Prof.Abdelhamid Fouda
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We've put together the ultimate list of 100+ ice breaker questions conveniently categorised & ranked for different contexts.
Modern organisational life, regardless of culture, is characterised with essential teamwork. Yet, we often find ourselves neglecting the integration of ways to break down barriers, get acquainted and build trust.
However, awkward silences and uncomfortable hellos don’t just disappear off their own accord. This is when you need a long list of quick and easy icebreaker questions to get the ball moving and to get your team feeling comfortable with each other.
Designed to be fun, interesting and proven to accelerate team development, ice breaker questions are the perfect way to get your team shivering with excitement.
Below, you’ll find 10 categories of questions that contain all of our favourite ice breakers, each with the questions in ranking order. We’ve covered everything from fun icebreaker questions, to one’s related to the job, to some old fashioned ones and then to some more creative ones.
Chapters
'Get To Know You' Icebreaker Questions
Personal Ice Breaker Questions
'If You Could' Icebreaker Questions
Success, Ambition and Passion Ice Breaker Questions
The Worst Icebreaker Questions
"Do You Prefer?" Ice Breaker Questions
"Would You Rather?" Ice Breaker Questions
Ice Breaker Questions Specific To Work
One Word Ice Breaker Questions
You'll get all of these 100 ice breaker questions included in our awesome online quiz game QuizBreaker.
Thousands of teams around the world play QuizBreaker as a fun way to learn more about each other and bring their teams closer together.
Click here to learn more about QuizBreaker and try if for free.
If your team is working remotely at the moment then you should check out our guide on virtual team building activities. In there you'll find 100 ideas with instructions that you can try with your newly remote team.
1. Fun Ice Breaker Questions
First things first, the crucial one thing is that ice breaker sessions are fun. So, kicking off to a lighthearted start, these are our favourite fun and easy icebreaker questions for you and your team to try.
- Are there any interesting things your name spells with the letters rearranged?
- If you were a potato, what way would you like to be cooked?
- Would you go to space if you knew that you could never come back to earth?
- Have you ever been mistaken for someone famous?
- What animal would you chose to be?
- What is the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?
- What is the strangest gift you have ever received?
- What kind of reality show would you appear in?
- Which of Snow White’s seven dwarfs describes you best (Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy or Sneezy)?
- What song describes your life right now?
2. 'Get To Know You' Icebreaker Questions
These icebreakers are simple, yet effective, questions designed to encourage employees to get to know each other a little better. They involve everyone and can be used with new team members or for teams who know each other very well.
- How many languages can you speak?
- What's your middle name?
- What is your favourite strange food combinations?
- What’s your favorite place?
- Where did you grow up?
- What’s your favourite hobby?
- If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?
- Are you a listener or a talker?
- What was your last song on your spotify?
- Are you a back seat driver?
3. Personal Ice Breaker Questions
Sharing our hopes, dreams, wishes and desires helps us to understand each other and form deeper relationships. These icebreaker questions are best suited to teams who know each other on a basic level but want to take their workplace relations one step further.
- Describe your dream holiday if money was no limit?
- Where do you want to retire?
- Complete the sentence “I wish everyone could…”
- Describe your dream wedding if money was no object?
- What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
- What is your goal by the end of the decade?
- What is your dream job?
- When you were a child, what was your biggest dream?
- What talent would you most like to grow and develop?
- Where would you build your dream home?
Enjoying these icebreaker questions? You'll get all of these 100 ice breaker questions included in our awesome online icebreaker quiz game QuizBreaker.
Managers at companies including the NYTimes, Google & Coca Cola use QuizBreaker as a fun way to bring their teams closer together.
4. 'If you could' Icebreaker Questions
These icebreaker questions encourage people to think their toes, be pushed outside their comfort zone and get creative. Again, these lighthearted and fun questions will get your team feeling relaxed and inspired to get to know each other.
- If you could have any super human power, what would it be?
- If you could audition for a talent TV show, what song would you pick and why?
- If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be?
- If you could be a kitchen appliance, what one would you be and why?
- If you could be in the Guiness book of world records, what record-breaking feat would you attempt?
- If you could have an extra hour of free time everyday, how would you use it?
- If you could take 3 things to a desert island what would they be?
- If you could have an endless supply of food, what would it be?
- If you could speak another language, what would it be?
- If you could only listen to once album for the rest of your life, what would it be?
5. Success, Ambition and Passion Ice Breaker Questions
There is a great deal of pressure on employees to perform well in businesses. Getting to know what drives their success early on and in a different way to help you to motivate them.
- Describe an experience in your life that changed your values?
- Is it ever OK to waste time?
- Tell us one big problem you’ve had to solve this year?
- Using just one word, name something that drives your success?
- What three things would you like to accomplish this year?
- What new, or additional, skill do you think you need now to progress further?
- What is the reason you get up in the morning?
- When was the last time you did something for the first time?
- When you were six years old, what did you want to be when you grow up?
- What would you do if you have all the money in the world?
6. The Worst Icebreaker Questions
All the other questions we present to you will be focused on fun, development and humour. Yet, it is important to focus on the lower times and to be reflective. If you feel comfortable enough with your team to ask these icebreaker questions, then we feel that they will aid your team in creating deeper workplace bonds.
- What is the first lie you ever told?
- What is your worst personality characteristic?
- What is the worst food you ever eaten?
- What is the worst advice you’ve ever given?
- Describe your worst day ever
- What is the worst trouble you go into as a kid?
- Describe the worst movie you’ve ever watched?
- What is the worst pick up line you’ve ever heard?
- What is the worst holiday you’ve ever been on?
- What is the worst grade you ever got?
7. "Do You Prefer?" Ice Breaker Questions
Use these simple questions to lighten the atmosphere and add a little humour to your meetings. Our top tip is that you could make these ice breakers into a friendly competition. For example , everyone puts their hands up if they prefer beaches and their hands down if they prefer pools. You could offer prizes for the winners, or just use the competition to keep the ice breaker games engaging.
- Do you prefer the pool or the beach?
- Do you prefer books or films?
- Do you prefer nights out or nights in?
- Do you prefer mornings or nights?
- Do you prefer summer or winter?
- Do you prefer cats or dogs?
- Do you prefer fruits or vegetables?
- Do you prefer sweet or savoury?
- Do you prefer to dress smart or casual?
- Do you prefer cardio or weight lifting?
8. "Would You Rather?" Ice Breaker Questions
Lets face it, we’ve all played this when intoxicated at a college party and found it hilarious. We can only suggest keeping it PG when playing it in the office, but we’re sure it’ll bring the same humour to your work team as it did to your college parties. “Would you rather?” icebreaker questions are a different and exciting way to find out people's preferences, values and likes.
- Would you rather be able to run at 100 miles per hour or fly at 10 miles per hour
- Would you rather be an olympic gold medalist or an astronaut?
- Would you rather fart or burp glitter?
- Would you rather travel back in time to meet your ancestors or would you rather go to the future to meet your descendants?
- Would you rather be funny or clever?
- Would you rather have no arms or no legs?
- Would you rather lose your sight or hearing?
- Would you rather have invisibility or flight?
- Would you prefer to always be slightly late or always be an hour early?
- Would you rather always be cold or always be hot?
9. Ice Breaker Questions Specific To Work
Lighthearted icebreaker questions are all fun and games. However, when it’s time to get down to the business of team building, we’ve also got you covered. Try these work related ice breakers when trying to create a professional environment or when forming new teams.
- If you could immediately gain one skill, what would it be?
- Where do you see yourself going in the company?
- What do you think the most important thing is for a workplace to have?
- What do you admire most in a work colleague?
- What coffee do you drink in your morning meeting?
- What do you think you contribute most to the workplace?
- If you could open an office anywhere in the world, where would it be?
- What is the longest you’ve ever stayed in one job?
- What was the worst job you've ever had?
- What was your first job?
10. One Word Ice Breaker Questions
These are perhaps the quickest icebreaker questions. However, they are arguably the least insightful and the least fun. Nonetheless, stick a few of these in to make the ice breaker activities feel less like an interrogation...
- Describe the sun in one word?
- Describe your in-laws in one word?
- Describe the person to your left in one word?
- Describe yourself in one word?
- Describe your breakfast in one word?
- Describe your house in one word?
- Describe England in one word?
- Describe your weekend in one word?
- Describe your fashion trend in one word?
- Describe your car in one word?
11. Bonus Icebreaker Questions
- Have you ever had an imaginary friend?
- Who is your favorite cartoon character?
- What was your favorite subject in high school?
- Who would you want on your team in a zombie apocalypse?
- What's your favorite family tradition?
- Who was your childhood actor or actress crush?
- Describe your dream house
- Are you a dog person or a cat person?
- What's your favourite ride at a theme park?
- What year would you visit if you had a time machine?
- What's your current cellphone wallpaper?
- What's your go-to dance move?
- Name one thing still on your bucket list
- What's your favorite breakfast cereal or breakfast food?
- What would your entrance theme song be?
- Have you ever been bungee jumping?
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are other good icebreaker type questions?
They are plenty of different questions you can ask when you are learning more about your colleagues and new employees. In fact we have an awesome list of "would you rather" questions and ["get to know you" questions] that would be a great addition to any icebreaker activity.
- What are icebreaker questions?
Icebreaker questions are used to begin an activity or meeting. They are used to introduce new people in an informal approach. They are normally more personal questions to learn more about one another.
- How do you respond to icebreaker?
There is no right or wrong way to respond to an icebreaker question. But we suggest keeping it straight to the point and on the shorter end. You don't want to have long winded answered that might lose your audiences attention.
- Where does the term icebreaker originate from?
Phrases.org states the orgin of "icebreaker" come from: "These ships, known as ice-breakers, were equipped with strengthened hulls and powerful engines and were employed in the exploration of polar regions.
Soon after these ships were introduced the term 'ice-breaker' began to be applied to social initiatives intended to get strangers acquainted with one another. In 1883, Mark Twain used the phrase that way in Life on Mississippi."
Wrapping Up
So, there you have it.
100 of the best icebreaker questions that encourage conversations and help with team bonding & team building.
Feel free to mix and match the questions from different sections, this will keep your ice breaker sessions different and interesting.
However, be mindful that your icebreaker sessions are kept short and sweet - no one wants to spend all day doing this! You’ll probably find it useful to set a time limit - we recommend setting aside the first five minutes of any meeting for ice breaker questions. And then, it’s time to get down to business.
Congratulations, you've made it to the end of our epic list of icebreaker questions. Once you've gotten through all of these there really shouldn't be any ice between you left! Perhaps it's now time to try out some other team building activities.
If you want to go deeper with the ice breaking then you should also check out our list of the best ice breaker games.
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