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Icebreaker questions for work that people will answer

Pick the meeting and get one of these icebreaker questions for work, sized for it and written onto the agenda. Every one is safe to ask a new starter, a remote coworker and the CEO in the same room.

Agenda

Daily stand-up, 9:30 to 9:45

  1. Icebreaker1 min

    What's one word for how this week is going?

    Go round once. One word or one line each, then straight into updates.

  2. Yesterday, today, blockers

  3. Anything for the board

All 209 icebreaker questions for work, by meeting

Quick icebreakers for a stand-up

Go round once. One word or one line each, then straight into updates.

  1. What's one word for how this week is going?
  2. What did you have for breakfast, in three words or fewer?
  3. What's the last thing you learned that wasn't for work?
  4. Which app do you open first in the morning?
Show 33 moreShow fewer Quick icebreakers for a stand-up
  1. What's on your desk right now that shouldn't be?
  2. What's the best thing you ate this week?
  3. What's one thing you're looking forward to today?
  4. If today were a weather forecast, what would it be?
  5. What's the most useful keyboard shortcut you know?
  6. What song has been stuck in your head this week?
  7. Which emoji do you use most at work?
  8. What's a small win from yesterday?
  9. What's your go-to snack for a long afternoon?
  10. Which day of the week is secretly the best?
  11. What's one browser tab you've had open for more than a week?
  12. What's the last thing you bought that was worth every cent?
  13. What's the best sound in an office?
  14. Which meeting room is your favorite, and why?
  15. What would you rename the project you're on, if you could?
  16. What made you laugh this week?
  17. How many cups of coffee or tea so far today?
  18. What would your out-of-office say today, in five words?
  19. What's the best part of your commute, even if it's ten steps?
  20. Which word have you used too much this week?
  21. What's the first thing you'd fix in this office?
  22. What's on your phone's lock screen?
  23. Which task on your list has been there since last month?
  24. What's the most-used thing on your desk?
  25. Name a film you'd happily watch again tonight.
  26. What's your favorite way to spend a lunch break?
  27. What's one task you'd automate if you could?
  28. What's the best piece of advice you've had at work?
  29. What hobby would you pick up with a free afternoon?
  30. What's the best thing you did on your time off?
  31. What will your summer out-of-office say?
  32. Which holiday song should be banned from the office?
  33. What's one work habit you're starting this year?

Icebreaker questions for video calls

Answer from where you sit. Cameras optional, and a pass is fine.

  1. What's the one thing in your room with a story behind it?
  2. Hold up the mug you're drinking from. Where did it come from?
  3. What can you see from the nearest window?
  4. What's the oldest thing on your desk?
Show 26 moreShow fewer Icebreaker questions for video calls
  1. What's on the wall behind your camera, out of shot?
  2. Beach, office or spaceship: which background for your next call?
  3. What's the best thing about where you're working today?
  4. What do you keep within arm's reach while you work?
  5. If your chair could talk, what would it complain about?
  6. What's the last photo on your phone you'd happily show?
  7. What do you do in the five minutes between back-to-back calls?
  8. Who makes the most cameos on your calls: a pet, a delivery or a neighbor's drill?
  9. What's the best part of your setup: the chair, the screen or the snacks?
  10. What's the strangest place you've taken a work call from?
  11. What have you learned about video calls the hard way?
  12. When you join, do you check the mute or the camera first?
  13. What do you look at when you're thinking?
  14. What would you put in a time capsule from this year's work?
  15. Which sound do you dread most on a call?
  16. What's the best thing in your fridge right now?
  17. What's your go-to line when your screen freezes?
  18. What view would you most like behind you on calls?
  19. Which desk upgrade changed your working day?
  20. If you could take this call from any café in the world, which one?
  21. What's the most interesting thing within three meters of you?
  22. Which plant, if any, is surviving on your desk?
  23. What do you have playing in the background when you focus?
  24. What's your fastest lunch on a busy day at home?
  25. Which time zone would you secretly like to work in?
  26. What's one thing about your office day you'd keep if you never went back?

Icebreakers for an offsite or team day

Pairs talk for two minutes, then anyone who wants to shares with the room.

  1. What's the best job you've ever had, apart from this one?
  2. What's a skill you have that nobody at work knows about?
  3. What's the best piece of feedback you've ever been given?
  4. What was your first job, and what did it teach you?
Show 27 moreShow fewer Icebreakers for an offsite or team day
  1. Tell us about a plan that went wrong and turned out better.
  2. What's the most useful thing you learned in your first year of work?
  3. What's a place you've been that you'd send everyone to?
  4. What would you do with a paid month off and no plans?
  5. What have you changed your mind about in the last few years?
  6. Which book, podcast or show changed how you work?
  7. What's the best team you've been part of, and what made it work?
  8. What's on your list to learn before next year?
  9. Whose job here would you swap with for a day?
  10. What small habit makes your work week better?
  11. What's the most memorable meal you've had on a work trip?
  12. What's a project you're proud of, from any job?
  13. If you had to do a talent show act, what would it be?
  14. What does your perfect workday look like, hour by hour?
  15. What advice would you give yourself on your first day here?
  16. What are you good at that you never get to use at work?
  17. What's the most interesting thing you've fixed or built yourself?
  18. Which skill would you want the whole team to learn?
  19. What tradition from a past job would you bring here?
  20. What's the funniest thing that has happened to you in a meeting?
  21. If this team were a band, what would it be called?
  22. Where do you go to think clearly?
  23. What's the best thing a manager ever did for you?
  24. What's one thing you'd keep and one thing you'd change about how we work?
  25. What job did you want when you were ten?
  26. What do you want this team to be known for by the end of the year?
  27. What's the best talk or session you've ever sat through?

Questions for a new starter's first week

Everyone answers, the new starter last, so they hear the room first.

  1. What made you say yes to this job?
  2. What's one thing you're hoping to learn here?
  3. How do you like feedback: in the moment, in writing or saved for a one-to-one?
  4. Which tool or app can't you work without?
Show 21 moreShow fewer Questions for a new starter's first week
  1. What do you wish people knew about working with you?
  2. Are you a morning person, an afternoon person or a deadline person?
  3. What's the best way to reach you when something's urgent?
  4. What did your last team do well that we should copy?
  5. How do you like to start your working day?
  6. What did you do before this job, in one line?
  7. What are you good at that we should ask you about?
  8. Where's the best lunch near your old office?
  9. Which hobby could you happily talk about for ten minutes?
  10. What's the strangest interview question you've ever been asked?
  11. Do you learn best by reading, watching or trying?
  12. Which of our acronyms has confused you most so far?
  13. What would make your first month here a good one?
  14. What should we know about your working style on day one?
  15. How do you switch off after work?
  16. Which kind of meeting do you find most useful?
  17. Who do you most want to meet first?
  18. What's the best welcome you've had at a new job?
  19. What would you happily never do again in a job?
  20. What would you like your work to look like a year from now?
  21. Which question about this place have you been saving up?

Would you rather questions for work

Everyone picks a side and gives one reason. No fence-sitting.

  1. Would you rather have a four-day week or a two-hour lunch every day?
  2. Would you rather never have another meeting or never write another email?
  3. Would you rather work from a beach with bad Wi-Fi or an office with perfect Wi-Fi?
  4. Would you rather present to the whole company or sit on a panel of three?
Show 31 moreShow fewer Would you rather questions for work
  1. Would you rather have the desk by the window or the desk by the kitchen?
  2. Would you rather have unlimited coffee or unlimited snacks at work?
  3. Would you rather work 6 am to 2 pm or 11 am to 7 pm?
  4. Would you rather have an inbox that's always empty or a calendar that's always free?
  5. Would you rather have a robot that takes notes or a robot that makes coffee?
  6. Would you rather work on a team of ten or a team of two?
  7. Would you rather every meeting lasted 15 minutes or every meeting had an agenda?
  8. Would you rather be the best at your job or the most liked person in the office?
  9. Would you rather give up the team chat or give up email?
  10. Would you rather have a standing desk or a hammock in the office?
  11. Would you rather only work mornings or only work evenings?
  12. Would you rather lose your notes or lose your calendar?
  13. Would you rather commute by boat or by cable car?
  14. Would you rather have an assistant for a week or a week off?
  15. Would you rather every call was audio only or every call was in person?
  16. Would you rather have an office dog or an office cat?
  17. Would you rather speak every language or code in every language?
  18. Would you rather answer every email within a minute or never answer one at all?
  19. Would you rather have the best chair in the building or the best screen?
  20. Would you rather your job came with a chef or a driver?
  21. Would you rather do one huge project a year or fifty small ones?
  22. Would you rather have an office with no windows or an office with no doors?
  23. Would you rather never be late again or never be interrupted again?
  24. Would you rather work in a library or a busy café?
  25. Would you rather have a three-day weekend every week or a month off every summer?
  26. Would you rather run the all-hands or plan the holiday party?
  27. Would you rather have meeting-free Mondays or meeting-free Fridays?
  28. Would you rather type with one hand or use only a trackpad for a year?
  29. Would you rather be muted when you meant to talk or unmuted when you meant to be quiet?
  30. Would you rather have a desk plant that never dies or a printer that never jams?
  31. Would you rather have lunch with the CEO or with whoever fixes the printer?

This or that questions for work

Read the pair out and everyone answers at once.

  1. Tea or coffee?
  2. Early bird or night owl?
  3. Stairs or elevator?
  4. Window seat or aisle seat?
Show 26 moreShow fewer This or that questions for work
  1. Camera on or camera off?
  2. Inbox zero or 4,000 unread?
  3. Notebook or notes app?
  4. Call or message?
  5. Standing desk or comfy chair?
  6. Headphones on or office noise?
  7. Sweet snack or salty snack?
  8. Plan the week or wing it?
  9. Dark mode or light mode?
  10. Lunch at the desk or lunch out?
  11. Mountains or seaside?
  12. Pen or pencil?
  13. Office day or home day?
  14. To-do list or sticky notes?
  15. Read the doc or watch the recording?
  16. Spreadsheet or slides?
  17. Morning meetings or afternoon meetings?
  18. Cats or dogs?
  19. Summer or winter?
  20. Keyboard shortcuts or the mouse?
  21. One big screen or two small ones?
  22. Pizza or sandwiches for the team lunch?
  23. Reply now or reply later?
  24. Fiction or non-fiction?
  25. Hot desk or your own desk?
  26. Long weekend or long lunch?

Retro and Friday wrap-up questions

One line each before the board opens. Nobody has to explain.

  1. What went better than expected this week?
  2. What would you do differently if this sprint started again tomorrow?
  3. Who helped you this week, and how?
  4. Which meeting this week could have been an email?
Show 17 moreShow fewer Retro and Friday wrap-up questions
  1. What surprised you most in the last two weeks?
  2. What small thing would make next week easier?
  3. What did you finish that you're pleased with?
  4. What's one thing you learned from a mistake recently?
  5. In one word, how did this sprint feel?
  6. What should the team keep doing?
  7. What would you stop doing tomorrow if you could?
  8. Which task took longer than it should have, and why?
  9. What's the best thing a teammate did this week?
  10. What are you looking forward to next sprint?
  11. What should we celebrate before we move on?
  12. What would make our stand-ups more useful?
  13. If this week were a film, what would it be called?
  14. What would you tell the team from a month ago?
  15. What are you taking into the weekend, and what are you leaving here?
  16. What should we stop before the end of the year?
  17. What are you proudest of from the first half of the year?

What makes a work icebreaker work

Short, inside the meeting, and optional

31% of British employees name team building as the workplace social activity they like least, ahead of after-hours drinks at 20%. Group discussions and meetings get 17%. An icebreaker survives that by being small: two minutes at the top of a meeting that’s already in the calendar, in working hours, with “pass” as a fine answer.

The version that fails is easy to spot. A bonding call at 6 pm on a Friday, a quiz on company values, a request to wear a fun hat. Each asks for time and goodwill that nobody offered.

Questions anyone can answer

Every question on this page can be answered by a new starter, a remote coworker and the CEO, in front of each other. None asks about family, health, money, religion, politics, age or drink, the subjects people think twice about sharing at work.

Light doesn’t mean empty. “What’s one tab you’ve had open for more than a week” gets a laugh and a glimpse of what someone is stuck on, which “how was your weekend” rarely does.

Match the question to the meeting

A stand-up is a 15-minute meeting, so its icebreaker gets a minute and its questions take one word each. The whole team answers inside that minute. An offsite has a quarter of an hour to spare, so its questions take a story. Ask a story question at a stand-up and the updates never happen.

How to run an icebreaker

At a stand-up

Read the question out and answer it yourself first, so people hear how long an answer should be. Then go round in the order of the board, once, and start the updates. If the whole team is out of ideas, buzzword bingo keeps them listening for the rest of the meeting.

On a video call

Post the question in the chat a minute before the start, so people can type an answer instead of unmuting. Cameras stay optional. Questions about the room someone sits in work best on a call, because everyone has a mug, a window or a cable within reach.

At an offsite or team day

Pairs first, for two minutes, then ask who wants to share with the room. People who don’t want an audience still had a real conversation, and the room hears the best answers. If the day has a trust fall on the program, play the trust fall game instead, where nobody has to land on anyone.

End the day with a few printed office awards, and the team goes home with something other than a lanyard.

With a new starter

Ask the new starter last, so they’ve heard everyone else’s answers before giving theirs. Questions about how they like to work help the team for months. Questions about life outside work can wait until they bring it up.

Questions about icebreakers at work

What is a good icebreaker question for work?

One that everyone can answer in a sentence without thinking twice about sharing it. A question about lunch works in any meeting. A question about someone's biggest fear works in none.

What are fun questions to ask coworkers?

Questions about small things in plain sight: the oldest thing on their desk, the tab they've had open for a week, the meeting room they'd defend. The answers are quick and start the next conversation.

What are some good icebreakers for the workplace?

One-word questions for a stand-up, questions about the room people sit in for a video call, and a question for pairs with two minutes to talk at an offsite.

What are quick icebreakers for meetings?

This or that pairs, such as tea or coffee, take a few seconds a person. A one-word question, such as one word for this week, goes round a whole team in no time.

How long should an icebreaker take?

A minute in a 15-minute stand-up, three to five minutes on a half-hour call, up to fifteen at an offsite. Past that it stops breaking the ice and starts eating the agenda.

What are good would you rather questions for work?

Ones where both sides tempt people, such as a shorter week against a longer lunch, or a quiet inbox against a quiet calendar. Ask for one reason with the pick, and it turns into a short conversation.

Sources

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