Most organizations during the pandemic switched to remote work to effectively continue their business. So while Covid-19 is declining and companies are cautiously looking to open office premises, most workplaces could follow a hybrid model. And that comes with back-to-back virtual meetings.
Thankfully, Zoom’s breakout rooms feature allows people managers to deal with Zoom overloads. There are tons of fun activities for Zoom breakout rooms that are super helpful in breaking the digital monotony.
First, however, you must know how to use Zoom breakout rooms effectively if you are looking for ways to engage your team in the virtual work environment.
What are Zoom Breakout Rooms?
People managers need to keep their team’s morale high. The job is demanding, and the remote work scenario makes it even more challenging. It’s tricky to arrange online sessions for bigger teams, but Zoom’s breakout feature allows you to create multiple smaller groups.
With this feature, smaller groups can interact and perform much better, breaking the monotony of working remotely.
How to Use Zoom Breakout Rooms Efficiently?
Things to remember while using breakout rooms in Zoom:
- You can create breakout rooms during a meeting or pre-assign participants to virtual breakout room activities.
- You can create up to 50 breakout rooms and pre-assign a maximum of 200 participants; the maximum number of participants allowed in breakout rooms created during a meeting depends upon the meeting capacity.
- As a primary host, you can share your screen with all the breakout rooms directly and broadcast messages during the meeting.
- You may allow participants to choose a breakout room and return to the main session at any point in time.
- The screen recording option is also available in all the breakout rooms.
The wide array of features makes the Zoom breakout option exciting. For example, dividing participants in different rooms can help you successfully manage an info share and conduct team bonding sessions like Zoom breakout rooms quiz and trivia.
Virtual Breakout Session Ideas On Zoom
Breakout rooms are excellent, provided everyone knows how to use them. Hence, it is essential that you learn the basics, make the team familiar with it, and test it out first before going full-fledged. So, let us take a look at the top fun breakout room activities for Zoom.
Virtual Zoom games
Games are great for team building and adding some much-needed fun at work. Luckily, there is no shortage of Zoom breakout room game Ideas. So let us take a look at some of the popular Zoom games with breakout rooms.
- Virtual Bingo
- Zoom Trivia
- Virtual Truth or Dare
- Zoom Charades
- Zoom musical chairs
- Guess Who?
Remember, the games and the fun remain the same; you need to tweak them to suit the virtual environment. You can decide how you want to use the breakout rooms for games. Dedicate a time slot as part of Friday’s fun activity or play a short game as an ice breaker before a tedious meeting.
Group Discussions
Zoom breakout rooms are not limited to fun activities; it is an excellent tool for productive group discussions, especially during learning or training sessions. You can create groups and assign them specific topics.
Brainstorming and Problem-Solving Sessions
Most people miss the office boardrooms because they were perfect for brainstorming—you instantly discussed and ruled out the good ideas from the bad. In a virtual setup, similar sessions are not that effective since everyone is on the same call; it becomes time-consuming and tedious to mute and unmute the participant to hear out everyone.
Zoom breakout rooms are a significant relief since you can make smaller teams, work on specific problems, and oversee everyone through the main session.
Show and Tell
Show and tell is an excellent way to gauge a colleague’s understanding of a topic. Interestingly, it can be used as a follow-up after a group discussion or a fun icebreaker, where colleagues have to pick something from their room or desk and relate it to the agenda of the meeting. Zoom breakouts make the show and tell activity much more effective in the virtual environment.
Peer Feedback Sessions
Learning the office culture and team dynamics is difficult in a virtual setup. Hence, newly hired colleagues would prefer going to the office instead of working from home. Managers and mentors can use Zoom breakout rooms effectively during regular feedback sessions.
Every breakout room can have an experienced colleague as a mentor who leads the group and jots down inputs from newer colleagues. At the end of the session, the manager can let the mentor discuss the highlights, problem areas, and solutions. These sessions can be handy in onboarding new hires successfully, making them feel much more connected.
Wrapping Up
Most tasks or games that involve speaking and listening can quickly become fun activities for Zoom breakout rooms. Zoom AppStore also has some interesting pre-designed games; you can try and see which one suits your team.
Eventually, the goal is to make the virtual workplace more exciting by involving every colleague and having some fun at work. Happy people are much more engaged and productive than people working in silos without any enthusiasm. If you are new at using the Zoom breakout room feature, don’t forget to test it out a few times with your office friends to understand the functionality.
