Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template
Get everyone active and bring energy to your workshops with this warm-up and wake-up icebreakers series.
About the Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template
Matt Fangman, senior director and design thinker at Genesys, created this template with five icebreakers you can use to bring more connection and energy to your meetings. They are warm-up and wake-up exercises, helping facilitators to start their sessions on a good foot.
The Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template is also a great tool to introduce participants in a fun way, show them how to work with Miro boards, and prepare them for what the rest of the session will look like.
What’s the Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template?
The Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template is a collection of five icebreaker exercises designed to connect, energize and engage people.
Here are the five icebreakers:
Would you rather?
About me
Artifact
Two Truths and a Lie
How I work
We will explain in detail how to use each of them below.
Benefits of using the Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template
Facilitators benefit immensely from icebreakers, and they have the power to change the mood in the room. This template is designed to bring energy to meetings and connect people, removing the pressure that comes with workshops and long Zoom calls.
The warm-up and wake-up exercises also allow people to have fun while working, shifting their focus to other activities and engaging them in fun, lighthearted ways.
Another benefit of running a warm-up or wake-up activity is that you feel the room and, if needed, change strategies or facilitation accordingly.
How to use the Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template
The Warm-ups and Wake-ups Template has five different icebreaker activities, as listed below:
Would You Rather
This is a known game that can turn any session into a fun meeting.
The icebreaker is simple: you’ll give two options, and people have to choose which one they prefer. And remember, there is no middle ground! Here are some tips on how to run this icebreaker:
Before starting the workshop, add participant's names or photos in the central column between the facts or things they need to choose.
Start by reading each scenario.
Ask everyone to take their pick and move their photo or name to the side they would rather be/like.
Have fun!
About ME
This icebreaker is all about getting to know each other and connecting people. Each frame is dedicated to each participant to add:
A picture representing them.
A picture that represents the current year for them.
One thing that they learned recently.
A picture of their favorite food.
The good thing about this workshop is that all the fun facts are familiar to everybody and can be surprising or even revealing without being invasive.
Pro-tip for running this activity:
Ask participants to complete this task before the workshop.
At the workshop, save some time for the round of introductions and ask them to tell everyone about their frame in 60 seconds.
This activity must be completed prior to the workshop.
Artifact
Use this template to inject some energy into your meeting and get people moving without so much effort.
The idea is pretty simple: ask everyone to take a picture of an item that means something to them. Afterward, ask them to place it next to their names and share their story.
Two Truths and a Lie
This exercise is excellent for team building and getting to know each other. Inspired by the game, run it following these instructions:
Ask everyone to write three statements about themselves under their names. Two must be true and one a lie.
Do a round, asking everyone to read their statements aloud.
Ask everyone to vote which one is the lie.
How I Work
Run this icebreaker to get people in the right mindset and to allow them to know each other working styles and how to collaborate better.
Before the workshop, place the participants' names and titles (in pairs) on the board.
Ask them to find their names and pick one of each trait and slide it under their name.
Afterward, invite people to playback the other person's board.
To add the icebreaker to your Miro workshop board:
Select the icebreaker you want to add to your workshop board.
Copy the icebreaker frame
Paste it to your board.
How do you warm-up for an online meeting?
Many facilitators add online icebreakers to their workshops and meetings to warm-up and engage people. Miro’s community space Miroverse has a very extensive icebreaker collection. Choose one that better fits your needs. And, have fun!
How do you energize virtual meetings?
There are many ways to bring energy to your meetings, and icebreakers are often a great tool to get people active and engaged while running a virtual session. On this template, you’ll find five icebreaker activities you can choose, so you can inject extra energy when running a workshop or meeting. If none of these suits your needs, find more icebreakers in our Miroverse community.
Get started with this template right now.
The Emotions Wheel Icebreaker Template
Works best for:
Icebreakers, Meetings
Allow people to express emotions and connect with each other. Use the Emotions Wheel Icebreaker to build the foundations for an important conversation.
4 L's Retrospective Template
Works best for:
Retrospectives, Decision Making
So you just completed a sprint. Teams busted their humps and emotions ran high. Now take a clear-eyed look back and grade the sprint honestly—what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved. This approach (4Ls stand for liked, learned, lacked, and longed for) is an invaluable way to remove the emotion and look at the process critically. That’s how you can build trust, improve morale, and increase engagement—as well as make adjustments to be more productive and successful in the future.
Process Map Template
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Product Management, Mapping
Process mapping allows you to assess, document, and strategize around any plan or approach your team has put in place. It’s a useful tool for eliminating or preventing blockers. Organized by stages, a process map enables your team to divide up a process or system and record deliverables and action items at each stage of the process. By breaking down the objectives, activities and deliverables at any stage of a project, you can gain insight into whether you are on track or effectively working through a problem.
Presentation Template
Works best for:
Presentations, Education
At some point during your career, you’ll probably have to give a presentation. Presentations typically involve speaking alongside an accompanying slide deck that contains visuals, texts, and graphics to illustrate your topic. Take the stress out of presentation planning by using this presentation template to easily create effective, visually appealing slides. The presentation template can take the pressure off by helping your audience stay focused and engaged. Using simple tools, customize a slide deck, share slides with your team, get feedback, and collaborate.
Huddle Board Template
Works best for:
Meetings
The Huddle Board Template is a digital and interactive tool that fosters seamless team collaboration. Mimicking the traditional physical boards used in office environments provides a visual platform where teams can organize tasks, share updates, and track progress. One standout benefit of this template is its real-time collaboration feature. With it, team members can instantly share feedback, change tasks, or raise queries, ensuring everyone is aligned and updated, significantly reducing miscommunication and streamlining project execution.
Meeting Reflection Template
Works best for:
Meetings, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
When schedules get hectic, “learning by doing” becomes the default way to learn. So make time for your team to learn in other valuable ways — by reflecting and listening. Led by “learners,” (team members who share with the rest of the team), a meeting reflection lets teammates share new information about a client’s business or an internal business initiative, offer problem-solving techniques, or even recommend books or podcasts worth checking out. Meeting reflections also encourage colleagues at all levels to engage in each other’s professional development of their teammates.