As the world is working for home and leaders are looking for innovative ways to keep remote teams engaged on zoom calls, and there has been a new meeting introduced; Friday end of work âvirtual drinksâ.
It will be up to the team lead, scrum master, product power to kick start the conversation while trying to avoid it being about work. You want the team to loosen up and have the Friday feeling (FYI forcing people to have a drink in hand does not accomplish this!). We have created a list of options for you to bring the fun to the meeting.
Ice Breakers for Zoom Meetings
For me, a good ice breaker has one goal of building an emotional connection with an individual so the following engagements will be less awkward. My senior developer once shared that he eats vinegar and cheese sandwiches at the start of one of our estimation session. I have never forgotten it or looked at him the same since but it has genuinely broken done that work barrier sometimes we set unintentionally. The topic of the conversation; âshare one thing the team doesnât know about youâ. This broke down a barrier for the team and was a building block for our high performing team. After experiencing multiple awkward cringe-worthy ice-breakers in group sessions this in my mind was the perfect ice-breaker.
If you stick to the following tips you wonât go far wrong when asking people ice breaker questions:
- Not over complicated question so easy to answer
- The topic of the answer is up to the person
- Gives an insight into person personality
- Not work or achievement related
- Help get to know people in a group
- Identify common interests within the group
Zoom Fancy Dress
A great way to lighten the mood would be encouraging a fancy dress. itâs funny how even a simple hat can change the tone and bring the fun but most importantly is a great screenshot. Lets not least forget its the perfect LinkedIn most for âlook how cool is the place I workâ post that a lot of people are a common theme in 2020.
Zoom Backgrounds
There is a wide range of virtual background you can find online and Tom has listed some of his favourite zoom backgrounds for virtual drinks here. My personal favourite with friends is the Tiger King background. At work for Friday drinks my favourite is the conference Bingo. Mark my words nothing breaks an awkward silence better than calling bingo when it happens.
Zoom Bingo
Zoom bingo is simply setting a background to the below background setting. Anytime one of the following you just simply shutout BINGO. This is really a good way to break those silences with a random âIs Karen on the lineâ. Nothing wrong with random laughs.
- When you log into your account and join a meeting, tap the three dots at the bottom right of the screen to open the More menu.
- Tap Virtual Background.
- Select a background from the default options, or upload your own.
Zoom Games
You quickly want to try move on from the ice breakers to a game like https://skribbl.io/ or a YouTube guess the song from the 90s game to try to keep the tone happy. Shawn has listed her top 20 games in the below video which are some great ideas for virtual Friday drinks. Donât forget to plan a game that works for all ages attending your Zoom call. Zooming with colleagues doesnât have to be boring. Spice up your virtual online call with a little fun and laughter. We love having fun as a work colleagues in the pub on Friday so Zoom should be no different.
Whiteboard Board Ice Breaker Session on Zoom
Miro is a really good interactive way of making Zoom meetings fun. Miro comes with an already made board you can use just fill in the names and questions and you have an instant conversation starter.
Zoom Icebreaker Cards
Having a deck of ice breakers cards brings a fresh way to make Zoom meetings more fun. The facilitator has the deck of cards and picks from the top for each person in a round-robin format.
Itâs why I love the Icebreaker Deck. Packed with thought-provoking conversation starters, this tool makes boring, surface-level chatter a thing of the past.
Whether youâre talking to colleagues, attending a networking event, or catching up with friends, this tool helps make every conversation the main event.
Simple & effective.
Our Top 25 Good Ice Breakers Questions for Zoom
To get you thinking and have some ready-made examples we have created a list of 20 ice breakers you can use straight away but donât be afraid to modify them to suit your own needs. As a facilitator open-ended questions are the perfect icebreaker and here are some of our favourites. At the top is COVID as its an easy topic at the moment where everybody has an opinion and are willing to talk about but it can be a small depressing. I would start the meeting with one of these and try to gradually move into the above to keep the conversation flowing.
- COVID Tracking App
- Isolation Innovation
- What you miss the most
- Your new daily routine
- Drinking coffee situation
- One thing nobody here knows about you?
- One thing you would buy if you were a millionaire and why?
- One thing you would never like to do again and why?
- Would you prefer to travel forward in time, or back?
- Would You Rather Have More Time Or More Money?
- Would You Rather Be Without Internet For A Week, Or Without Your Phone?
- Would You Rather Put A Stop To War Or End World Hunger?
- What was your favourite childhood movie?
- Whatâs The Weirdest Thing Youâve Ever Eaten?
- Whatâs your spirit animal?
- Whatâs your strangest talent?
- Whatâs your biggest guilty pleasure?
- What was your favourite class in school?
- What is something that amazes you?
- What Is In The Trunk Of Your Car Right Now?
- What is your absolute dream job?
- What is the most amazing fact you know?
- If you could instantly be an expert in a subject, what would it be?
- If you could pick up a certain skill instantly, what would it be?
- If You Could Live In Any Sitcom, Which One Would It Be?
More Ice Breaker Resources
Here are some of my go-to lists for icebreaker questions:
- Top 10 Icebreaker PDF Decks Online
- 70 Icebreaker Questions For Adults â Fun and unexpected questions.
- 100 Fun Ice Breaker Questions for Your Next Team Event
- 200 Icebreaker questions from Conversation Starters
- 600+ Icebreaker Questions from Ice Breaker Ideas
- Darth Vaderâs Guide to Virtual Icebreakers for Introverts
Conference Call FAQs
How do you break the ice on a conference call?
Kicking off a call with an ice breaker of doing a round table of introducing themselves and answer 1 silly question is a great way to start. One person should facilitate by asking each person on the call to contribute.
How do you have a fun virtual meeting?
Incorporate games is a great way to get people engaging and being involved in a virtual meeting. An ice breaker is a good introduction if new people but games really up it to next level.
How do you start a fun virtual icebreakers?
Virtual icebreakers are a round-robin of going to each participant on a virtual call to introduce themselves. Technology that is popular for virtual ice breakers includes Zoom and Google as they are free.
What are good icebreakers for a zoom meeting?
Think of a zoom meeting as a normal meeting. ask similar type of questions. The meeting should be about the participants not the technology. You as a facilitator want to kick off the ice breaker to set the tone of meeting at hand and make people feel comfortable.
How do I spice up a virtual meeting?
Setting backgrounds using zoom or google meets is the perfect way to seta tone and get a laugh within the group. Next start a round table ice breaker session which will help the people learn something personal about each other.
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