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Whether you are hiring a new employee or building a new team, the importance of icebreakers cannot be overstated. Icebreakers allow people to connect better with their new coworkers and develop teamwork skills. They also help individuals know each other better and understand the impact their decisions can have on others. Moreover, newcomers get more encouragement to voice their opinions and be a part of the team.
If you are looking to bring in new members to a team or build a new team, here are seven teambuilding icebreakers to checkout.
1. Scavenger hunt
A traditional scavenger hunt generally requires people to play in teams to decrypt the clues and find the treasure. While this itself is an excellent option for a teambuilding activity, a minor tweak to it can help immensely. Have the new hires or the members of the new team find one another based on clues you give them. For instance, a clue could be “someone who has been in the company for 11 years” or “someone who loves dogs more than humans.” These work as significant identifiers and help people know each other better.
2. Who is it?
Knowing each other has become one of the post-pandemic essentials for employees, especially in a virtual setting when running into each other at the break room is not an option. The ‘Who is it?’ game is helpful in such situations. Have your employees send a work-appropriate fact to a common point person, who will then read it out loud to the gathered group, and everyone will take turns to make guesses.
3. Emoji questions
Emojis and GIFs are paramount to any casual social conversation. Bring this into your office conversation by having employees ask each other questions in a group and then asking them to reply only through emojis and GIFs. This is a fun way of knowing each other.
4. Captioning contest
Encouraging creativity is yet another way to promote communication between new team members. You can do this by holding a caption writing contest. Send a picture to the workgroup and ask everyone to caption the image anonymously before setting a poll for the funniest caption.
5. Two truths and a lie
Two truths and a lie are as classic as icebreakers can get. This is another fun way to know your coworkers and foster good relationships. Have your employees write down two facts and one lie (both work appropriately to ensure a clean game) about themselves and read them aloud; let others guess which are true and which are lies.
6. Rose, thorn, and bud
Rose, thorn, and bud is an excellent way to build empathy within a team, which can ultimately foster teamwork. Have your employees share one positive aspect of their life, one challenge, and something they are looking forward to. This can easily be adapted to work-related to ensure no one is oversharing.
7. Jackbox
Jackbox games like Mad Verse City, Fibbage, and Quiplash are perfect for small teams that like to hang out outside of work because this is a more involved activity. Once again, they are fun and break the ice right away. All you will need is a phone (per person), a secondary screen, and some imagination.
Conclusion
Team building is essential to a company’s continued growth. Therefore, when building a team or hiring new employees, it is essential to conduct icebreakers to enable improved teamwork among the staff. Something as simple as an emoji question or scavenger hunt can quickly help build more collaborative teams that work well together. So, are you ready to try them out yet?
