15 Best Icebreaker Games for Work Teams [2023]

Nathan

by Nathan · Updated Jan 30, 2023

Icebreakers are so much more than activities that help your employees simply relax or fill their time at work. They help work teams bond, connect, get motivated, and remain engaged.

And what better way to achieve that than by finding the best icebreaker games for work teams and introducing them in your office? That’s exactly what you’ll find on this list - from virtual icebreakers and icebreakers for meetings, to quick icebreakers and icebreakers for small groups, we have it all. The only thing remaining is for you to pick the right ones.

Simply go through our article and choose from any of these fun icebreaker games that seem suitable for your employees. Or present them with the games and put them up for a vote!

But before we get into the actual icebreakers, let’s cover some icebreaker basics first.

What Are Icebreakers?

what-are-icebreakers

An icebreaker has been defined as

an activity or game designed to welcome attendees and warm up the conversation among participants in a team meeting, training class, team building session, or other activity. Any event that requires people to comfortably interact with each other and a facilitator is an opportunity to use an icebreaker.

Corporate icebreakers help team members get to know one another, relax, and increase the comfort levels in the office (or if you have remote teams, it may help soften the work dynamics and online communication). This is what makes ice breaker games a great bonding activity for colleagues and teams.

As you’ll see, there are different icebreakers that serve different purposes. One thing all icebreaker games have in common, though, is that all of them can help build stronger, more connected teams.

How Do Icebreakers Help the Employee Experience?

On the whole, the employee experience is an all-encompassing concept that starts from the moment an employee walks into the office for the first time and starts working, to the moment they leave the company. As such, the employee experience includes several aspects. Let’s briefly explore them and see how icebreaker games can help.

1) Employee and Team Introduction

Icebreakers help workers form long-lasting connections within already established teams. Such introductory icebreakers are great for group members who know each other but need “help” in recognizing both the similar interests and the differences they share.

They’re also a good option for team members who get together for the very first time. For instance, icebreakers are a great idea when starting a new project for which you assemble a new team where the employees haven’t quite gotten the chance to meet each other.

2) Team Building

Icebreakers for team-building purposes have many benefits, but here are the most valuable ones:

  • helping colleagues build trust;

  • improving the company culture on the whole;

  • helping team members collaborate better;

  • being a source of entertainment;

  • boosting group dynamics;

  • allowing workers to do something different, and so on.

3) Stimulating Creativity

Creativity is needed at all stages throughout the employee experience; however, it’s very much welcomed before major meetings or brainstorming sessions.

Of course, you don’t need to prepare an icebreaker activity before every single brainstorming session or each major meeting you may host - you'll know best when to do it and which activity to pick for that particular moment.

4) Having Fun

Even the most diligent and hard-working employees need a break from their work activities. This is when the so-called party icebreakers come into play.

As their name suggests, party icebreakers are great for party events (both online and in-person). They help put all attendees in a relaxed mood, and they usually correlate with the theme of the party (if the party is thematic, if not, they can be quite random). Sometimes you might even include a selection of a few fun icebreakers.

However, since these icebreakers are all about providing your work teams with an enjoyable experience, you don’t need to wait for a particular party event to host them. Fun is fun, and doesn’t need any special occasion, day, date, or timing. It can happen anywhere and anytime.

All in all, icebreakers help boost employee engagement levels in your office in various ways.

And the engagement levels end up affecting employee motivation, employee retention levels, and the company’s culture. It’s kind of like a domino effect.

And all of them help shape the employee experience - how good or bad it will be, depends on many factors, including you, as an employer, the employees, their contribution to the company, as well as the overall work atmosphere.

15 Best Icebreaker Games For Work Teams

15-best-icebreaker-games-for-work-teams

In the following paragraphs, we’ll share the best 15 icebreaker games for work teams that your employees will surely enjoy, divided into a few categories. We’ve selected short and sweet, fun-to-play games for both remote and in-office teams that are sure to break the ice and build stronger team connections.

Virtual Icebreakers

virtual-icebreakers

Whether your employees work remotely due to the pandemic or you’ve had a remote team for years, the following icebreakers will help them form stronger bonds, ultimately resulting in better communication and collaboration.

1. Trivia Game

Trivia games have to be one of our most favorite icebreaker games. You can never go wrong with it. All you need is to choose a topic, prepare a set of questions, and set a date to play it. Plus, with trivia games you get to learn all sorts of fun facts while encouraging creative thinking and collaboration in your team.

One great tool for hosting an online live multiplayer trivia game is TriviaNerd

trivianerd

As most trivia games are all about general knowledge, you can take your icebreaker trivia game to another level by choosing a specific topic or a theme. Perhaps a holiday game trivia, such as interesting facts and questions about Christmas trivia, or a Disney-themed trivia game?

See what your employees’ preferences are and choose the topic or theme of the trivia together. For example, you can run a survey and go with the topic that the majority chooses. If, however, there are too many different preferences and you want to avoid someone feeling left out, you can always go for general knowledge trivia.

Finally, choose a suitable video conferencing platform that’s easy to use and allows everyone to see the questions and communicate with each other. For instance, if you play the trivia in groups, Zoom allows you to group people in breakout rooms so they can privately discuss among themselves before answering a question.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

Trivia makes the whole “learning process” a lot more fun, allows workers to use various skills, and gets them to think and engage in positive competition.

2. Quizbreaker

Another great tool that you can use for your work teams to break the ice is Quizbreaker. It's a virtual online icebreaker game that helps teams get to know each other a little bit more over time. What's great about Quizbreaker is that it's automated, meaning teams will get a notification to answer questions about their teammates at a given cadence.

quizbreaker

Using Quizbreaker is also relatively simple. All you need to do is head over to their website and create an account. Quizbreaker comes with a free trial so you can give it a go with your team with no commitments.

Once your team members are in, they'll be prompted to answer a few icebreaker questions. You can also create custom questions and add as you go. Team members will then get prompts to answer those questions across the week. Quizbreaker is also gamified, which adds a little element of friendly competition. You have weekly leaderboards and other ways to measure employee engagement over time.

There are point systems, badges, and levels so your team feels more motivated to get involved in these icebreaker challenges. You can schedule quizzes to get sent out daily daily, weekly, monthly, and so on.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

We love this icebreaker because it's simple to use and highly engaging. Moreover, it's also relatively inexpensive for the value and features you get from the system. To check out Quizbreaker, head over to their website.

3. Guess That Drawing

Your employees don’t need to have great painting or drawing skills to engage in an artistic icebreaker activity of this kind. They just need to know how to have fun and unleash their inner painter.

This icebreaker requires a game app, such as Brightful, where you can access a ready-made platform that allows you to:

  • draw many unique pictures;

  • choose harder words to earn more points (or create your own list of words to draw);

  • adjust the game’s setting so that you can control the time;

  • and share and save the pictures everybody drew.

The instructions for this game are very simple; players take turns drawing words and the rest of the teammates are required to guess what that word is. The faster someone guesses a specific word, the more points they score.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

This icebreaker activity allows employees to enjoy the present moment by focusing on the process of drawing in the here and now. It’s fun, allows for nonverbal expression, and will bring your employees together through a lot of laughter and hilarious drawings.

4. Paint a Picture, Build a Story

One of the easiest and, dare we say, most entertaining ways to play an online painting game is by using Gartic Phone, also known as the Telephone Game.

The app gives you some time to sketch photos based on the other teammates’ prompts. You may be already guessing it - the results are hilarious!

Here’s how you can play it:

  1. Invite all your employees on an app such as Discord or Zoom;

  2. Each participant writes an unusual sentence;

  3. Participants receive a prompt they need to draw it;

  4. Then they explain their crazy drawing;

  5. And finally, look at the results and laugh!

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

This is one of the funniest virtual icebreakers out there. We love it because it can be used as a relaxing activity before long meetings to put everyone in a good mood. Also, it’s a great option for brainstorming sessions - especially when you’re on the lookout for something creative.

5. Share the Love

This icebreaker is a great way to encourage positivity and team bonding. It’s more suitable for teams who’ve worked together for a while because it requires employees to know each other, at least on a very basic level.

The premise of the game is for each employee to say something positive about another team member. Once someone receives a compliment, it’s their turn to say something nice about another colleague, until everyone has received a nice word.

Here are some examples of what teammates can say to each other. The statements can be as short or as long as your employees want to make them:

  • Jane, I love your smile.

  • Jackson, you helped me a lot with the email suggestions last month. You saved my project!

  • Maya, I’m really grateful for buying me coffee each day.

  • Nina, thank you for the positive vibes you bring to the office each day.

  • Jacob, whenever I have any doubts about starting a new project, you’re always helping me make the right choice.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

If you’re looking for a way to make your employees reflect on the interpersonal relationships they have with their teammates in the company, and you want to allow them to share their feelings openly and verbally in front of everyone - this is the icebreaker activity you should pick.

Icebreakers for Meetings

icebreakers-for-meetings

Meetings can be tough and demanding, even for the most ambitious of employees. Sometimes you just need to spice things up a little and help your employees feel comfortable being with each other, but also get to know each other on a much more informal and personal level.

And what better way to do so than by starting your meetings with an icebreaker activity?

Keep in mind that this applies to virtual meetings, too (you just might need to be willing to make some adjustments here and there).

6. Alphabet Brainstorm

This is one of those icebreaker games for work teams that's perfect before a laid-back meeting. It will make everyone more dynamic, engaged, and allow them to recall one of their favorite childhood games.

The best part: you can play it both online and in person.

For best results, we suggest opting for an app like Scattergories that plans the icebreaker game for you.

  1. Online Version

If you opt for the online version, here’s what you need to know:

  • Choose the game categories you want to play (such as food, shop, Christmas gift, country, movie, to name a few).

  • Adjust the game’s settings - create a new game, choose the game letters (the ones you can use for individual game rounds), the number of players, the number of rounds, as well as how to end a round (one way is through clicking on the STOP button, and the other is allowing the round to end spontaneously when time’s up), and so on.

  • While playing the game, participants need to write words for each chosen category as quickly as they can. Each word begins with a letter that was randomly chosen from the letters you selected before the game started.

  • After each round, invalid words of all players should be marked (if the majority of players decide that a word isn’t valid, the word won’t count).

  • The game ends after a fixed number of rounds.

  • The participant with the most points wins.

  1. Offline Version

In case you’re interested in playing the game in a much more traditional manner, here’s a simplified version:

Every player gets a game sheet;

  • The game is played in several rounds (for each round, you need to specify a letter that every word starts with);

  • One of the players says the alphabet in their head until another participant stops them using the word ‘stop’ - this signalizes the beginning of the round;

  • Players are supposed to write words for each of the categories as fast as they can and each word needs to begin with the selected letter;

  • The player who finishes first shouts STOP and everyone needs to cease writing;

  • Points are awarded after each round, and the whole game finishes after the agreed number of rounds.

Whether you’re playing the online or the offline version, the points are awarded based on the scoring rules. And the rules are the same in both cases:

  • If you don't have a word written down = 0 points.

  • You wrote down the same word as someone else = 0 points.

  • You wrote down a word and no one else has the same word = 1 point.

  • You are the only one who wrote down a word = 1 point.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

We think this is a great icebreaker game for competitive colleagues and employers who wish to develop their vocabulary further and train their memory.

7. One Word Game

The one word game allows employers to engage their workers before the meeting starts, so they’re more relaxed and engaged during the actual meeting. This is how it’s played.

Gather your workers and divide them into several groups. Pick a word/concept that’s closely related to the meeting’s topic. Share the word/concept with the groups and ask each person to think of a word that best describes the word/concept and then share it with the rest of their group. After a brief discussion, you can invite everyone to share their words with the rest of the team.

Here’s an example. Let’s say your meeting is about the new product you’re launching (headphones). Tell your workers to think about the word “headphones” and then describe it to their peers.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

This icebreaker game for work teams encourages employees to think about a specific topic in smaller groups and brainstorm in a very spontaneous manner (remember, this is an icebreaker, not a formal brainstorming session). This may help increase your workers’ participation during the meeting later on. Plus, it allows workers to examine the word from different angles without them feeling any pressure or being forced to think in a specific way.

8. Pop Quiz

Pop quizzes may be a perfect way to introduce your team to the meeting you’re hosting.

The content of the pop quiz will largely depend on whether you’re trying to make it fun, or if you’re trying to match it with the topic of the meeting. For instance, if you’re organizing a meeting where you’ll discuss the upcoming company’s rebranding, you may opt for questions that are going to reflect this.

Here are some suggestions:

  • Why are we doing a rebrand now?

  • When was our company’s last rebranding?

  • Who is going to create the logo for this one?

  • What are the logo’s colors going to symbolize?

  • What are we trying to convey and to whom?

  • How is our rebranding going to affect our customers?

  • Has our customer profile changed over time?

  • What are the advantages that come with this rebranding?

  • What about some disadvantages?

  • Do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

It’s up to you how to organize this pop quiz. You may write the questions on the board and have your employees copy them on a piece of paper or their notebooks, or you might opt for a more digital approach.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

We believe this icebreaker for meetings is great for employers trying to find a way to relax their workers before the actual meeting, while focusing on the subject at hand. Also, it’s a great option for when you want to engage your employees to think about work-related matters, yet you’re not doing it in a formal manner (of course, this applies only if you include company-related questions in your pop quiz).

9. Movie Pitch

Are you trying to find the next Quentin Tarantino or Alfred Hitchcock in your office?

You’re definitely going to get a step closer by introducing this icebreaker in the company.

Divide your employees into groups and give them 10-15 minutes to come up with a movie plot. You can give them some limitations as to what genre they should focus on, how long the movie should be, and so on.

Otherwise, we suggest allowing your workers to be as creative as they can. Once everybody’s done, each group should step forward and present their plot. If a group didn’t manage to finish their plot, they’re supposed to present what they have thought of so far.

Give an award to the team with the best movie plot (it’s up to you how this can be decided - you and your HR team may vote, or each worker can anonymously vote for the movie plot they liked best). Either way, make sure not to make this evolve into a rivalry - you’re trying to get your workers to be creative, not frustrated or disappointed.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

The movie pitch icebreaker is for work teams that frequently brainstorm, work on specific projects, collaborate with their peers, and are always on the lookout for the next promising idea. It helps the team get the ball rolling.

Quick Icebreakers

quick-icebreakers

As much as planning complex icebreakers may be a fun undertaking, as it comes with a lot of details and memorable experiences, every now and then, every employer needs to host a quick icebreaker that doesn’t require a lot of logistics or time to plan.

Such icebreakers come in handy in busy periods, when both you and your team seem to be glued to your desks and overwhelmed by the responsibilities you have. But you know - employees need to have a break and have some fun way to unwind.

So, below we give you three suggestions you can choose from.

10. Would You Rather

Popular among people of all ages, the Would You Rather game is a great icebreaker that’s quick and effective. It doesn’t require a lot of planning and can be over in just a few minutes.

If you’re curious as to what questions might be asked during a would-you-rather icebreaker session, here are some suggestions to get you started:

  • Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future and meet your great-great-grandchildren?

  • Would you rather lose all of the money you've earned this year or lose all of the memories you've gained this year?

  • Would you rather become an unknown superhero or a famous person in history books?

  • Would you rather have a job where you talk to people all day or a job where you stay at your desk by yourself all day?

  • Would you rather do something you love and make just enough money to get by or do something you hate but make millions of dollars?

To illustrate what a would-you-rather question looks like, we’ve included versatile questions - some very random and funny, others a bit more serious. To get the full scope of it, we invite you to visit the link and go through the rest of the questions in the article.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

This is one of the quickest icebreaker games for work teams you can ever think of. It’s easy to organize, fun to engage in, and it’s very informative, as people get to share what they’d rather do/say/be/feel/choose, and so on.

11. Two Truths and a Lie

This is another timeless game that’s played by both kids and adults, and is quite suitable and effective as a quick icebreaker.

Here’s how it’s played: one person starts by giving three statements about themselves to the rest of the group, two of which are truthful and one false, and everyone should then guess what statement is the false one.

Here are some suggestions:

  • I once auditioned for a horror movie.

  • I lost my phone last year.

  • When I worked in the previous company, we always used to play Scanavger Hunt during team-building events.

Extra tips:

You can just give the basic instructions for the game and allow your employees to approach it as they please. If you wish to help workers “prepare” for the icebreaker a bit better, however, you might share some tips with them:

  • Try not to say the false statement last every time.

  • Don’t over-analyze or over-explain the false statement. Make sure it’s short and concise.

  • If you’re doing several rounds, mix up the order every time you play.

  • Make the lie sound normal and some of the truths a bit more outrageous (it’s to throw the other players off).

  • Be mindful of your facial expressions. When you say the lie, don’t look down, laugh, cover your face, or avoid eye contact with your peers.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

We believe Two Truths and a Lie is a great icebreaker for workers who want to learn things about their peers. Not only that - it’s highly engaging, and it encourages people to reflect upon their experiences and think about some of the stuff they have (not) done.

12. The Handshake

Is there just one way to shake hands with people?

Apparently not. Or at least, that’s what this icebreaker activity suggests.

Here’s what The Handshake is all about: divide your group of workers into pairs of two and have them come up with the most creative handshake. This handshake can be funny, unusual, corporate (whatever that means), and so on. Give them several minutes for this.

This may be challenging to organize in the office, as the pairs wouldn’t like to see what others are doing. So, it’s good to allow workers to “use” the whole building, or even go outside to practice the handshake.

Once everyone’s back, vote for the best handshake and reward the pair.

Who knows? It could be that your workers adopt the handshake and start using it to greet each other from that moment on.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

If you want to host an icebreaker activity but have no time to prepare a challenging game, opt for The Handshake. It’ll make workers laugh and have fun, and that’s something each employee can appreciate.

Icebreaker Games for Smaller Groups

icebreaker-games-for-smaller-groups

Working with large groups isn’t quite the same as working with small groups. You need a different approach for many business-related matters, and icebreakers are no exception.

So in this part, we share several icebreaker games you can use with your smaller groups for a wide range of bonding purposes.

13. Fun Questions

There are many ways to approach this question-asking activity. You can divide employees into groups and have them ask and answer questions among each other; you could also have everyone be seated next to each other and you can be the one asking questions. Or you might do something entirely different. Of course, if several ideas resonate with you, you might try each one of them and see what resonates with your workers the most.

Anyway, the instructions and the technicalities aren’t the most challenging bit. It’s the questions that need to be used throughout the game - this is what employers struggle with the most.

Here are some fun icebreaker questions to inspire you:

  1. What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?

  2. What is the strangest gift you have ever received?

  3. What kind of reality show would you appear in?

  4. Which of Snow White’s seven dwarfs describes you best (Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy or Sneezy)?

  5. What song describes your life right now?

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

This icebreaker activity is fun (hence its name), it helps employees think about how to answer random and quite unusual questions, and it allows workers to see what it feels like to be with their peers in a relaxed, informal situation while still being in the office.

14. Personality Quiz

We love icebreakers for smaller groups because they allow for intimacy and for workers to get to know one another in a much more meaningful way.

This is precisely why we appreciate personality quizzes as well.

Such quizzes are fairly easy to find - the Internet is full of them!

You can opt for more serious and demanding quizzes, or you might choose something playful or even funny. It all depends on what it is you’re trying to achieve with a particular personality quiz. It’s your call - you know your team best.

On the whole, such quiz activities can be brief, and employees can share some of their results with their peers and discuss them afterward. They can search for some trends (for instance, most of them getting similar results or scores after taking a specific quiz), or dwell on the different answers they provided and understand the reasons behind their differences.

Taking the personality quizzes a step further

With that said, many employers wish to take things to the next level, and they opt for personality assessments instead. We’re referring to tests such as the Big 5, the DISC assessment, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and so on.

Although many employers use these tests as part of their screening/onboarding processes, they’re amazing for team-building/icebreaker purposes, too.

If this sounds like something you resonate with, we suggest going through some of the most well-known personality tests and picking one (or several) that seems right for your workers and company.

Of course, if this ends up being an icebreaker activity your teams are fond of, you’ll have to change the tests each time you do it. Put simply, it would make no sense to provide them with the same personality test each time you decide to host this kind of activity.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

Personality quizzes or personality assessments are a great icebreaker idea for teams who want to get to know not only their peers, but also themselves on a much deeper level. All in all, they’re insightful, fun to analyze, and help employees learn more about their strengths, behaviors, patterns, and decision-making processes.

15. Marshmallow Challenge

The Marshmallow Challenge is seen as being very unusual, yet it has proven to be quite effective for smaller teams.

Here are the rules:

  • There’s no fixed group size; however, it’s said that groups of 4-6 people work best. It’s also great to have the same number of people on every team - this ensures transparency and no team will have the advantage of being outnumbered.

  • Let everyone know they have 18 minutes for the challenge.

  • Make sure each group has the necessary “food tools”. This includes 20 sticks of spaghetti, one marshmallow, one yard of string, and one yard of tape.

  • Explain that each group has the same goal: to build the tallest structure out of the tools we listed, with the marshmallow on top.

  • Repeat the instructions and rules in greater detail. Repeat them if necessary. For instance, some members may not be sure whether they’re allowed to break the spaghetti, cut the tape, and so on.

  • Have a timer/stopwatch, or even better, some kind of countdown timer everybody can see so that they know how much time they have left without panicking.

  • After the 18 minutes, announce the winner. The group with the tallest standing structure is the group that wins the challenge!

  • Make sure not to organize this challenge when you don’t have enough time, your workers need to go back to work quickly, or your company is going through a stressful period - it might defocus your workers, and the whole idea just won’t work.

What’s the whole point of the challenge, anyway? Apparently, the marshmallow metaphorically represents the hidden challenges that come with each project/undertaking, the ones no one quite managed to consider.

This is meant to be a simple design exercise to help teams collaborate and create something even with the weirdest things they have at their disposal. The point is that even the most impossible things are achievable with group support and adequate collaboration.

Why we recommend this icebreaker game for work teams:

The Marshmallow Challenge teaches team members valuable lessons on innovation, cooperation, creativity, and resourcefulness. It forces workers to remain focused, do the task within a timeframe, and do what seems undoable at first.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I organize an icebreaker with my team?

There’s no rule that states how often you should do icebreakers with your team. It may be once a week, once a month, or more/less often - it all depends on the habits you have as a company and how open your teams are to such activities.

With that said, it’s certainly good to have some icebreaker routines with your teams, whether that’s once a week or before every meeting.

And while such routines are welcomed, it’s also perfectly normal for companies and teams to make spontaneous decisions and adjust to their current circumstances. Namely, if you have a busy period ahead, and you’ve been planning the Marshmallow Challenge for a while, yet it turns out your employees are tired, stressed out, and don’t quite have for it, it’s best to postpone it or choose a quicker activity instead.

In general, as long as there’s mutual understanding between you and your employees, it’s easy to schedule icebreaker events and adapt to the current situation.

However, one thing’s certain - no matter how busy you are or how preoccupied your workers seem to be, there will always be time to host a quick icebreaker activity to cheer everyone up.

What are the benefits of icebreakers?

Icebreakers come with a plethora of benefits, some of them being:

  • helping employers to create a relaxed environment where employees can share their ideas and participate more fully in corporate matters;

  • preparing workers for collaborative work;

  • encouraging workers to show their leadership skills;

  • fostering a productive and creative learning environment;

  • using them as a source of entertainment;

  • creating a sense of involvement, community, belonging, and purpose;

  • using them to introduce important business-related topics in an informal manner;

  • building a culture of trust among workers;

  • enhancing honest communication;

  • promoting laughter and creating a non-threatening and non-toxic work culture;

  • building common ground amongst coworkers;

  • exchanging information and knowledge (especially with icebreaker activities such as quizzes and trivia games);

  • allowing employees to learn new stuff about themselves and their peers;

  • transforming an ordinary meeting into a creative and fun one;

  • helping some workers communicate with one another for the first time (for instance, if some employees work in different departments and they never got the chance to meet each other);

enabling people to relax when they engage in group work;

  • energizing workers;

  • promoting practical learning;

  • establishing a friendly working climate both for new hires and already existing employees;

  • breaking up cliques and allowing workers to socialize with other employees;

  • reducing some workers’ feelings of isolation;

  • getting everyone equally involved;

  • helping employees think outside the box;

  • paving the way to learning new concepts, and so on.

What happens when I don't do icebreakers with my team?

Companies have their own ways of bonding with their teams both while being at work and outside of regular office hours - for some, it’s team-building events and icebreaker activities, for others, it’s taking trips or going to an after-work party on Fridays.

So, if you don’t do any icebreaker activities with your team, but you have your thing going on, it’s fine. This means you’re still coming up with ways to engage your teams. This is important as you want your employees to feel a sense of belonging and connection to your company and their peers. If you just focus on work and corporate events, your employees may feel a bit neglected or they might be under the impression that doing anything else than working with your peers is somehow “wrong”.

This brings us to the next point.

If you don’t plan any icebreaker events for your workers, but you also don’t organize any team-building activities, informal lunches, or virtual/in-person hangouts, this may pose some issues.

Of course, this doesn’t mean anything serious might happen to your company or your workers, but they might feel disengaged, not able to collaborate with their peers, or feel like they’re stuck in a monotonous cycle.

In any case, organizing informal gatherings, icebreaker activities, or any other fun event has not only a great effect on your employees’ well-being, but a positive influence on your employees’ performance levels at work, too.

Final Words

All in all, icebreaker games for work teams are a fun activity for you and your teammates to engage in and relax and they help you learn a lot of new things about each other.

Of course, employees can always have fun on their own or communicate among themselves, but there's always something special behind a neatly organized icebreaker game.

After all, they require a small amount of time, but their effects are long-lasting.

We hope you have fun planning your next icebreaker activity!