How to Create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams: Best Practices & Common Problems

Posted by ET Group on January 24, 2025

How to Create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams: Best Practices & Common Problems

Summary:

Advances in remote video conferencing tech are making it more possible than ever for people to work together on and off-site. With platforms like Microsoft Teams, groups can launch a virtual meeting and start collaborating in seconds.

The breakout rooms feature can help people engage on a more focused and personal level. When organizers optimize these rooms intelligently with user experience in mind, teams are more likely to avoid common problems and make better use of their time.

ET Group helps organizations find new ways to make their workplaces feel more engaged, empowered, and productive. Make the most of Teams with the best practices below, or book a discovery call to learn how we bring your hybrid experience to life.

Workers meet with a client in a Microsoft Teams breakout room.

What Are Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams?

Breakout rooms let meeting organizers split participants up into smaller groups during Teams meetings so they can work in their own private virtual space. This can help people “break out” from the main meeting to focus on specific topics, run special workgroups, brainstorm ideas, collaborate on work, or just enjoy a bit of social downtime without disconnecting.

Only a meeting organizer can manage breakout rooms in MS Teams. By default, this is usually defined as the person who starts or schedules a meeting.

But meeting organizers don’t have to shoulder the load of managing breakout rooms on their own. They can delegate responsibilities—either before or during a meeting—by granting attendees the presenter role. Elevated participants gain access to key breakout room management features, including the ability to open, close, and join rooms.

Related: 5 Tips for Hosting Effective Video Conferences

A presenter leads a breakout room meeting with three people joining from an office.

10 Steps to Set Up Breakout Rooms Effectively

Breakout rooms make it possible for large groups to focus on specific tasks during virtual meetings—but just knowing how to start a meeting or open a new room isn’t enough. To make collaboration sessions more effective, you need to know how to plan and execute each room in a way that supports participants and helps them reach their goals.

  1. Check device compatibility. When you schedule a meeting, remind participants to confirm they’re joining on a supported device and have the latest version of Teams.
  2. Set clear and distinct objectives. Breakout rooms work best when every participant understands what they’re working on—and why.
  3. Add reminders to the chat. Put objectives, instructions, or agendas into a document or visual aid. Make it accessible within the chat for quick reference.
  4. Delegate responsibilities. Any breakout room with more than a few participants should have at least one presenter assigned to help manage the room. In a pinch, you can delegate this task to a trusted attendee.
  5. Use breakout rooms thoughtfully, not for busy work. Avoid using Teams for any task better suited to an email—focus on fostering meaningful, collaborative discussions.
  6. Set time limits. Groups should know how much time they have to complete their tasks or collaborate, but don’t over-restrict. Add buffer time for thinking and natural ebbs and flows in conversation.
  7. Keep groups small. The goal of a breakout room session is always to allow for smaller-scale collaboration on a more personal level. Making groups too large defeats the purpose.
  8. Focus on engagement. Meeting attendees will zone out, daydream, or miss important details if they aren’t actively participating. Interactive tools like virtual whiteboards, live video, and real-time polls help offset this risk.
  9. Check-in often—but don’t micromanage. Let people know how they can get help if they need it and when you plan to drop by to check-in.
  10. Optimize your tool stack. Pair Microsoft Teams with other meeting efficiency tools like real-time transcription, file-sharing, AI note-taking, or Power BI to help people work more effectively.

Do’s & Don’ts for Smooth Transitions In and Out of Breakout Rooms

What happens after a meeting starts is just as important as how you plan and execute it in the first place. Knowing how—and when—to transition participants in and out of breakout rooms can make or break the flow of a session. 

Lastly, you should also know who to contact if you encounter technical issues transitioning people between breakout rooms during your meeting that you can’t fix. This will generally be your IT department or company help desk. If your team needs additional support with your meeting room and collaboration tools such as breakout rooms with Microsoft Teams, ET Group can offer robust technical support service.

Debriefing After Breakout Rooms

Bringing participants back into the main session isn’t just about wrapping up or saying goodbye—It’s a chance to debrief and get everyone aligned. Leave enough time at the end of every session for people from each group to offer quick insights.

Use Microsoft Teams features to manage the debrief and prevent chaos. Assign speakers manually or have participants raise their hands when they want to chime in. Have someone take notes or use the built-in AI-powered note-taking features to capture important details.

After the meeting wraps up, send a copy of the debrief details to all relevant parties. This is a good way to catch mistakes and identify missed opportunities.

Related: How AV Consulting Provides Key Support for Hybrid Environments

Doctors discuss a patient's case and review scans during a virtual call breakout room session.

Common Use Cases for Breakout Rooms

Microsoft Teams meetings can make it easier to connect and collaborate, but there will always be situations where having all participants in the same room just isn’t the most effective way to work. Here are some good ideas for when to use breakout rooms instead:

1. Training Sessions

Breakout rooms let people learn and practice their skills at their own pace in a smaller, more comfortable space—often with direct support from a facilitator. This makes the process more focused, human-centered, and efficient.

Example

A fintech company’s employees practice using new software in breakout rooms with a dedicated presenter. Each room focuses on a specific function.

2. Project Planning & Collaboration

For project managers and team leads, breakout rooms are an invaluable tool for helping people work together. Splitting people into groups can help teams focus on individual tasks and get more work done.

Example

A global software development company splits into breakout rooms during an internal hackathon so developers can work on individual features. The marketing department simultaneously brainstorms ideas for a campaign, while designers work on creatives.

3. Workshops & Brainstorming

Whether you’re running a workshop or hosting a brainstorming session, having too many voices in the same Teams room can quickly become chaotic. Breakout rooms make space for more thoughtful, focused discussions—that’s what drives results.

Example

Professors at a university use breakout rooms to facilitate group learning during live classes. They switch rooms to monitor and assist as needed, but also give students time to come up with solutions on their own.

4. Remote Team Building

Breakout rooms make it easier to build remote teams and keep them in the loop when they can’t be together. This can help people working from great distances feel more connected with their peers.

Example

Flight attendants at a global airline team up to play trivia games about international destinations. This allows each person to get to know the people they work with on the air while also learning about the routes they service.

5. Classroom or Educational Settings

Educators can use breakout rooms to make virtual spaces for students to work at their own pace or study specific subjects. Virtual calls with features like breakout rooms support better hybrid experiences for students who can’t attend in person or study from home.

Example

A college biology professor moves students into breakout rooms to examine individual case studies on salmon die-offs in the Pacific Northwest. Each group theorizes a different solution across multiple sessions. After the final debriefing, they put their ideas into a document and send it off to a non-profit studying the issue.

For organizers, the breakout room experience is all about making meeting groups smaller and more manageable. They’re also a useful way to segment participants by seniority, experience, or skillset—so each group can have more focused and productive discussions.

Related: See ET Group’s Latest Case Studies On Workplace Technology

A young woman looks on at a video conferencing screen in frustration after a call drops.

Troubleshooting Breakout Room Issues in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is designed to be user-friendly and reliable, so any problems are typically rare and easy to fix. If you run into one of the common problems listed below anyway, our practical solutions might help you resolve it.

Why Can’t I Use Breakout Rooms?

Technical issues or problems with permissions can prevent you from being able to see or access the breakout room feature.

Common causes:

  1. You aren’t the meeting organizer or a breakout room manager. 
  2. The meeting took place in a private or shared channel.
  3. You joined using an unsupported device or client.
  4. You’re from a different organization than the meeting organizer.
  5. Breakout rooms are disabled by your administrator’s policy.

Potential Solutions:

  1. Start the meeting as an organizer. Or, ask the organizer to try appointing you as a breakout room manager again.
  2. You can only access breakout rooms from outside of a private or shared channel. Reschedule the meeting in an appropriate channel.
  3. Make sure you’re using the latest version of Teams. Then, join the meeting from a supported device.
  4. Ask the organizer to review guest access settings—they may be able to give you the ability to see and manage breakout rooms.
  5. Contact your IT provider or system admin to confirm your permissions are correct. 

Why Are Participants Missing from Breakout Rooms?

Issues with missing participants usually stem from problems on an individual user’s side—you’ll need to work with them directly to diagnose it and find a fix.

Common Causes: 

  1. The participant joined the session late or hasn’t yet joined.
  2. The participant is using an unsupported Cloud Video Interop (CVI) system.
  3. The participant is using an outdated version of Teams.

Potential Solutions:

  1. Remind anyone missing to join the meeting. Check attendance and make sure people aren’t sitting in the main room unassigned.
  2. Ask people to join from a fully supported device, like a laptop, desktop, or mobile smartphone.
  3. Ask people to update Teams, restart their devices, and re-join.

Why Can’t Some Participants Join Breakout Rooms?

If breakout rooms aren’t working for specific participants, the issue might be that they’re joining from legacy or non-native systems.

Common Causes:

  1. Older CVI systems from Cisco or Poly make accessing Teams possible, but they offer limited support for features. Users may be unable to see or access breakout rooms.
  2. Legacy systems and equipment—including older smartphones, AV systems, and home office computers—have similar limitations.

Potential Solutions:

  1. Tell the user to try joining from a different device. If participants need regular access to breakout rooms, upgrading to Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTRs) and other interoperability solutions—including SIP to web from ET Group—can bridge the gap.  
  2. Encourage participants to join the meeting from a known supported device, like a laptop or smartphone.

ET Group also provides remote monitoring and IT support services for businesses that don’t have a dedicated team on staff. If you’re having trouble with MS Teams or any other video conferencing equipment, let us know—we may be able to help.

Best Practices for Avoiding Technical Glitches

Technical glitches can derail even the best-planned meetings. These best practices can help you avoid problems like these and make them a thing of the past.

Lastly, it’s worth remembering tech support’s most timeless advice: if all else fails, try restarting the device or system. This may resolve minor intermittent issues like connection drops, poor-quality audio, or glitchy feeds.

Related: 5 Common Problems Solved by Using the Right Hybrid Meeting Equipment

ET Group's New Brunswick team works with staff on a breakout room during a Microsoft Teams call.

ET Group Can Help You Make the Most of Virtual Meetings

At ET Group, we believe that the changing world of work has many challenges, but the way we connect with each other shouldn’t be one of them. Integrating technology in ways that seamlessly weave together people, spaces, technology, work styles is the core of our business—and it’s also why we believe going hybrid is the future.

Don’t let outdated tech or problems with Teams hold your people back. Book a discovery call today to see how ET Group can help you create seamless, human-centric meetings.

Frequently Asked Questions About Breakout Rooms

Does ET Group support organizations in my industry?

ET Group helps organizations across a wide range of industries design, implement, and support interoperability solutions. Well-designed meeting systems can help people in government offices, schools, universities, hospitals, medical clinics, and tech companies work and collaborate more effectively.

Technology integration is at the core of what we do, but we also have plenty of experience working with highly specific needs. See our justice solutions or check out our work in other sectors.

Can ET Group train our employees to use meeting tech?

ET Group does offer workshops aimed at specific people or audiences, including teams. These sessions are normally focused on helping people relate technology to their role and find new ways to integrate it with existing workflows.

If you need help with a different type of training, book a discovery call with one of our workplace technology specialists. We’ll do our best to explore your needs and find a solution—or at least recommend where you might find one.

What does ET Group recommend for organizations using legacy CVIs?

ET Group strongly recommends evaluating your current system to determine its limitations. Legacy CVIs and older AV equipment will struggle to support new features, like breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams or hybrid meetings, and aren’t future-proof.

Early intervention and regular upgrades are a must in today’s rapidly-evolving work environments. Businesses that put off making changes will lag behind, forcing people to find messy or insecure workarounds that don’t meet their needs.

If you’re ready to step into the future, let’s talk about our Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) services.

Book a discovery call with our team today and find out how we can help make hybrid work for you.


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