Asking "How is everyone doing?" at the beginning of a new meeting or workshop might not be the best way to get everyone excited. A fun ice breaker game or activity might be just what you are looking for to get everyone engaged, create an inclusive atmosphere and stimulate better brainstorming.
We have complied a list of the best ice breaker games and activities for meetings and workshops in the workplace, both for an in-person, online or hybrid context. We promise that alle of these will spark curiosity, engagement and get a great response from your team. Try it out during your next meeting,
Icebreakers for work
- Who made your week?
- What were the highlight of the week?
- What one word describes our company culture?
- If you could buy anything in the world?
- Draw your colleague to the right
- Your life with 6 words
- What is the last photo you took?
- The hot seat
- Take a picture of something you hate
- Share fun/weird stories
- Draw your first job
- Pitch me this pen
- Best joke competition
- Make a meme about your team
- Soda vs diet soda
- Pineapple on pizza?
- Which city would you most like to visit next?
Ice breaker questions
1. Who made your week?
Taking the time to really appreciate each other in the team is important, but might not always be prioritized. This classic always makes the atmosphere great - and let’s a few team members shine as deserved! Ask your team members who made their week using this template. It will look like this!
2. What were the highlight of the week?
What was the highlight of the week? Start a virtual or hybrid meeting with this icebreaker. Everyone writes down their favorite highlights, and votes for the ones they like best. Guaranteed great energy with this one!
3. What one word describes our company culture?
Let's say you're leading a meeting on culture where you want everyone to engage. Tell the participants to describe the work culture, or your office culture in particular, in one word using this template. The results will for sure spark the discussion!
4. If you could buy anything in the world?
This ice breaker warms up the imagination and creativity of the participants.
If you could buy any one thing in the world. What would it be? Everyone draws what they would buy.
Zoom Icebreakers
5. Draw your colleague to the right
This template is perfect for teams getting to know each other and wants to be really warmed up for a creative session, be it a design thinking session, product work or design. Everyone will draw the colleague to their right (or next to them on the Zoom screen).
Remember: The drawings can also be used for your LinkedIn profile, or be sold as an NFT. The sky is the limit!
6. Your life with 6 words
Perfect icebreaker for small teams. Everyone get 2 minutes to write their life story with only 6 words. One person on the team tries to guess who is behind every story!
7. What is the last photo you took?
Icebreaker for virtual, hybrid or in-person meetings. Everyone uploads the last photo they took with their phone. Then everyone votes for the photo they want to hear the story behind!
8. The hot seat
Ice breaker for meetings or team building. Everyone in the team get to ask the team lead anything, and vote for the best questions. The team lead answers top 3.
9. Take a picture of something you hate
Finally you get used for the stuff you don’t want to have in your house, but somehow never got rid of! Everyone takes a picture of something in their house which they hate, but kept anyways. Let everyone in the group tell the story for their chosen item. Try it out using this template.
10. Share fun/weird stories
Ice breaker for groups of new people. Everyone write in a few words about their weirdest or most fun story. Everyone votes for which story they want to hear, and the winners tells the story. Great way to get to know each other.
11. Draw your first job
This is a great exercise to really get to know each other in a new group or team. Everyone draws their first job and explain their work to the group. Don’t mind the drawing skills. You will learn a lot about your colleagues!
Ice breaker games
12. Pitch me this pen
If you have a competitive team. This is for you. The competition is about writing the best sales pitch for the pen on the image in two minutes. Everyone votes to decide the winner!
13. Best joke competition
Competitive icebreaker which is great for both small and large groups. Everyone write down their best jokes and vote for their favorite.
14. Make a meme about your team
This is among the all time favorites. Let everyone in the team make a meme about the team, or a team experience.
Quick Ice Breakers
15. Soda vs diet soda
Are you an all sugar free team? Or do you swear to sodas with real sugar? Time to decide what to get for the next event using the poll in this ice breaker
16. Pineapple on pizza?
Time to solve the conflict once and for all with this Icebreaker. The participants will vote using a poll: is Pinapple good on pizza?
17. Which city would you most like to visit next?
A perfect icebreaker to get to know a group of people and spark the discussion. Everyone writes down which city the would loke to travel to next, and it’s displayed as a word cloud.
Looking for more Ice breakers?
Here are a few other great lists of Ice breakers: