Zoom is one of the world’s most prominent video conferencing services, and its capabilities are constantly expanding.
However, the increasing dependence on Zoom (and video conferencing services in general) has resulted in Zoom fatigue or Zoom anxiety when conversations utilizing Zoom are disagreeable. A 2021 survey found that nearly half of professionals face this issue, indicating the need for a better, more light-hearted approach to Zoom meetings. A simple way to start addressing this issue is via Zoom icebreakers.
Zoom Icebreakers are generally any virtual action or question designed to assist remote team members to feel at ease and interact with one another during Zoom virtual meetings. It refers to an exercise done in any gathering for “breaking the ice” or “releasing the tension,” particularly those meeting for the first time or without a highly structured agenda.
1-line Questions to break the ice during Zoom meetings
Here are the best one-liners to help start Zoom meetings on the right foot:
1. Where are you joining from?
If your coworkers are geographically dispersed, begin the meeting by saying a virtual hello to each of them. A word cloud may be generated from the query “Where are you joining from?” This is one of the most effective virtual icebreakers for huge gatherings or virtual events; the greater the number of locations, the more attractive the word cloud will be.
2. Choose One Word
Ask everyone, “If you were to characterize yourself in a single word or short phrase, what would it be and why?” This is a quick, simple, and entertaining approach to learning about a teammate’s motives, personalities, peculiarities, and often their lighter side.
3. #FunFact
Despite digital water coolers and other workplace activities, we often fail to understand our coworkers while working remotely. We know the most fundamental facts about them, maybe not the most intriguing ones. Asking each attendee to share a humorous tidbit about themselves is an effective icebreaker for zoom sessions.
4. Night Owl or Early Bird?
Frequently, remote employees have drastically different sleep patterns. You might begin your upcoming meeting by inquiring if team members are typically night owls or early risers. You may even make this inquiry into a game by asking respondents to predict whether their coworkers like working at a particular time of day — morning, afternoon, or evening.
Games to consider as a Zoom ice breaker activity
Teams can also play the following games to break the ice during or after a meeting:
5. Zoom Icebreaker Bingo
Virtual bingo is a terrific way to kick off a meeting and promote staff engagement. In this popular game variant, the emcee gives each team member a Bingo card with amusing instructions, such as “a team member was late to the meeting” or “Amazon delivered a package.” The winner is the first competitor to mark five successive boxes or gather all four corners.
6. Salesperson
In this amusing icebreaker, team members try to market commonplace goods in an appealing manner, such as a computer mouse or a coffee cup. The host should urge participants to provide original and specific descriptions for optimum participation. A colleague may characterize a photo frame as a doorway to a former existence that reveals how things were in the past. This ice breaker can also help in team bonding and confidence building.
7. Things you have in common
This fast icebreaker is also suitable for hybrid gatherings with online and in-person participants. The host divides the conference into groups of six to ten by using Zoom breakout rooms function and instructs each group to identify at least five commonalities. Everyone appears on screen and stands if their group shares at least five characteristics. As more and more individuals sit down, the groups may count until only the winners remain.
8. There’s a GIF for that
Finding the perfect GIF may be equivalent to a thousand words. They are an excellent way to infuse creativity and humor into an online conference. Send participants into small groups of three to four to find the GIF that best encapsulates a given sentence. Teams will need to be able to share their screens throughout the search and then present their GIF to the other teammates upon returning to the main room. Examples of terms that might be used to locate a team GIF include how we react when the doorbell rings or on a Friday afternoon.
Visual Zoom ice breakers
Here are a few Zoom ice breakers that leverage visual representation and graphics:
9. Take a picture of…
It is a fantastic idea to play this game to stimulate your team’s imagination before a brainstorming session. The presenter starts with a whiteboard that has many home office products. The group chooses something, like their pet, something on their desk, their socks, or the view from their window. Everyone snaps and adds it to the board so everyone can share their story.
10. Zoom Pictionary
In small groups, one team member discusses an object, activity, or location while the others try to sketch it on a sheet at their workstations or a Zoom whiteboard. Not only is this entertaining and humorous, but it also helps teams gain an early understanding of the disparities in perception, communication methods, and reality.
11. Leveraging virtual backgrounds
The host chooses a cue for virtual backdrops before the meeting. Everyone else must set their virtual backdrop to a theme-appropriate image. Consider incorporating a contest that lets attendees vote on their preferred meeting backdrop.
Do you have another Zoom icebreaker to add to our list? Let us know on social media.
