Awkward silence will derail your team-building event faster than you can say “would you rather.” And so, capturing your employee’s attention in the first few seconds is critical for extracting the full potential from any team-building exercise.
Sparking lively conversations with icebreaker questions is the best way to engage your employees from the start.
Icebreaker questions are essential tools to have in your belt. They ease tension, reduce anxiety and pave the way for lively discussions or debates. When combined with fun icebreaker games, you cultivate a lively atmosphere in which your employees build new relationships and develop new skills.
As a manager, making connections with your team and getting to know them better as people can have a big impact on engagement, morale, and productivity. While you likely cover the basics in normal conversations, injecting some more lighthearted and fun questions into staff meetings, one-on-ones, and team building activities can liven things up and lead to meaningful dialogue.
In this article, we’ll look at 25 fun questions you can ask employees, grouped into categories, to spark lively discussions and strengthen your workplace relationships.
Icebreaker Questions
Icebreaker questions help “break the ice” during activities or meetings by easing people into conversations They reveal interesting facts about each person and set a welcoming tone
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What’s your favorite season and why? Allows people to share preferences and memories,
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Where is the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited? Shares travel experiences and sparks conversations.
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What is your absolute dream job? Offers insight into long term goals and passions.
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What was your favorite subject in school? Highlights early interests and life experiences.
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What skill or talent do you wish you had? Reveals more about goals and regrets.
Food and Drink Questions
Food and drink are fun, familiar topics that most people enjoy discussing. The questions below move past small talk to shared experiences.
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What is the most unusual food you’ve ever eaten? Identifies adventurous eaters and great stories.
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What was your favorite food as a child? Provides a nostalgic look back at formative years.
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** If you opened a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?** Encourages creativity and thinking big.
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What is your favorite family recipe? Highlights food traditions and connections.
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What is your go-to restaurant for celebrations? Offers ideas for group social events.
Entertainment Questions
Asking about movies, books, games, and other entertainment people enjoy in their personal time leads to common experiences.
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What was the last TV show you binge watched? Reveals shared interests and current trends.
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What book had the biggest impact on you? Provides deeper insights into values and emotions.
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What albums or artists have you listened to most? Identifies music tastes and pop culture knowledge.
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What is your favorite board game or video game? Highlights preferences for social versus solo activities.
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What entertainment do you enjoy that you’re embarrassed to admit? Creates fun bonding over guilty pleasures.
Childhood and History Questions
Looking back on childhood memories and past experiences makes for thoughtful and enlightening exchanges.
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Where did you grow up? Allows people to share background and family history.
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What did you want to be when you grew up? Looks at early dreams versus current realities.
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Who was your childhood hero? Explores role models and influences from formative years.
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What is your earliest memory? Provides heartwarming looks into the past.
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How would your classmates describe you in high school? Offers fun insight into teenage personalities.
Workplace and Career Questions
While you likely cover work topics regularly, these creative questions offer new perspectives on professional experiences.
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What was your very first job? Looks at early career milestones and responsibilities.
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What has been your favorite project you’ve worked on? Identifies passions and talents.
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If you won the lottery, what work would you continue doing? Reveals aspects of roles people truly enjoy.
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What is your dream vacation? Provides ideas for incentive trips and team building.
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Who has been your most impactful mentor? Highlights positive influences and leadership examples.
Wild Card Questions
Some quirky, thought-provoking questions can take conversations in unexpected directions while encouraging humor and creativity.
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If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose? Shows individuality and imagination.
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What is something you are optimistic about? Inspires uplifting outlooks and hopes.
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** If you had a time machine, where would you travel?** Allows for wish fulfillment and history lessons.
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What secret skills do you have? Uncovers unexpected talents.
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What would be the most useless superpower? Fosters silly debates and laughter.
Getting the Most Value from Fun Employee Questions
While asking off-the-wall, lighthearted questions may seem frivolous on the surface, they actually serve many valuable purposes, such as:
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Generating authentic conversations – Moves past stiff small talk to real interactions.
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Discovering common ground – Identifies shared experiences, interests, values.
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Learning people’s stories – Provides fuller understanding of backgrounds, motivations, and goals.
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Humanizing leaders – Removes barriers and builds trust when managers participate.
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Lightening the mood – Injects fun and levity into serious settings.
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Breaking assumptions – Surfaces unexpected facts about coworkers.
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Identifying skills and passions – Locates talent and strengths beyond job duties.
So don’t underestimate the power of fun questions to bring your team together. Use these suggestions as a starting point, get creative with your own ideas, and most importantly, have a good time getting to know your employees better.
Icebreaker questions: are they useful for team building?
Icebreaker questions can serve a range of functions depending on which ones you choose but their potential for facilitating effective team building is limited. Team building is about more than sparking lively conversations. To build trust, strengthen relationships and develop essential soft skills, you need to organise dedicated team-building activities.
Modern team building activities aren’t the same cringe-worthy, trust-fall exercises they once were. Today, countless team-building activities have been developed to target specific skills such as problem-solving, public speaking and communication, each one more unique, engaging, and effective than the last.
“Would you rather…” icebreaker questions
When asked a “Would you rather” question, you must make an impulsive decision based on two equally appealing (or unappealing) scenarios. Questions like these can deliver great insight into someone’s preferences, moral code, ethics and priorities.
They’re also great conversation starters. Because people tend to disagree, it can be fun to watch the debate ignite and evolve.
- Would you rather be stranded on a desert island alone or with your worst enemy?
- Would you rather be at the beach or in the mountains?
- Would you rather be great at physical activities but stupid or a genius with terrible coordination?
- Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future to meet your great-great-grandchildren?
- Would you rather have more money or more time?
- Would you rather talk like Yoda or breathe like Darth Vader for the rest of your life?
- Would you rather be without elbows or knees?
- Would you rather lose the ability to lie or believe everything you’re told?
- Would you rather always arrive at a red light or experience slow internet every time the sun goes down?
- Would you rather speak to animals or know other people’s thoughts?
- Would you rather be always cold or always hot?
- Would you rather own a yacht or a private jet?
- Would you rather take the red pill or the blue pill when approached by Morpheus in the Matrix?
- Would you rather have lots of small bad things happen to you throughout the month or have one day per month where lots of bad things happen to you?
- Would you rather wear divers flippers or boxing gloves for the rest of your life?
- Would you rather only be able to whisper or only able to shout?
- Would you rather laugh every time someone said something sad or cry every time someone said something funny?
- Would you rather your life had a cinematic soundtrack or a sitcom laughter track?
- Would you rather live in Middle-Earth from The Lord of The Rings or the Wizarding World from Harry Potter?
- Would you rather come face to face with a polar bear in the arctic or a snake in the desert?
These are great questions to ask if youre looking to build deeper connections with your team. They can also help you to understand what makes an individual tick.
By understanding the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of your workforce you can allocate tasks more effectively, cultivate a more engaging office environment and build stronger interpersonal relationships.
- When you die, what do you want to be remembered for?
- What’s something you always thought you would do but never have?
- If you could give your child-self one piece of advice what would you say?
- When was the last time you felt like everything was going your way?
- What phrase or cliché do you most live by?
- What’s something you learned about yourself in the last three months?
- If you could see yourself through the eyes of somebody else for a moment which person would that be?
- Which part of your personality do you usually hold back and why?
- What’s something that most people don’t know about you?
- What was the last thing you did that you were proud of?
- Can you think of a time you said “No” to something when you wish you said “Yes”?
- When was the last time somebody did something for you that you greatly appreciated?
- Who do you look up to most in life?
- What do you do to unwind after a long day at work?
- If you’re feeling down, what’s the simplest thing somebody can do for you to cheer you up?
- What’s something you couldn’t live without?
- If you could rid the world of one thing what would it be?
- What’s a small act of kindness you were once shown that you’ll never forget?
- What’s one activity that grants you pure escapism?
- What’s a common piece of advice you don’t agree with and why?
How to Hire Only the Best People – 7 Questions to ask candidates
What questions should you ask employees?
Here are the different types of questions you can ask employees: 1. Do you prefer staying up late or waking up early in the morning? Talking about employees’ lives outside of work is a great way to make the entire team feel more relaxed and comfortable with one another. This question can help you learn more about employees’ routines.
Should you ask fun questions during an interview?
Whether you’re conducting an interview, meeting new employees or practicing team-building exercises, asking employees fun questions can be a great way to get to know them better. It can also make them feel more relaxed, comfortable and welcomed in the workplace.
What questions should you ask at the beginning of a meeting?
It can be a great question to ask at the beginning of a meeting or brainstorm session when you want employees to warm up their creativity and critical thinking abilities before moving to the main talking points of the meeting. 9. What’s your process for turning a bad day into a good one?
Are icebreaker questions a good way to engage employees?
Sparking lively conversations with icebreaker questions is the best way to engage your employees from the start. Icebreaker questions are essential tools to have in your belt. They ease tension, reduce anxiety and pave the way for lively discussions or debates.
