Energizer is a quick activity that can be run to warm up the team and promote group interaction. It is a good meeting starter for any team meeting. A good energizer helps to create a friendly environment and make people more comfortable to participate in the activities that will follow.
Despite of your meeting being remote or face-to-face, you must warn up the group, and get everyone energized!
Remote energizer is a quick activity that can be run remotely to warm up the team and promote group interaction.
I have been facilitating many remote meetings and workshops. And I have tested many energizers for remote settings. Therefore, I am updating the site FunRetrospectives.com with the tips for remote teams, which energizers are best, and how to adapt them.
Below are seven great remote energizers to boost your team remote meeting:
Below are the simple step-by-step instructions for each of these remote activities. Image and text are courtesy of FunRetrospectives.com
Fun Fact
Fun Fact is great to get to know more about each other. People will anonymously write fun facts, then the group will try to match a person with their fun fact.
- Ask the participants to think about a fun fact about themselves individually.
- Instruct participants to write it on a note, anonymously.
- Make all the fun facts visible to everyone.
- Going one by one, let the group guess who the person is who wrote each fun fact.
- Write the name of the person next to the fun fact.
>> Create the FunRetro Fun Fact board
Increment by one
Increment by one is a simple and fun energizer to get some good laughs. It has a subtle message on the need to align about basic rules.
Running the Increment by one remote activity
- Ask everyone to keep their mics open
- Explain the activity: “I will start by saying the number ´1´, someone else has to say ´2´, then someone else says ´3´ and so on. We cannot combine the order of the people talking, neither use the chat or raise hands to signal anything.. If two people say the same number, we go back to starting in the number ´1´.
- Start by saying the number ´1´
The roulette asks
The roulette asks is a great activity for people to get to know more about each other.
Running the roulette asks remote activity:
- Start by opening the FunRetro roulette asks page and explain the game
- Choose a person, click on the roulette and ask the question
- Ask the person who answered to choose the next person
- Click on the roulette and ask the question
- Repeat until everyone has participated
Isn’t that crazy?
- Start by saying “isn’t that crazy?”, then call another participant name.
- The participant has to add a few words to the story, then call another participant name.
- And so forth until the story ends.
Guess my favorite song
Guess my favorite song is a great activity to get people to know a little more about each other.
Running the Guess my favorite song remote activity:
- Open the FunRetro Guess who likes it remote board
- Ask each participant to find a videoclip of their favorite song on youtube
- Instruct them to copy the URL from you tube and paste it on ´Type in something and hit enter…´(the videoclip would show up like hte image above).
- Hit play on the first song and the group has to guess who it is from
- Repeat for all videoclips
I went to the beach and took…
“I went to the beach and took…” is a simple activity to verify everyone´s attention. It is easy to explain, fast, simple and only requires verbal communication. There is no need to write or to read notes.
Running the remote activity
- Start by saying “I went to the beach and took…”
- Then say one thing you would take to the beach (e.g., “a chair”)
- Call someone else to continue the story.
- The person has to repeat the whole sentence, add “and” and one more thing (e.g., “I went to the beach and took a chair, and my sunglasses”)
- Go back to step 3 until everyone has participated in the story.
One two ping four pong
One Two Ping Four Pong is a short activity to start up a meeting in a good mood and get participants engaged.
Running the remote activity:
- Start by saying the number 1 then call someone else name
- The person mentally increments the number by one. Then:
- If the number is not a multiple of three or five: Says the number and call the next person.
- If the number is a multiple of three: Says ping and call the next person.
- If the number is a multiple of five: Says pong and call the next person.
- Go back to step 2 (if there is no mistake, otherwise go back to step1)
You can find these and other effective energizers (or ice-breaks) at FunRetrospectives.com These are also on the FunRetrospectives book. If you enjoy fun and effective meetings, you will also enjoy the FunRetrospectives training.
