Virtual Meeting Icebreaker: Play Would You Rather Game

Virtual meetings are boring, but they don't have to be if you use a few well designed icebreakers to keep the energy up and the group connected. And in this video, I'm going to show you one of those icebreakers that I call Would you rather. So let's get into it. In just a moment, I'm going to show you a recording of me doing the would you rather Icebreaker during a real program that I was running recently. But I'm going to pause it a few times to highlight something that you might not have noticed that will help you to better run this icebreaker so that it doesn't ended up breaking the meeting. Roll the tape. Welcome. My name's Tom, but I'm way less interested in myself. I always want to get a sense of who I'm with here today for this time. Like you're carving out a piece of your life to be with me and to be together so quickly. There's a poll that's going to pop up on the screen. Notice that I didn't spend any time describing myself or convincing them that they should think I'm credible or that they should listen to me. That will all come eventually, but I never like to start out like that because I want to get right into the icebreaker. I want to increase the energy and the connections and get them going right away. So instead of giving my bio and my title, I go right into that icebreaker. There's a poll that's going to pop up on the screen when this poll does. Let's just get a quick answer to the group. So here comes the first poll question. A couple things to notice here. I had the poll question queued up, ready to go, so all I had to do is click a button. If you aren't as tech savvy as I am, then I highly suggest you have someone behind the scenes that helps you to launch the polls and close the polls while you're talking. The second thing, while they were answering the question, I gave them this countdown. 4, 3. This not only puts time pressure on them to answer the question, but also it fills the silence so that there isn't this just dead air while we're waiting for them to answer the question. If you had the choice, would you rather win the lottery or live twice as long? Go ahead and drop your answer into that poll question that just popped up on the screen. Did you notice that I didn't use the word icebreaker to set up this activity? So the word icebreaker has such negative energy attached to it. I don't want to fight that. So my suggestion to all of you is that you just roll right into the activity, or if you have to say something, say group activity. Just don't say icebreaker. Side note, the only reason I use the word icebreaker in the title of this video is because that's what people search for. But you'll never hear me say that during one of my programs. And let's see answers. They're going to close this out in 4, 3, 2, 1, and close. Take a look at the results here. 62% of you said, live twice as long. Now, we didn't asterisk that with, like, you're healthy, so we're gonna assume you're healthy. It's not, like, bedridden for twice as long. Also, I know there's some of you out there are financial planners, and you're like, tom, compound interest. If I put the money in today and I live twice as long, it's like I won the lottery six times over. So I get it. I understand it. I show the poll results on the screen, and then I talk about the results. What you don't see here is that I also took one person from the audience and added them to the main screen so we were side by side and had them share what they chose and why they chose it. If I have time, I'll ask for someone to share the other answer so that we get both answers going at the same time. All right, one more question. I'm learning about this group. So here's the last and final question for the group. The question is, if you have the choice, would you rather have a life pause button or a life rewind button? Make that decision for yourself in five. Closing out in four, three, two, one. And closing the poll out. Look at you. 85% of you said you'd rather have a rewind button than a pause button. Amazing. Now, I have to say, I don't know. Have you ever heard that phrase, let your past mess be your future message? Because, look, I am not perfect, have made mistakes in my life, and there's moments where I'm like, I wish I could go back and fix it. However. However, some of those mistakes, I learned lessons about myself that I don't think I would have learned anywhere else. So even though I don't ever want to go through those moments again, I'm actually glad I did. Hopefully you noticed the exact same process this time. Again, for this question, first I asked a question. Put the poll on the screen 2. Filled in the dead space with a countdown 3 Show the results and talk about them. And something else I got to do here is to give them a lesson with the past mess future message idea. And I also shared a little bit about myself so they learn about me in the process. And again, what you don't see here is that I also brought someone onto the main screen, had them share their answer. All right, I feel like I got a good grasp of this group, so now I can introduce you to someone. As we kick this off. Did you notice I roll right into the content of the program with the transition being now that I have a good grasp of this group, I can introduce you to someone and then we roll content. This session was very short, so I only did two Would you rather questions? But in a longer session I might do four or five questions. Here are a few other Would you rather questions that you could ask. Would you rather be too hot or too cold? Would you rather never speak again or always say what's on your mind? Would you rather live alone or with all your friends? Would you rather stay in a luxury hotel in Paris or a luxury campsite in a national park? And on and on. There are so many questions that you can pick from. You could also do a variation of this where you have them hold up an A or a B card into the screen. Or if it were in person, you could also have them hold up an A or B card or move to the side of the room. That's the choice. They pick so they see who else is there. If you use this icebreaker in your next program, let me know how it goes. And if you like this, I highly recommend you subscribe to our channel to get all of our videos where we continuously help you to engage your people. Speaking of which, my name is Tom and I'm here to help you to engage the people on your dance floor. I'll see you in the next video.