Asking "How is everyone?" at the beginning of every meeting isn't always the best way to encourage connection and team bonding. Sometimes, you need to take it up a notch and introduce an ice breaker everyone can enjoy.

A great ice breaker has the power to strengthen coworker bonds, stimulate better brainstorming sessions, and create an enjoyable atmosphere for your employees. Equally, the wrong ice breaker game can lead to awkwardness or even increased tension - the exact opposite of what you want.

To get the most value out of your team bonding moments, we've created a list of the best ice breaker games for any workplace. Definitely something to consider the next time you get together with your work team. Try using one of these games instead of asking "How is everyone", and you're sure to hear some better, more insightful responses than "I'm okay". Just a head's up, the results can be rather interesting to say the least.

The Marshmallow Challenge

Break your team into groups of four. Give each group 20 sticks of spaghetti, three feet of tape, three feet of string, and one marshmallow. Ask them to build the tallest freestanding structure they can. The trick is, the marshmallow must be on top. So sit back and see what happens - certainly entertainment worthy. The marshmallow challenge truly makes for the perfect icebreaker and team-building exercise.

Scavenger Hunt

If you have a little extra time on your hands, you can always opt for the good old-fashioned scavenger hunt.

Depending on where your office is located, such an event can take place on-premises (once you start working there again, that is). Simply split up your team into groups, and give each group a short list of items to find. You might want to provide an incentive for the winning team such as a £50 Amazon gift card. However, in the case your team are still working from home and you can't host the scavenger hunt at the office, there's a fun alternative - to have a virtual scavenger hunt. The goal isn’t to find a specific item but any item that fits the description you provide (i.e cooking utensil starting with the letter S or an item of clothing that is blue).

Two Truths & One Lie

One of the more classic ice breakers in the list, Two Truths and One Lie can be used anywhere from family parties to company events. To play, you simply ask each person to brainstorm three "facts" about themselves - two of which are true, and one will be a lie. Two Truths and a Lie is a fun and engaging game, and more importantly, it can help your team learn facts about one another, so they can begin forming deeper bonds with one another. Perfect for first time meetings as well as coworkers that have known each other for years.

Share An Embarrassing Photo

For this game, all you have to do is have everyone bring in an embarrassing photo and tell the story behind it. Doing this is a great way to build connection remotely. To show the photos, you can have your team members share their screen or send a file to the team leader who will have them pulled up. To make this even more interesting, you can have people guess whose photo it is before your team member shares their story. A great laugh, and certainly one of our favourites here at Avanty.

Whodunit?

You just have to split your employees up into groups and have each person write down something interesting they've done on a scrap piece of paper (e.g., skydiving, have lived in 4 different countries, drank a gallon of water in six minutes—the sillier the better). Put the papers into a hat, give it a nice shake, and have each person draw from the hat and get them to read aloud what they've picked out. The reader must then try to guess "whodunit" and why they came to that conclusion. Great fun!

Trivia Game

If you're looking for a remote icebreaker that's more of a game, and less discussion based, you can host a trivia game. Sporcle is an online trivia platform you can use for free for already made trivia quizzes or you can create your very own quiz. To get started, all you'll need to do is sign up for a free Sporcle account. If you would like to run this kind of event remotely, you'll want to share your screen with your team. Everyone will need to have a separate device to use so they can enter the game and submit their answers.

Would You Rather...

A classic game played typically by teenagers or as a drinking game but "Would You Rather" is actually an excellent, quick ice breaker for the workplace. Next time you're settling into a meeting or hosting a team bonding event, take turns going around the table and asking each person a "Would You Rather" question. Don't worry if you get stuck, here are some great "Would You Rather" questions to get you started:

• Would you rather live in a Tree house or an Igloo?
• Would you rather only have summer or winter for the rest of your life?
• Would you rather explore space or the ocean?
• 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 have x-ray vision or magnified hearing?
• Would you rather never use toothpaste again or never watch another movie or TV show?
• Would you rather be Batman or Spiderman?
• Would you rather always say everything on your mind or never speak again?

Don't React Challenge

Simply get your co-workers/ employees in a circle and ask one volunteer to sit or stand in the middle. Tell the volunteer that they can not laugh or smile, regardless of what happens. Then have each other member take turns telling the volunteer a work-appropriate joke. The goal of the volunteer is to hear a joke from everyone around the circle, while the goal of the other team members is to make the volunteer laugh. This challenge can be helpful as a way of lightening the mood on teams that deal with stressful projects or situations on a regular basis.

Choose Your Favourite

For this icebreaker, all you have to do is answer the question about your favourite things. EASY! Simply ask your co-workers/ employees to choose their favourite movie,T.V. show, band etc. The question can change every week. This icebreaker helps your team get to know each other even when they work remotely and can spark conversation on what everyone likes or dislikes, finding similarities as well as polar opposites.

Charades

You can never go wrong with this classic party game - unless it's Christmas day and your nan has had too many sherries. But what is Charades? Well it's all about acting. The goal is to describe an object, movie, book, or a person using just your acting abilities. There are a few different ways you can play this game, but here’s how we do it here at Avanty:

• Have one person pick the word (object, movie, book, tv show, person etc).
• That person will then pick one individual from the group and whisper the word in their ear (or write it down on a piece of paper).
• That individual will then have to act out/do something that would hint at the word, as others attempt to guess the correct answer.

The Hot Seat!

The Hot Seat is a fun way to bring everyone closer together and learning new things about one another.

Here’s how it works: Select one person to sit on the hot seat. Everyone gets to ask one question, literally about anything. The perfect game to break the ice but it's important to make sure things don’t get too personal. Here are some great questions you can ask the person in the hot seat:

• What would you do if you won the lottery?
• What was the last movie you watched and would you recommend it?
• What was the best thing that happened this week?
• If money was no object and you were guaranteed to be successful, what job would you do as a career?
• If you could have dinner with any person who ever lived, who would it be and why?
• What three words best describe you?
• What brings you joy?
• What can you not live without?
• What was the silliest thing you’ve ever done?
• What is the bravest thing you have done?

Find the activities that are perfect for your team

Remember, though some of your employees may be social butterflies, not all of them are. The easiest way to help your workers get to know each other better is to encourage interaction in a way most people are comfortable with. Because all participants are in it together, icebreakers are one of the quickest paths to a connected team.

There are a ton of work icebreakers out there that we definitely missed. Try one of the above and let us know how you found it. We love to hear stories like these, especially if it gets rather interesting!