Here is our list of the best online morning meeting ideas.
Online morning meeting ideas are activities, icebreakers, and games that can motivate employees to start the day. Examples include breakfast Bingo, round robin, and morning motivation quotes. These activities aim to set a positive tone for the day by making morning meetings more engaging and interactive.
These ideas are subsets of Zoom meeting ideas and similar to examples of virtual team building activities, virtual icebreakers, and fun icebreaker questions.
This list includes:
- interactive online morning meeting ideas
- online morning meeting games
- online morning meeting activities
- online morning meeting greetings
Let’s get to it!
List of online morning meeting ideas
Morning meetings are huddles where teams can catch up on work and share important updates daily or weekly. Here are ideas for online morning meetings to get your team excited to begin the day.
1. Emoji introduction
An emoji introduction is one of the best online morning meeting greetings. To play, ask team members, “What emoji best describes you?” Instead of having participants speak, have players pop their desired emoji into Zoom’s chat function. Once all attendees have shared their icons in the chat, invite team members to speak up and share their selections with the group. Be sure to remind players to explain why they chose their emoji.
2. Breakfast Bingo
Breakfast Bingo is one of the most interactive online morning meeting games. To play this game, create a custom Bingo card with five rows and columns.
Here is a template to get you started:
- Is an early bird
- Is a night owl
- Prefers Starbucks
- Prefers Dunkin’ Donuts
- Makes their own coffee at home
- Prefers tea over coffee
- Skipped breakfast this morning
- Wears sweatpants to work
- Wears pajamas to work
- Took a morning run
- Makes their bed every morning
- Ate waffles for breakfast
- Drank orange juice this morning
- Works from their bedroom
- Has a dedicated home office
- Takes calls from the car
- Read a book this morning
- Turns their camera off during meetings
- Forgets to go off mute
- Wears blue-light filtering glasses
- Listens to music while working
- Visited a coffee shop today
- Walked their dog this morning
- First teammate to log in
- Last teammate to log off
First, give your team a way to interact. Communication methods can include Zoom breakout rooms or a #Breakfast-Bingo Slack channel. Be sure to provide employees 15 to 20 minutes to chat and find teammates who meet the criteria. At the end of the game, any player to check off five squares in a row wins.
3. Wins, roadblocks, and failures
Discussing successes and failures at work can help employees grow. Therefore, we suggest creating a positive forum to discuss these topics during your next morning meeting.
To begin the conversation, encourage employees to share one win, obstacle, and failure from the past week. For example, an employee’s wins might include closing a deal or training a new team member. Roadblocks may include losing internet access or missing a meeting. Potential failures might be leaving a typo on an article or missing the deadline on a pivotal project.
Creating a safe space for employees to share successes, obstacles, and failures can help create a positive and motivational work environment. Teammates can share in each other’s success while cheering for each other.
4. Jamboard brainstorm
If you want to use your meeting time to collaborate on ideas, solutions, or strategies, then we recommend getting familiar with Google’s Jamboard feature. Google Jamboard is a digital whiteboard that allows teams to collaborate in real-time. Using Jamboard for a brainstorming session is a great way to get your entire team to share their most innovative thoughts and ideas.
First, begin your brainstorming session by opening a blank Jamboard document. Next, type a sticky note in the middle of the board sharing the topic of your brainstorming session. For example, if you need to come up with names for your new social media campaign, then share a sticky note that reads, “Team brainstorm for social media campaign ideas!” Next, ask teammates to add their own sticky notes with hashtags and campaign ideas. For example, one employee may share an idea to interview five employees for a social media spotlight post. Finally, work as a team to choose your favorite thoughts and solutions. Jamboards are most effective in promoting collaboration and teamwork.
Check out Google Jamboard.
5. At the races
At the races is one of the best interactive online morning meeting ideas focused on communication and team bonding. This fast-paced game mirrors actual horse race activities, like betting, training, and following a live scoreboard.
Each game comes with a professional facilitator to keep your activity on track. This facilitator serves as a host and gives instructions and pointers to your group. After greeting your team, the facilitator will split participants into smaller groups and breakout rooms. Players can then work together to plan their moves and make their bets. At the races will inspire friendly competition as your team cheers, laughs, and works together.
Learn how to host a game of at the races.
6. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow is one of the best ways to stay updated on your team’s day-to-day responsibilities. You can begin this activity by sharing any projects you finished yesterday, the work you plan on tackling today, and your goals for tomorrow. Then, go around the Zoom meeting and ask each team member to share the same. This activity is an ideal way to get employees to share their accomplishments, goals, and current workload with the entire team.
7. Morning motivation quotes
If you are looking for ways to inspire your team, then we recommend sharing motivational quotes at your morning meeting. For this activity, ask employees to share their favorite quotes with the team during your session.
For example:
- “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill
- “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” – Michael Jordan
- “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
- “Goal setting is the secret to a compelling future.” – Tony Robbins
- “The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.” – Colin R. Davis
- “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” – Estée Lauder
Motivational quotes are a great way to get employees into a positive and productive mindset.
8. Guess the object
If you want your entire team to participate in your meeting, then we recommend playing guess the object. Similar to charades, this activity allows team members to sharpen their problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.
How to play:
- Have players choose one object in the room
- Tell players to keep their object a secret from teammates
- Ask each player to describe their objects one by one
- Open the floor up to team questions and guesses
- Declare the first player to stump the group as the winner
Guess the object is a great way to get your team to think critically first thing in the morning.
9. Improv icebreaker
One of the most interactive online morning meeting activities is the improv icebreaker game. To begin this icebreaker, divide your team into three to four smaller groups. Then, give players five to15 minutes to devise an improv skit. You can encourage teams to create sketches about exciting and energetic workplace scenarios.
For example:
- Getting a promotion
- Getting a raise
- Completing an important project
- Closing a sale
- Leading a team through change
For each skit, team members should assign roles and lines to each participant. Each skit should teach a valuable lesson, such as the importance of teamwork. Improv icebreaker is a great way to help your employees let loose and unleash their creativity while learning helpful lessons from teammates.
10. Round robin
Round robin is an engaging game where employees can give each other personal and professional updates. To begin the game, encourage team members to share one professional update and one personal update. For example, one employee’s professional update might be, “I was finally able to close a sale that I have been working on for two months.” Then, as a personal update, this employee may also share, “Last week, my son graduated from college with a Master’s degree in Computer Science.”
Round robin can help employees stay connected on a professional and personal level. This game is also a great way to show your team that you care about them outside of the office.
11. Mad Libs
Some team members may remember having fun while playing Mad Libs in grade school. This nostalgic game is a great way to get your whole team engaged. To set up your game, search for a pre-made template or create a custom version. If you create a custom template, we recommend being as creative as possible. For example, if your team is working on an important project, then you can write your Mad Libs story about this project and how employees might feel once the project concludes.
When playing the game on Zoom, designate one team member as the host who will fill in the sheet with the team’s responses. Or, use a game website, Google Form, or Typeform to collect answers. Then, have each teammate contribute nouns, verbs, and adjectives to fill in the blanks. Once you have completed the template, ask the meeting host to read the team’s outrageous story aloud. Your team is sure to appreciate the funny Mad Libs story.
12. Daily check-ins
One of the best ways to get a sense of your team’s mindset for the day is by creating a daily check-in Google Form. On this form, you should ask team members to rank their moods on a scale of one to five. You can also include an optional question where participants can elaborate on their selection.
Be sure to designate five minutes at the beginning of your meeting to ask employees to fill out the Google Form or remind folks to fill it out pre-meeting. Then, use another five minutes where team members can volunteer to share their feelings with the group. Daily check-ins can help you track your employees’ mental well-being at the start of the day.
13. Ask me anything (AMA)
We recommend reserving the last 10 minutes of your meeting for an AMA session. AMA, short for “ask me anything,” is a question-and-answer session. During this time, you can encourage employees to ask the team leader anything on their minds.
Questions can be about absolutely anything, from professional matters to personal updates. For example, a team member can ask, “Can we have an extension on the social media campaign?” or, “Do you have fun plans for the upcoming holiday?” An AMA session is the best time for teammates to receive critical information.
14. One-minute status update
The purpose of most meetings is to provide status updates on key projects and initiatives. To make sure your meeting moves along swiftly, reserve the first few minutes for a quick status update. During this time, each team member should give a brief update on key priorities and projects. However, your team members’ updates should not exceed one minute. This activity teaches employees how to condense important details into more digestible bits.
15. Yoga
Yoga is one of the most energizing online morning meeting activities. To conduct a virtual yoga session, find a reputable yoga coach who can join your team via Zoom or a good video routine. Then, ask team members to find a quiet and spacious room at home to take the meeting. Be sure to remind participants to position their laptops a few inches away to get a good view of the instructor.
A 10 to 15-minute session is enough time for an early morning session. Calming yoga poses and stretches are great ways to begin the day peacefully.
16. Meditation
Meditation is the practice of clearing the mind through a combination of mental and physical techniques. Implementing meditation into your morning meeting can help employees decrease stress as the day begins.
To conduct an online meditation, assign one team member to facilitate the session. You can also find a guided meditation video or audio clip to help lead your session. Then, instruct employees to sit comfortably, close their eyes, and focus on the meditation audio. The meditation may involve breathing exercises, mantras, or calming music. Meditation is an ideal morning meeting activity to help your team begin the day in a calm and focused mindset.
17. Standing meetings
Employees can quickly become tired when they spend all day sitting at a desk. We recommend hosting a standing meeting if you have a 10 to 15-minute call every morning. A standing meeting is a team huddle in which employees must stand for the duration of the call. Standing meetings are a great way to get the energy flowing early in the morning.
If employees get tired and want to sit down halfway through the meeting, then we suggest adding an element of competition. For example, you can give a prize, such as a free cup of coffee, to the last teammate standing.
18. Morning music playlist
Uplifting music is a great way to get your employees in the right mindset for the day, so we recommend creating a work playlist with mood-boosting songs. Platforms like Spotify and Apple Music allow you to create collaborative playlists where other members can add songs easily.
At the beginning of your meeting, play one or two energetic songs as team members join. Then, play the rest of the songs on a loop. As you chat through important team updates, your motivational songs will play at a lower volume as background music. We suggest adding upbeat and inspirational songs with the right tempo to get your team pumped.
Conclusion
Many employees may dread the idea of morning meetings. To overcome any negativity and fatigue from teammates, we suggest incorporating fun and interactive activities into your meetings. For example, breakfast Bingo, yoga, and daily check-ins. Choosing the best virtual meeting ideas can help motivate employees to begin the day positively.
Next, check out how to make virtual meetings fun and fun team building games.
