You found our list of virtual energizers for work.
Virtual energizers for work are activities that help to boost the team’s morale and energy. Examples include Office Trivia, The Same Page, and The Magical Ball. The purpose of these activities is to keep participants interested and energized throughout the online meeting.
These ideas are virtual employee engagement activities, ways to make virtual meetings fun, and Zoom meeting ideas. The ideas are online equivalents of energizer games.
This article contains:
- virtual energizer activities for adults
- energizers for virtual meetings
- online energizers for Zoom
- online energizer games for adults
Let’s get started!
List of virtual energizers for work
Energizers may help you set a productive tone for your virtual meeting, boost team spirit, and increase overall energy. In addition, energizers make transitions livelier and help to recapture participants’ attention. The following are energizers for virtual meetings.
1. The Magical Ball
Magic Ball is a great way to encourage innovative thinking among your employees. To begin the activity, open your camera, switch to gallery view, and have your team do the same. Afterward, hold your hands up as if you have an imaginary ball. Next, you will explain to your teammates that you have a magic ball, which has a special power available the person holding the ball. Then, you can select the superpower that best fits you. For example, a superpower like teleportation will immediately allow whoever has the magic ball to transport themselves to any location of their choice, like the mountains of Costa Rica, an Australian beach, or the moon.
After you have described the power and provided an example, mime tossing the magic ball to a specific coworker by name. The teammate must pretend to catch the magic ball. After explaining to their teammates where they were going to teleport, they pass the magic ball along to another coworker. The ball will go around until everyone has contributed. This energizer may include various abilities like time travel, invisibility, or truth-telling. You can choose an ability that you believe will be the most entertaining for your group.
2. Group Zoom Stretches
A virtual energizer can give you an adrenaline rush. When there is a break in the meeting, focus on an area of your body that needs relaxation or activation. For example, rolling your head may relieve stress in your shoulders and neck, while rotating your wrists while typing can help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. You can also stand up to do some jumping jacks.
You can invite your group to replicate the action with you while allowing them to make any necessary adjustments for their comfort or health. After you have finished, have a coworker choose a new body area and propose another easy action the group can mimic. Short, energizing breaks like this workout are always appreciated.
For inspiration, here is a list of online fitness providers.
3. Online Mini-Meditation
If your group needs a media break or stress relief, this activity can help. To begin, have your colleagues select a place to sit or stand where they feel most at ease. After settling down, have participants shut their eyes and make a mental checklist of every body part from their toes to their scalp. Next, you can ask participants to consider where they are holding onto stress and anxiety. Perhaps the tension rests in their jaw, neck, or lower back.
After the scan, have every participant take a deep breath and clench their fists for a count of ten. Then, tell your employees to let go of all their stress, take a deep breath, and relax into their seats or the floor. You can repeat this activity a couple of times. The energizing exercise you just gave your employees will have them feeling much more at ease in the workplace.
Check out this meditation video for ideas.
4. Joint Doodling
Drawing under time constraints is a fun and exciting way to rev up a group, give the creative juices flowing, and act as a nice juxtaposition to other activities. For this exercise, you need a writing tool like a pen or pencil and a writing canvas like paper or a napkin. Collaboration via online doodling also requires a certain amount of ingenuity, but it can be a great source of productivity and entertainment. You can utilize an online whiteboard. The participants can write their names on a post-it note and arrange them in rings wide enough to contain photos. It would help if you recorded the meeting’s proceedings in real time.
The first step is for everyone to create the same picture and upload it on the virtual whiteboard with their name. To get started, choose a subject easy to draw for beginners but also recognizable to everyone in your group, like a sailboat or a horse. Next, you should give participants a minute to sketch out the design. Once everyone finishes, have them try sketching the same thing using their “non-dominant” hand or with their eyes closed. It is important to give all players a chance to show off their three sketches. This energizing tool is mentally exciting and makes participants laugh.
If you have no access to a virtual whiteboard, then ou may use a digital platform like Google Docs or Slack to send along your artwork to the next person, or you can utilize traditional media like paper and pencil.
For more creative options, check out online art classes.
5. Camera On and Off
This activity is an excellent option for meeting breaks. This idea requires you to create a couple of questions for each section. For example, you may ask who drank coffee or tea first thing in the morning, ate breakfast, or listened to music or nature sounds during their walks.
You can tell participants to choose between two options by either keeping their cameras on or turning them off. Then, each round, survey the answers by checking out which participants appear onscreen. If you have time, then you can ask responders to explain their reasoning to the rest of the team. This energizer can boost the energy of any gathering and encourage participation.
For prompts, check out this or that questions.
6. Location Game
This activity is one of the online energizer games for adults and is ideal for geographically dispersed groups. If you are all in the same room at the same time, then you will have a huge advantage. You should give everyone in attendance a chance to talk about where they are from without actually saying the name of their city, state, or nation. For example, one participant could remark, “This capital city is called Sin City,” if they were based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Another might respond, “This city is renowned for the beaches and nightlife,” if they were in Miami.
If you want to make the activity more general, you may also ask users to identify the nation or state where they are working from. If you have people from all over the globe working on your team, then have each team member provide a brief description of their home country or a humorous tidbit about it. For example, an employee based in the Czech Republic may state, “This nation has the largest consumption of beer per capita in the world.” This activity is a great way to get to know your coworkers and pick up some tidbits of information that might come in handy at the next Zoom trivia night.
7. Two Truths and a Lie
This activity is a tried-and-true icebreaker and energizer. Each player has to come up with three statements, which include two truths and a believable lie. The other players then have to figure out which claim is a lie. This idea is a fantastic way for individuals to mingle and discover the sly nature of their colleagues.
Adding a real statement that appears improbable and a fake one that sounds convincing is the easiest way to throw folks off. For instance, a participant may introduce themselves by saying, “Hello, my name is Tracy. I cannot sing, I own a dog, and I have met Justin Bieber.”
People may reasonably assume that her claim regarding Justin Bieber is incorrect. Yet, it is possible that she previously assisted in the setup of one of his shows. Although it is common for individuals to have dogs as pets, she may have a cat as a pet instead.
Check out more fun question games.
8. Two-Word Check-In
This activity helps participants develop emotional intelligence and removes the vague part of the question, “How are you doing?” Whenever someone asks how you are doing, whether or not it is true, the answer is invariably “good” or “fine” since that is the socially conditioned reaction. For this activity, start the meeting by asking everyone to share two words that capture how they feel today. You might say something like “exhausted and optimistic.”
An emotion wheel might be helpful for this activity. Beyond the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, and anger, this wheel may help participants discover and name a larger spectrum of feelings. For instance, a team member feeling annoyed could first go for the word “angry,” but upon more reflection, they may realize that “frustrated” more accurately describes their emotional state.
Here is a list of check-in questions.
9. Virtual Office Trivia
You should find some interesting facts about the firm that you may use in a quiz. You can set up the activity by creating a mural with several questions. Another option is to run the activity as a Trivia Game. You can tell the team that you are about to begin a quiz about the business and that as a warm-up, they should each work on a different whiteboard.
Every participant will get 30 seconds to answer the questions on the virtual whiteboard. You can use a timer for this exercise. Example questions may include:
- When was the company founded?
- Who has been with the firm the longest?
- How many nationalities are on the team?
- Who developed the product’s function or a concept for its implementation?
The more you talk about the issue after each question, the more stories you will uncover. This trivia is one of the online energizers for Zoom.
Here is a guide to doing virtual trivia and a list of trivia questions for meetings.
10. Spontaneous Show & Tell
For this activity, ask every employee to choose something from their desk and show it off to the camera. Then the participants can tell you what it means or why it is sitting on their desk. The item might be funny or sentimental. A parent might talk about their children while holding up a picture of them in a frame. A participant may hold up an empty coffee cup. What we keep on our desks may reveal something about who we are or, at the very least, offer others a good chuckle.
Bonus: For a fun spin on this activity, allow teammates to make up an imaginary explanation and challenge players to call out the fibbers.
11. Highs and Lows
This activity is best for teams who already share some intimacy since it entails discussing some potentially sensitive times or vulnerable moments. People often struggle with conversations about their low moments. High and Lows is one of the most revealing virtual energizer activities for adults.
The process is straightforward. The group goes around the virtual room, with each person sharing a “high” and “low” from their week. A good idea is to have the participants share their lows first and end with the highs. However, the decision is entirely up to you. If you choose this energizer, you should try to say something inspiring or heartfelt after each teammate talks.
12. The Same Page
In this activity, teams need to identify a shared trait that has nothing to do with their profession. This online activity is entertaining since it encourages more inquiries to learn more about the other participants. To get started, everyone starts tossing out random facts, asking questions, and trying to create connections, however tenuous.
You may remark, “I love to sing,” and a colleague might respond, “I am a poor singer, but I love good music.” If you ask enough questions and toss forth enough suggestions, you could discover that you and your coworkers have a common interest, like knowing to play the piano. Alternatively, you could learn an interesting coincidence, such as visiting the same park as a child.
13. Strength Tests
This virtual energizer is perfect for project-focused team meetings since it will reveal which members’ skills will be most useful moving forward. First, every group member will take the University of Pennsylvania’s Brief Strengths Test. The test has 25 questions to determine a person’s strength in many areas, such as courage, gratitude, and humor. Then, have everyone in the group discuss their greatest strength and think of one way they may use it in their current job.
Learn more about the University of Pennsylvania’s Brief Strengths Test and check out more personality tests.
14. List It!
List It is a great activity that gets your team to pay attention. The remote facilitator’s duties may include minimizing distracting crosstalk and encouraging appropriate behavior during virtual meetings. List It is a fun way to pump participants up and may also improve communication.
The goal of this quick online energizer is to have the group count up to a certain number or list elements from a certain category, like names of states or past US presidents. Each participant must wait their turn and speak randomly. Everyone will go back to the beginning of the list if two persons try to talk simultaneously, even for a split second.
Tips for doing virtual energizers
Online energizers are somewhat different from offline versions. However, there are points to note when running virtual energizers.
1. Simple is Best
Some on-site activities may become more complex when done virtually. If at all feasible, strive towards simplicity. The best online energizers require little effort to explain, distribute, and use. These short exercises keep your meeting running well and prevent anybody from becoming too irritated.
The instructions should include the required action and the digital tools to use. While it is common knowledge that digital tools are awesome, switching to a new one should not dampen your enthusiasm for your energizer.
2. Communication is Key
Communicating verbally and nonverbally, selecting the order of who is speaking, expressing emotions via nonverbal signals or emoticons, and commenting in the conversation all contribute to shaping dialogue. In the end, these little steps add up to a meeting etiquette that ensures everyone in your workshop is pleased and productive. Also, the best energizers get teams talking instead of passively watching a screen.
3. Digital Tools Matter
You may also use an energizer to introduce a new digital tool, such as a whiteboard or bulletin board. Participants may get experience with a new digital tool in a less-demanding setting, improving their overall competence in this area. It would help to consider what resources your colleagues have access to and offer them during an energizer.
Conclusion
Many employees are working from home and holding virtual meetings for the first time. Using virtual energizers may help keep your team focused, energized, and even a little playful while working together to achieve common goals. Energizers are even more crucial in online communities, where people spend less time together in person and hence have less opportunity to play off one another’s enthusiasm.
Next, check out virtual team meeting ideas and team games for online meetings.
Grace He