Virtual Workshop Activities

Virtual Team Building Activities To Connect Remote collegues

When remote workers feel isolated, or unsupported, a virtual team building activity can create visibility of all the wonderful people they connected to remotely.
When remote workers feel their enthusiasm waning, a virtual team building activity can rekindle their passion by exposing them to positively minded co-workers.
When remote workers are seeking greater autonomy from managers watchful eyes, a virtual team building activity can help them gain trust from co-workers and supervisors.

Strategically designed virtual team building activities provide communication while reinforcing a shared team identity. These activities can also lift engagement for a remote or distributed workforce that is feeling drained.

90 MIN

Virtual Icebreaker Activities, Games, & Ideas

Virtual meetings can sometimes start slow due to a feeling of awkwardness. These Icebreakers are activities you can do at the start of a meeting to create quick, personal connections with your co-workers.

Rose/Thorn/ Bud Virtual Icebreaker
(1 min per person)

Why: To quickly get everyone on the same wavelength, Rose/ Thorn/ Bud gets everyone up to speed with what’s on your mind.
How-to:
Start your virtual meeting by having everyone share a rose (anything positive that has happened since last meeting), a thorn (a challenge or difficulty they are facing) and a Bud (a new possibility or opportunity). These R/T/B’s can be work or non-work related.
For example… Rose: I got a new laptop! Thorn: I had an angry email from a customer Bud: Our lease at home is up soon so we can start looking for a new home!

2. Play the Part (10 mins)

Why: To get people out of their heads and to relax a little. Particularly useful for stressful projects.
Ask everyone to don a hat or headdress, this can be something in their environment or a Zoom / Snapchat virtual item
Have each person "Play the Part" of their hat or headdress by introducing themselves to the team
The team can keep the adornments on for the rest of the meeting!

3. Six Word Poem
(inspired by Smith Magazine's 6 Word Memoir)

Why: To focus the brain and distill a topic quickly and creatively
Ask everyone write a story with just 6 words. It can be a story about their weekend, holiday, their work project or the topic of the meeting
Have each person say their 6 Word Poem and allow others to comment or reflect on what it means to them.
Works just as well in a virtual setting with a whiteboard or meeting room setting.

Beyond Ice Breakers and Energizers

Getting people warmed up is just one small part of virtual workshop facilitation. Any workshop can be deconstructed into 5 parts.

Part 1: Welcome and Warm Up (Where Icebreakers and Energizers fit)

Part 2: Exploring (we have a bunch of Serious Play methods for discovering and imagining new things)

Part 3: Exploiting (we have a bunch of Serious Play methods to help us Define new ideas, testing and measuring)

Part 4: Actions and Commitments

Part 5: Reflecting and Closing

Learn more about Virtual Workshop Activities using Serious Play