Ice breakers are activities that encourage dialogue among a group of people. They stimulate the interest of participants who have gathered for a meeting, team-building event, or any other social activity that necessitates group engagement. This article discusses some of the best Icebreaker templates and how they can be set up on online whiteboards to facilitate your icebreaking sessions.
Two Truths One Lie
Two truths and one lie is a great icebreaker to use during workshops. It helps participants discover new things about each other. This activity works well for both people who don’t know each other and teams that have been working together for a long time.
How to Use It
- The facilitator arranges the board with the appropriate amount of name tags and post-its.
- The facilitator asks participants to write their names and two truths and one falsehood about themselves on post-its.
(Optional: set a 3-minute timer.)
- The facilitator selects a participant to present their post-its, encouraging others to ask questions to get information about which fact is true or false.
- Set the timer for 1:30 minutes.
- The facilitator organizes a 30-minute voting session with one vote per individual and announces the results.
- The presenter discloses the truth.
- Someone is invited to take the stage by the presenter.
- Steps can be repeated.
Team Superpower Collage
This icebreaker revolves around the question, “If you could be any superhero, who would you pick?”.
You can set it up on an online whiteboard by creating a team box surrounded by team-member boxes (team-member 1, 2, 3, and so on).
This is a timed activity. Start by introducing the activity and let each team member add their name to a team-member box. Allow everyone three minutes to add a gif or picture that shows your team’s superpower.
Once everyone has added to their box, take some time to review and pull out the common themes to your team superpower box. This way, each team will be able to get a visual representation of their collective strengths.
Alternatively, you can also allow team members to add personal superpowers to their boxes and then collectively agree on a team superpower based on the contributions. You can also change superpower to any other topic you would like to capture ideas.
GIF Party
This is a fun icebreaker you can use to help employees interact with each other. You can set up this template by adding a central keyphrase surrounded by grey boxes for people to add their gifs.
Start by introducing the activity and decide on a fun catchphrase unrelated to work. For example, your saying could be, “You talkin’ to me?” from the Taxi driver. Then, give everyone three minutes to find a gif for that phrase and add it to the grey box. Finally, use the voting function to vote on your favorite gif and tell participants to do the same.
Alternatively, you could make this relevant to your meeting by adding a pertinent phrase to the discussion, for example, “teamwork makes the dream work.”
Team Bingo
Another great icebreaker is Team Bingo. To set this template:
- Write down 24 phrases that you are likely to hear from your team (They can be cliches, common expressions, paradigms, etc.)
- Fill out BINGO cards with these expressions.
- Determine the number of cards required for the meeting and duplicate the bingo cards for attendees.
- The sentences on each card should be chosen at random.
- Make a virtual “blotter” mark next to it when you hear a sentence.
- The first person to call “BINGO” wins.
If there is no winner, the game can be restarted at the following meeting.
Post Game Questions for Introspection
- Why did we select the phrases that we selected?
- What do these expressions reveal about us?
- Why do we use these sentences so frequently?
- What does it reveal about our society?
Where’s My Head At
Understanding where people are when they come into a meeting is a great opportunity to check-in and orient people to the right mindset for the meeting.
- Think about the mindsets people normally show up to for this meeting and where you need them to be and adjust the pictures/categories as necessary.
- Ask everyone to think about how they’re showing up today, and walk them through the four categories.
- Allow people to pick a name tag, enter their name and move their tag to the mindset they are at.
- Allow people to discuss why they put themselves where they did.
If applicable, discuss the mindset required for the meeting and what it will take to move people to that space.
Endnote
Online whiteboards are a great resource for virtual icebreaker activities. They assist you and your team in visualizing the actions, making cooperation more fun. All of the icebreaker activities listed above may be adapted for use on Fresco’s online whiteboards and used to jumpstart your remote meetings.
For more ideas on Icebreaker templates, check out our articles on The Six Best Icebreakers for Teams, The Best Icebreaker Questions for Work, and Virtual Icebreakers.
