity.

How is the game played? Participants act out words, phrases, or titles without speaking, and others must guess what they are portraying.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of rounds and participants but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

40. Lip Sync Battle

Lip Sync Battle is a performance and entertainment activity that encourages creativity and showmanship. It's often used as a social event, talent show, or party game.

How is the game played? Participants perform lip-synced renditions of songs or music tracks, often with costumes and choreography. The audience or judges rate the performances.

How many members are needed? This game is typically performed by individuals or groups.

How much time does it take? The game's duration depends on the number of participants and performances but typically lasts 30-60 minutes.

41. Virtual Background Challenge

The Virtual Background Challenge is a fun and lighthearted activity that adds creativity and amusement to virtual meetings and gatherings.

How is the game played? Participants use virtual backgrounds during online meetings or video calls, and the group votes on the most creative or entertaining background.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with small or large groups in an online meeting or video call.

How much time does it take? The challenge can be as short as 5-10 minutes or last for the duration of a meeting.

42. Online Quiz

Online quizzes are educational and competitive activities often used for entertainment, learning, and team-building events.

How is the game played? Participants answer various questions on various topics to test their knowledge and compete for the highest score.

How many members are needed? The game can be played individually or in teams, making it suitable for various group sizes.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of questions and participants but typically lasts 15-30 minutes.

43. Show and Tell

Show and Tell is a personal and bonding activity that encourages sharing and storytelling. It's often used in virtual meetings, team-building, and educational settings.

How is the game played? Participants take turns sharing something meaningful or interesting with the group, such as an item, a story, or a skill.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with small or large groups in virtual meetings or online gatherings.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the depth of sharing, but typically takes 15-30 minutes.

44. Virtual Tour

Virtual Tours are educational and exploratory activities that allow participants to discover and learn about new places, landmarks, or cultural sites.

How is the game played? Participants take a virtual tour of a place or location using online resources, videos, or a tour guide, and they discuss their experiences.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with a small or large group of participants in a virtual meeting or online setting.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the virtual tour's length and the depth of discussion but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

45. Online Pictionary

Online Pictionary is a fun and artistic drawing game that encourages creativity and team cooperation. It's often used in virtual game nights and social gatherings.

How is the game played? Participants take turns drawing words or phrases using online drawing tools while their team guesses what they're drawing.

How many members are needed? The game is typically played with two or more teams, and each team can consist of multiple participants.

How much time does it take? The game usually takes about 30-60 minutes, with multiple rounds played.

46. Virtual Costume Party

Virtual Costume Parties are festive and entertaining activities that add excitement and creativity to online gatherings.

How is the game played? Participants dress up in creative costumes and join a virtual meeting or party to showcase their outfits and have fun.

How many members are needed? The game can be played with small or large groups in a virtual gathering.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the event's schedule but typically lasts for the duration of the party or meeting.

47. Online Karaoke

Online Karaoke is a musical and social activity that encourages singing, entertainment, and group participation. It's often used in virtual parties and social events.

How is the game played? Participants take turns singing songs while lyrics are displayed on the screen, and others can join in or offer feedback.

How many members are needed? The game can be played individually or as a group, and it's suitable for various group sizes.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the number of participants and the number of songs performed but typically lasts 30-60 minutes.

48. Guess the Movie

Guess the Movie is a film knowledge and guessing game that promotes film discussions and entertainment. It's often used as a recreational and trivia activity.

How is the game played? Participants provide clues or describe scenes or quotes from a movie, and others must guess the movie title.

How much time does it take? The game's duration depends on the number of rounds and participants but typically takes 30 minutes to an hour.

49. Virtual Cooking Class

Virtual Cooking Classes are educational and culinary activities that promote cooking skills and the enjoyment of food. They are often used for cooking instruction and social gatherings.

How is the game played? A chef or cooking enthusiast leads a virtual cooking class where participants learn to prepare a specific dish or meal.

How many members are needed? The class can be attended by individuals or groups, and the number can vary.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the complexity of the dish but typically lasts 60-90 minutes.

50. Online Book Club

Online Book Clubs are literary and discussion activities that encourage reading and intellectual exchange. They're often used for book enthusiasts and those who want to explore new literature.

How is the game played? Participants choose a book to read and discuss together in a virtual book club, sharing their thoughts, opinions, and insights.

How many members are needed? The book club can have a few members or be larger, depending on participants' preferences.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the book's length and the depth of discussion but typically lasts 60-90 minutes for a meeting.

51. Virtual Fitness Challenge

Virtual Fitness Challenges are physical and health-oriented activities that promote exercise, wellness, and motivation. They are often used for fitness classes, team-building, or personal goals.

How is the game played? Participants engage in virtual fitness sessions or challenges led by a fitness instructor and compete or work together to achieve fitness goals.

How many members are needed? The challenge can be participated in individually or as a group, and it's suitable for various group sizes.

How much time does it take? The duration depends on the fitness challenge's structure but typically lasts 30-60 minutes.

Final Words

Wow, you actually went through the entire list. Congratulations on becoming the unstoppable force in conducting ice-breaking game sessions. Now, you are ready for any corporate meeting, team-building event, or casual get-together. Use our list of icebreaker games to transform the initial awkwardness and hesitation into an atmosphere of connection, camaraderie, and shared enthusiasm.

This article is written by Nilotpal , a content marketer at Vantage Circle. When he is not reading or writing content, he is probably clicking some photographs. For any related queries, contact [email protected]

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Icebreaker activities

Got 5 minutes? Then you've got time to start making the personal connections that help us do our best work together. We hand-picked a few that build relationships as well as help move your work forward. 

USE THIS PLAY TO...

Get to know the people you work with and let them get to know you. 

Prime your brains for strategic planning, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

If you're struggling with team cohesiveness , or shared understanding on your  Health Monitor , running this play might help.

Running the play

Pull these tricks out of your hat when you're waiting for people to trickle into a meeting, or at the beginning of an offsite centered on brainstorming and problem-solving. Have fun!

Whiteboard or butcher paper

• Index cards

"Dicebreakers" print-out

SUPER QUICK ICEBREAKER QUESTIONS

Got a minute or two while people trickle into the meeting? Toss out a question and have a bit of fun. 

QUESTIONS WITH PURPOSE

What will be the title of your autobiography?

• Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts
• Purpose: Prepare for activities like crafting a vision statement.

What is your superhero name?

• Theme: Naming stuff is hard!
• Purpose: Practice packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase.

Who was your first mentor, and what qualities made them a good (or lousy) one?

• Theme: Teamwork and support is important
• Purpose: Reinforce the idea that relying on each other is a part of growth – good for projects or teams with lots of dependencies.

When did you call customer service to complain? 

• Theme: Empathizing with customers
• Purpose: Remembering what it feels like to be on the customer side of a bad product or service puts us in a compassionate frame of mind before discussing trade-offs or designing a new user experience.

What is one thing you learned from a project that went wrong? 

• Theme: Failures are learning opportunities
• Purpose: Focus on risk identification and mitigation.

"JUST FOR FUN" QUESTIONS

Print and assemble one of our  icebreaker dice   for a little extra fun, or just choose one of the questions below.

• What animal would you choose to be, and why? 
• What is the last dream you remember? 
• How do you let teammates know you're in deep work mode? 
• Where would you vacation if money were no object?
• Books, magazines, or podcasts?
• What car did you learn to drive on?
• What is one thing you're grateful for today? 
• When you read or watch TV, do you go for fiction or non-fiction?
• Coffee, tea, or soda?
• Can you remember a bumper sticker that made you smile? 

FILL IN THE BLANKS

I have never ________________.

My friends love me for my ________________.

If my pet could talk, it would say ________________.

One ____________ is better than ten ________________.

ICEBREAKER ACTIVITIES FOR MEETINGS, OFFSITES, ETC.

Exorcise the demons (10 min).

Best for groups of 3 or more. Use this activity to juice up your neuropathways before brainstorming or problem-solving, and have a few belly laughs. 

• Introduce the topic you'll be brainstorming around, or the problem you'll be trying to solve. 
• Using a whiteboard or butcher paper, ask the group to grab a marker and write down the worst ideas they can think of
• After a few minutes, step back and take 'em all in (we dare you not to bust up laughing!). 
• (optional) Ask each person to share their favorite worst idea and why it stood out to them. 

This exercise helps us resist the temptation to self-censor when the real problem solving begins. Because hey: you've already heard the worst ideas the group can come up with. Now that you've flushed them out of your system, you can proceed with your regularly-scheduled brainstorming.

Mystery Person Group Sort (15-30 min)

Best for groups of 20 or more. Use this activity to kickstart creative thinking and see different thought processes in action. 

• Ask each person to write a surprising fact about themselves on an index card, and drop all the cards into a bag, box, or hat.
• Each person chooses a card at random. 
• Now the fun begins. Stand up, mingle, and find cards that align to a theme or are of a type. Keep an open mind when thinking about what constitutes the common threads. It could be "daredevil tendencies", "origin stories", "music", or anything else. There is no limit to how big each grouping can be, but you must find groupings that accommodate all the cards. 
• Have each group read their cards and share the theme they identified.
• (optional) Now, having heard the groupings chosen so far, invite the group to stand up and re-sort themselves. Some groupings will likely stay the same, while others will be dramatically different. 

Notice how the point of the exercise was  not  to figure out which fact goes with which person? That's on purpose. In fact, remember to let participants know that at the beginning of the exercise in order to stave off any anxieties around it.

Telephone Charades (15 min)

Best for groups of 10 or more. Use this non-verbal activity to, oddly enough, warm up for a day of listening. 

• Divide into teams of 5-8 people. 
• Ask one team to come to the front of the room and stand in a line, all facing in the same direction (it's important that they can't see the person standing behind them). 
• Show the person at the back of the line a word to act out silently, but don't have them do so just yet. Show it to the "audience" as well so they know what's up, but make sure nobody else in the line sees it.
• When the person at the back of the line is ready, they will tap the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. That person turns around so now the two are standing face to face (but again: the rest of the line continues facing forward). 
• The person acting pantomimes the word as best they can. Do it 2 or 3 times so the person watching can really absorb and memorize the movements. But do not tell them the word being acted out!
• Now the person watching becomes the actor – they tap the person in front of them and repeat the pantomime as best they can. (You see where this is going, right?)
• Repeat steps 4-6 until everyone in the line has seen the pantomime.
• Laugh your arse off as the pantomime morphs dramatically from how the person at the back of the line originally acted out the word. 
• If the person at the front of the line can correctly guess the word, that team scores a point. 

Make sure each team gets a chance to act, and go until you cry "uncle". Looking for words to have the teams act out? Try these: mermaid, lawn sprinkler, firefighter, Gollum, light bulb, snow shovel, jet ski, surfer, walkie-talkie, frying pan.

Three Things (5-10 min)

Best for groups of 5 or more. Use this fast-paced activity to trigger quick, unfiltered thinking before a brainstorming session. 

• Circle up and choose a person to kick things off – we'll call them Person A. 
• Person A turns to the person next to them (Person B) and names a category – e.g., "types of sandwiches". 
• Person B rattles off 3 things that fit into that category as fast as they can. No judgement and no self-censoring!
• When they're done, the entire group give a clap and yells "Three things!"
• Go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to name the category and name the three things. 

The point isn't to make sure all things named fit the category perfectly, or to come up with the wittiest response. Just let your brains relax so your neurons can fire quickly. Celebrate even the oddest contributions and set an anything-goes tone before diving into more cerebral, strategic activities. 

Be sure to run a full Health Monitor session or checkpoint with your team to see if you're improving.

For more, check out this list of icebreaker games from our pals at Culture Amp. 

If you snapped pictures or grabbed video (especially of Telephone Charades), share them afterward. Try to resist getting a case of the giggles all over again – and good luck with that.

Related Plays

    Rules of Engagement

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If you have five minutes, the Icebreaker Activities Play can help you make personal connections and spark the kind of creative thinking that moves work forward.

Run Time 5-30 mins

People 3-100

What you'll need

• Video conferencing with screen sharing
• Digital collaboration tool
• Dicebreakers cutout
• Meeting space
• Whiteboard or butcher paper

Instructions for running this Play

Pull any of the following icebreaker activities out of your hat in any order while waiting for people to trickle into a meeting, during onboardings and trainings, at the beginning of offsites, or any time you want to put people at ease and spark creativity. Have fun!

Super quick icebreaker questions

Have an extra minute or two? These thought-provoking questions make fantastic, fun icebreakers.

Make people think, get conversations started, and warm up before tough brainstorming sessions.

1. What would be the title of your autobiography?

• Theme: Summarizing complex events or concepts.
• Purpose: Preparing for activities like crafting a vision statement.

2. If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself?

• Purpose: Practicing packing a lot of info into a single, evocative word or phrase. This is a killer icebreaker for marketing teams!

3. Who was your first mentor, and what qualities made them a good (or lousy) one?

• Theme: Teamwork and support are important.
• Purpose: Reinforcing the idea that relying on each other is part of growth. Use this icebreaker for projects or teams with lots of dependencies, and during leadership meetings.

4. Have you ever called customer service to complain? What happened?

• Theme: Empathizing with customers.
• Purpose: Putting everyone into an empathetic state of mind before discussing trade-offs or designing a new user experience.

5. What's one thing you learned from a project that went wrong? 

• Purpose: Focusing on risk identification and mitigation.

JUST-FOR-FUN QUESTIONS

Spark conversation, especially in less formal meetings. You can also print and assemble one of our dicebreakers for a little extra fun.

• What's the last dream you remember? 
• What are your favorite books, magazines, or podcasts?
• What car did you use to learn how to drive?
• What's one thing you're grateful for today?
• Do you prefer coffee, tea, or soda?
• Can you remember a bumper sticker that made you smile?

Get to know new coworkers or teammates.

I have never ________________.

My friends love me for my ________________.

If my pet could talk, it would say ________________.

One ____________ is better than ten ________________.

Curious how we created these vital signs?

First, we ran organization-wide surveys to gather data. Then, we applied the principles of outcome-driven innovation from Anthony Ulwick’s book, What Customers Want , to give each vital sign an opportunity score.

Icebreaker activities for meetings, offsites, and more

Loosen up and get engaged with these fun icebreakers for meetings. 

Exorcize the demons 10 MIN

Juice up your neural pathways before brainstorming or problem-solving, and have a few belly laughs. Best for groups of three or more.

• Introduce the topic you'll be brainstorming about, or the problem you'll be trying to solve. 
• Using a whiteboard or butcher paper — or, for remote teams, a digital collaboration tool — ask the group to write down their worst ideas.
• After a few minutes, step back and take 'em all in (we dare you not to fall on the floor laughing!).
• (Optional) Ask each person to share their favorite worst idea and why it stood out to them. 

This exercise helps teams resist the (often strong) temptation to self-censor when real problem-solving begins. After you’ve heard the worst ideas and flushed them out of your system, you can proceed with your regularly scheduled brainstorming.

Mystery person group sort 15-30 MIN

Kickstart creative thinking and see different thought processes in action. Best for large groups of 20 or more.

• Each person writes a surprising fact about themselves on an index card and drops their cards into a bag, box, or hat.
• Each person chooses a card at random from the bag.
• Now the fun begins. Participants stand up and mingle, with the goal of finding cards that align with a theme or are of a similar type. Keep an open mind when thinking about what constitutes the common thread between cards. The thread could be daredevil tendencies, origin stories, music, or anything else. There's no limit to how big each grouping can be, but you must find groupings that accommodate all the cards — nobody gets left out.
• Each group reads their cards and shares the theme they identified.
• (Optional) Invite everyone to stand up and re-sort themselves. Some groupings will likely stay the same, while others might be dramatically different.

Notice how the point of the exercise was not to figure out which fact goes with which person? That's on purpose. In fact, remember to let participants know this at the beginning of the exercise in order to stave off any anxieties.

Tip: MAP OUT YOUR DATA

If it’s helpful to visualize each of your vital signs relative to the others, you can plot your results on a scatter plot.

When to remove a vital sign

If average satisfaction is higher than average importance, the vital sign is probably not very important to your team, or your team is satisfied with it already. In the future, you can replace the vital sign with one you want to watch more closely.

Telephone charades 15 MIN

Warm up for a day of listening with this non-verbal activity. Best for groups of 10 or more.

• Divide into teams of five to eight people. 
• Ask one team to come to the front of the room and stand in a line, one behind the other, all facing the same direction (it's important no one can see the person standing behind them). 
• Show the person at the back of the line a word to act out silently, but don't have them do so just yet. Show the word to the audience as well so they know what's up, but make sure nobody else in the line sees it.
• When the person at the back of the line is ready, they tap the shoulder of the person standing in front of them. That person turns around and faces the person who knows the word.
• The actor pantomimes the word as best they can two or three times so the person watching can really absorb and memorize the movements. Do not let anyone say the word being acted out!
• The person watching then becomes the actor – they tap the person in front of them and repeat the pantomime as best they can. (You see where this is going, right?)
• Repeat steps four to six until everyone in the line has seen the pantomime.
• Laugh as the pantomime morphs dramatically from the original. 
• The person at the front of the line tries to guess the original word. If they get it right, the team scores a point. It’s up to you how strict you want to be!

Make sure each team gets a chance to act. You can continue as long as you like. Here are some example words your teams can act out: mermaid, lawn sprinkler, firefighter, Gollum, light bulb, snow shovel, jet ski, surfer, walkie-talkie, or frying pan.

Three things 5-10 MIN

Trigger quick, unfiltered thinking before a brainstorming session with this fast-paced activity. Best for groups of five or more.

• Circle up and choose a person to kick things off – we'll call them Person A.
• Person A turns to the person next to them, person B, and names a category, like "types of sandwiches.”
• Person B rattles off three things that fit into that category as fast as they can. No judgment and no self-censoring!
• When they're done, the entire group claps and yells, "Three things!"
• Go around the circle until everyone has had a chance to name a category and three things. 

The point isn't to make sure all things named fit the category perfectly, or to come up with the wittiest response. The point is to laugh and have fun. Let your brain relax so your neurons can fire quickly. Celebrate even the oddest contributions and you’ll set an anything-goes tone before diving into more cerebral, strategic activities.

Tip: DON’T SKIP THIS STEP!

Asking questions and not discussing the outcome is often worse than not asking at all.

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• [email protected]

22 Unbeatable Team Building Problem Solving Activities

Problem-solving is a critical skill for professionals and with team building problem-solving activities, you can sharpen your skills while having fun at the same time.  

Updated: March 1, 2024

In the professional world, one thing is for sure: problem-solving is a vital skill if you want to survive and thrive. It’s a universal job skill that organizations seek in new potential employees and that managers look for when considering candidates for promotions.  

But there’s a problem. 

According to Payscale, 60% of managers feel that new grads entering the workforce lack problem-solving abilities – making it the most commonly lacking soft skill.  

Problem-solving skill needs to be practiced and perfected on an ongoing basis in order to be applied effectively when the time comes. And while there are tons of traditional approaches to becoming a better problem-solver, there’s another (much more interesting) option: team building problem-solving activities. 

The good news? This means learning and having fun don’t have to be mutually exclusive. And you can create a stronger team at the same time. 

16 In-Person Team Building Problem Solving Activities for Your Work Group  

1. cardboard boat building challenge, 2. egg drop , 3. clue murder mystery, 4. marshmallow spaghetti tower  , 5. corporate escape room, 6. wild goose chase, 7. lost at sea  , 8. domino effect challenge, 9. reverse pyramid  , 10. ci: the crime investigators, 11. team pursuit, 12. bridge builders, 13. domino effect challenge, 14. hollywood murder mystery, 15. code break, 16. cardboard boat building challenge, 6 virtual team building problem solving activities for your work group  , 1. virtual escape room: mummy’s curse, 2. virtual clue murder mystery, 3. virtual escape room: jewel heist, 4. virtual code break  , 5. virtual trivia time machine.

• 6. Virtual Jeoparty Social

There are a ton of incredible team building problem solving activities available. We’ve hand-picked 16 of our favorites that we think your corporate group will love too. 

Split into teams and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided: cardboard and tape. Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats to test their durability! Nothing says problem-solving like having to make sure you don’t sink into the water!

Every day at work, you’re forced to make countless decisions – whether they’re massively important or so small you barely think about them.  

But your ability to effectively make decisions is critical in solving problems quickly and effectively.  

With a classic team building problem solving activity like the Egg Drop, that’s exactly what your team will learn to do. 

For this activity, you’ll need some eggs, construction materials, and a place you wouldn’t mind smashing getting dirty with eggshells and yolks.  

The goal of this activity is to create a contraption that will encase an egg and protect it from a fall – whether it’s from standing height or the top of a building. But the challenge is that you and your team will only have a short amount of time to build it before it’s time to test it out, so you’ll have to think quickly! 

To make it even more challenging, you’ll have to build the casing using only simple materials like: 

• Newspapers 
• Plastic wrap
• Rubber bands
• Popsicle sticks
• Cotton balls

Feel free to have some fun in picking the materials. Use whatever you think would be helpful without making things too easy! 

Give your group 15 minutes to construct their egg casing before each team drops their eggs. If multiple eggs survive, increase the height gradually to see whose created the sturdiest contraption.  

If you’re not comfortable with the idea of using eggs for this activity, consider using another breakable alternative, such as lightbulbs for a vegan Egg Drop experience. 

With Clue Murder Mystery, your team will need to solve the murder of a man named Neil Davidson by figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime.

But it won’t be easy! You’ll need to exercise your best problem-solving skills and channel your inner detectives if you want to keep this case from going cold and to get justice for the victim.

Collaboration is critical to problem solving. 

Why? Because, as the old saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This expression reflects the fact that people are capable of achieving greater things when they work together to do so. 

If you’re looking for a team building problem solving activity that helps boost collaboration, you’ll love Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower.  

This game involves working in teams to build the tallest possible freestanding tower using only marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti, tape, and string.  

The kicker? This all has to be done within an allotted timeframe. We recommend about thirty minutes.  

For an added dimension of challenge, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower to make it a little more top heavy.  

Whichever team has the highest tower when time runs out is the winner! 

If you’ve never participated in an escape room, your team is missing out! It’s one of the most effective team building problem solving activities out there because it puts you and your colleagues in a scenario where the only way out is collaboratively solving puzzles and deciphering clues.  

The principle is simple: lock your group in a room, hide the key somewhere in that room, and have them work through challenges within a set time frame. Each challenge will lead them one step closer to finding the key and, ultimately, their escape.    

At Outback, we offer “done-for-you” escape rooms where we’ll transform your office or meeting room so you don’t have to worry about:

• Seeking transportation for your team 
• Capacity of the escape rooms  
• High costs 
• Excessive planning  

That way, you and your team can simply step inside and get to work collaborating, using creative problem solving, and thinking outside the box.   

In this smartphone-based scavenger hunt team building activity , your group will split into teams and complete fun challenges by taking photos and videos around the city. Some examples of challenges you can do in this activity are:

• Parkour:  Take a picture of three team members jumping over an object that’s at least waist-high.
• Beautiful Mind:  Snap a photo of a team member proving a well-known mathematical theorem on a chalkboard.
• Puppy Love:  Take a photo of all of your team members petting a stranger’s dog at the same time.

It takes a ton of critical thinking and problem-solving to be crowned the Wild Goose Chase Champions!

Can you imagine a higher-pressure situation than being stranded at sea in a lifeboat with your colleagues? 

With this team building problem solving activity, that’s exactly the situation you and your group will put yourselves. But by the time the activity is over, you’ll have gained more experience with the idea of having to solve problems under pressure – a common but difficult thing to do. 

Here’s how it works. 

Each team member will get a six-columned chart where: 

• The first column lists the survival items each team has on hand (see the list below) 
• The second column is empty so that each team member can rank the items in order of importance for survival  
• The third column is for group rankings  
• The fourth column is for the “correct” rankings, which are revealed at the end of the activity 
• The fifth and sixth columns are for the team to enter thee difference between their individual and correct scores and the team and correct rankings 

Within this activity, each team will be equipped with the following “survival items,” listed below in order of importance, as well as a pack of matches:  

• A shaving mirror (this can be used to signal passing ships using the sun) 
• A can of gas (could be used for signaling as it could be put in the water and lit with the pack of matches) 
• A water container (for collecting water to re-hydrate ) 
• Emergency food rations (critical survival food) 
• One plastic sheet (can be helpful for shelter or to collect rainwater) 
• Chocolate bars (another food supply) 
• Fishing rods (helpful, but no guarantee of catching food) 
• Rope (can be handy, but not necessarily essential for survival) 
• A floating seat cushion (usable as a life preserver)  
• Shark repellant (could be important when in the water) 
• A bottle of rum (could be useful for cleaning wounds) 
• A radio (could be very helpful but there’s a good chance you’re out of range) 
• A sea chart (this is worthless without navigation equipment) 
• A mosquito net (unless you’ve been shipwrecked somewhere with a ton of mosquitos, this isn’t very useful) 

To get the activity underway, divide your group into teams of five and ask each team member to take ten minutes on their own to rank the items in order of importance in the respective column. Then, give the full team ten minutes as a group to discuss their individual rankings together and take group rankings, listed in that respective column. Ask each group to compare their individual rankings with those of the group as a whole. 

Finally, read out the correct order according to the US Coast Guard, listed above.  

The goal of this activity is for everyone to be heard and to come to a decision together about what they need most to survive.  

If your team works remotely, you can also do this activity online. Using a video conferencing tool like  Zoom , you can bring your group together and separate teams into “break-out rooms” where they’ll take their time individually and then regroup together. At the end, you can bring them back to the full video conference to go through the answers together. 

Many problems are intricately complex and involve a ton of moving parts. And in order to solve this type of problem, you need to be able to examine it systematically, one piece at a time.  

Especially in the business world, many problems or challenges involve multiple different teams or departments working through their respective portions of a problem before coming together in the end to create a holistic solution. 

As you can imagine, this is often easier said than done. And that’s why it’s so important to practice this ability.  

With a collaborative team building problem solving activity like Domino Effect Challenge, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do as you and your group work to create a massive, fully functional chain reaction machine. 

Here’s how it goes. 

Your group will break up into teams, with each team working to complete their own section of a massive “Rube Goldberg” machine. Then, all teams will regroup and assemble the entire machine together. You’ll need to exercise communication, collaboration, and on-the-fly problem solving in order to make your chain reaction machine go off without a hitch from start to finish. 

Being a great problem-solver means being adaptable and creative. And if you’re looking for a quick and easy team building problem solving activity, you’ll love the reverse pyramid. 

The idea here is simple: break your group out into small teams and then stand in the form of a pyramid.  

Your challenge is to flip the base and the peak of the pyramid – but you can only move three people in order to do so.  

Alternatively, rather than doing this activity with people as the pyramid, you can do another version –  the Pyramid Build  – using plastic cups instead.   

This version is a little bit different. Rather than flipping the base of a pyramid to the top, you’ll need to build the pyramid instead–but in reverse, starting from the top cup and working down. 

With this version, you’ll need 36 cups and one table per group. We recommend groups of five to seven people. Give your group 20 to 30 minutes to complete the activity. 

To get started, place one cup face down. Then, lift that cup and place the subsequent two cups underneath it. 

The real challenge here? You can only lift your pyramid by the bottom row in order to put a new row underneath – and only one person at a time can do the lifting. The remaining group members will need to act quickly and work together in order to add the next row so that it will balance the rest of the pyramid. 

If any part of your pyramid falls, you’ll need to start over. Whichever team has the most complete pyramid when time runs out will be the winner!  

The value of being able to approach problems analytically can’t be overstated. Because when problems arise, the best way to solve them is by examining the facts and making a decision based on what you know. 

With CI: The Crime Investigators, this is exactly what your team will be called upon to do as you put your detective’s hats on and work to solve a deadly crime. 

You’ll be presented with evidence and need to uncover and decipher clues. And using only the information at your disposal, you’ll need to examine the facts in order to crack the case. 

Like many of our team building problem solving activities, CI: The Crime Investigators is available in a hosted format, which can take place at your office or an outside venue, as well as a virtually-hosted format that uses video conferencing tools, or a self-hosted version that you can run entirely on your own.  

Each member of your team has their own unique strengths and skills. And by learning to combine those skills, you can overcome any challenge and solve any problem. With Team Pursuit, you and your team together to tackle challenges as you learn new things about one another, discover your hidden talents, and learn to rely on each other.

This team building problem solving activity is perfect for high-energy groups that love to put their heads together and work strategically to solve problems as a group.

Collaborate with your colleague to design and build different segments of a bridge. At the end, see if the sections come together to create a free-standing structure!   

Together as a group, see if you and your colleagues can build a gigantic “chain-reaction” machine that really works!

In smaller groups, participants work together to solve the challenge of creating sections of the machine using miscellaneous parts, and at the end, you’ll have to collaborate to connect it all together and put it in motion.

The case is fresh, but here’s what we know so far: we’ve got an up-and-coming actress who’s been found dead in her hotel room following last night’s awards show.

We have several suspects, but we haven’t been able to put the crime on any of them for sure yet. Now, it’s up to you and your team of detectives to crack the case. Together, you’ll review case files and evidence including police reports, coroners’ reports, photo evidence, tabloids, interrogations, and phone calls as you determine the motive, method, and murderer and bring justice for the victim.

You’ll need to put your problem-solving skills to the test as you share theories, collaborate, and think outside the box with your fellow investigators.

Using Outback’s app, split up into small groups and put your heads together to solve a variety of puzzles, riddles, and trivia. The team who has completed the most challenges when time is up, wins!

Can you stay afloat in a body of water in a boat made entirely of cardboard? Now that is a problem that urgently needs solving.

With this team building problem solving activity, you and your colleagues will split into groups and create a cardboard boat made out of just the materials provided – cardboard and tape.

Team members will have to work together to engineer a functional boat that will float and sail across water without sinking. Once teams have finished making their boats, they will create a presentation to explain why their boat is the best, before putting their boats to the test. The final challenge will have teams racing their boats across the water!

If you and your team are working remotely, don’t worry. You still have a ton of great virtual team building problem solving options at your disposal.

In this virtual escape room experience, your team will be transported into a pyramid cursed by a restless mummy. You’ll have to work together to uncover clues and solve complex challenges to lift the ancient curse.

You’ve probably never heard of a man named Neil Davidson. But your group will need to come together to solve the mystery of his murder by analyzing clues, resolving challenges, and figuring out who had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit a deadly crime. 

This activity will challenge you and your group to approach problems analytically, read between the lines, and use critical thinking in order to identify a suspect and deliver justice.  

If you and your team like brainteasers, then Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist will be a big hit.  

Here’s the backstory.

There’s been a robbery. Someone has masterminded a heist to steal a priceless collection of precious jewels, and it’s up to you and your team to recover them before time runs out.

Together, you’ll need to uncover hidden clues and solve a series of brain-boggling challenges that require collaboration, creative problem-solving, and outside-the-box thinking. But be quick! The clock is ticking before the stolen score is gone forever.

With Virtual Code Break, you and your team can learn to be adaptive and dynamic in your thinking in order to tackle any new challenges that come your way. In this activity, your group will connect on a video conferencing platform where your event host will split you out into teams. Together, you’ll have to adapt your problem-solving skills as you race against the clock to tackle a variety of mixed brainteaser challenges ranging from Sudoku to puzzles, a game of Cranium, riddles, and even trivia. 

Curious to see how a virtual team building activity works? Check out this video on a Virtual Clue Murder Mystery in action. 

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades all the way to the 60’s. 

This exciting, fast-paced virtual trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes, is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing. 

Your virtual game show host will warm up guests with a couple of “table hopper rounds” (breakout room mixers) and split you out into teams. Within minutes, your home office will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers! 

And if your team loves trivia, check out our list of the most incredible virtual trivia games for work teams for even more ideas.

6.  Virtual Jeoparty Social

If your remote team is eager to socialize, have some fun as a group, and channel their competitive spirit, we’ve got just the thing for you! With Virtual Jeoparty Social, you and your colleagues will step into your very own virtual Jeopardy-style game show—equipped with a buzzer button, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive game show platform! Best of all, this game has been infused with an ultra-social twist: players will take part in a unique social mixer challenge between each round. 

With the right team building problem solving activities, you can help your team sharpen their core skills to ensure they’re prepared when they inevitably face a challenge at work. And best of all, you can have fun in the process. 

Do you have any favorite team building activities for building problem-solving skills? If so, tell us about them in the comments section below! 

Learn More About Team Building Problem Solving Activities  

For more information about how your group can take part in a virtual team building, training, or coaching solution, reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.     

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And stay updated, related articles.

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18 Incredible Virtual Trivia Games for Work Teams

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I love how this blog provides a variety of problem-solving activities for team building. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to foster teamwork and collaboration!

42 Ridiculously Fun Icebreaker Ideas, Games, & Activities In 2024 For Your Next Meeting

How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice.

Don’t you feel better now that we’ve gotten that out of the way?

Productivity Pictionary Icebreaker ✏️

Instructions: Divide your team into pairs or small groups and give each group a list of work-related terms or challenges. Each team member takes turns drawing a term or challenge on a whiteboard or paper, while their partner or team tries to guess what it is.

This creative and collaborative game not only breaks the ice but also encourages team members to think on their feet and engage in a fun, productivity-focused activity.

⭐️ For more team icebreakers and conversation starters, subscribe to The Assist for free.

Icebreaker games make meetings better by loosening everybody up and getting them into “meeting mode.” Consider the icebreaker meeting warm-up, an exercise you need to avoid awkward cramps throughout a meeting.

Despite persistent cliches, icebreakers for adults do not have to follow any particular format, and they definitely do not have to be lame. You can use pretty much any game or activity you want to break the ice before your meeting, as long as it gets people talking and smiling. A well-planned virtual icebreaker activity can also be a great way to ease the tension before a conference call with coworkers.

And if you’re really trying to go for some bonus points, consider pairing your icebreaker activity with snacks for the entire team to get the energy in the room pumping.

Without further ado…

1. The Movie Pitch Icebreaker

A favorite at Bonusly , split people into groups and have each group come up with a movie they want to make. Everyone should have a short pitch prepared within 10 minutes. (This film is The Avengers meets My Little Pony .) Let everyone make their pitch, and then have all virtual meeting attendees vote on which idea deserves “funding.”

The winners won’t immediately move to pre-production, but they might get a company-wide shoutout on the Bonusly platform for their creativity – next step… Hollywood!

👉 Sign up for a free trial  to test out Bonusly, share with your team members, and start your next movie pitch.

2. The Virtual Icebreaker Template

A Virtual Icebreaker Template is a pre-designed set of prompts, questions, or activities that are meant to help team members get to know each other and feel more comfortable communicating and collaborating virtually.

These virtual templates can be used in a variety of situations, ranging from online classes and online meetings to virtual team building activities and remote social events. Typically, virtual icebreaker templates will include introductions, personal preferences, games, photo sharing, and group discussions.

The real benefit of using icebreaker templates is that it provides the right structure for participants to share info about themselves and their interests, bond with other team members, and participate in fun, interactive games and activities. These templates also ensure total group inclusion!

Looking to try one? Here is a list of a few templates to break the ice:

Kick off your online meetings and any other virtual activities with a Virtual Icebreaker Template!

3. Snack Time (5 Minutes for Everyone to Enjoy a Snack and Chat)

A snack time break in the workplace can boost productivity. Dedicate five minutes for everyone to enjoy a snack and engage in light conversation. In turn, employees can take a rejuvenating break and return to their tasks with renewed energy and focus. This brief pause in the workday creates a relaxed atmosphere, sharpening creativity and reducing the risk of burnout.

On top of that, snack time provides an opportunity for team members to connect on a personal level, strengthening team bonds and improving overall communication. The casual conversations during these breaks can even spark innovative ideas and collaborative solutions to work challenges.

Implement a daily snack time in your office and witness the significant impact it can have on productivity and workplace morale. Grab a snack , connect with your colleagues, and supercharge their productivity!

4. GeoGuessr

Integrating GeoGuessr into your workplace can revolutionize a typical break into an exhilarating and captivating experience. This online game immerses players into random locations on Google Street View, challenging them to guess their whereabouts. It’s entertaining and highly educational.

By playing GeoGuessr in the office, you encourage critical thinking and collaboration among team members as they combine their geographical knowledge and problem-solving skills to pinpoint locations.

It’s an incredible way to break the monotony of the workday, exercise team building skills, and stimulate the brain in fun and unexpected ways. The competitive element of the game adds excitement, fueling healthy competition among colleagues.

Schedule a weekly GeoGuessr challenge in your office to uncover who can become the ultimate geographical detective. Explore the world together, right from your workplace, and infuse an extra dimension of enjoyment and learning into our work routine!

5. Create a Themed Slack Channel

The SnackNation team set up a Gratitude channel!

Promote team camaraderie and enhance workplace dynamics through crowdsourcing team interests. Gather insights into everyone’s hobbies, favorite activities, and passions to create dedicated Slack channels that serve as hubs for both professional and personal engagement.

From bookworms and fitness enthusiasts to tech geeks and gourmet foodies, these specialized groups provide a platform for team members to connect, share, and discover common interests beyond work-related tasks. This approach breaks the ice and cultivates a more inclusive and engaging office culture.

By implementing interest surveys, you can form Slack channels that perfectly align with the interests of your team members.

6. The Solve a Murder Icebreaker

Cue The Office theme song… Michael Scott enters… “There’s been a murder…”

In all honesty, Michael was actually on to something! Solving a murder mystery can be a great way to break the ice with your team. Check out Outback’s Virtual Clue Murder Mystery for all types of mystery games that are designed for both the physical and virtual workplaces that help to develop teamwork, communication, and culture building.

Remember… If all else fails… Finger guns galore…

7. The One-Word Icebreaker

I feel alpaca.

Assembly Icebreaker Template

The company culture leaders at Assembly (a free employee recognition software ) keep things simple by having everyone describe their current mood in one word. You can have people explain their one-word mood descriptor if you want to add more depth to your icebreaker activities, but you can also just go with the flow and enjoy how cryptic some of the answers can be.

The free Assembly Icebreaker Template allows you to :

• Design a quiz about any topic and personalize it for the specific occasion
• Engage employees in a fun and creative way while growing participation
• Gather interesting feedback or perspectives from the workforce
• Set different types of questions to keep things fun and interesting

8. The Friendly Competition Icebreaker

A Friendly Competition Icebreaker is an icebreaker activity that pits participants against each other in the throes of serious — yet super fun competition. This category of icebreakers is designed to stimulate team members and engage them, while allowing them to get to know each other on a deeper level.

The key benefit of these types of games and activities is that they gamify that early getting-to-know-each-other stage, so your team can bust right through it without even realizing it. You could try scavenger hunts, trivia games, two truths and a lie, pictionary, and charades.

Try out a few challenge-based activities to let employees bond together:

Break the ice with a little friendly competition!

9. The All-Inclusive Icebreaker

Virtual icebreakers are needed now more than ever. As the workplace is being reimagined, it’s looking like one or more days a week working from home or remotely is going to be the standard.

Having said that, the Fun Bundle For Adults is the perfect icebreaker idea for keeping friends, families, coworkers, and employees entertained. These 6 thoughtfully designed PDFs can help you spice up Zoom meetings or be used in just about any situation where you want people to get to know each other better!

10. The Virtual Game Icebreaker

What happens when you combine fun online games with built-in video conferencing technology? The ultimate Zoom icebreaker !

These Fun and Affordable Virtual Game Icebreakers were designed specifically with remote teams in mind. The games (trivia, charades, impersonations) will show you new, hilarious sides to your coworkers. For an extra layer of get-to-know-you goodness, each icebreaker activity integrates personalized player trivia into the game – how well do you know your teammates? You’re about to find out!

👉 Check Out The Library of Virtual Game Icebreakers 👈

11. The OMG Icebreaker 😮

Brought to you by The Assist , a free weekly email that delivers workplace culture and productivity inspo, this icebreaker activity will have your teammates dropping jaws and sharing laughs. Ask your colleagues this question:

“What is the craziest request you’ve ever gotten in your career?”

Be prepared for some major team bonding and left field answers like the one below:

Early in my career I was a Legislative Assistant to a local politician. I have a laundry list of inappropriate requests, but one that’ll always stand out to me is when she handed me and another staffer the keys to her State-issued vehicle and requested that we pick her granddaughter up from the holding cell at her high school! She was fighting and the school police arrested her. Needless to say, I didn’t spend much more time employed by her. Oh, she’s still in office. – Kendall H., The Assist Subscriber

12. The Budget Friendly Icebreaker

A Budget Friendly Icebreaker is an activity or a game that can be enjoyed with little or no equipment. Whether your team is looking to play two truths and a lie, a name game, scavenger hunt, group juggling, or human knot, you’ve got plenty of ways to execute this idea.

The best part about Budget Friendly Icebreakers is that they are inclusive, cost-effective, and can be adapted to different settings. On top of that, a smartly-designed icebreaker facilitates relationships and picks up the pace to develop deep work connections.

Start your next icebreaker on a budget with minimal setup and minimal materials!

13. The Online Quiz Icebreaker

Pop quiz! The folks at The Go Game created a really fun and easy-to-use icebreaker tool that will help your team get to know each other a little more each week through ice breaker quizzes and games.

Two Truths and a Lie

With a huge catalog of ice breaker options to choose from, you will be cracking up with your coworkers in minutes! Choose from activities as short as 5 minutes to longer activities where you and your colleagues can play multiple games via an online icebreaker showdown. Split into teams and participate in rapid-fire activities that are sure to break some ice!

Here are just a few of the icebreaker quiz games you can try out…

• 🙊 Two Truths and a Lie
• 🗣 Low Stakes Debate
• 🎤 Name That Tune
• 🙅‍♀️ Wrong Answers Only

To start quizzing your coworkers, get more information at The Go Game .

14. “Treat Yourself” Icebreaker 

What’s an even better way to break the ice than any ol’ icebreaker activity? A little online shopping! The folks over at Caroo provide an ever-expanding catalog of premium gifts, delicious treats, gift cards, and more that let you and your guests pick out a perfect gift to cap off your team event.

Simply send over the link, give everyone a few minutes to window shop, and their next treat will arrive at their doorstep. With Recipient Choice rewards starting at $25, this is the kind of icebreaker that your team members will remember!

15. The Marshmallow Challenge

This challenge from Tom Wujec , a business visualization expert, makes the perfect icebreaker and team-building hybrid. Break your meeting attendees into groups of four. Give each group 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string, and one marshmallow. Ask them to build the tallest freestanding structure they can. Sit back and see what happens. Here’s Tom Wujec talking about the team-building virtues of the Marshmallow Challenge:

16. Scream for Ice Cream

This Ice(cream) breaker will place your meeting guests in a fun and lively how-to icebreaker where your coworkers will learn how to make ice cream in a bag! Listen to some tunes, get to know each other a bit better, and shake your ice cream ingredients until everything is perfectly frozen. Yum! The folks at Elevent can even provide pre-made kits to be sent directly to remote employees tuning in from home.

Cap off your icebreaker activity by cracking open a soda and pouring rootbeer, orange soda, or cherry cola over your fresh ice cream for a delicious float to sip on as you get down to business.

Pro-Tip: If you are scheduling a meeting for the afternoon, why not segue into a Virtual Beer & Cheese Tasting where you and your coworkers will learn how to identify matching flavors and aromas to create a perfect pairing of craft beers and gourmet cheeses.

Sample your next beer flight from home!

17. The Foodie Icebreaker

Who doesn’t love talking about food? Chopped, Master Chef, Cutthroat Kitchen, Top Chef, Cake Boss, Restaurant: Impossible… There is even a Master Chef Junior folks… Point is: food is a common ground that we all share and an excellent way to break the ice. 

Food can also be the perfect topic for a short icebreaker. Everyone eats, and most people love eating, so it’s a perfect opportunity to get out of the office in a group setting to learn more about each other.

“There’s many benefits about living and working in Los Angeles: the weather, the scenery, the fours days a year when there’s no traffic. One of our favorite things, however, is the food. World-renowned for the available cuisine, our team loves to take advantage by grabbing a bite to eat with a new hire or after a full day of work to unwind.” -Emily Hill on the Bambee team.

Break the ice by asking everyone what dish they would want to prepare for the team. Ask them how they learned to make it, why it’s significant to them, and what powerful memory they associate with it.

18. The Speed “Dating” Icebreaker

Have everyone sit near people they don’t work with. Tell everyone to look to their right and announce that they’ll be spending the next 5 minutes speed networking with the person next to them. The goal: 5 conversations in 5 minutes. Set a timer; every time the buzzer goes off, it’s time for people to find a new conversational partner.

Pro-Tip: Take this team bonding idea online and skip the awkward weather talk with this speed dating inspired corporate activity . Groups will be presented with an icebreaker, and randomly paired one-on-one with a coworker to answer the question in breakout rooms. Participants will then be brought back to the main room for a different question and re-randomized for another round. At the end, everyone will come together to share their most fun, interesting, or weird fact. Only rule is, you can only share someone else’s fun fact, not your own! Check it out here 👈

19. The Escape Room Icebreaker

Escape from prison, uncover ancient treasure, or even steal priceless art with this engaging icebreaker activity!

If you’re going to escape, you HAVE to work together. Escape rooms give your team a fun way to connect and learn about each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The experts at Team Building Hub have mastered the art of the remote adventure that will ensure your team bonds while also having a blast!

20. The Trivia Results Icebreaker

QuizBreaker gives you and your team weekly trivia quizzes based on the opinions and preferences of your coworkers that spark conversation and competition.

It’s like all the fun of pub trivia but without the logistics of coming up with questions or getting everyone together in the same room at the same time.

The best way to use QuizBreaker as a meeting icebreaker? Set up the quizzes so that the results are sent right when your weekly meeting starts. Then your team can celebrate the winner and laugh at the funniest responses as a light-hearted way to break the ice. Thousands of companies use QuizBreaker to make their work week more fun and you can try it for FREE here .

21. The Holiday Icebreaker

Ho-Ho-Ho… The holidays are (practically) here!

Kick off your next virtual meeting this holiday season with an icebreaker activity that all Rudolph and Frosty enthusiasts will love. Break out the egg-nog, fire up the Zoom app, and get ready to experience one of these holiday-themed icebreaker games:

• 🎄  Holiday Jeoparty
• ⛄️  Frosty’s Original Game Show
• ❄️  Holiday Phrase Craze
• 🎁  Christmas Coworker Feud
• 🎅  Santa’s Holiday Hijinks

22. The ‘Start Happy Hour Early’ Icebreaker 

Mix things up with a fun virtual happy hour icebreaker to start the last meeting of the week off right. This online mixology icebreaker event includes a delicious beverage team members can sip on as they crush the big meeting and get down to business.

Star your Zoom call with an expert mixologist in the break room teaching you and your teammates how to prepare a delicious drink! Cocktails & mocktails will be crafted, your team will settle into the meeting, and you will get to enjoy your tasty drink as you hop into your agenda.

Sip, Sip, hooray!

Tip: Send everyone joining your virtual mixology get-to-know-you activity a box of snacks that pairs with their drinks.

23. The Office Charades Icebreaker

Kick off your meetings by playing a few rounds of charades where the presenters can pick only office-related things. If you’re rusty on your charades skills, here’s a quick refresher:

• Pick a “presenter” to start things off.
• Ask the presenter to think of an office item or activity. They can announce the category, but that’s the last time they can talk.
• Then have the presenter explain the item using only gestures. Any spoken words lead to an immediate disqualification.
• Laugh a lot. All charades manuals agree the game cannot be played without lots of laughter and yelling.

Pro-Tip: There is also an virtual version of office charades that can be found here .

24. Let’s Build a Story Together Icebreaker

We all love a good story, right? Building a storyline is one of the oldest and most fun ways to have a good laugh!

In this icebreaker activity, the meeting host begins the story with an opening sentence on Empuls (an employee engagement platform). They then tag one of the attendees and leave them with an incomplete sentence. The tagged attendee completes the sentence and tags another person to continue the story.

By the time all attendees have completed their turn building out the storyline on the Empuls discussion thread , you will have one crazy hilarious story that you can all read together. Quick, simple, and easy to set-up — this meeting icebreaker is a good mix of engagement and creativity for your group.

25. The Boss Q&A Icebreaker

26. Tea & Mindfulness

For teams looking for a slightly longer icebreaker, this 30 minute virtual session will refocus and destress your team members via a guided meditation and goal setting activity with Elevent’s Guided Tea & Mindfulness Experience . Participants will also learn how to brew and taste 3-6 globally sourced loose leaf and flowering teas as they experience a guided mindful exercise and goal-setting meditation.

Guided mindfulness tastings are fun and can enhance collaboration amongst teams by creating shared experiences. This icebreaker might just be the perfect thing you schedule for your team on a busy day!

27. The Logo Love Icebreaker

• Hand out name tags and pens.
• Have participants write their names and draw logos they love.
• Have everyone share why they chose their logos. Share in a group, or have everyone share thoughts with their neighbors.

28. The Yankee Swag Swap Icebreaker

Did someone say swag ???

Here is a creative idea to try out during your next company meeting that will quickly help to break the ice and get everyone smiling:

• For every person that will attend, order one piece of swag  ranging in monetary value
• Throw all of the pieces of swag into a box or bag that you can hold up above their head
• When the event begins, assign everyone a number 1 through… X
• Start with person 1
• That individual proceeds to blindly  pick ( 3 seconds ) from the assortment of swag items
• The piece of swag that they pick becomes theirs… for now… Proceed to person 2
• This new individual now picks another item at random and… (this is when the REAL fun happens) … they can then choose to swap swag items with one of the revealed pieces or keep what they’ve selected
• Rinse and repeat until the final person picks the last item and they can keep or swap it
• You go home with what you have in your hand

Side-Note: this is also a great feedback mechanism to help you determine which pieces of swag people really want based on how many times they are traded. 

29. The Trading Card Icebreaker

• Hand out index cards and markers.
• Tell everyone to draw a self-portrait and write their names, their nicknames (real or imaginary), and a fun fact.
• Everyone jumps up and trades cards. People can trade as many times as they want, but they have to read each card they get before they trade.
• After a few minutes, have everyone announce the name on the card they ended up with. People can even ask questions of the card’s owner if they want.
• Let the conversations flow!

30. The Problem-Solution Icebreaker

31. The Shoe Icebreaker

32. Laugh Out Loud Icebreaker 

Break a smile to break the ice! Nothing warms up a group quite like shared laughter. What most folks don’t know is that laughing together also relieves stress, connects teammates and boosts productivity.

Laughter On Call has a variety of distinct and effective services that use a unique mix of Improv games and Stand-up prompts, led by a team of professional comedians. Starting off a big meeting, conference, or culture building activity with a laughter icebreaker can help settle everyone in and open up the lines of communication.

Also, because Laughter On Call started in the healthcare space all their programs put mental health first creating a space that is compassionate, inclusive and downright fun!

Whether your goal is team-building, improving communication skills, encouraging innovation or simply sending the message, “We care about your well-being,” LOC will customize a icebreaking workshop exactly right for you. Available virtual, hybrid and in-person.

Bonus: The Props Icebreaker

33. The Company History Icebreaker

SignUpGenius’s icebreaker helps employees learn some valuable company history. Make a list of icebreaker questions , pop them on the projector, and ask employees if they know the answers. (Individual buzzers could be totally cool if you have any on hand!) Here are some question ideas:

• Mission statement
• Founding year
• Biggest goal
• Founder’s name
• Number of employees
• Biggest competitor

34. Paint & Sip Icebreaker

This virtual icebreaker brings colleagues together to flex their creative minds and sip some bubbly in a relaxed atmosphere! Drawing and painting can keep employees engaged while taking them to a place free of competition and workplace pressures. Coworkers can bond through their shared creative journey, and walk away with a fun experience and a beautiful keepsake to remember after!

Pro-Tip: Try adding a theme to this icebreaker activity. Some of our favorites: Hawaiian luau Emo artists Pirates Silly accents Shakespeare Famous royals Food Network star

Paint Nite offers fun icebreaker activities and food/drink packages for in-person, remote, or hybrid teams looking to add even more flair and energy to the party.

35. The No Smiling Icebreaker

Govloop has a counter-intuitive icebreaker that actually leads to lots of laughter. Tell everyone they can’t smile during the first five minutes of the meeting. You’ll be amazed at how humorous some people become when they’re told not to smile. Get the camera ready to take some silly pictures.

36. The Instagram Icebreaker

Bonus: The Friendly Debate Icebreaker

• Which food is better: pizza or tacos?
• Would you rather go on a hike or to a movie?
• What skill is more valuable: creativity or logic?
• Which is worse: being bored or being too busy?

Have everyone physically divide into sides—pro pizza to the right; pro taco to the left. Let all the like-minded people discuss the virtues of their position for a while, and then have a representative try to sell the other side of the room. This will give everyone a chance to see things from different perspectives. It will open everyone’s minds for a productive meeting.

37. The Employee-Driven Icebreaker

This icebreaker takes the cake on ease. Have each meeting attendee bring their favorite icebreaker. This “icebreaker” can be a funny joke , a quote, a phrase, an activity—anything at all. This icebreaker works because it removes the “Why are you making me do this?”  factor. Everything employees do will be self-inflicted.

38. The Electric Fence Icebreaker

This icebreaker from Toggl gets employees up and moving as they build an imaginary electric fence and try to cross it without getting “electrocuted.” Make the fence by tying some string between two chairs. They can cross the fence however they like as long as they don’t go under it.

39. The Things-in-Common Icebreaker

This FairyGodBoss icebreaker helps teammates get to know each other on a deeper level by discovering what they have in common. Split people into groups and tell them to find out how many things they have in common.

The group who discovers the most things in common wins, so it pays to be persistent and thoughtful. (Physical features and clothing colors do not count!) Each group will announce what they have in common to the rest of the group. Have everyone else raise their hand if they also have the thing in common.

40. Conflict Resolution Role Play

Most people, especially in work environments, avoid conflict like the plague. That’s amazing right? Why shouldn’t we all just get along? Because just “getting along” isn’t that simple all the time. And if most people eschew conflict, then most people probably don’t know how to deal with it, or more importantly, resolve it, when it does come up.

This role-playing ice breaker deals out some conflict-resolution takeaways, and it also captures everyone’s attention and get them invigorated for your meeting. Why? Because this exercise involves drama, and there are few things people find more compelling than that. Start by selecting your conflict premise. You can make up your own based on your personal office experiences or use/borrow some of these for inspiration. Keep things simple by sticking to just two “characters.”

• Adam confronts Mimi, angry that she got the promotion he wanted.
• Agatha asks Martin why he shot down an idea they’d discussed many times before during an all-hands meeting.
• Andre asks Tim why he didn’t get a raise this year.
• Lena tells Mary she finds her recent work inadequate.

Create your discussion questions. These are the questions you’ll discuss as a group after the role-play skit is complete. Design questions that make people examine the success of the characters’ conflict resolution efforts and explore how things could have been handled differently. For example:

• How do you think each person felt after this exchange?
• What would you have said if you were Mimi?
• How do you imagine these two will behave around each other when they meet again?

When it’s meeting time, ask for 2 volunteers to play the characters. Tell them your premise and set a timer for 5 minutes. Make sure they know they can behave however they want and say anything they want. People will get the most from this 5-minute team building activity if it’s truly organic and open-ended. After the skit, set a timer for 10 minutes and pose your discussion questions with the group.

41. Play a Round of Spyfall

Spyfall is a role-playing and guessing game rolled into one. You can play it on phones or computers, and you don’t need any materials to get started. Game summary: The interface assigns each player an identity. One person is the “spy.” All the non-spies are in the same location (their identity assignments tell them what this location is). The spy’s identity assignment includes no location.

• The objective for the non-spies is to guess who is the spy.
• The objective for the spy is to guess everyone else’s location.

To play, everyone asks each other thoughtful questions until someone has enough clues to wager a guess. Spyfall makes a perfect icebreaker because it is the kind of group game that gets people thinking critically, talking to each other, and also getting unprecedented insight into how their coworkers’ minds work. It’s also incredibly fun. (Most games last less than 15 minutes.)

42. Thought Experiment Icebreaker

Warm up everyone’s active thinking muscles before your big meeting with a thought experiment icebreaker. Thought experiments prep people to challenge assumptions and status quos and to think outside the box. This icebreaker will be especially helpful before a brainstorming session. The Thiagi Group has a toolkit that will help you get started with some meeting-appropriate, quick thought experiments that get participants considering the work competencies and skills they value most in themselves.

Bonus #1 Peek Into Each Other’s Home Office/Workspace Icebreaker

An icebreaker for distributed teams, the good folks at Time Doctor recommend an exercise that encourages team members to open their home offices/workspaces to one another virtually. Each team member will make a short video showing off their home office/workspace and some of their favorite things.

This activity allows team members to get to know one another on a more personal level and can lead to feelings of welcomeness and friendship. This activity may be better suited for small teams, but it’s undoubtedly a great way to get the personal feel going. Another way to do this is by allowing one team member to show off their home office/workspace at the beginning of each week’s work meeting, on a team member’s birthday , or during a virtual happy hour cocktail kit experience.

Bonus #2  The Inspirational Speaker Icebreaker

Put meeting attendees out of the spotlight and invite an inspirational speaker to break the ice before your meeting. Pick someone with expertise in what your company does or what you’re meeting is about. Ask the presenter to make the talk super quick so there’s plenty of time for Q&A.

Bonus #3  The Personality Quiz Icebreaker

Make sure everyone has their smartphones. (We doubt this will be a problem.) Send everyone a link to a personality quiz you think they would like. Since there are probably over a million quizzes circulating, we know there will be one to pique your interest. Everyone can take the quiz and then reveal their results to the group. Have everyone explain why they agree or disagree with the results.

Bonus #4 The Toilet Paper Icebreaker

This idea from Lifehack requires minimal effort and minimal funds. To play, pass a roll of toilet paper around and have everyone rip off how much they would usually use. Everyone will probably think you’re crazy. When the toilet paper makes it all the way around the circle, have everyone count their squares. The number of squares each person took is the number of fun facts they have to reveal about themselves.

Bonus #5 The “5 Minute Vacation” Icebreaker

What better way to get to know your team than to travel together?

Grab your passport and join your fellow meeting attendees on a tour of the world. A quick virtual tour is a fun and informative way to learn about the world from the comfort of your desk. Plus, you can learn more about which countries and places your coworkers have been to before! This icebreaker encourages active collaborative participation from team members and gets them ready to engage before the next meeting.

Choose one person to be your “tour guide” and watch as you take a few minutes to uncover some of Earth’s wonders.

Tip: You can use a platform like Google Earth to make your virtual trip a success!

Bonus #6 The “Building Connections” Icebreaker

Hop into a gameroom and choose from a list of lighthearted or deep questions to get to know your teammates better. Or if you prefer, you can hang out over a game of cards, Werewolf or Draw It to let the fun times happen organically!

Brightful works with all video conferencing software. There is nothing to download or install.

Bonus #7 The Mindfulness Icebreaker

Meetings can sometimes fail because of what we bring to them, and we’re not talking about notebooks and cell phones. If meeting attendees feel stress, especially about the meeting itself, then tension will dominate the agenda.

Reduce stress by opening the meeting with a mindfulness icebreaker. Start with three minutes of silent contemplation, and then have everyone write down what is stressing them out. When everyone finishes writing, tell them to rip up their stress. Put all the scraps together in a bowl on the table.

Bonus #8 The Artsy Icebreaker

Prep your meeting table with art supplies. At the very least, provide 2 sheets of paper and 1 pencil for everyone. But if you think your team will be into it, then go ahead and go crazy with colored pencils, paint, glue, dry noodles, and anything else you can stick on paper.

Give everyone a prompt to avoid creative block. We love Artwork Achieve’s prompt, “Illustrate a cause or current event that you are passionate about.” Allow 10 minutes for creating and 10 minutes for sharing and discussing.

Bonus #9  The Minefield: The Obstacle Icebreaker

This classic classroom activity from TeachThought makes the perfect meeting icebreaker. Set up “obstacles” around the conference room table. (We recommend something harmless and funny, like squeaky toys.) Now everyone takes turns navigating the obstacles while blindfolded, guided only by the shouts and direction of their teammates.

(PS – Get more sh*t done with  The Assist — the #1 free weekly newsletter made for assistants by assistants. )

People Also Ask These Questions About Icebreaker Games

Q: how can icebreakers boost work productivity.

• A: Icebreaker games make meetings better by loosening everybody up and getting them into “meeting mode. With a quick 5 minute activity, employees will be energized to tackle the meeting with enthusiasm. The only tough part is finding the right activity for your team. To get you started, we have compiled our unique list of icebreaker games to try at your next meeting.

Q: What are some fun icebreaker games for work in 2024?

• A: The “Movie Pitch,” The “Logo Love,” and The “Foodie” are a few examples of the icebreaker activities you can learn about in our 39 Ridiculously Fun Icebreaker Games in 2024 For Your Next Meeting! Battle-tested by top performing companies, we are proud to share with you the best of the best.

Q: Where can I find good icebreaker games for my next meeting?

• A: The team at SnackNation spoke to hundreds of companies across our network to find the top 39 undeniably fun icebreakers for your next meeting. These icebreakers were handpicked to encourage team engagement and support your company culture.

Do you have any favorite fun icebreakers you want to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Motivating & Managing Employees Resources:

Thoughtful employee recognition & appreciation ideas for 2024 [updated], team building kits for boosting engagement, 141 inspirational and motivational quotes for work, 21 freakishly effective ways to motivate employees, 11 insanely powerful and motivational videos for your team, managing millennials in the workplace: stop making it complicated, 17 lessons most first time managers make the hard way, how to run a productive one-on-one meeting, 14 essential team management skills for first-time managers, 79 insanely fun team building activities for work, 31 things successful people do to increase their productivity at work.

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About SnackNation

SnackNation is a healthy office snack delivery service that makes healthy snacking fun, life more productive, and workplaces awesome. We provide a monthly, curated selection of healthy snacks from the hottest, most innovative natural food brands in the industry, giving our members a hassle-free experience and delivering joy to their offices.

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52 comments.

I have used a “Don’t Judge Me” Icebreaker before.

I had each team member anonymously write something they’ve done and felt guilty about during the week that they haven’t told anyone.

We had some funny ones like: I ate my kid’s last fruit snack and some others like: I accidentally banged my car door on someone else’s car (no damage though!).

Sometimes it’s best to free ourselves of something we’ve done that may be frowned upon. 🙂

Wow, it’s really nice!

Tremendous article. Thank you. I also found Alexis’ comment helpful. Much appreciated.

Any ideas for a conflict management training session? I found mindfulness icebreaker and problem solution icebreakers closer to my subject. I am looking at an icebreaker which will set the tone for the 2 day training program

Re idea for a conflict management ice breaker….

Get a two litre bottle of fizzy drink and pass it to someone. Ask them to say something that makes them feel really angry, they can say it in an angry voice and as they say it; they should give the bottle an angry shake.

Then ask them to pass the bottle onto the person next to them; and repeat with each person in the room.

When the bottle comes back to you, get a cloth and gently open the bottle releasing all the gas. You have choices in how you respond to anger, you can add more, or you can find ways to reduce tensions.

I LOVE This, Eric! There is a magic trick I perform called “Fizz Master” where people shake up a can of soda, and you transfer the combustion to another can. The secret is that the fizz calms down quickly in the shaken can and you squeeze the other can while you open it to act like it’s fizzy. I hope this contributes to you! (While this is a ‘magic secret’ these ice breaker secrets are just as valuable~

do you have any idea about icebreaker for a class that can be related to the topic we discussed?

Love the idea of – ‘ Movie Pitch Icebreaker’. Going to try it in my meeting. 🙂 Thank you for the idea.

I hope it’s a crowd favorite! Thanks, Annie!

Tremendous article! Thanks you!

These are some great ideas! I run a youth club, and I’m definitely using the trading card icebreaker tonight to kick off the year.

Glad to hear it, Rachel! I hope your icebreaker is a hit!

There is always the tried and true, 2 truths and a lie. Fun way to keep all involved and laughing. Sit in a circle and go around, each person introduces themselves the shares 2 truths and a lie. The rest has to guess.

A classic! Great add, Donna!

I’m actually new to being a supervisor and planning 2truths and one lie for our first meeting

This one is fun. Give everyone a coin. Ask each of the participants to tell the rest something about them that made that year memorable (if the coin is older than the person, swap it out for a new one!)

Love it! Great idea, Louise!

Great ideas. Enough to satisfy a range of meeting types. Some of these could be thrown in part way through the day too especially the One-Word ice breaker.

Am new to my supervisory role ,planning a learning & reflection session for my team , No smile Icebreaker ,man that’s going to be difficult ahahah

Can anyone suggest me an ice breaker session.. For the new joiners in the company so that they know get to know each other…. Apart from introducing themselves I am searching for something new… Please suggest if anyone has some ideas

How about getting to know you pictionary. Give them 2 minutes each with whiteboard and marker to draw as many things about themselves as they can for the others to guess…incentivise with biscuits!

I dont understand this. Can you please elaborate?

I need a health/wellness ice breaker about 5 minutes long before a meeting on Tuesday. Help please.

Hi Carole! A simple icebreaker you could do is to have everyone say what their favorite fruit or veggie is and how they like to prepare it. This could spark some great ideas and encourage team members to eat healthier in a new way!

I love this!

We use 2 ice breaks. First like you must say for what things you love the company. And second addition for first part. What feat is my company can do for me? Thanks you very mauch for article! Sorry my English.

A great ice breaker is a human bingo. create a bingo with things like: have a tattoo, hates chocolate, speaks two languages, has a broken bone etc. participants will mingle and write names of person in meeting who matches each slot. rule varies and can be that they cannot repeat names or can repeat only once.

I like this one!

Hi Ellis Wonderful idea. Can you please share some more questions to ask for this Human Bingo. I am having hard time coming up with questions. Thanks,

I do believe you get your arse kicked at any place I’ve ever worked for all of these except maybe the marshmallow one. Thank you for that one at least

Help me for an Ice breaker where we each of our team members can say thank you to our team. ☺️

Hi Krizel! As a part of our weekly team meeting, we start off with ‘Team Wins’ in which every person has the chance to call out another team member that did a great job that week. Hope this helps – we love it!

I have a presentation on how social media influences consumer behavior . Any tips ?

I am an Orientation leader at my community college and i have to get the Freshman coming in involved during our orientation session! One Ice breaker I use is cheap and simple! Go to your local Walmart or Dollar General and get a soccer ball, look up questions on the internet and fill in each section of the ball with a question, then throw the ball (gently, unless the person ate your lunch) at someone and call out a finger, where ever the finger is located on the ball is the question they answer! Its fun and a really good way to get to know someone!

Hey Cailee. Thanks so much for sharing! That sounds really fun!

What type of questions do you put?

We have used an inflatable beach ball for this one as well. You can get them at the dollar tree as well and they may be a little safer, lol. We typically tell them to answer the question at their right thumb (or choose a finger). This one is really fun. Questions can be anything, What was your favorite vacation?, What was your first car?, Where were you born?, What was your first or favorite job?, What is your dream job?, What is your favorite hobby?, What is your favorite restaurant?, etc……

Very good way to make the office atmosphere more harmonious，thank you for your sharing.

Ice Breaker Activity Title: Dum Dum Fun Time: 10-15 Minutes Type of Group it would be appropriate for: Educational/Discussion/Support Groups Population: Any Age: Any Materials Needed: Bag of Dum Dum Lollipops Explanation: Each member will be encouraged to choose their favorite flavor lollipop out of the bag/basket upon entry to the meeting. Once everyone has chosen, then the facilitator/leader will provide instruction. ‘Look at the wrapper of the lollipop you chose, take note of the flavor. Count the number of letters in the flavor name. Please be prepared to share that amount of facts about yourself. For example, if the flavor is -Cherry- please share 6 things about yourself with the group. They can be things like your favorite color, food, favorite place, restaurant, favorite time of year, or even how many pets you have’ Then after instruction the facilitator will provided 1-2 minutes for the members to come up with their ideas, then they will demonstrate, and then choose someone to begin. Benefits: The success of any group is based on the level of comfort each member has for the group. When entering a group of people you don’t know sometimes you can be shut off from building a relationship with them to establish any sort of comfort. This activity encourages you to get to know the members of your group. You, can discover that maybe you share the same likes or interests as another member which can lead you to feel more comfortable; and encourage you to open up more in the future. Attachments: None Considerations: May want to get sugar free lollipops for those who may be diabetic Precautions: limit each members share to about 30 seconds to a minute, discourage other members making comments on shares.

Good One. Will try this out

Thank you!!!

Did this at a meeting and it was a big hit.

Ahead of time, write several sentences on easel paper, replacing key words with blank lines, e.g. “Members of my team are _____.” “I like my______ because they are ______.”

Create a card for each removed word. Write the type of word on one side, e.g. group of people, noun, adjective, etc. Leave the other side blank.

Each participant should have a card placed face down on their chair. (This will determine how many sentences you need.)

Once you reveal the game, they can look at their card. They write a word that matches the category, e.g. elephant, blue.

You may want to ask if everyone knows what an adjective is. Don’t assume everyone does.

When time is up, ask “Who has a (noun? adjective?)” and fill in the blanks.

Reveal the sentences with the new words in them.

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Absolutely amazing list, thanks a lot for sharing. I would go for #4 – The Online Quiz Icebreaker. I love quiz games and I think it’s a great way to get to know each other. Thanks a lot for sharing these icebreakers and team-building methods with us!

I visited your. article! I really like it. Lots of good information. Keep it up.

My share is here,

simple icebreaker you could do is to have everyone say what their favorite food is and how they like to prepare it, it would encourage team members to collaborate, have friendly time & healthy eat together ! + spark at work place

These are some amazing fun activities! The No Smiling Icebreaker is my personal favorite. Really glad that I came across this blog.

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Top 15 Problem-Solving Activities for Your Team to Master

May 27, 2022 - 10 min read

Some people see problems as roadblocks, others see them as opportunities! Problem-solving activities are a great way to get to know how members of your team work, both individually and together. It’s important to teach your team strategies to help them quickly overcome obstacles in the way of achieving project goals.

In this article, you’ll explore 15 problem-solving activities designed to enhance collaboration and creativity. Additionally, if you want to discuss the insights and outcomes with your team after the activities, you can use Wrike’s actionable meeting notes template. This template allows you to record meeting discussions, assign action items, and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

The importance of problem-solving skills in today’s workplace

According to a 2019  report by McKinsey , soft skills are increasingly important in today's world — and problem-solving is the top area in which skills are lacking. A company or team’s success weighs heavily on the willingness of managers to help employees improve their problem-solving abilities. Team building activities targeting focus areas like communication and collaboration, adaptability, or strengthening decision-making techniques help.

All problem-solving processes start with identifying the problem. Next, the team must assess potential courses of action and choose the best way to tackle the problem. This requires a deep understanding of your team and its core strengths. A problem-solving exercise or game helps identify those strengths and builds problem-solving skills and strategies while having fun with your team.

Problem-solving games aren't for just any team. Participants must have an open mind and accept all ideas and solutions . They must also have an Agile mindset and embrace different structures, planning, and processes. Problems usually arise when we least expect them, so there's no better way to prepare than to encourage agility and flexibility.

Another aspect to keep in mind when engaging in problem-solving games and activities: There are no winners or losers. Sure, some games might end with a single winner, but the true goal of these exercises is to learn how to work together as a team to develop an Agile mindset. The winning team of each game should share their strategies and thought processes at the end of the exercise to help everyone learn.

Here’s a list of fun problem-solving activity examples to try with your team. From blindfolds to raw eggs, these problem-solving, team-building activities will have your team solving problems faster than Scooby and the gang.

Classic team-building, problem-solving activities

1. a shrinking vessel.

Helps with: Adaptability

Why adaptability is important for problem-solving: Adaptability is highly associated with cognitive diversity, which helps teams solve problems faster , according to the Harvard Business Review. Innovation and disruption are happening faster than ever before . People, teams, and organizations that can adapt will come out on top.

What you’ll need:

• A rope or string

Instructions:

1. Using the rope, make a shape on the floor everyone can fit into.

2. Slowly shrink the space over 10-15 minutes.

3. Work together to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

2. Marshmallow Spaghetti Tower

Helps with: Collaboration

Why collaboration is important for problem-solving: “Collectively, we can be more insightful, more intelligent than we can possibly be individually,” writes Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline . We can solve problems better as a team than we can alone, which means developing your team’s collaboration skills will lead to better problem-solving outcomes.

What you’ll need (per team):

• 20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti
• 1 roll of masking tape
• 1 yard of string
• 1 marshmallow

1. The goal of this exercise is to see which team can use the materials provided to build the tallest tower within an allotted time period. The tower must be able to stand on its own.

2. To make this exercise more challenging, try adding a marshmallow to the top of the tower. This team problem-solving exercise helps people think on their toes while building camaraderie and leadership.

3. Egg Drop

Helps with: Collaboration, decision-making

Why decision-making is important for problem-solving: Making decisions isn’t easy , but indecision leads to team paralysis, stagnant thinking, and unsolved problems. Decision-making activities help your team practice making quick, effective choices. Train your team’s decision-making muscles and they will become more adept at problem-solving.

• A carton of eggs
• Basic construction materials such as newspapers, straws, tape, plastic wrap, balloons, rubber bands, popsicle sticks, etc., tarp, or drop cloth
• A parking lot, or some other place you don’t mind getting messy!

1. Each team gets an egg and must select from the construction materials.

2. Give everyone 20-30 minutes to construct a carrier for the egg and protect it from breaking.

3. Drop each egg carrier off a ledge (i.e. over a balcony) and see whose carrier protects the egg from breaking.

4. If multiple eggs survive, keep increasing the height until only one egg is left.

4. Stranded

Helps with: Communication, decision-making

Why communication is important for problem-solving: More employees work remotely than ever before. Good communication skills are vital to solving problems across  virtual teams . Working on communication skills while your team is together will help them solve problems more effectively when they’re apart.

Here's the setting: Your team has been stranded in the office. The doors are locked, and knocking down the doors or breaking the windows is not an option. Give your team 30 minutes to decide on ten items in the office they need for survival and rank them in order of importance. The goal of the game is to have everyone agree on the ten items and their rankings in 30 minutes.

Creative problem-solving activities

Helps with: Communication

What you'll need:

1. Divide everyone into small teams of two or more.

2. Select an overseer who isn't on a team to build a random structure using Lego building blocks within ten minutes.

3. The other teams must replicate the structure exactly (including size and color) within 15 minutes. However, only one member from each group may look at the original structure. They must figure out how to communicate the size, color, and shape of the original structure to their team.

4. If this is too easy, add a rule that the member who can see the original structure can't touch the new structure.

• A lockable room
• 5-10 puzzles or clues (depending on how much time you want to spend on the game)

1. The goal of this exercise is to solve the clues, find the key, and escape a locked room within the time allotted.

2. Hide the key and a list of clues around the room.

3. Gather the team into the empty room and "lock" the door.

4. Give them 30 minutes to an hour to find the key using the clues hidden around the room.

7. Frostbite

Helps with: Decision-making, adaptability

• A blindfold
• 1 packet of construction materials (such as card stock, toothpicks, rubber bands, and sticky notes) for each team
• An electric fan

Instructions:  Your employees are Arctic explorers adventuring across an icy tundra! Separate them into teams of four or five and have them select a leader to guide their exploration. Each team must build a shelter from the materials provided before the storm hits in 30 minutes. However, both the team leader’s hands have frostbite, so they can’t physically help construct the shelter, and the rest of the team has snow blindness and is unable to see. When the 30 minutes is up, turn on the fan and see which shelter can withstand the high winds of the storm.

8. Minefield

• An empty room or hallway
• A collection of common office items

1. Place the items (boxes, chairs, water bottles, bags, etc.) around the room so there's no clear path from one end of the room to the other.

2. Divide your team into pairs and blindfold one person on the team.

3. The other must verbally guide that person from one end of the room to the other, avoiding the "mines."

4. The partner who is not blindfolded can't touch the other.

5. If you want to make the activity more challenging, have all the pairs go simultaneously so teams must find ways to strategically communicate with each other.

9. Blind Formations

1. Have the group put on blindfolds and form a large circle.

2. Tie two ends of a rope together and lay it in a circle in the middle of the group, close enough so each person can reach down and touch it.

3. Instruct the group to communicate to create a shape with the rope — a square, triangle, rectangle, etc.

4. If you have a very large group, divide them into teams and provide a rope for each team. Let them compete to see who forms a particular shape quickest.

Quick and easy problem-solving activities

10. line up blind.

1. Blindfold everyone and whisper a number to each person, beginning with one.

2. Tell them to line up in numerical order without talking.

3. Instead of giving them a number, you could also have them line up numerically by height, age, birthday, etc.

11. Reverse Pyramid

Helps with: Adaptability, collaboration

1. Have everyone stand in a pyramid shape, horizontally.

2. Ask them to flip the base and the apex of the pyramid moving only three people.

3. This quick exercise works best when smaller groups compete to see who can reverse the pyramid the fastest.

12. Move It!

• Chalk, rope, tape, or paper (something to mark a space)

1. Divide your group into two teams and line them up front to back, facing each other.

2. Using the chalk, tape, rope, or paper (depending on the playing surface), mark a square space for each person to stand on. Leave one extra empty space between the two facing rows.

3. The goal is for the two facing lines of players to switch places.

4. Place these restrictions on movement:

• Only one person may move at a time.
• A person may not move around anyone facing the same direction.
• No one may not move backward.
• A person may not move around more than one person on the other team at a time.

13. Human Knot

1. Have everyone stand in a circle, and ask each person to hold hands with two people who aren’t directly next to them.

2. When everyone is tangled together, ask them to untangle the knot and form a perfect circle — without letting go of anyone's hand.

Our last two problem-solving activities work best when dealing with an actual problem:

14. Dumbest Idea First

Helps with: Instant problem-solving

1. "Dumb" ideas are sometimes the best ideas. Ask everyone to think of the absolute dumbest possible solution to the problem at hand.

2. After you have a long list, look through it and see which ones might not be as dumb as you think.

3. Brainstorm your solutions in Wrike. It's free and everyone can start collaborating instantly!

15. What Would X Do

1. Have everyone pretend they're someone famous.

2. Each person must approach the problem as if they were their chosen famous person. What options would they consider? How would they handle it?

3. This allows everyone to consider solutions they might not have thought of originally.

Looking for more team-building and virtual meeting games? Check out these virtual icebreaker games or our  Ultimate Guide to Team Building Activities that Don't Suck.

Additional resources on problem-solving activities

• Problem-Solving Model : Looking for a model to provide a problem-solving structure? This detailed guide gives you the tools to quickly solve any problem.
• The Simplex Process:  Popularized by Min Basadur's book, The Power of Innovation , the Simplex Process provides training and techniques for each problem-solving stage. It helps frame problem-solving as a continuous cycle, rather than a “one and done” process.
• Fun Problem-Solving Activities and Games : Looking for more ideas? Check out this list of interesting and creative problem-solving activities for adults and kids!
• The Secret to Better Problem-Solving:  This article provides tips, use cases, and fresh examples to help you become a whiz at solving the toughest problems.

How to organize problem-solving activities with Wrike

If you want to make problem-solving activities more effective, consider using team collaboration software such as Wrike. 

Wrike’s pre-built actionable meeting notes template helps you keep track of meeting discussions, assign action items, and keep everyone in the loop. It’s an effective tool to streamline your problem-solving sessions and turn insights into real projects.

Brianna Hansen

Brianna is a former Content Marketing Manager of Wrike. When she’s not writing about collaboration and team building games, you’ll find her in the kitchen testing out the latest recipes, sharing her favorite wine with friends, or playing with her two cats.

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13 Awesome Team-Building Games (Infographic)

Whether you want to do new hire orientation icebreakers or just bond your team closer together, check out our list of awesome team building games that you and your team will want to play over and over again.

6 Different Team Effectiveness Models to Understand Your Team Better

Understanding these 6 team effectiveness models can help you figure out which model to adopt for your own team. Or it may simply help shed light into what's working in your own group, and how to help improve what's lacking.

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