Quick Team-Building Activities for Virtual Meetings

Learning and Development

Contents 18 icebreaker questions ...................................................................................................................... 3

T-shirt show and tell............................................................................................................................. 5

For the love of books ........................................................................................................................... 6

Pictures from the past ......................................................................................................................... 7

Photo metaphors ................................................................................................................................. 8

Laughable moments ............................................................................................................................ 9

Wouldn’t it be cool if… ....................................................................................................................... 10

All images used under CC0 licence

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

3

18 icebreaker questions

Most people want to feel connected to their colleagues. One way to build relationships is to

facilitate a short icebreaker at the beginning or middle of a team meeting. One such activity

involves asking an interesting (and appropriate) question so that everyone can learn new

things about each other.

Questions can be thought-provoking, reflective, creative or funny. Choose a question that is

appropriate for your team’s level of trust and also the amount of time you have in your

meeting.

Instructions – thoughtful questions

If you want to build trust and learn about each other in a meaningful way, choose a deep

question. These questions may require more time to answer, and you should consider

including time for people to ask follow-up questions.

Share the question prior to the meeting and give people an indication of how much

time they have so that team members have time to think about how they will answer.

During the meeting, give each person an opportunity to share. Aim to give each

person at least two minutes including time for questions.

Some question suggestions are:

1. What do you need right now?

2. What have you accomplished in the last year that you are proud of?

3. In what way are you strong?

4. What item do you own that is not worth much money but has great value for you?

5. How do you strive to be similar to, or different from, your parents?

6. What did you get in trouble for as a child and how has that experience affected you to

this day?

7. If someone was to choose one word to describe you, what would you like it to be?

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Instructions – fun questions

If you are looking for a quick, light-hearted icebreaker, choose a fun question. The

responses to these questions will usually be quick and short, and there is not much, if any,

need for follow-up questions. These questions can be used if you want a fast-paced

energiser.

You can either share the question in advance, or tell your team during the meeting.

Answers that are more spontaneous can be funnier, but some people prefer not

being put “on the spot”. In either case, people should be given an indication of how

much time they have before they begin talking.

During the meeting, give each person an opportunity to share. Aim to give people 1-2

minutes, but there should not be much need for follow-up questions.

Some question suggestions are:

8. What are you looking forward to this week?

9. If you had been able to choose, would you rather have been an only child or part of a

very large family?

10. What impact did your position in your family have on you?

11. What colour do you feel like today?

12. If you were going to get a new tattoo, what would you get?

13. What traffic sign best reflects your life right now?

14. Which section in the bookstore are you most drawn to?

15. What celebrity would you like to have dinner with?

16. If you could be given a superpower, which one would you like?

17. If you could instantly have one talent that you do not naturally have, what would it be?

18. What is your favourite game (electronic or board) to play?

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T-shirt show and tell

Learning about each other’s interests and personalities can be a great way to bring a team

together. In this activity, each team member brings (or wears) their favourite t-shirt and

explains why it is their favourite or what stories or memories they associate with the

garment.

Instructions

1) At least 24 hours before the meeting, ask your team to bring or wear their favourite t-

shirt to the meeting.

If warranted, give guidelines about acceptable words and images that can be

displayed.

2) At the meeting, get each person to share their t-shirt and why it is their favourite or

what memory it is associated with.

Stories and memories shared need to be work-appropriate and avoid

controversial subjects.

If required, you should give a time limit of 1-2 minutes per person, but allow

time for discussion.

Possible modifications

For a phone call meeting, meeting participants can send everyone a photograph of

the t-shirt before, or during, the meeting.

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For the love of books

Most people have at least one book that had an emotional impact and, in some way, has

changed how they think or feel about something.

One way to connect and learn what your team members’ values are is to discover what

book(s) they recommend. This team-building activity is a simple way to connect with others

by sharing a favourite book. An added benefit is that the team gets a list of recommended

books to consider.

This is a simple team-bonding activity that requires no preparation time.

Instructions

1. Ask everyone to bring to the virtual meeting ONE book that has been very helpful to

them and that they would like to share/recommend to their team.

2. Determine how much time each person gets and consider using a timer to keep

things moving. A couple of minutes per person is just enough time to get the gist of

the book choice, without going into too many details.

3. At the meeting, ask each person to share their book and briefly tell how that book was

helpful to them.

4. Collect all the books and take a picture of them and/or capture the names/authors of

the books to share with everyone.

5. (Optional) Team members can share their books with each other.

Possible modifications

You can do this spontaneously without people bringing a physical book.

If the team is meeting via videoconference, simply ask them to show their books on

video.

If the meeting is by phone call only, collect the names of the books prior to the call

and circulate to all the team members. Then during the meeting, each person can talk

about their book.

You can ask the team members to bring a book about a certain theme (i.e. change,

stress or marketing).

You can also ask them to bring a fictional book that moved them in some way.

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Pictures from the past

The people we are closest to know a lot about our personal histories, and this knowledge

helps them understand our thoughts, beliefs and actions. Teams who want to build close

and lasting relationships can benefit by learning more about the formative years of their

peers.

This activity is not about sharing personal or shameful stories, but about understanding

more about how and where each other grew up. In turn, this can help us understand each

other in the present.

This activity is best for a team that has some degree of trust already and who desires to

blend personal and professional lives.

Instructions

1. Ask each team member to bring one (and only one) picture from their youth to share

with the team. This picture should represent a happy memory.

2. It can be an actual childhood photograph or an image of something that represents a

happy memory. For example, if someone loved to go to the beach and build sand

castles with their family, they might bring an image of a sand castle.

3. At the meeting, ask each person to share their image and to tell the story of that

happy memory. They should be given 1-2 minutes and you could allow their time to

include questions and other sharing from others.

Possible modifications

For a meeting via videoconferencing, you could collect the images ahead of time and

create a slide show. Alternatively, each individual could hold their image up to their

webcam. While it would take longer, you could get everyone to share their screens.

For a phone meeting, everyone should send their images (or save in a shared

location) in advance of the meeting.

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Photo metaphors

Using photographs to stimulate ideas or conversation can be a quick and enjoyable activity

to connect a team on a particular topic. The activity just requires some interesting photos.

You could use your own, or create a set of photo cards or postcards. The University of Otago

image library has an excellent range of images.

In this activity, team members choose an image that best reflects their answer to a

particular question.

Instructions

1. Gather the images you want to use and determine the question you will ask your

team.

2. Display the images to your team in the meeting.

3. Ask your question. Some suggestions are:

“Choose a card that reflects how you feel about [meeting topic].”

“Choose a card that reflects your objective for today’s meeting/workshop.”

“Choose a card that reflects what [meeting topic] means to you.”

4. Team members are given one minute to individually choose the card that best

represents their response.

5. Encourage everyone to not overthink their answers and stress that there are no

wrong answers.

6. Each team member then identifies the card they selected and briefly explains why.

7. After everyone has contributed, debrief the group by asking:

“Were there any common responses?”

“Given what has been shared, is there anything we need to be mindful of

today?”

Possible modifications

For a meeting held via videoconferencing, you can create a slideshow and then show

this during the meeting.

For a phone call, send the images by email (or post them on a shared site) so

everyone can look at them independently.

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Laughable moments

It has been shown that laughter has many benefits:

Enhancing your intake of oxygen-rich air, which stimulates your heart, lungs and

muscles. It also increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.

Activating, and then relieving, your stress response, which results in you feeling

relaxed.

Improving your ability to cope with difficult situations and connect with other people.

Improving your immune system by releasing neuropeptides that help fight stress and

potentially more serious illnesses.

Improving your mood; laughter can lessen depression and anxiety.

This activity aims to bring some fun and laughter to break up a long meeting. It will help

energise the group as well as being an enjoyable exercise.

Instructions

1. Prior to a team meeting, ask each person to bring a funny story, song, video, joke or

picture to share with the team. It is recommended that you establish some ground

rules about what is shared:

Humour should be suitable for the workplace

It should take no more than 2-3 minutes to share

2. During the meeting, periodically draw someone’s name and ask them to share their

“laughable moment” with the team.

Possible modifications

If the meeting is held as via videoconferencing, you could allow team members to

share videos or images in advance.

For meetings that are by phone, you could limit the options to being stories, songs

and jokes.

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Wouldn’t it be cool if…

Sometimes the best ideas are generated in casual conversations. Let’s say you are pulling

your team together and you want to talk about the culture and environment. You could use

this activity to get everyone to explore and think creatively.

There are a number of variations of this activity. Two options are outlined below.

Option 1

Establish a topic/scenario that you wish your team to focus on. Then, ask each person for

the first idea that pops into their brain that starts with “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

Here are some examples of topics and possible responses:

Topic Wouldn’t it be cool if…

The team’s

annual off-site

“… we could walk away with a clear understanding of how our work

intersects?”

“… we travelled to an interesting location and got to explore in

between working?”

Our office “…we had phone booths to talk in so we could have some privacy?”

“…we had a table tennis table?”

How our team

communicates

“…we understood what each person’s preferences are?”

“…we knew when each person was available to answer questions?”

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Option 2

As with option 1, establish a topic/scenario that you wish your team to focus on. Divide the

team into groups of 2 – 4 and let them brainstorm together as many ideas as they can in

just 3 minutes. Consider offering a reward to the team with the most ideas to encourage

them to move fast and not evaluate the ideas as they go.

Then, collect the ideas. Group similar ones and have a debrief conversation:

“Which of the ideas is the most exciting?”

“Which of these ideas might we implement?”

“Which of these ideas spurs another idea for us to consider?”

Possible modifications

If the meeting is being held as a videoconference, smaller group meetings could be

set up for each of the individual groups.

For a phone call meeting, assign small groups prior to the meeting and get them to

discuss ideas in a phone call beforehand.

Learning and Development 270 Leith Walk, Dunedin Campus hrtraining@otago.ac.nz