17 Quick Team Building Icebreakers for Remote Teams

The remote work world can be an isolating place. The PeopleGoal team recently tried some quick team building icebreakers in our virtual meeting to help boost motivation and the outcome was incredible.

In particular, it can be a challenge onboarding when it's not possible to meet colleagues in person. We've had a few new hires join this month and in the morning check-in we were thinking of creative icebreakers to kick off on a fun note and help create a team bond. Then, someone asked a question that made us all stop.

What animal would you choose to fuse together with your current human body? You must use one straight line to split your bodies.

We sat in bemusement for a few seconds before answers started flowing in.

Bottom half whale, maybe?

But then came the flood of questions in response to that answer:

Where would you live, land or sea?

Would you expect the local council to continuously douse you in water?

Wouldn’t you look slightly odd having a massive bottom half and a tiny human top half?

Conversation flowed as everyone chimed in. We would end up returning to the conversation a few times during the day on Slack to discuss potential answers and shout down any ridiculous suggestions.

The ease with which conversation flowed indicated that this question was a perfect icebreaker. So we began considering other wacky icebreaker games and team building activities to help us bond during our team meetings. Read our suggestions below! And as a side note, read the rest of the blog to find out the correct answer to the original question.

How can icebreakers help you connect with a team?

Quick team building icebreakers help to break the ‘ice’ which usually forms when unfamiliar people first meet. Icebreakers help connect up a disjointed team and create an atmosphere which reduces potential anxieties in individuals as well as increase cohesion between team members, especially for remote workers.

Meeting colleagues virtually during WFH can be awkward at first. Icebreaker activities help you open up conversation and get to know one another in small groups. Questions like these engage everyone in the team in a fun and informal way. They promote communication and collaboration to achieve a common goal in an easy-going manner.

When should icebreakers be used?

Quick icebreakers to help you connect with your team can be used at any time. They are really flexible and can be tailored to the needs of the group of people, and usually last around 15 minutes. For example, introductory ice breakers and getting-to-know-you icebreakers are often used when a team gets new members or on collaboration tasks so that people can get to know one another quicker.

Alternatively, for a team that has worked with each other for a while, icebreakers may act to boost engagement and collaboration. Or team leaders may use an icebreaker to exemplify and integrate the superordinate goal (like boosting teamwork or appreciation).

17 Remote Work Icebreaker questions

• How many of you would it take to defeat a lion? By the way, you have clones that have groupthink.

• How much money would you pay to see your favourite artist (dead or alive) play live?

• What political or historical figure would you like to sit with for a 3-course meal? Additionally, tell me your 3 course meal?

• If you had the opportunity to have a sixth toe would you and why?

• What kind of ------- are you? Insert a wide range of things here i.e. pizza, fruit, animal, national landmark, item of clothing, mythological being, inanimate object…

• If you had the entire world’s attention for 30 seconds what would you say?

• Please rank different forms of potato from worst to first. (i.e. baked, mash, fries, new potatoes etc.)

• Discuss the world’s most unsolvable questions. – Why is abbreviation such a long word? How fast is the speed of dark? How many fish constitute a school? What’s another word for synonym? Why is the word for fear of long words so long? (It's Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia...) Are eyebrows considered facial hair? How do sharks stay hydrated?

• What superhero power would you have and why? A classic.

• Would you rather be stuck in a room with a tiger or a hippo? Additionally, would you rather be stuck in a room with one of these animals for five minutes or face a rhino running down a corridor.

• Would you keep your current eyes or change them to have the acuity of that of an eagle, but they are also the same size as that of an eagle?

• How long would it take you to drink the amount of water in a swimming pool? You probably would need to say that in this scenario there are no health consequences and the water is not chlorinated.

• Which one of Henry VIII’s wives would you be?

• Yes or no? – a quick fire conversation to have with anyone or everyone team. Start firing questions at each other in which they should answer almost immediately. If you want to discuss or contend any answers do it! Questions you may want to fire at someone include: ‘Blue or red?’, ‘TV or film’, ‘chocolate or crisps’, ‘hot or cold’, ‘city or countryside’, ‘apple or orange, ‘beer or wine’, ‘Monet or Manet’, ‘plane or boat’ or ‘legs or arms’.

• What is the order of Monopoly property colours that you buy?

• Which historical era would you like to live in? If you want a bit of a rogue extension to this question, ask people to detail their narrative from birth to death in that era.

• If you run at the speed of sound would you still be able to hear the music playing from your headphones?

There are loads more weird and wacky icebreaker questions to help team building and you’ll be surprised how popular the topics turnout to be and how much debate they actually create.

Try them out for yourself at your next team building session… wherever that might be.

And in case you were wondering what animal would you choose to fuse together, the correct answer is bottom half ostrich.

If our ideas piqued your curiosity on collaboration watch this great talk by Tom Wujec on a simple icebreaker called the "marshmallow problem" for team building. It is a fun icebreaker for small and large groups. The activity requires problem solving and can contribute to improving communication and creating effective teams.

Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0_yKBitO8M

Remote work doesn't have to be lonesome! We hope you too now believe in the value of team building icebreakers that can be much more interesting then standing in the circle and the "deserted island" exercise!

Enjoyed this article? Check out our recent webcast How to Drive Better Employee Engagement or an article we wrote covering Employee Well-being Initiatives for 2021.

Need helping boosting engagement for your remote team? Book a demo with PeopeGoal today!