25+ Ice Breakers for Zoom Meetings
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 “virtual drinks”.
It will be up to the team lead, scrum master, and 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 icebreaker aims to build an emotional connection with an individual so that 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 sessions. 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; “share one thing the team doesn’t know about you”. 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 was the perfect ice-breaker.
If you stick to the following tips, you won’t go far wrong when asking people ice-breaker questions:
- Not over complicated questions so easy to answer
- The topic of the answer is up to the person
- It gives an insight into a person’s 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 to encourage a fancy dress. it’s funny how even a simple hat can change the tone and bring the fun, but most importantly, it is a great screenshot. Lets not least forget its the perfect LinkedIn most for “look how cool is the place I work” post that many people are a common theme in 2020.
Zoom Backgrounds
You can find a wide range of virtual backgrounds online, and Tom has listed some of his favourite zoom backgrounds for virtual drinks here. My personal favorite with friends is the Tiger King background. At work, for Friday drinks, my favorite 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 an excellent way to break those silences with a random “Is Karen on the line”. There’s nothing wrong with random laughs.
Change your Zoom background on the mobile app
- 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 moving on from the icebreakers to a game like https://skribbl.io/ or a YouTube guess the song from the 90s game 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. Don’t forget to plan a game that works for all ages attending your Zoom call. Zooming with colleagues doesn’t have to be boring. Spice up your virtual online call with a little fun and laughter. We love having fun as work colleagues in the pub on Friday, so Zoom should be no different.
Whiteboard Board Ice Breaker Session on Zoom
Miro is a perfect interactive way of making Zoom meetings fun. Miro comes with an already made board you can use fill in the names and questions and you have an instant conversation starter.
Zoom Icebreaker Cards
A deck of icebreaker cards brings a fresh way to make Zoom meetings more fun. The facilitator has a deck of cards and picks from the top for each person in a round-robin format.
It’s 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 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 immediately, but don’t be afraid to modify them to suit your needs. As a facilitator, open-ended questions are the perfect icebreaker, and here are some of our favorites. At the top is COVID as its an easy topic when everybody has an opinion and is willing to talk about it, but it can be depressing. I would start the meeting with one of these and try to move into the above to keep the conversation flowing gradually.
- 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 the Internet for a week or without your phone?
- Would You Rather Put A Stop To War Or End World Hunger?
- What was your favorite childhood movie?
- What’s The Weirdest Thing You’ve Ever Eaten?
- What’s your spirit animal?
- What’s your strangest talent?
- What’s your most enormous guilty pleasure?
- What was your favorite 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 fantastic fact you know?
- What would it be if you could instantly be an expert in a subject?
- What would it be if you could pick up a particular skill instantly?
- 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:
- 70 Icebreaker Questions For Adults – 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
Conference Call FAQs
How do you break the ice on a conference call?
Kicking off a call with an icebreaker of doing a round table of introducing themselves and answering 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?
Incorporating games is a great way to get people engaged and involved in a virtual meeting. An icebreaker is a good introduction for new people, but games take it to the next level.
How do you start a fun virtual icebreaker?
Virtual icebreakers are a round-robin of going to each participant on a virtual call to introduce themselves. Technology 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 regular meeting. ask similar types 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 Meet is the perfect way to set a tone and get a laugh within the group. Next, start a round table icebreaker session to help the people learn something personal about each other.
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