Experiencing Zoom Fatigue? Creative Icebreakers to Spark Joy at Your Next Virtual Meeting

“How do tangible things create an intangible feeling of joy?” This is the question Ingrid Fetell Lee explores in the book Joyful, our January book club discussion topic. I have been “joyspotting” in the weeks since the discussion, noticing how even seemingly mundane things like a bundle of colorful new markers on my desk can spark a moment of joy.
 
(It was a great discussion, and you can check out the notes on the In the Know portal. Also check out Ingrid Fetell Lee’s TED Talk.)

While the book focuses on visual queues or environmental factors that spark joy, I have also been noticing joy in other places. In meetings, for example, there’s something indulgently delightful about a surprise moment of connection.

My team and I work to create these moments through activities such as icebreakers and even a creative way to do round-robin introductions in an otherwise perfunctory, predictable meeting. It could be the creativity, the unexpected “break” from the agenda, or a combination of all of the above…but it surely is joyful. If you were to measure the audio volume in a meeting, you’re sure to hear laughter (and overall less multi-tasking/more engagement) as well. As one client reminded me this week, these fun activities also go a long way toward building relationships and trust, in case you need a bottom-line driven reason to invest the time in a seemingly “off topic” agenda item.

To help you get started, and because we all need to spice up our Zoom game this many months into the pandemic, here’s a fun list of icebreakers you can try out. Let me know how it goes!

Icebreaker Recommendations for Your Next Virtual Meeting
We are all working hard to keep Zoom exciting. I recently pulsed a group of coaches and facilitators and added to my bag of tricks. Here are a few you may wish to try.

• Photo theme. Assign a theme before the meeting (e.g., Island Paradise, Food, Fashion). Show a picture in your virtual (Zoom) background that relates to the theme.
• Create a playlist. Work with the group to decide on a theme and request songs related to the theme such as your favorite TV theme song, or favorite song to work out to, or favorite song for relaxation. Choose a different song to open each meeting. Let the members guess who selected the song. Send out the playlist to everyone.
• High/low. Ask everyone to share one high point and one low point (professional or personal) since our last meeting.
• Weekend movie. For Monday morning meetings, send a link to a movie for them to watch the weekend before. Mail blankets and popcorn to each person’s home. Open the meeting by talking about the movie. If you want to get really clever, select a movie that relates in some way to your team's strategy.
• Quick chat box openers
  • What are you binge watching these days?
  • What word do you hope you do not hear in 2021?
  • Favorite podcast or book or music?
  • If you could have any fictional character as your friend, who would it be and why?
  • If you could magically become an expert in any other field, what would that be?
  • What has been one great “discovery” during quarantine? (e.g., peppermint ice cream, personal work style insight, etc.)
  • What is now part of your new routine? (e.g., “I realize I need to walk my dog more often”)
• Personal artifact. Bring one artifact to the next meeting that represents something about you that others may not already know.
• Inspired>bored. Ask everyone, Where you on a scale from “Inspired to Bored?” – Assign numbers (+3 to -3). Ask the same question at the start and end of the meeting.
• 3 words. List three words to describe our last offsite or team meeting.
• Moments of pause. Add to your agenda a “moment of pause” at the start of each meeting. These are brief (2 mins or less) random “shares” that could include a short video, a funny commercial, a meme, a cartoon, a poem, a video of an artist, the more diverse the better! Your group can establish the criteria (e.g., stay within the core values, nothing political, etc.) but try not to create too many limits. This not only allows for a pause from one meeting to the next but adds creativity, diversity, and connection among the group members. Once a person shares, ask them to select the next person to open up the next meeting.
• Use mentimeter.com to create visually interesting questions using scales and word clouds. (Use some of the questions in this list to get you started.)

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