Icebreakers for virtual meetings

The questions, and why each one works

1. Show us one thing within arm’s reach and tell us why it is there.

   • It uses the camera for something other than faces, and talking about an object is easier than talking about yourself.
2. What can you see out of your window right now?

   • It reminds everyone that the people on the grid are in real places — rain in one city, sunrise in another.
3. What time is it where you are, and what would you usually be doing now?

   • It makes the cost of the meeting time visible. Teams that ask this tend to schedule more kindly afterwards — the time zone planner helps.
4. Rate your connection today from one to five.

   • Half joke, half useful: you learn who might drop out, and nobody is embarrassed when it happens.
5. What are you drinking from, and is there a story behind the mug?

   • Tiny, visual and surprisingly personal. Mugs come from places and people.
6. All at once in the chat: one word for how your week is going.

   • Typing at the same moment means nobody waits and nobody copies the first answer. You read the room in ten seconds.
7. What is something about working from home nobody warned you about?

   • Everyone on the call shares the experience, so the answers land, and they are often funny.
8. What is playing in your headphones when you work?

   • Music is an easy way in. Someone always shares a song, and the chat fills with recommendations.
9. Hold up the last thing you wrote by hand.

   • Quick, odd and visual — shopping lists, sticky notes, a child’s drawing. It breaks the grid of faces for a moment.
10. If this meeting could happen anywhere in the world, where would it be?

    • A short bit of imagination that takes no preparation, and it says something about each person.

How to run it

In a call of more than ten people, use the chat for answers and read a few out. With fewer, go round out loud.

Call names in order rather than waiting for volunteers. Waiting is where the silence on video calls comes from.

Pick questions that still work with the camera off. Not everyone can or wants to be on video, and the icebreaker should not single them out.

What to leave out

A tour of your home

People work from bedrooms and kitchens. Asking them to show more of it crosses a line many would rather not explain.

Games that need breakout rooms in a short call

Moving people in and out of rooms takes minutes. In a thirty-minute call that is the whole icebreaker gone.

Requiring cameras on for the icebreaker

It undoes the trust the icebreaker is meant to build. Let people choose.

Questions

What is the best icebreaker for a large video call?

A one-word answer typed by everyone at the same moment in the chat. It takes ten seconds and every person takes part.

How do you do an icebreaker when cameras are off?

Use the chat or questions answered out loud: one word for the week, a song, the time where you are.

How do you stop awkward silences on video?

Name the order before you start and call each person in turn. Silence on video comes from nobody knowing whose turn it is.

Icebreakers for other meetings

Every occasion →