The first few minutes of a hybrid meeting often feel the most uncertain. A few may excitedly chat as participants trickle in, but more often, people visibly look unsure how to jump in or quietly stare at the screen.
That's where a well-timed icebreaker helps. An intentional prompt can break the silence in a large call, re-engage a quiet team, or ease participants into meeting mode. Icebreakers don't just fill space—they create space for small moments of connection that support collaboration.
Gallup's research has shown that highly engaged teams are 18% more productive and 23% more profitable. And having friends at work can lead to a 7x increase in happiness, health, and job engagement. Conversely, disengaged employees cost an $8.8 trillion loss in productivity worldwide! All these benefits could start with how we show up in meetings.
Here are 20 icebreaker ideas that can help your team members connect and collaborate more effectively. They're quick, flexible, and easy to tailor to your needs so you can try them immediately at your next hybrid meeting.
1. Mood cloud
This quick mood check-in enables you to engage both remote and in-person participants from the outset. As they trickle into a large meeting, launch a live word cloud where they can submit a word or emoji describing how they feel.
The word cloud expands in real time, giving off that interactive vibe. People get to settle in while exercising their 'voice'—all without being called out.
💡 Pro tip: if you want to sprinkle interactivity throughout your all-hands meeting, use an audience engagement platform like Pigeonhole Live for a consistent experience. Easily add a word cloud, poll, and live Q&A to any Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation.
2. Image poll
Polls with pictures are great for grabbing and sustaining participants' attention. That's because visuals are more memorable and evoke more emotions than just words. So, if you keep your icebreaker short, fun, and lighthearted, people can associate it with positive thoughts and feelings.
For example, set up polls of adorable animal photos and let your team vote on their favourites. Goofy and cute animal pictures instantly put you in a better mood during groggy mornings before a serious and gruelling team meeting.
3. 'Would you rather?'
This popular group game can reveal your teammates' quirkier side without asking for too much information (TMI). It's a low-effort starter activity for cross-functional teams that are brainstorming or planning together for the first time.
To keep it quick and simple, set up multiple-choice polls asking unusual questions, such as:
- Would you rather communicate with animals or control technology with your mind?
- Would you rather sneeze glitter or hiccup confetti during meetings?
- Would you rather have a perfectly organised digital life or a perfectly untraceable one?
- Would you rather wear 1 outfit in 20 colors or 20 outfits in 1 color?
- Would you rather feel hunger or never feel full?
The quirkier your question is, the more fun it gets. Just don't steer away from insensitive or vulgar statements.
Ready to gamify your hybrid town hall or team meeting? Create your first poll on Pigeonhole Live!
4. Trivia quiz
Trivia quizzes can bring out people's competitive side. And sometimes, how some participants react to random questions becomes so hilarious that it's hard not to loosen up. This kind of warm, positive energy sets the tone for your regular all-hands meeting.
✅ Try this: if you want to raise the stakes, why not set up the quiz with a leaderboard and let everyone fight their way to the top? Pigeonhole Live’s Quiz Leaderboard feature ranks participants based on the accuracy and speed of answers. The names of the top 3 winners get displayed on the screen—perfect for giving bragging rights or handing out quick prizes, such as vouchers or company swag.
5. 'Who said it?'
This fun guessing game can be a lighthearted introductory tool for teams working together for the first time. Collect quotes beforehand and match them to teammates or leaders. Then, make a quiz so everyone can guess who said the line!
Giving correct answers isn't the point. Getting a peek into a collaborator's personality is—through their favourite lines and turn-of-phrases.
6. 'Never have I ever'
'Never have I ever' questions can reveal fun facts about your teammates without asking them one by one. Using an online poll, you can flash an action on the screen, and they can state if they have or never have done it in their lives.
Keep your series of actions casual enough for onboarding mixers, where you help new hires find common ground with the rest of the team.
Here are some examples:
- Never have I ever worked in pyjamas all day
- Never have I ever cried during a Pixar movie
- Never have I ever broken a bone
- Never have I ever dropped my phone in the toilet
- Never have I ever gotten a tattoo I regretted
7. One-word game
One-word games are a quick-fire prompt where everyone shares one word to describe a topic (e.g. mood, work, team). They're great for understanding your teammates' mindsets and sentiments before you all jump into brainstorming.
Want to know what's on your team's mind? Create your first poll, quiz, or word cloud on Pigeonhole Live.
8. 'The most likely to…'
This activity can spark some laughs and create memories afterwards. But first, it allows you to start on a positive, reflective note to get collaborators in a supportive and happy mood.
Generate a few word clouds on Pigeonhole Live with the question 'The most likely to…' and end with any interesting descriptors or actions. Here are a few ideas to begin with:
- The most likely to go on a backpacking trip across Asia
- The most likely to star in a TV show
- The most likely to start their own company
Then, let them vote for who they think fits the descriptions. As they enter names, coworkers can observe the word clouds and even learn fascinating insights about each other.
9. Appreciation time
Appreciation time or employee recognition time focuses on spotlighting a team member, usually pre-selected, during all-hands meetings or other company- or departmental-wide gatherings.
Through an open-ended poll, the audience can ask this employee questions (avoid being too personal, though, and focus on recent achievements, if any). Or you can ask the audience to send their appreciation and gratitude, and then display and read their responses on the screen.
10. Highlight of the week
Personal highlights are a fantastic weekly check-in opener. It carves a space for individuals to shine while giving the entire team a peek into how they approach work and even who they are outside work.
This quiet, reflective activity can help everyone focus on the positives and have the right mindset for the meeting and the rest of their week. (Note: you could also end the meeting with this activity, building morale during mid-week updates.)
11. Expressing gratitude
Expressing gratitude shouldn't just be a nice-to-have icebreaker but also a crucial cultural element at work. Giving thanks to the past, present, and what’s to come helps you frame your thoughts positively and productively.
To begin, launch an open-ended poll and ask participants to enter one thing they're grateful for before a big meeting. Reading everyone’s entries together can put a positive spin on your hybrid town hall and strengthen your team's collective bond.
12. 18 & under
This activity encourages your teammates to share interesting facts about their younger selves.
Using an open-ended poll, ask each person to recall and enter one accomplishment they had before they turned 18. Once it’s all up, you can get the top votes to elaborate a little on their stories.
While it involves a bit of talking on their part, this sets the tone for a brainstorming or problem-solving session where everyone should push their creative limits and provide input.
13. Pain point brainstorming
This quick session is perfect for gathering people from different departments. If it's a big group, you can divide them into smaller ones and:
- Ask each group to put themselves in your customers' shoes
- Think about 1 to 2 most important needs in their profession that are underserved
- Come up with solutions that don’t currently exist to meet those needs or solve those pain points
🤔 What to do next: display their ideas on the big screen as you transition into full brainstorming mode. Group representatives can then take turns presenting their ideas, while the rest of the participants upvote ones that resonate with them.
14. Group problem-solving
This activity offers you a chance to bring up a real problem you're facing in the company. Similar to pain point brainstorming, divide participants from different departments into smaller groups and ask them to brainstorm creative ways to solve the problem.
Here, you'll focus on finding a few solutions you can try by displaying their ideas and allowing upvotes. You can incentivize this activity with gift vouchers or merchandise for the winning team.
Feeling the energy? Create your first live poll and Q&A on Pigeonhole Live!
15. Forced association
This method is another good starting point for a brainstorming or problem-solving session. It challenges your teammates to find a connection between one known element and another that's random. From two seemingly unrelated objects, they could think of a new product, a fresh way to solve a problem, or an innovative strategy to reach your target market.
Create a prompt, let teammates send their responses, and ask them to vote for the best ideas in their view using an audience engagement app. The product with the highest votes wins.
16. Six thinking hats
This activity is designed to push your team to think differently about how they usually approach a problem. The 6 thinking hats are metaphors for various ways of thinking your teammates can adopt when problem-solving.
To conduct the activity:
- Present your team with a problem: e.g. should we increase our prices?
- Set up 6 open-ended polls, each representing a thinking hat: neutral, feelings, negative, positive, creative, and process.
- Ask your team to post questions along each line of thinking in the respective polls.
- Conduct a post-poll discussion based on the questions you’ve crowdsourced.
17. Career milestone quiz
This twist on the usual trivia quizzes can help your teammates know each other a little better. Have one team member go at it, say, every other team meeting.
Instruct them to make a short quiz about themselves. The rest can then answer the quiz to see who knows the employee the best.
18. The boss Q&A session
'Ask me anything' or AMA sessions with leadership usually happen after a company-wide meeting. But there's really no rule preventing you from setting up a Q&A session before a hybrid town hall or all-hands meeting.
AMA sessions help create a connection between the leadership and employees in a less formal way (not to mention easing the audience into the more serious presentation or Q&A). Overall, it's just a great way to get to know the big bosses better!
19. Company history quiz
History quizzes aren't just for schools! If your office is reaching a particular milestone, such as an anniversary, you can launch a quiz that tests and informs your employees about your company's history.
This works best before your anniversary programme proper or during an all-hands meeting scheduled within your anniversary month.
20. Two truths, one lie
Lastly, here's another fun activity to build cross-department bonding!
Set a department to take the lead for each session of this activity. Give them the free rein to run a multiple-choice poll, with each question offering options—two truths and one lie about a department member or the work the department does.
Give these icebreakers a try!
Whether you simply want people to loosen up a bit or prep them to creatively solve problems, choosing the right activity for the occasion can help you achieve your goal. Enhance connection and collaboration in your hybrid meetings with low-effort icebreakers your teammates will love.
