The biggest impediment for work in this entire COVID situation is a failure in managing the team remotely. Virtual icebreaker is seen as a great savior that can help you overcome this challenge. The team bonding seems like an impossible task. Gone are those days when you could approach someone on their desk and have an informal chat with them. There is literally no scope for “water cooler” chat in this work from home situation. Introducing, building rapport, and knowing someone takes time and effort, and it is even more difficult in a remote set up.
If you are a team lead, then this entire situation could be terrifying. This entire work from home / remote set up has some serious implications for us. There has been a nosedive in the overall efficiency of teams. Employees barely feel engaged and motivated. As a leader, you will face serious difficulties in instilling creativity and a positive attitude, especially when loneliness and feeling of isolation are at an all-time high.
Virtual ice breakers can come in handy to bring your team closer. It also helps greatly in breaking the barriers of communication. In the following part of this article, we will focus on various aspects of ice breaking and how you can implement and increase your team’s efficiency.
What is virtual icebreaking?
If I put it in simple terms, it is nothing but a game or activity you can do at the beginning of a meeting or event. Having an ice-breaking session aims to break the communication barriers among team members and facilitate conversation. This is very commonly done as a part of induction in most organizations and even in training sessions. There are multiple benefits of ice-breaking like:
- A fun way of having an introduction session of recruits with their colleagues and even superiors.
- Encourage learning behavior
- Bolster channels of communication
- Build rapport among members of the team
- Enhance the feeling of collectiveness and unity
- Way of relaxing and induce positivity
When should you use virtual ice breakers?
Now we are aware that ice-breaking, in general, is a great tool and can help in many ways. But there are some cases where ice breaking is just indispensable and really very helpful. For instance, if you are a team lead of a hybrid team where some people present on site attend meetings in person and some remotely. In this scenario, people present physically are likely to bond relatively better and in a more profound way. Therefore, a virtual ice-breaking session would be a perfect way to bridge the present members both virtually and physically.
A lot of time, when companies are going through mergers on organizations or department level. This consequently brings two different teams together. Having a virtual ice-breaking session would help them develop trust and increase cooperation.
Also, it is one of the best ways of inducing a new member into a team. It enables both the existing team members and the new team member(s) to introduce each other and start on the right foot. It also enables the new member to develop new connections right from the beginning.
When you should not use virtual ice-breaking?
As a team leader, it is important to know when to use techniques like ice breaking, but it is even more important to know when not to use it. Know that it is not the best tool for every virtual meeting, For example, having an ice-breaking session for the finance team at the end of a quarter can seem annoying to most of the team members. It is looked at as a waste of time especially when people are working under pressure and have their plates full. Refrain from using the ice-breaking techniques when your team is undergoing a crisis or some sort of emergency.
You probably should also put a hold on it when you have a senior manager joined in the call. It might look tempting to show your senior manager how well you can lead your team with a small ice-breaking session. But you must acknowledge the fact that they have limited time at hand. Getting straight to the set agendas of the meeting is a better way to go ahead.
It is important to know the new team member before you hold an ice-breaking session with them. Often, the new member who could be moving from some other department could be an already familiar face. When there is a certain comfort level among everyone, an ice-breaking session could seem unnecessary. Although, if you feel that there is a scope of groups and the new member could feel isolated or left out. You must talk with your team and realize important to have an ice-breaking session.
How to choose the right ice breaker?
You can make your own ice breaking activity or game by using the following points.
1. Have a purpose:
The first question here is, “What ice are you breaking?” Are you just introducing members of your team to each other for the very first time? Are the people coming to your team have varied work experience? Or people coming from diverse cultural and social backgrounds? You will have to take all of these things into account while you come up with your ice-breaking session. You must deal with it sensitively and ensure that no individual faces any difficulty engaging with others.
2. Set your objective clear
The objective is largely dependent on you as a team leader. The purpose or the objective of having an ice-breaking session could be just having a mere introduction with the other team members. Or it could involve them working as a team wherein they show/ demonstrate creativity while solving a problem.
3. Make members comfortable
An ice-breaking session can only be comfortable if all the members can actively participate and engage in the process. Prompt all the obstacles that can hinder the smooth function of the ice-breaking session. Common obstacles are the language barrier and different cultures. Make sure you avoid anything that could offend any of the members of the team. Keep in mind that a lot of jokes and information get lost in the process of translation.
4. Do not ignore time
Depending on the purpose of the ice-breaking session, the members attending and considering if someone from different time zones decide the time. You can keep the ice breaking, a five-minute session or longer depending on the aforementioned points.
5. Take the location of the members into account
Since virtual ice breakers can be done anywhere, the type of activity you choose must be conducive for everyone. Some of the members could be at home or office or, for that matter, traveling. So, do not forget to take location into account.
6. Technology
Make sure you communicate the details of ice breaking in a little advance so that people can prepare well before time. It is important to have all the members on the same video conferencing software, be it skype or zoom, or any other software. In the same mail, clearly mention the format and the basic rules of the ice-breaking session. Mention if people are expected to keep their webcam on throughout or need to be on mute. Take into account that some people could have a poor internet connection or be “camera shy.” If that is the case, you will have to come up with something that does not require the members to see each other.
Traffic light framework
Ice breakers can be broadly categorized into 3 parts based on the lights in traffic signals. These are called green, yellow, and red, corresponding to easy, medium, and hard.
Green: This is an easy one. This can be the best icebreaker where there is no or a little familiarity among team members. At this level, answers don’t give you much information about the participants, but it opens the communication channel. Questions at this level could be like, “beaches or mountains?”, “Cats or dogs?” or “What do you like in breakfast?”
Yellow: Ice-breakers on this level reveal more personal information and insights of other members participating. It is generally used on time that has been together for a while. You can also seek people’s opinion on most of the topics to which people can respond without thinking much. For example, “What is your childhood dream vacation place?” “Have you ever left the restaurant without leaving a tip?” etc.
Red: These ice breakers are on the difficult side and can be done with people who are already comfortable with each other. Ice-breakers on this level surface vulnerability that leads to better and much deeper bonding among team members. “What is your favorite read, and why?” “What is that you are thinking about lately, but no one has asked you yet?” or “What is your favorite meme page on Facebook?”
Ensure you do not straight away jump to yellow or red level if your team is not ready for it. Instead, if you are not sure which level to use, you can use the scaffolding technique. In this, you lay the foundation with the green questions, and then when people become comfortable on a certain level, you can escalate to a higher level.
Some common and effective ice breakers
Following are some examples of virtual ice breakers that you can try with your team:
Picture of your shoes
This is a really fun ice breaker. You can ask all of your team members to take a picture of the footwear they are wearing. Ask them to upload that picture in the meeting chat or on some drive so that other members could also see it. At the beginning of the meeting, ask each participant to choose a pair of shoes and guess the story behind it. One person might be wearing sports shoes that could indicate that the person is into sports. The other could be wearing flip flop, which could mean that they love to relax. It is not necessary to do it using the picture of your shoes. You can also use a picture of a work desk.
Time machine
This one is very creative and one of my favorites. You can ask one of the participants from your team, “if you could travel in time forward or backward…
- Would you like to go ahead in time or some time in the past?”
- Which place you would like to go?
- If you meet yourself from the future what all things will you ask him/ her?
- If given a choice would you like to stay in the same time period or you would like to come back?”
Two lies one truth
In this ice-breaking technique, you can ask each team member to prepare a list of three facts about themselves. Two of the facts should be made up. These facts could be anything like about your pet or hobbies or where did you go to school. You can get the team members to pick the correct statement and the person who gets the most facts right wins.
Conclusion
Virtual ice-breakers are coming in handy more than ever when working from home has become a norm. It is a great way to improve communication and stimulate out-of-the-box thinking. It also helps build and strengthen your network and even a great way to introduce a team recruit. You must choose the activity for ice-breaking wisely. Pay attention if your participants are tech-say or not. Keep in mind the cultural background of the members. It is also important to clarify the objective right in the beginning so that the entire session can be smooth and productive.
