Interactive Workshop Activities for Virtual Collaboration

You know that engagement is the secret sauce for any virtual meeting or workshop. But, it’s tough to get people to stay focused—let alone actively participate. A recent survey found that more than half of workers admit they do other things (like check email or peruse social media) during online meetings. This is where workshop activities come in handy. These interactive exercises command attention, encourage contributions from everybody, foster team bonding, and help you run a collaborative session that’s free of groans and eye rolls.

Why should you add exercises and activities to your workshop?

You’ve likely heard the objections about putting yet another meeting on the calendar. But here’s the thing: Meetings aren’t inherently bad. When they’re structured and managed well, they can be a great thing for your team’s culture and productivity. Interactive workshop activities can help with that by offering the following benefits:

• Maintain focus: Workshop activities require all of your participants’ attention because they can’t sit back and watch—they need to chime in. When 71% of senior managers say meetings are unproductive and inefficient, that focus level is important.
• Encourage participation: Hearing from everyone can be a struggle. Fortunately, a shared activity pulls contributions out of everybody—and not just your most extroverted team members.
• Build psychological safety: Even the seemingly silly icebreakers serve a purpose. When that same survey found that 62% of managers say meetings miss opportunities to bring the team closer together, these lighthearted exercises encourage bonding and foster more psychological safety on your team.

Don’t treat meeting exercises as a brief reprieve or total departure from your agenda items. Instead, integrate them into your workshop or conversation to encourage engagement and push things forward.

Types of activities and exercises

Before we get into the exercises themselves, let’s cover some of the different categories these activities fall into:

10 workshop activities to engage your virtual team

Now that you know the different buckets that workshop activities can fall into, let’s get into the good stuff: the exercises and templates. Here are some different workshop activity ideas:

Icebreaker workshop activities

1. Share something: This simple icebreaker asks team members to share two things: a picture of something on their desk as well as something they’ve learned recently. It’s straightforward to run but helps your team members get to know each other a little better.
2. When was the last time you … : Your team has probably experienced some disruptions to their normal routines while working remotely. This easy icebreaker pokes fun at that by asking your team to share the last time they did a certain action—like taking a shower or wearing “real” pants.
3. The ‘big picture’ puzzle: This icebreaker will involve a little more preparation from the facilitator but it is a great way to get your team working together. You’ll create a puzzle from an image and upload the pieces to the template.