50+ Icebreaker Questions for Ultimate Team Building at Work
How well do you know your team? This set of 50+ Interactive, creative and reflective questions will help you explore the inner workings of your teams.
Team building with icebreaker questions is a critical aspect of any organization. A strong team can overcome adversity and challenges, and often outperform teams made up of individuals who lack cohesion. Many companies conduct virtual team building activities for their employees and these can take different forms. These activities are great for getting people in an unfamiliar environment to get to know one another, build better rapport and improving overall employee engagement.
Certain time these activities will need icebreakers to get started or reflective questions to truly understand an individual. Here are questions that will help you do just that:
Icebreaker Questions For Team Building
Would you rather have a day off or a day alone at the office?
Would you rather support your favorite team at home or away?
Would you rather do team building online or in person?
Would you rather be on a small team or a large one?
Would you rather be the leader or follow the leader?
Would you rather come in early or leave late?
Would you rather play baseball with your coworkers or do trivia?
Would you rather be the only person in an office of monkeys or the online monkey in an office of people?
Would you rather sing in front of your coworkers or dance?
Would you rather have dinner with your team or lunch?
Would you rather attend an office party or an office BBQ?
Would you rather have an office dog or cat?
Would you rather fail in business and be bankrupt or fail in marriage and be divorced?
Would you rather deliver babies or pizzas?
Would you rather take care of animals or people?
Would you rather work for the FBI or NASA?
Would you rather be a dentist or a dress designer?
Would you rather be a cartoonist or a sports columnist?
Would you rather work hard to gain what you want or have it given to you?
Would you rather be a police officer or a firefighter?
Would you rather be a librarian or a chemist?
Would you rather work outdoors with your hands or indoors at a desk job?
Would you rather receive daily encouragement from your boss or a 5 percent raise?
Would you rather work for a pleasant boss or for yourself?
Would you rather work at a job that was challenging or one that was easy?
Would you rather be a farmer or a politician?
Would you rather have a high-paying job and travel 50 percent of the time or an average-paying job with no travel?
Would you rather be highly educated or highly successful?
Meeting-Specific Team Building Icebreaker Questions & Activities
Team Building Icebreaker Questions to Highlight the Topic of the Meeting and Deep-dive
What is the meeting about? Discuss statement of purpose, agenda and use a topic-centered icebreaker to focus attention on the conversation or meeting subject.
What interests you about the topic at hand?
How long have you been studying or using the topic being discussed (eg: balanced scorecard, OKRs, etc)?
What was your initial thoughts about the topic?
If you created an e-mail subject line about this topic, what would it be?
Why have you come to this meeting? What brought you here (only if this is not a mandatory meeting)?
We’re here to talk about 'topic'. Different people might have different perspective about the topic, ask them to discuss...
How do you define the topic (example: leadership)?
How does your perspective on the topic differ from most people’s?
What do you want to explore about the topic?
What do I need to know about the 'topic'?
What about topic lights a fire in you and peaks your interest?
What do you know about 'topic' that other people probably don’t know?
Team Building Icebreaker Questions to Uncover Expectations
Do you need to know what people want? What people know? What people expect?
I’ll cut to the chase. What can I/We (as a reporting manager or top management) do for you?
I’d like to know why you’re here. Can you tell me what you hope to get out of this meeting?
Imagine you have a magic wand. What would you like to change by the end of the meeting?
One thing I’m hoping to learn today is ____________.
One thing I find confusing is ____________.
One thing I’d like others to learn today is ____________.
What are your outcomes and objectives for this meeting?
What is you fondest, dearest wish for today?
What are you hoping to get out of today?
What would make this discussion a success for you?
What will you contribute to the success of this session?
I’m going to role-play something. Ready? (Stomp in the room, slam the door, sigh heavily, throw a book on the table, and peer at the group).
Describe what just happened?
How do you know that’s what happened?
What part of what you described is objective? How do you know?
Did you directly observe that?
What did you directly observe?
How many of you found it difficult to separate your observations from your interpretation of your observations?
How common is it for us to make assumptions without realizing we’re doing it?
Team Building Icebreaker Questions to Get Your Team to Focus on Outcomes
As much as people enjoy checking in before getting down to business, today we need to focus if we’re going to get 'things' done
Start by picturing ourselves walking out of this meeting happy with what we did here. What did we accomplish?
Stay focused on our task of purpose today. We have a lot to accomplish, and I’m committed to our finishing on time.
Go around the room and speed share names today. Then we’ll turn our brains like lasers to focus.
We can visit and stay late, or we can focus and get out of here on time. I’d love to visit, but I know my priorities. How about you?
We chewed on these topics extensively last meeting. Today we are here to decide. I expect this to go quickly.
What are the issues we need to focus on ?
How do we detect tangents so as to ensure that we don't digress from the matter at hand?
Break into groups of three. Each group is to be tasked with deciding what you want to get out of this (meeting, event). Pick a leader to present the desired outcome according to your group.
How did your group reach consensus?
Now go back to your groups, and see if any of your outcomes have changed from what other groups said.
Now decide what each of you intends to do to make sure you get what you came for.
Did being asked to take action to ensure your outcome change anyone’s desired outcomes?
What kind of actions did you come up with?
Team Building Questions to Build Rapport in a Team Project
Have you ever had someone get down to business too quickly? Kind of like you’re all a bunch of machines instead of people? How’d that feel to you? A simple icebreaker designed to build rapport can grease the wheels for subsequent communication. These icebreakers create a quick sense of commonality, relationship, and trust.
Why don't we start matching faces to the email address? go around introduce yourselves. We’ll start with (name) his or her perspective, and his or her expertise.
Who else had been curious about what it would be like to actually meet in person?
Do I look like my e-mails?
We’ll be working with new technology today, so this might take a group effort. Who brought a sledgehammer?
What did we do the last time we were in this situation that really worked?
We didn’t create this situation (problem at hand) but we’re in it together. I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have on my team for support in a situation like this.
We have different roles in this project, but let’s start by defining our common commitment.
Why do we care about this project?
What are we all committed to doing here?
Start by sharing a motto, a phrase or saying that you live by. What mottos do you like? Go around the table...
A simple activity to help break the ice
Begin with everyone asking their neighbours their name, what they came to learn, how they see situation), and what expertise they bring. Be ready to share what you learn.
We’re going to tune in by matching and adding to actions. I’ll start by patting my head. The person on my right then will pat his or her head and add a new motion. The person on the right of that person then will mimic the first two motions and add his or her own—and on and on. Got it? Here goes.
How many did we complete?
Did you find it fun, frustrating, or both?
Who had a strategy they used to remember that could be useful to the rest of us?
Icebreaker Questions To Inspire Collaboration on a Team Project
Survival of the fittest is programmed into us in many ways. We often unconsciously take adversarial stances. Open in a way that invites—and involves—collaboration. Ask you teamamtes how to overcome this instinct?
We have a choice. We could argue and negate each other to defend our own positions, or we could listen and discuss different perspectives in ways that support each other and move us forward together.
We’ve been at odds on (issue). What will it take for us to work together?
Have you ever had a situation where everyone worked together like magic?
What made it work?
Why did it feel like magic?
What can we apply here from that?
What do the phrases “looking out for each other” and “having each other’s back” really mean?
When have you experienced that before? Please be specific.
What helped create that kind of collaboration?
What kept that kind of collaboration from happening?
Inject some fun into the meeting
I need one person who favors (one option you’re meeting to discuss) and one person who favors (an opposing option).
Sit across this table from each other. Get in arm-wrestling position. Now go!
OK, we’ll go with the winner’s idea. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Of course we wouldn’t make an important decision by arm wrestling. However, that’s what we’re doing when we let the most aggressive person or the person with the loudest voice overpower the reasons behind our options.
Let’s think of ourselves as the guardians of each other’s success here. What does that mean to you?
What would you like for it to mean to the people on your team?
Are there systems in place that get us working as adversaries when we need to work cooperatively?
Introduce a team building exercise
Let’s do a quick exercise. Turn to your partner.
Partner A, make a fist. Show your fist to Partner B.
Partner B, see that fist? Try as hard as you can to open your partner’s fist.
Now switch. Partner B make a fist. Partner A, try as hard as you can to get your partner’s fist open.
How many of you were able to open your partner’s fist without resorting to tickling or bribery?
How many of you thought to ask your partner, will you please open your fist?
And those of you who had your fist closed, what were you holding on to? What kept you from being the guardian of your partner’s success and allowing your partner to open your fist? Were you looking out for your partner or just looking out for yourself?
Now, I set this exercise up to trigger competition. I confess. And you still had the choice to work collab-oratively. Let’s applaud those of us who worked collaboratively. Now let’s applaud the rest of us for demonstrating the normal response to this situation.
First, I’d like each of you to write a work-related challenge, problem, or area you’d like to improve on the top of the sheet in front of you. For example, “How can I build rapport among team members who have never met?” Then pass your sheet to the person on your right.
Now take 60 seconds to write possible solutions to the challenges that are passed to you. I’ll time you and tell you when to pass again. pass...
Does everyone have his or her own sheets? Please take two minutes to review what you have.
Tell us what ideas you like that people offered.
Let’s use each other as resources to handle our challenges.
We’ll start with an activity to build teamwork. Without talking or mouthing words, please line up according to how long you’ve been working here.
What did you do that worked?
What could you have done to be more efficient?
Did someone take a leadership role? How did they do it? Was it useful?
I didn’t give a lot of direction. What interpretive decisions did you have to make in implementing?
This article lists out several questions to ask your team so that you can find out what they enjoy, what motivates them, and how they like to work. By discovering the commonalities between team members, managers can create better environments for these employees.
If you are looking for more resources to help you with your team building exercise, feel free to explore more insights from our blog Ricotta and our Team building product: Ricotta Trivia.
Team building exercises can be a great way to unify your team and get everyone on the same page. They can also help you know your teammates better and work together in the best way possible. But there's a catch: you need to find questions that will make them want to participate and answer with heartfelt honesty. It is important that these questions are fun and interesting. You don't want to bore them with all the same old icebreaker questions; they might start tuning out before you even get started. That's why we put together a list of 50+ team building questions that will make for an engaging experience.
Why is team building important?
Team building is important because it allows for a shared sense of meaning and purpose. This develops a sense of belonging and an environment where everyone's contributions are valued, which in turn will increase morale and lead to increased productivity. A strong team produces a strong output. Plus, it is nice to work with people that care about their jobs and each other.
What is the purpose of a team-building activity?
Team-building activities are a very common way of getting to know your team better and understanding how they work. They are also a good way to make sure that the team is on the same page and motivated throughout their work. A lot of these activities are light-hearted and fun, which can be great for stimulating creativity. Activities that are competitive in nature can help boost the spirit of the team as well as promote healthy competition between teams. These activities also help several people get on the same page and learn about each other’s personalities. It can also help with communication skills and leadership styles.
How to measure the success of any team-building activity?
The success of a team-building activity can be measured in a variety of ways. A few examples are the activities’ ability to increase workplace morale, improve teamwork, or make participants more productive. Team-building activities should have an objective that is tangible and achievable in order to increase the chances of success.
To measure the success of team-building activities, it is necessary to determine what was accomplished by this activity both short-term and long-term. Did team members get to know each other better? Did they feel more supported? Did they even have fun? These are all aspects that need to be evaluated when measuring success.
You should take into consideration the following factors when evaluating a team building activity:
Participation of employees in the activity.
The level of engagement in the team-building activities.
The impact of increased communication among co-workers on an individual level.
Company culture and climate changes due to the team-building activity.
What are team building skills?
Team building skills are the skills that enable people to work effectively as a team and achieve their desired outcomes. Team building is an interactive process that involves communication, team-building exercises, and feedback. Often times we all need to be reminded of how we can better help each other or what we can do to better improve communication within a group. In order to be successful in any industry, it’s important for employees to have the right team-building skills.
These are the skills that help develop interpersonal relationships between team members. This is why these skills are very useful in business settings where different people need to work together on projects. Team building skills can be learned with practice and exposure to different people and cultures. They will also depend on the type of profession that someone has chosen to pursue, as some professions will require more team-building skills than others.
If you had to break down team building to multiple auxiliary skills, it would include