Lot’s of Virtual Icebreakers to Choose From!
If you are looking for DIY ideas for virtual icebreakers (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WebEx etc.) for your next team meeting, a quick google search might turn up 7 million ideas. There are so many virtual icebreakers lists out there, it can be overwhelming just sifting through them.
Which icebreakers work? Which ones are fun? Which ones are lame? Which ones make sense for your particular team or group? Which meet your objectives?
These are all questions you might want to consider before leading an icebreaker, and it could take some time reading through many lists to find some that will work for your team.
Why DIY is Great
Back in December, I joined a 30-day (at home) challenge guided through a local gym. It combined healthy eating (lots of veggies, cut out sugar, etc…) with 8 glasses of water per day, 30 min of activity per day (such as walking your dog), no alcohol, 7 hours + of sleep per night, as well as regular fitness and weights workouts.
Each item when completed, earned points which were entered into an app. For example, when I drank the full 8 glasses of water per day I earned 4 points. Sleeping for 7+ hours a night also earned 4 points. It was not just workouts that earned me points, all of the parts that contributed to overall health and well-being counted towards the challenge points.
The same, I think, is true for DIY virtual icebreakers. They contribute one part to a larger overall goal.
For each team or organization, goals will be different. A few examples of larger goals that DIY icebreakers might contribute to are growing employee connection and engagement or building team relationships and trust.
Maybe they help you maintain a fun work atmosphere…because we all know that we do better work when we enjoy our workplace. The tips outlined in the linked article are a positive and important part to a larger overall goal and we suggest you continue or start to implement icebreakers into at least some of your virtual meetings.
You can get Summit’s list of 10 Zoom icebreakers to Energize Your Meetings and sign up to receive a PDF copy along with some practical facilitation tips.
Team Building Requires More Than Icebreakers Though
However, if I chose to only partially participate in my health and wellness challenge by drinking 8 glasses of water and getting 7+ hours of sleep per night but ignoring the other parts to the challenge, I miss out on a larger gain (or loss perhaps in this case).
Just participating in one part of the challenge would not have provided a larger or more holistic picture of health and it would have been harder to reach my goals.
Virtual icebreakers are also not the whole picture of building or maintaining connection, engagement, relationship, and culture. There are other important pieces.
Occasionally bringing in professional facilitators to engage your team in professional development and team building, or hiring an inspiring motivational speaker are important parts to those larger goals of connection, engagement, and teamwork skills.
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Starting with the End in Mind
At Summit, we prefer to start with the end in mind by having a conversation to find out more about your team or your group.
- Who is part of this group and how well do you know each other?
- What are your challenges and aspirations?
- What do you hope people will have gained or be saying after they have participated in a training workshop or a team building program? What will they have learned? Accomplished?
Knowing about your team helps us to make better recommendations about what programs help to achieve your team’s specific goals.
Just as my local gym has modifications that suit my personal fitness goals, we want to come alongside you to make sure whatever team building or professional development workshop is chosen is specific to help you meet your goals.
DIY Away!
DIY virtual icebreakers are great in so many ways, and we would encourage you to continue doing them on a regular basis, but they are not the whole picture.
If your team is looking to be deliberate about your team culture, increase engagement, build a foundation of strong team relationships, and have some fun, (who couldn’t use more fun these days) then a plan to include training and team building experts to come alongside your DIY efforts which will get you further down the field towards your goals. Connect with us to find out how we can improve your team.