Icebreakers for Virtual Meetings

When my colleague Dr. Daisy Lovelace and I created the LinkedIn Learning course, "Icebreakers for Teams, Meetings, and Groups," most of our suggestions focused on face-to-face meetings. At the time, that's where most of our suggestions would be utilized.

How things have changed.

I've been teaching online this summer, but remain committed to the power and importance of icebreaker activities. It took a little maneuvering, but I developed and adapted some exercises that have worked well. Let me introduce you to a few of them. (I'm teaching in Zoom, but most of these will work on multiple platforms.)

First, you can still "go around the room" and have each person answer a question to start the meeting. Ask students to type "next" in Chat when they're ready to contribute, and call on them in that order. Then everyone in the room knows who will speak when. Also ask them to take themselves off mute when they're up next - that makes the activity move a little faster. Some of the questions we've considered this term:

What's the best advice you've ever received?

What cartoon character best represents you?

In 5 words or less, what's your favorite thing about your job?

(My students also use "next" in Chat to indicate when they want to participate in class discussion. It's a small thing, but has made a big difference in the quantity and quality of participation.)

Second, use breakout rooms so students work with one another and then report out. You can use some of the traditional questions ("What do all of you have in common?" for example) or try something new. My favorite activity this term happened the day I discovered the new term "maskne." (That's acne caused by wearing a mask.)

I shared this with the class, then put them in breakout rooms to come up with another new word the English language needs during the pandemic. Their answers were terrific. My favorite? Mutemouth. That's when you're talking but you're on mute.

Third, use Chat. Tell the group the Chat function is now their Twitter feed, and they should post a status update to describe their week.

I'd love to learn how you use icebreakers in a virtual setting - please share your best practices in the comments!

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