My Remote Office

When you are running a virtual workshop or meeting with remote team members, this is a great activity to start off with. Apart from the common benefits of icebreaking activities, it will create a better appreciation of the environments that the other participants are in. It might even explain those distracting, weird background sounds (eg is that a dying cat, a kid or what?). Ask everyone to share their physical surroundings. Depending on the setup you can use video, photos, or simply describe it if it is a phone meeting.

Any

5-10 min

Calm

Steps

Explain that you will start the session with a quick activity to get a better idea of what everyone’s place of work looks like.
Depending on the setup you can ask them to share by:
- video: take turns moving their camera around and comment on what they show.
- photo: ask everyone to take a photo and upload to the chat channel or collaboration tool. Then take turns to comment on their photo.explain over conference call: ask them to describe their surroundings with 5 words.

Bonus tip

If you want to save time during the session, you can request that photos be sent to you beforehand. But only do it on the same day, to make sure it is indeed the environment they are in during the meeting.

If you are facilitating a large group, you can opt for the photos and view them collectively rather than everyone taking turns and commenting. Or if it is a conference call, reduce the number of words.

You can use the activity to check that the participants actually can access and use your collaboration tool before the session starts. Give them instructions to upload their photo into the collaboration space and follow up with anyone who hasn’t successfully done so.

Turn it into a guessing game (see Whose is it activity).

You don’t need to wait for a meeting to use the activity. If for example the team has a chat channel, you can encourage them to share here at any point in time.

What you need

No props needed.

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