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Team Building Questions: 150 Purposeful Examples to Boost Group Dynamics

By Status.net Editorial Team on January 12, 2024 — 15 minutes to read

  • Types of Team-Building Questions Part 1
  • Designing Effective Team-Building Questions Part 2
  • 150 Examples of Purposeful Team-Building Questions Part 3
  • Evaluating the Impact of Team-Building Questions Part 4

The strength of a team lies not just in the collective skills of its members, but in the depth of the connections they share and the trust they build together. Team-building questions can help create stronger connections within your team and foster a collaborative work environment.

This article provides a comprehensive list of thoughtfully crafted questions that aim to open channels of communication, encourage mutual understanding, and unlock the potential of every team member. The questions are structured to inspire reflection, provoke discussion, and promote a sense of belonging and purpose.

Part 1 Types of Team-Building Questions

Ice breakers.

Ice breakers are essential for easing people into conversations, especially when team members have not interacted much before. Here are some examples:

  • What’s your favorite hobby outside of work?
  • If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
  • What’s the last movie or show you watched and enjoyed?

Related: Smart Icebreaker Questions for Work

Problem-Solving Exercises

To improve your team’s decision-making abilities and creative thinking, introduce problem-solving exercises. These questions can help stimulate brainstorming sessions and collaboration:

  • How would you improve our current project management process?
  • What is a challenge you faced recently, and how did you overcome it?
  • Can you suggest a new solution to an existing problem we have been facing?

Trust-Building Activities

Trust is an essential component of any successful team. Use these questions to facilitate trust-building exercises:

  • Share a time when you had to rely on a team member for support.
  • What strengths do you believe your teammates bring to the table?
  • If you were to choose a teammate to complete a challenging task, who would it be and why?

Related: How to Build Trust in the Workplace [18 Effective Solutions]

Feedback and Reflection Prompts

Regular feedback and reflection are crucial for the growth and development of your team. You can encourage open discussions with these questions:

  • How can we improve on our latest project or process?
  • What did you learn from the latest team collaboration?
  • What is one aspect of the team dynamic that you think works well, and one that requires improvement?

Communication Enhancers

Strong communication is key to successful team collaboration. Implement communication-enhancing exercises to help improve understanding and rapport among team members:

  • Describe a complex concept in simple words.
  • Summarize a recent project or meeting in five main points.
  • Role-play a scenario where you need to communicate complex instructions to a team member.

Part 2 Designing Effective Team-Building Questions

When designing team-building questions, consider the purpose behind them. You want to foster stronger relationships, increase communication, and promote a collaborative atmosphere within your team. Keep your questions open-ended to encourage deeper conversation and make sure they are relevant to your team members’ experiences.

  • Know your objectives : Identify the specific goals you want to achieve through your team-building activity. These may include establishing trust, improving problem-solving skills, or identifying individual strengths and weaknesses.
  • Keep the questions balanced : Strive for a mix of light-hearted, personal, professional, and thought-provoking questions. This allows your team members to engage in a variety of conversations and ensures that everyone feels comfortable participating.
  • Avoid controversial or sensitive topics : Steer clear of topics that could potentially create conflict or make team members uncomfortable. Focus on questions that bring people together rather than pushing them apart.
  • Tailor the questions to your team : Consider the unique dynamics within your group, such as different cultural backgrounds, age groups, and professional experiences. Use your understanding of team members to craft questions that resonate with them and help them connect with one another.

Part 3 150 Examples of Purposeful Team-Building Questions

  • 1. What’s one skill you’d like to develop that would help you in your current role?
  • 2. Can you share a recent success story from your work or personal life?
  • 3. What motivates you to come to work every day?
  • 4. How do you prefer to receive feedback?
  • 5. What’s one personal goal you’re working towards right now?
  • 6. What’s your favorite way to unwind after a busy week?
  • 7. Can you tell us about a time you overcame a significant challenge?
  • 8. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
  • 9. How do you manage stress in high-pressure situations?
  • 10. What’s one thing you’d like the team to know about you that we might not already know?
  • 11. What’s your favorite team-building activity, and why?
  • 12. How do you define success for yourself, both personally and professionally?
  • 13. What’s a work-related skill you’d like to learn or improve?
  • 14. What are your thoughts on work-life balance, and how do you achieve it?
  • 15. Can you share an example of a great team you’ve been part of in the past?
  • 16. What’s one thing you believe every team should do to work effectively?
  • 17. How do you contribute to creating a positive team environment?
  • 18. What’s your approach to handling disagreements within a team?
  • 19. What’s your favorite project you’ve ever worked on, and why?
  • 20. How do you prioritize tasks when everything seems urgent?
  • 21. What’s a hobby or activity you enjoy that might surprise us?
  • 22. How do you like to be recognized for your work?
  • 23. What’s an area of your work you’re particularly passionate about?
  • 24. Can you share a book or podcast that has influenced your professional life?
  • 25. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?
  • 26. How do you approach learning something new?
  • 27. What’s your strategy for staying organized?
  • 28. Can you describe a time when you had to adapt to a significant change at work?
  • 29. What’s your favorite aspect of our company culture?
  • 30. How do you feel your role contributes to the team’s success?
  • 31. What’s one piece of technology that helps you be more productive?
  • 32. Can you share a time when you helped a team member succeed?
  • 33. What’s your approach to work-life integration, especially with remote work?
  • 34. How do you think our team can improve collaboration?
  • 35. What’s one thing you’d like to change about our team meetings?
  • 36. How do you approach setting goals for yourself?
  • 37. What’s something new you’ve learned in the past month?
  • 38. What’s the most valuable feedback you’ve received from a team member?
  • 39. How do you think we can foster creativity within our team?
  • 40. What’s your approach to conflict resolution?
  • 41. How do you like to celebrate team achievements?
  • 42. What’s one thing that you think would improve our team’s communication?
  • 43. Can you share an experience where teamwork led to great results?
  • 44. How do you approach mentorship, either as a mentor or a mentee?
  • 45. What’s your favorite part about working in a team environment?
  • 46. How do you think our team can better support one another?
  • 47. What’s one professional skill you admire in someone on the team?
  • 48. How do you stay motivated when working on long-term projects?
  • 49. What’s one change you’ve seen in the team that you’re excited about?
  • 50. How do you think we can make our team meetings more engaging and productive?
  • 51. What’s one thing you’d like to learn from someone else on the team?
  • 52. Can you tell us about a time when you had to take the lead on a project?
  • 53. How do you approach giving constructive criticism to a team member?
  • 54. What’s your favorite team success story?
  • 55. How do you think diversity within our team strengthens our work?
  • 56. What’s one way you stay focused when there are many distractions?
  • 57. How do you approach work when you’re not feeling particularly motivated?
  • 58. What’s your strategy for making decisions in a group setting?
  • 59. Can you share a personal achievement that has significantly impacted you?
  • 60. How do you think we can better utilize each team member’s strengths?
  • 61. What’s one thing you think our team should celebrate more often?
  • 62. How do you approach balancing teamwork with individual responsibility?
  • 63. What’s one new initiative you’d like to see our team undertake?
  • 64. How do you feel about taking risks in work?
  • 65. What’s your favorite memory with this team?
  • 66. How do you approach maintaining professional relationships in a remote work environment?
  • 67. What’s one thing you’d like to improve about our team’s workflow?
  • 68. Can you share a time when you received exceptional support from a team member?
  • 69. What’s one area of your work you’re looking to improve, and how can the team help?
  • 70. How do you approach setting personal boundaries at work?
  • 71. What’s one thing that you feel would help our team collaborate more effectively with other departments?
  • 72. How do you deal with burnout or work fatigue?
  • 73. What’s one way you think our team can contribute to the company’s overall mission?
  • 74. Can you share a time when a team member’s unique skill set greatly contributed to a project?
  • 75. How do you think we can make our team more inclusive?
  • 76. What’s a challenge you think our team is currently facing, and how can we overcome it?
  • 77. How do you think we can measure our team’s progress effectively?
  • 78. What’s one thing you appreciate about each person on the team?
  • 79. How do you approach learning from mistakes, either yours or the team’s?
  • 80. What’s one way we can make new team members feel welcome?
  • 81. How do you think we can encourage more innovation within our team?
  • 82. Can you share a time when you had to rely on the team to succeed?
  • 83. What’s one way you think we could improve our team’s problem-solving process?
  • 84. How do you approach maintaining a positive attitude during challenging times?
  • 85. What’s one thing you’ve done that has significantly improved team dynamics?
  • 86. How do you think we can make our workspace (physical or virtual) more conducive to productivity?
  • 87. What’s one personal value that you bring to your work?
  • 88. Can you share a time when a team project didn’t go as planned, and what you learned from it?
  • 89. How do you think we can better align our team goals with the company’s strategic objectives?
  • 90. What’s one way we can better support each other’s professional development?
  • 91. How do you think we can enhance transparency within the team?
  • 92. What’s one thing you would do to improve our team’s customer/client service?
  • 93. Can you share how you’ve adapted to changes within the team or company?
  • 94. What’s one thing you think we should do to start our team meetings on a high note?
  • 95. How do you balance being assertive with being collaborative in a team setting?
  • 96. What’s one way you think we can reduce misunderstandings within the team?
  • 97. Can you share a time when you felt proud to be part of this team?
  • 98. How do you think we can make our team’s communication more effective, both internally and externally?
  • 99. What’s one thing you think would make our team more agile and adaptable?
  • 100. How do you think we can celebrate individual contributions without creating competition within the team?
  • 101. What’s one professional challenge you’re currently facing, and how can the team support you?
  • 102. How do you approach maintaining a work-life balance with the increasing demands of our industry?
  • 103. What’s one innovative idea you have that could improve our team’s workflow?
  • 104. Can you share a personal passion that influences your work ethic?
  • 105. How do you think we can enhance our team’s resilience to industry shifts?
  • 106. What’s one way we can encourage more open and honest communication within the team?
  • 107. How do you approach maintaining enthusiasm for repetitive tasks?
  • 108. What’s one thing you’d like to achieve as a team in the next year?
  • 109. How do you stay updated with industry trends and apply them to your work?
  • 110. What’s one way we can make our team’s virtual meetings more interactive and engaging?
  • 111. Can you share a time when you had to juggle multiple priorities and how you managed it?
  • 112. How do you think we can better integrate work and personal development opportunities?
  • 113. What’s one thing you’d like to change about the team’s approach to project management?
  • 114. Can you share a positive impact our team has had on the community or within the company?
  • 115. How do you think we can improve our response to customer/client feedback as a team?
  • 116. What’s one thing you admire about our team culture, and how can we strengthen it?
  • 117. How do you approach staying motivated when faced with routine tasks?
  • 118. What’s one thing you believe would help our team respond better to unexpected challenges?
  • 119. How do you think we can foster a sense of ownership and accountability within the team?
  • 120. Can you share a time when cross-functional collaboration led to a great outcome for the team?
  • 121. What’s one way we can make our team’s success more visible within the company?
  • 122. How do you think we can encourage each other to take on leadership roles or initiatives?
  • 123. What’s one thing you think would help our team manage time more effectively?
  • 124. Can you share how a past failure led to growth or learning for the team?
  • 125. How do you approach incorporating feedback from team members into your work?
  • 126. What’s one way we can encourage continuous learning and improvement within the team?
  • 127. How do you think we can balance team cohesion with the need for individual creativity?
  • 128. Can you share a time when you felt particularly supported by the team during a difficult project?
  • 129. What’s one thing you think would help our team stay ahead of the curve in our industry?
  • 130. How do you approach building trust with new team members?
  • 131. What’s one way we can improve the onboarding process for new team members?
  • 132. Can you share how you’ve contributed to a positive change within the team or company?
  • 133. How do you think we can implement a system that encourages and tracks individual contributions to the team’s goals without creating unnecessary competition?
  • 134. How do you think we can create a more empowering environment for team members?
  • 135. What’s one way we can streamline our communication to avoid information overload?
  • 136. Can you share a time when you had to advocate for the team’s interests?
  • 137. What’s one thing you think would help our team maintain high energy levels during crunch times?
  • 138. How do you approach setting personal and professional boundaries to avoid burnout?
  • 139. What’s one way we can encourage risk-taking and innovation within the team?
  • 140. Can you share how you’ve seen personal growth from working within this team?
  • 141. What’s one thing you think would help our team better connect with our target audience or customers?
  • 142. How do you think we can make our team meetings more outcome-oriented?
  • 143. What’s one way we can better leverage each other’s expertise in our daily work?
  • 144. Can you share a time when the team’s diversity led to a better solution or outcome?
  • 145. What’s one thing you think would help our team stay more organized and efficient?
  • 146. How do you approach balancing detail-oriented tasks with big-picture thinking?
  • 147. What’s one way we can encourage more proactive problem-solving within the team?
  • 148. Can you share how a change in perspective has helped you in your role?
  • 149. What’s one thing you think would help our team better navigate interdepartmental challenges?
  • 150. What’s one thing you think would help our team better manage stakeholder expectations?

Part 4 Evaluating the Impact of Team-Building Questions

Evaluating the impact of team-building questions is essential to understand how well these questions improve team cohesion, productivity, and overall performance. By gauging the effectiveness of these questions, you can identify areas for improvement and make adjustments as needed.

  • First, pay attention to the response of your team members. Notice if they seem engaged, attentive, and interested during the team-building activities. Their body language, participation, and willingness to share their thoughts are indicators of a positive impact.
  • Another important aspect to consider is the feedback you receive from team members. Encourage your team to provide their insights and opinions on the effectiveness and relevance of the questions used. Did they feel comfortable answering the questions? Were the questions helpful in bringing out their thoughts, ideas, or personal experiences? Take their suggestions on board, and make necessary improvements based on this feedback.
  • You can also measure the impact of team-building questions by evaluating the outcome of your team’s performance. Assess whether there have been any improvements in productivity, collaboration, and overall job satisfaction. For instance, if your team is now completing projects faster, with clearer communication, and with fewer miscommunications, this might be an excellent indicator of the effectiveness of your team-building questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What icebreaker questions can we use to start our team-building session on a fun note.

Icebreaker questions are an excellent way to break the monotony and help people loosen up. You can try out these questions at the start of your team-building session:

  • If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?
  • If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
  • Share an embarrassing moment.
  • If you were stranded on a deserted island, which three items would you choose to have with you and why?

How can we incorporate fun activities into team building to enhance collaboration?

You can spice up team building by incorporating exciting activities that foster collaboration. Consider activities like:

  • Escape rooms
  • Improv workshops
  • Scavenger hunts
  • Outdoor adventure activities (e.g., hiking, rafting)
  • Partner or group cooking classes These engaging activities often require good communication, problem-solving, and teamwork.

What questions could help identify individual strengths and roles within a sports team?

To better understand each team member’s unique strengths and roles, consider asking:

  • What do you enjoy most about your position on the team?
  • How do you demonstrate leadership on and off the field?
  • What’s your biggest achievement in sports?
  • What strategies or techniques do you use under pressure?
  • How do you contribute to team morale? These questions will help determine how each member excels and how their unique abilities contribute to the overall team dynamic.

What are effective questions to foster trust and openness in our team?

  • What’s one experience that made you feel proud to be on this team?
  • Do you feel comfortable sharing personal or work-related challenges with team members? Why or why not?
  • What steps can we take to improve trust among team members?
  • How can we be more supportive of each other?
  • Is there a time when you felt let down or unsupported by the team? How can we prevent that from happening again?

Can you provide examples of discussion prompts that promote leadership development during team building?

Leadership development can be encouraged through various discussion prompts, such as:

  • How would you handle a disagreement between team members?
  • Share an example of when you took the initiative or led a project.
  • What leadership qualities do you admire in others, and why?
  • How do you motivate and inspire your team?
  • What steps would you take to delegate tasks effectively?

In what ways can we explore team members’ motivations to create a more cohesive unit?

Understanding each team member’s motivations can contribute to a more cohesive unit. Some ways to explore them are:

  • Ask team members what drives them to perform their best.
  • Encourage team members to share their personal and professional goals.
  • Initiate group discussions on how the team’s objectives align with individual motivations.
  • Have a mentorship program where team members can explore different motivations and goals.
  • Identify how individual motivations contribute to the team’s overall success. These approaches allow you to tailor team-building activities that align with your team’s diverse motivations, ultimately resulting in a stronger, more cohesive unit.
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Growth Tactics

Growth Tactics

Ultimate List of 200 Team Building Questions for Work

Ultimate List of 200 Team Building Questions for Work

  • 1 1. Icebreaker Questions for Team Building
  • 2 2. Questions for Building Trust among Team Members
  • 3 3. Virtual Team Building Questions
  • 4 4. Fun Team Building Questions
  • 5 5. Creative Team-Building Questions
  • 6 6. Personal Development Questions for Team Building
  • 7 7. Would You Rather Questions for Team Building
  • 8 8. Building Effective Communication through Questions
  • 9 Conclusion

In any workplace, building a strong and cohesive team is crucial for success. One effective way to foster teamwork and connection among team members is through team building activities. And what better way to kickstart these activities than with engaging questions? In this blog post, we have compiled 200 team building questions for work that will help you break the ice, build trust, encourage communication, and create a positive team culture .

Whether you’re leading a virtual team , a small team, or a large team, these questions are tailored to suit your needs. So, let’s dive in and discover the power of team building questions in bringing your team together and achieving collective goals.

1. Icebreaker Questions for Team Building

Icebreaker questions are the perfect way to kick off team building activities and create a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. They help break down barriers, encourage communication, and allow team members to get to know each other on a personal level. Here are 25 icebreaker questions that you can use to start your team building sessions:

What is your favorite hobby outside of work?

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

What is the best vacation you’ve ever been on?

What is your go-to comfort food?

If you could travel back in time, which era would you visit and why?

What is one thing on your bucket list?

If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

What is something most people don’t know about you?

What is your favorite book or movie and why?

What is your spirit animal and why?

What was the best concert you’ve ever attended?

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

What is your favorite way to relax and de-stress?

If you could learn a new skill, what would it be and why?

What is your favorite season and why?

What is something you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

If you could invite three people, dead or alive, to a dinner party, who would they be?

What is your favorite quote or motto?

What is the most adventurous thing you’ve ever done?

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want to have with you?

What is a talent or skill that you have that not many people know about?

What is your favorite way to unwind after a long day?

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be and why?

What is one place you’ve always wanted to visit?

What is your favorite thing about working as part of a team?

These icebreaker questions will help your team members feel more comfortable, and open up, and create a positive and inclusive team culture . Use them at the beginning of your team building activities to set the tone for open communication and collaboration.

2. Questions for Building Trust among Team Members

Building trust is essential for creating a strong and cohesive team. These questions are designed to help team members understand each other on a deeper level, foster empathy, and create an environment of trust and support. Encourage open and honest discussion , ensuring that team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences. Here are 25 questions that can facilitate trust-building among team members:

What is a challenge you’ve faced in your career and how did you overcome it?

Can you share a time when you made a mistake and how you took responsibility for it?

What are your biggest strengths and how can they contribute to the team’s success?

How do you handle conflicts and disagreements within a team?

Can you recall a time when you had to trust someone else completely? How did it make you feel?

What are your expectations from your team members in terms of trust and reliability?

How do you build trust with someone you’ve just met?

Can you share an example of a time when your trust was broken? How did it impact you?

What do you value most in a team member?

How do you build trust with someone who has a different communication style than you?

Can you share an experience when you had to trust your intuition or gut feeling?

How do you show your trust in your team members?

Can you describe a situation where you had to admit a mistake and how it affected your relationship with your team?

How do you ensure that everyone on your team feels heard and valued?

Can you share a time when you had to trust someone’s expertise even if it was out of your comfort zone?

How do you rebuild trust in a team after it has been strained?

Can you give an example of a time when you had to trust a team member’s decision-making abilities?

How do you establish trust with team members who have different cultural backgrounds?

Can you recall a situation when someone’s trust in you made a significant impact on your performance?

How do you handle confidential information within a team to ensure trust is upheld?

Can you share an experience where you had to trust a team member’s commitment despite their past mistakes?

How do you establish trust when working in a virtual or remote team?

Can you describe a situation when honesty was crucial in building trust with your team?

How do you ensure transparent communication to maintain trust in a team?

Can you recall a time when you had to trust a team member’s ability to meet a deadline? How did it turn out?

Use these trust-building questions to deepen connections, establish a culture of honesty and reliability, and foster a strong sense of trust within your team. Building trust takes time, but it’s an essential foundation for a high-performing team.

3. Virtual Team Building Questions

Virtual team building is crucial for creating a sense of camaraderie and connection among remote team members. These questions are designed to facilitate engagement, foster virtual teamwork, and encourage team members to bond despite physical distance. Use them in virtual team building activities to promote collaboration and strengthen relationships. Here are 25 virtual team building questions:

What is your favorite thing about working in a virtual team?

How do you stay motivated while working remotely?

What is one creative way you’ve found to stay connected with your team members?

What is your go-to online collaboration tool or platform?

How do you overcome feelings of isolation in a virtual work environment?

How do you maintain work-life balance while working from home?

What is your favorite virtual team building activity or game?

How do you ensure effective communication while working remotely?

What strategies do you use to build trust among virtual team members?

How do you celebrate team accomplishments and milestones in a virtual setting?

What is your best tip for managing time effectively while working remotely?

How do you handle technical challenges or internet connectivity issues during virtual meetings?

What opportunities do you see for personal growth and development in a virtual team?

How do you foster a sense of belonging and inclusion in a virtual work environment?

What is one skill you’ve developed since working in a virtual team?

How do you maintain team morale in a virtual setting?

What is your favorite virtual team building icebreaker or warm-up activity?

How do you ensure active participation and engagement during virtual meetings?

What has been the most challenging aspect of working in a virtual team?

How do you build relationships and network with colleagues in a virtual environment?

What strategies do you use to manage distractions while working remotely?

How do you maintain focus and productivity in a virtual work environment?

What is one lesson you’ve learned from working in a virtual team?

How do you establish boundaries between work and personal life when working from home?

What are your top three tips for successful virtual team collaboration?

These virtual team building questions are designed to promote communication, engagement, and relationship-building among remote team members. Use them to create meaningful connections and a positive team culture, even when physically separated.

4. Fun Team Building Questions

Team building activities can be made more enjoyable and engaging by incorporating fun and lighthearted questions. These questions aim to create a positive and energetic atmosphere, allowing team members to bond and have a good time together. Use them in team outings, social events, or even as icebreakers during meetings. Here are 25 fun team building questions:

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three items would you want to have with you?

What was your favorite childhood game or activity?

If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go and why?

What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at work?

What is your all-time favorite movie quote?

If you could have dinner with any famous person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

What is your go-to dance move?

If you were a character in a book or movie, who would you be and why?

What is the most interesting or unique skill you possess?

If you could have a fictional pet, what would it be?

What is your favorite joke or funny story?

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

What is your favorite way to unwind and de-stress?

If you could time travel, which era would you visit and why?

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

If you could have any talent, what would you choose to have?

What is your favorite board game or card game?

If you could be a character in a video game, who would you be and why?

What is the silliest fear you have?

If you could have any exotic animal as a pet, what would you choose?

What is the most memorable vacation you’ve ever taken?

If you could magically acquire a new skill overnight, what would you choose?

What is your favorite funny or viral YouTube video?

These fun team building questions are designed to bring laughter, light-heartedness, and camaraderie to your team. Incorporate them into your team building activities to create a positive and enjoyable atmosphere where team members can relax, bond, and have fun together.

5. Creative Team-Building Questions

Fostering creativity within a team can lead to innovation, problem-solving, and a more dynamic work environment . These creative team-building questions are designed to inspire imagination, spark new ideas, and encourage out-of-the-box thinking among team members. Use them in brainstorming sessions, team meetings , or as icebreakers to promote collaboration and boost creativity. Here are 25 creative team-building questions:

If you could create a brand new product or service, what would it be and why?

What is the most creative solution you’ve come up with to solve a problem?

If you had unlimited resources, what project would you start and why?

What is one innovative idea or concept that you think could revolutionize our industry?

If you could redesign our workspace, how would you make it more creative and inspiring?

What is one skill or talent you would like to develop to enhance your creativity?

If you could collaborate with any artist or creative professional, who would it be and why?

What is one small change we could make to improve our team’s creative output?

If our team had a theme song, what would it be and why?

What is the most unusual or unconventional idea you’ve ever had?

If you could travel back in time to meet a famous artist or inventor, who would you choose and why?

What is one creative project or hobby you enjoy outside of work?

If you were to write a book or create a movie, what would the storyline be?

What is one creative exercise or activity that always sparks your imagination?

If you could take a class or workshop to learn a new creative skill, what would it be?

What is one way we could infuse more creativity into our team meetings or presentations?

If you could have a personal mentor who is a creative genius, who would it be and why?

What is your favorite creative medium or form of artistic expression?

If you had a magic wand, what problem would you solve with it?

What is the most inspiring piece of art or design you’ve ever encountered?

If you could have a dream collaboration with any company or organization, who would it be and why?

What is one daring idea that you’ve been hesitant to share, but think could be game-changing?

If you could choose any fictional character to join our team, who would it be and why?

What is one unconventional approach you’ve taken in the past that yielded surprising results?

If you were to create a workshop or training session on creativity, what would be the key takeaways?

Use these creative team-building questions to unlock hidden talents, inspire innovative thinking, and create a culture of creativity within your team. Encourage open-mindedness and exploration of new ideas to foster a more dynamic and imaginative work environment.

6. Personal Development Questions for Team Building

Team building is not only about fostering collaboration and camaraderie but also about personal growth and development. These personal development questions aim to deepen self-awareness, encourage reflection, and promote growth among team members.

Use them in one-on-one sessions, team-building workshops, or as conversation starters during team meetings. These questions can help individuals gain insights about themselves, set goals, and support each other’s personal development journeys. Here are 25 personal development questions for team building:

What is one skill or ability you would like to improve or develop further?

What is your biggest professional achievement to date and what did you learn from it?

How do you handle and overcome challenges or setbacks at work?

What motivates you to perform at your best?

What is one personal goal you would like to achieve in the next year?

How do you manage your work-life balance?

What is your preferred learning style and how do you apply it in your work?

What are the top three values that guide your decision-making process?

How do you handle work-related stress or pressure?

What is one area of personal or professional growth that you have been working on recently?

What strategies do you use to stay focused and productive?

How do you actively seek feedback and incorporate it into your development?

What steps do you take to continuously improve your skills and knowledge?

What is one book or resource that has had a significant impact on your personal or professional life?

How do you foster a positive and growth-oriented mindset?

What is one area where you feel you could benefit from additional support or training?

How do you approach teamwork and collaboration in order to achieve collective goals?

What is your definition of success and how do you measure it?

How do you manage and prioritize your time and tasks?

What steps do you take to adapt and embrace change in the workplace?

How do you nurture your creativity and seek inspiration?

What is one limiting belief or self-doubt that you would like to overcome?

How do you celebrate and acknowledge your accomplishments?

What are your career aspirations and how do you plan to achieve them?

How do you actively seek opportunities for personal and professional development?

These personal development questions for team building can help team members gain insights into their own growth areas and support each other’s progress. Encourage open and honest conversations to foster a supportive and collaborative culture of personal development within the team.

7. Would You Rather Questions for Team Building

Engaging in playful and thought-provoking activities can not only foster camaraderie but also encourage teamwork and decision-making skills within a team. “Would You Rather” questions are a fun way to get team members to make choices, share their preferences, and engage in lighthearted discussions.

Use these questions as icebreakers, team-building exercises, or energizers during meetings to promote interaction and create a positive and enjoyable team environment. Here are 25 “Would You Rather” questions for team building:

Would you rather have a month of Fridays or a year of Sundays?

Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible?

Would you rather have the ability to read minds or control time?

Would you rather always be overly early or chronically late?

Would you rather be able to speak all languages fluently or play any musical instrument?

Would you rather have the power to teleport or the ability to speak with animals?

Would you rather live in the mountains or by the beach?

Would you rather have a photographic memory or the ability to forget anything you choose?

Would you rather have a famous singing voice or be a brilliant dancer?

Would you rather be an expert in art or science?

Would you rather have the power of super strength or telekinesis?

Would you rather live in a world without technology or a world without books?

Would you rather have the power to control the weather or have the ability to heal any illness?

Would you rather always have to wear a costume or always have to wear formal attire?

Would you rather have the power of super speed or the power of invisibility?

Would you rather have a personal chef or a personal chauffeur?

Would you rather travel to the past or the future?

Would you rather be able to speak to animals or speak all human languages fluently?

Would you rather have the ability to teleport or be able to time-travel?

Would you rather have the ability to breathe underwater or have the power to fly?

Would you rather have an unlimited supply of money or an unlimited supply of free time?

Would you rather have the ability to speak to the dead or see into the future?

Would you rather always have to sing or always have to dance in public?

Would you rather have the power to control minds or control the elements?

Would you rather be able to go back in time and fix your biggest regret or see into the future and know what will happen?

These “Would You Rather” questions can help team members engage in light-hearted discussions, build rapport, and encourage decision-making skills. Enjoy the playful and fun atmosphere while also fostering teamwork and collaboration.

8. Building Effective Communication through Questions

Effective communication is a cornerstone of successful teamwork, and asking the right questions is key to fostering clear, meaningful, and open dialogue among team members. By encouraging thoughtful and reflective conversations, these questions can help build trust, understanding, and effective collaboration.

Use them during team meetings, brainstorming sessions, or one-on-one interactions to promote active listening, problem-solving, and empathy. By engaging in these communication-building questions, team members can enhance their communication skills and contribute to a more harmonious and productive work environment. Here are 25 questions for building effective communication:

What do you need from me or others to feel supported and encouraged in your work?

How can we improve our team’s communication and collaboration?

What obstacles or challenges do you encounter when trying to communicate your ideas effectively?

What communication style do you prefer, and how can we adapt to accommodate different styles within the team?

Can you share an example of a time when effective communication led to a positive outcome for a project or team?

How do you ensure that everyone on the team feels heard and valued during discussions?

How can we encourage more open and honest communication within the team?

Are there any communication norms or practices that you feel should be established or improved upon within our team?

What strategies do you use to ensure that your messages are clear and easily understood by others?

How do you handle disagreements or conflicts within the team to maintain effective communication and working relationships?

Can you share a time when miscommunication caused challenges or misunderstandings within the team?

How do you gather feedback from others to ensure that your communication is effective?

How can we create a safe and inclusive environment for team members to share their ideas and concerns openly?

Are there any communication barriers or patterns that you have observed within our team, and how can we address them?

How do you adapt your communication approach when working with different personality types or backgrounds?

Can you provide an example of a situation where active listening played a crucial role in achieving a successful outcome?

How can we use technology or tools effectively to enhance our team’s communication and collaboration?

What strategies do you use to ensure that important information is effectively conveyed to all team members?

How can we balance the need for concise communication with the need for providing sufficient context and clarity?

Can you share a time when asking the right questions led to a breakthrough or innovative solution?

How do you handle giving and receiving constructive feedback within the team?

What role does empathy play in effective communication, and how can we foster empathy within our team?

Can you provide an example of a time when miscommunication led to a negative outcome, and what was learned from that experience?

How can we encourage active participation and engagement from all team members during meetings and discussions?

What strategies do you use to ensure that important information is not lost or distorted when communicating across different channels or mediums?

These communication-building questions can help team members enhance their communication skills, build stronger relationships, and create a more productive and cohesive team environment. By promoting effective communication, teams can overcome challenges, achieve shared goals, and foster a culture of collaboration and mutual support.

By utilizing these question-based activities and exercises, team leaders can help their teams develop essential skills that fuel productivity, innovation, and mutual support. Effective communication plays a crucial role in building trust, understanding, and cohesive teamwork.

Remember, effective communication is a two-way street. It requires active listening, empathy, and a willingness to understand and appreciate diverse perspectives. By fostering an environment where team members feel encouraged to ask questions, share ideas, and provide feedback, leaders can create a culture of open communication and continuous improvement.

In conclusion, the power of questions cannot be underestimated when it comes to team building and effective communication. By incorporating these question-based activities into team meetings, workshops, and daily interactions, leaders can cultivate a strong sense of unity, collaboration, and shared purpose within their teams. So, start asking the right questions today, and watch your team’s communication flourish!

Ultimate List of 200 Team Building Questions for Work

Work Wizardry

190 powerful team building questions for work to boost productivity & profits.

Afia Yaseen

Updated on: May 1, 2024

Early in my career, I dreaded team meetings. The awkward silences were excruciating! Then, I discovered the power of Team Building Questions for Work…

Team building is the cornerstone of a successful and harmonious workplace, where collaboration, communication, and camaraderie are essential for achieving common goals. One powerful way to strengthen teams and foster a positive work environment is through engaging team building questions for work. 

In this blog post, I delve into the world of team building questions for work, exploring a variety of categories designed to spark conversations, promote understanding, and enhance teamwork .

Research has shown that team building questions can have a significant impact on various aspects of workplace dynamics. A study found that the use of icebreaker questions during team meetings led to increased trust, improved communication, and enhanced problem-solving abilities among team members. 

Another study published in the Harvard Business Review highlights the power of vulnerability in team building. The study suggests that creating a safe space for team members to share personal stories and experiences can lead to increased trust, empathy, and ultimately, stronger team bonds.

Intrigued? The secret lies in powerful team building questions. These questions can unlock a treasure trove of benefits: 

  • Stronger Connections
  • Creative Problem-solving
  • A Happier & more Motivated Team

In this comprehensive blog post, we will explore a diverse range of team building questions for work that can help organizations unlock the full potential of their teams , enhance collaboration , and create a more engaging and productive work environment .

5. How will I know if team building questions are effective?

Team building questions for work.

We’ll explore different types of team building questions for work that you can use to achieve various goals. From breaking the ice and fostering connections to sparking creativity and problem-solving skills. With the right questions, you can create a fun and engaging environment that paves the way for a more successful and collaborative team.

Fun Team Building Questions for Work

What they can DO?

Sometimes team building can feel forced and…well, boring. But it doesn’t have to be that way! A little lighthearted fun can go a long way in breaking the ice, boosting morale, and fostering a more creative and collaborative work environment.

Here’s the science behind the silliness: laughter is a powerful tool. It reduces stress, builds trust, and strengthens bonds. When team members connect on a personal level, they’re more likely to communicate openly, work together effectively, and achieve incredible things .

Now, let’s get to the good stuff! Here are some unique team building questions for work

to get your team giggling and building connections:

  • You’re stuck in an elevator with a celebrity for an hour. Who is it and what do you talk about?
  • What’s the most embarrassing work email you’ve accidentally sent? 

( Note : Keep it anonymous for maximum amusement!)

  • What’s the ringtone on your phone that best describes your work personality?
  • Would you rather have an office pet that can talk but constantly gossip, or a pet that can fly but leaves a trail of destruction?
  • If your co-worker was a movie character, who would they be and why? 
  • What’s the weirdest talent you (or someone you know) has?
  • Imagine you have a superpower that makes everything you touch turn into your favorite food. What is it, and how does this affect your workday?
  • You’re given an unlimited budget to redesign the break room. What wacky features does it have?
  • If your desk could talk, what embarrassing work secret would it reveal?
  • You’re shrunk to the size of a paperclip and have to navigate your workspace. What are the biggest challenges you face?
  • You win a free team outing! Describe the most outlandishly fun activity you could do together.
  • What’s the weirdest food combination you enjoy?
  • If you could time travel, would you go to the past or the future?
  • Share a hilarious work-related anecdote that still makes you chuckle.
  • If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you bring?
  • What’s the funniest joke you’ve heard recently?

Benefits Beyond the Giggles:

  • Break the ice
  • Encourage laughter
  • Build a positive atmosphere
  • Strengthen relationships

The Takeaway:

Incorporating these fun team-building questions into your workplace activities isn’t just a distraction – it’s an investment in your team’s success. By fostering a sense of camaraderie, boosting morale, and strengthening relationships, you’re laying the foundation for a truly exceptional team.

Get to know you Team Building Questions for the Workplace

What They Can Do

Building a strong team goes beyond technical skills and project deadlines. It’s about creating a sense of connection and fostering a positive work environment where everyone feels valued and comfortable contributing. Here’s where “Get to Know You” team-building questions come in.

  • What’s the most interesting thing on your desk and why?
  • What’s your dream vacation spot and why?
  • What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
  • What’s a cause you’re passionate about?
  • What’s your favorite way to unwind after work?
  • If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
  • What’s your favorite book/movie/podcast and why?
  • What’s the most interesting fact you know?
  • What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
  • What’s your biggest professional dream?
  • What’s a skill you’d like to learn and why?
  • What’s your favorite board game and why?
  • What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?
  • What’s your favorite thing about working here?
  • If you could have lunch with any historical figure, who would it be and why?

These questions go beyond the typical “what’s your name?” introductions. They encourage team members to share personal interests, backgrounds, and experiences. This fosters a sense of camaraderie, strengthens relationships, and ultimately leads to:

  • Improved Communication
  • Enhanced Collaboration
  • Increased Productivity

Investing time in “Get to Know You” team building is an investment in your company’s success. By fostering a sense of connection and mutual understanding, you create a team that’s not only skilled but also supportive, collaborative, and ready to achieve remarkable things together.

Don’t forget to read this article: Top 17 Unique Workplace Team Building Exercises: Ready, Set & Teambuild!

Very Funny Team Building Questions for Work Colleagues

What They Can Do:

Incorporating humor and playfulness into team building activities can be an excellent way to boost morale, encourage creativity, and foster a sense of camaraderie among colleagues.

Plus, a healthy dose of hilarious team building can do wonders for your workplace.

These questions are designed to be light-hearted and humorous, encouraging team members to share their funny stories and experiences. By incorporating these questions into your team building activities, you can create a relaxed and playful atmosphere that fosters creativity, collaboration, and camaraderie among your colleagues.

Here are some very funny team building questions that can help you achieve these goals:

  • If your desk chair could talk, what embarrassing work secret would it reveal?
  • What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever lied about?
  • If you were a pizza topping, what would you be and why?
  • If your job had a warning label, what would it say?
  • What’s the most embarrassing thing your computer has autocorrected in a work email?
  • What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?
  • What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you while working?

Let’s get weird & funnier! 

  • If your boss’s personality was a type of cheese, what cheese would it be and why?
  • Why did the spreadsheet go to therapy?
  • What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backwards?
  • Why did the computer go to the doctor?
  • Why don’t scientists trust atoms anymore?
  • Why did the computer screen go to therapy?
  • Why did the bicycle fall over?
  • What do you call a fish with a bad memory?
  • Why did the banana go to the doctor?
  • Why was the maths book sad?
  • Boost Morale
  • Enhance Communication
  • Strengthen Team Bonding
  • Promote Creativity
  • Improve Engagement

The Takeaway :

The takeaway from integrating very funny team building questions is the cultivation of a workplace culture that values laughter, creativity, and strong relationships. Through these light-hearted interactions, You can boost morale, enhance communication, strengthen team bonding, promote creativity, and improve overall engagement among the team members.

Deep Ice Breaker Questions for Work Team Building

Team building often focuses on lighthearted fun or basic introductions. But what if you could go beyond the surface level and forge truly meaningful connections within your team? Deep Icebreaker questions are your key. These questions delve into personal values, motivations, and aspirations, fostering a sense of trust, vulnerability, and shared humanity.

Questions: 

  • What is a lesson you learned from a challenging experience that has shaped who you are today?
  • If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what advice would you give?
  • How do you handle failure or setbacks in your professional life?
  • How do you approach conflict resolution in a team setting?
  • What inspires you to stay motivated and engaged at work?
  • What is a project or task that challenges you to step out of your comfort zone?
  • How do you contribute to creating a positive and inclusive work environment?
  • Who is your biggest role model and why?
  • What does being part of a successful team mean to you?
  • What skills or knowledge would you like to share with your team?

Bonus Questions (for a truly safe space):

  • What’s a time you felt misunderstood at work?
  • Have you ever faced a personal or professional setback? How did you overcome it?
  • What can we, as a team, do to better support each other?
  • Stronger Bonds
  • Increased Trust

You Might Love: Top 18 Unconventional Team Building Activities For Work To Energize Your Team And Boost Productivity

Would You Rather Questions for Work Team Building

Sometimes, team building can feel like a one-way street of information or forced interactions. But what if you could inject a dose of fun while still fostering connections and revealing interesting personalities? Enter the “Would You Rather” questions! These playful scenarios spark lively discussions, encourage critical thinking, and offer a lighthearted window into your colleagues’ preferences and values.

  • Would you rather work in the office or remotely?
  • Would you rather lead a team or be part of one?
  • Would you rather have a job with a high salary and long hours or a lower salary and more free time?
  • Would you rather climb a career ladder or make your own path?
  • Would you rather speak at a conference or be part of the audience?
  • Would you rather have the ability to read minds or control the weather?
  • Would you rather give a presentation in front of your entire company or be stuck in an elevator with your boss for an hour?
  • Would you rather have a job that is super challenging but very rewarding or a job that is easy but boring?
  • Would you rather have invisibility or the ability to teleport anywhere in the world?
  • Would you rather have a job with a lot of travel or a job that allows you to work from home permanently?
  • Would you rather have a bigger salary or the chance of higher bonuses?
  • Would you rather lead a startup or be the CEO of an established company?
  • Would you rather have a dress code or wear whatever you like?
  • Would you rather have your dream job or your dream home?
  • Would you rather prioritize short-term or long-term goals?

Bonus Round: Customize It!

Take the fun a step further by creating “Would You Rather” scenarios specific to your industry or company culture.

  • Enhanced Team Bonding
  • Breaking the Ice
  • Positive Work Environment
  • Encouraging Communication
  • Uncovering Personalities

“Would You Rather” questions are a simple yet powerful tool for building a more engaging and connected team. By sparking lighthearted discussions and revealing hidden personalities, you foster a more positive and collaborative work environment. So, gather your team, throw out some scenarios, and prepare to be surprised by the insightful and hilarious insights you’ll uncover!

This or That Work Questions for Team Building

Looking for a quick and easy way to get your team talking and interacting? “This or That” questions are your secret weapon. These rapid-fire choices encourage lighthearted competition, reveal hidden preferences, and create a fun, casual atmosphere for team building.

  • This or That: Emails or meetings?
  • This or That: Early bird or night owl?
  • This or That: Coffee or tea?
  • This or That: Deadlines or flexibility?
  • This or That: Team player or independent worker?
  • This or That: Open office or private workspace?
  • This or That: In-person meetings or video conferences?
  • This or That: Planning every detail or going with the flow?
  • This or That: Learning a new skill or mastering an existing one?
  • This or That: Working from home or working in the office?
  • This or That: Team-building activities or individual goals?
  • This or That: Public recognition or private appreciation?
  • This or That: Beach vacation or mountain retreat?
  • This or That: Creative freedom or structured process?
  • This or That: Public speaking or written communication?
  • This or That: Work-life balance or career advancement?
  • This or That: Fast-paced environment or relaxed atmosphere?
  • This or That: Technology integration or traditional methods?
  • This or That: Feedback and criticism or positive reinforcement?
  • This or That: Long-term goals or short-term achievements?
  • This or That: Leadership role or supporting role?
  • This or That: Creative expression or analytical thinking?
  • This or That: Work-life integration or clear boundaries?
  • This or That: Continuous learning or established expertise?

Bonus Round:

  • Industry Specific: Craft “This or That” questions related to your specific industry or company culture.
  • Thematic Twists: Choose a theme for your questions, like “Productivity Powerhouses” (multitasking vs. focused work periods) or “Office Essentials” (pen and paper vs. digital tools).
  • Easy Icebreaker
  • Quick Connections
  • Fun & Energizing

“This or That” questions may be simple, but their impact on team building is undeniable. By creating a fun and engaging atmosphere, you encourage interaction, spark connections, and ultimately build a stronger, more cohesive team. So, don’t underestimate the power of a quick “This or That” session to boost team spirit and get the conversation flowing!

Suggested Reading: Top 21 Distinctive Team Building Games For Work: The Ultimate Guide For Workplay

Never Have I ever Questions for Work Team Building

Team building can sometimes feel superficial, focusing on forced interactions that don’t reveal much about your colleagues. But what if you could use a simple game to uncover hidden experiences, surprising talents, and shared moments of (work-appropriate) awkwardness? Enter “Never Have I Ever” questions for work team building!

  • Never have I ever accidentally replied to all on an email I shouldn’t have.
  • Never have I ever stayed up all night working to meet a deadline.
  • Never have I ever presented an idea and then completely forgotten the details.
  • Never have I ever fallen asleep during a conference call (and gotten away with it!).
  • Never have I ever used a funny meme to lighten the mood in a serious email chain.
  • Never have I ever pretended not to see an error message on the printer because I didn’t feel like fixing it.
  • Never have I ever told a white lie about my workload to avoid taking on more work.
  • Never have I ever celebrated a successful project with an impromptu dance party in the office.
  • Never have I ever tried a food that most people find strange.
  • Never have I ever traveled to a country where I don’t speak the language.
  • Never have I ever completely misread a social situation.
  • Never have I ever stayed awake all night reading a book I couldn’t put down.
  • Never have I ever gotten lost in a museum for hours.
  • Never have I ever had a meeting run overtime.
  • Never have I ever taken on tasks that were not in my job description.
  • Never have I ever applied for a job I knew I was unqualified for.
  • Never have I ever participated in a strike or walkout.
  • Never have I ever been caught gossiping about a coworker.
  • Never have I ever had a job that required me to travel frequently.
  • Never have I ever felt like I was the smartest person in the room.
  • Never have I ever accidentally used the ‘Reply All’ function in an email.
  • Never have I ever completed a task at the last possible minute.
  • Never have I ever secretly applied for another job while still employed.
  • Never have I ever worked through the night to meet a deadline.
  • Never have I ever helped a colleague with a personal problem.
  • Never have I ever organized a surprise party for a coworker.
  • Never have I ever been part of a successful project from start to finish.
  • Never have I ever had a disagreement with a manager.
  • Never have I ever ghosted a group chat and responded way too late with a gif.
  • Never have I ever started several books and not finished a single one.
  • Breaking Down Barriers
  • Promotes Understanding
  • Builds Trust
  • Building Connections
  • Discovering Hidden Gems

“Never Have I Ever” questions for work team building are a simple yet powerful tool for building stronger connections. By encouraging vulnerability and revealing unexpected details, you create a more positive, collaborative, and human work environment. So, gather your team, get ready to share a few laughs (and maybe some embarrassing stories!), and watch your team spirit soar!

Holiday Questions for Team Building at Work

The holiday season is a time for joy, connection, and (of course) a little fun at work. But beyond the office parties and festive decorations, it’s also a perfect opportunity to strengthen team bonds through some fun and festive team-building activities. Here’s where Holiday Questions for Work Team Building come in!

  • What’s your favorite holiday memory from childhood?
  • What’s the weirdest or most wonderful holiday tradition your family has?
  • What’s your dream holiday vacation spot and why?
  • What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
  • What’s the one thing you look forward to most during the holiday season?
  • What are you most excited to give (or receive) this year?
  • If you could have any holiday treat delivered to your desk daily, what would it be?
  • Would you rather build a snowman or have a snowball fight?
  • If you could have a movie-style “meet cute” moment with a celebrity under the mistletoe, who would it be and why?
  • If you could spend the holidays anywhere in the world, where would you go?
  • What is the most unique holiday dish you’ve ever tried?
  • If you could travel back in time to any holiday in history, which one would you choose?
  • If you could host a holiday party for your colleagues, what theme would you choose?
  • What is the most unusual holiday tradition you’ve encountered?
  • If you could have a holiday-themed pet, what would it be?
  • If you could be any holiday character, who would you be?

Favorite Cheezylicious Question:

  • If you could invent a new holiday, what would it be?
  • Celebrating Diversity
  • Boost Holiday Spirit
  • Spark Conversations
  • Break Down Barriers
  • Improving Engagement

Holiday Questions for Work Team Building offer a delightful way to celebrate the season and strengthen your team. These questions and activities, you create a more positive and connected work environment, fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared joy during this special time of year. So, gather your team, grab some hot cocoa (or your favorite holiday beverage!), and get ready to spread some festive cheer!

Interesting Office Team Building Questions for Work Meetings

What if you could inject a dose of engagement and team spirit right into your meeting agenda? Interesting office team-building questions are your secret weapon! These thought-provoking questions spark curiosity, encourage interaction, and can even lead to unexpected breakthroughs.

Icebreaker Warm-Up (5 Minutes):

  • What’s the most interesting article you’ve read recently that’s not work-related? ( Broadens perspectives and sparks conversation. )
  • If you could have any historical figure join our team meeting for 10 minutes, who would it be and why? ( Encourages creativity and reveals interests.)
  • What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received? ( Offers valuable insights and fosters a learning environment. )

Teamwork and Problem-Solving (10 Minutes):

  • If our company could launch a completely new product or service, what would it be and why? ( Encourages creative brainstorming and collaboration .)
  • Imagine we woke up tomorrow with a random superpower relevant to our work. What would it be and how would it affect our team dynamics? ( Fun and lighthearted, but also encourages thinking about strengths and weaknesses. )
  • You’re stranded on a desert island with limited resources. What skill or knowledge from someone on this team would be most valuable for survival? ( Highlights individual strengths and builds appreciation .)
  • What is one thing you appreciate most about your team members?
  • If you could change one thing about our work environment, what would it be?
  • What is your favorite part of your daily work routine?
  • How do you think our company could improve the employee experience?
  • What is the most valuable skill you’ve learned in your current role?
  • If you could switch jobs with anyone in the company, whose role would you choose?
  • What is the most challenging part of your job, and how do you overcome it?
  • How do you think our team could better support each other’s professional development?
  • How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance while working remotely?
  • What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned from a coworker?
  • What is the one thing you wish you had known when you first started this job?
  • How do you think our company culture could be improved?
  • If you could give our team one piece of advice, what would it be?
  • What is the most memorable moment you’ve had with your colleagues?
  • How do you think our team could better celebrate our successes and milestones?

Creative Thinking and Innovation (5 Minutes):

  • If you could completely redesign our office space to boost creativity and collaboration, what changes would you make? (E ncourages outside-the-box thinking and fosters a more inspiring workspace .)
  • Let’s imagine our industry is facing a completely new challenge. What unconventional approach could we take to overcome it? ( Promotes innovative problem-solving and challenges assumptions .)
  • If you could design your ideal workspace, what would it look like?
  • What is the most rewarding project you’ve worked on during your time here?
  • What is the most innovative idea you’ve had at work, and how did you implement it?
  • Boost Participation
  • Spark Creativity
  • Improve Problem-Solving
  • Improve Collaboration

Interesting office team-building questions are more than just a fun diversion. They’re a powerful tool for boosting engagement, fostering creativity, and ultimately building a more productive and innovative team. 

Check Out: Your Complete Guide To Team Building Activities In The Workplace (20+ Activity Ideas) 

Best Team Building Trivia Questions for Work

Team building doesn’t have to be all kumbaya moments and awkward icebreakers. Sometimes, a little healthy competition can be just what your team needs! Best Team-Building Trivia Questions for Work offer a fun and engaging way to:

  • Spark Friendly Competition
  • Test Your Team’s Knowledge
  • Create a Fun Atmosphere

General Knowledge:

  • What is the national animal of Canada? (Beaver)
  • What is the world’s tallest building? (Burj Khalifa)
  • How many keys are on a standard piano? (88)
  • What is the capital of France? (Paris)
  • What element is the main component of the sun? (Hydrogen)

Pop Culture:

  • What was the first social media platform ever created? (Six Degrees)
  • What fictional detective lives at 221B Baker Street? (Sherlock Holmes)
  • Who painted the Mona Lisa? (Leonardo da Vinci)
  • What is the highest-grossing movie of all time? (Avatar) (as of April 2024, subject to change)

Work-Related Trivia (Adapt to Your Industry):

  • Who is considered the “father” of modern management? (Frederick Winslow Taylor)
  • What does the acronym “ROI” stand for? (Return on Investment)
  • What is the world’s best-selling book (excluding religious texts)? (Don Quixote)
  • In which year was the internet invented? (Depends on definition, but generally accepted as the late 1960s)
  • What is the name of the world’s largest search engine? (Google)

Bonus Round: 

I would like to introduce the BEST of All! Which is “History of the Office”.

Pump up the engagement with a Visual Round .  Flash images of company logos, historical figures related to your industry, or even pictures of your own office (can they guess whose messy desk it is?).

Think Tank Time! Challenge your team’s collaborative spirit with a Brainstorming Bonus .  Pose a question that requires them to combine their knowledge and creativity. 

 For example: “Your company mascot has come to life! But it’s causing chaos in the office. How do you use your unique team skills to wrangle this mascot and restore order (all while keeping it work-appropriate)? “

Best Team-Building Trivia Questions for Work are a win-win situation. They create a fun and engaging atmosphere, foster healthy competition, and even promote learning within your team. 

1. Won’t team building questions for work take away from valuable work time?

While they do require some dedicated time, team-building questions can actually improve efficiency in the long run. By fostering stronger connections and communication, teams can collaborate more effectively and resolve issues faster.

2. Are these questions appropriate for remote teams?

Absolutely! Many of the questions in this post can be easily adapted for virtual settings. You can use video conferencing tools or online platforms to conduct team-building activities and discussions.

3. How often should we incorporate team building questions?

Regularly incorporating team-building questions is key. You can use them at the start of meetings, during breaks, or even as a virtual coffee break activity. Aim for short, engaging sessions a few times a week.

4. How can I choose the right questions for my team?

Consider your team’s dynamics and goals. If you’re looking to break the ice, use fun and lighthearted questions. For deeper connections, try “Deep Ice Breaker” or “Never Have I Ever” questions.

Look for signs of improved communication, collaboration, and problem-solving within your team. Pay attention to increased participation in meetings and a more positive overall team spirit.

Team building isn’t a one-time event; it’s an ongoing process. By incorporating powerful team building questions into your workplace routine, you can cultivate a strong, cohesive team that thrives on collaboration, creativity, and shared success. Remember, a little effort can go a long way in building a team that’s not only productive but also a joy to work with. So, unleash the power of team building questions for work and watch your team soar!

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The Biggest and Best Resource for Team Building Questions

By Becky Simon | July 7, 2017 (updated September 20, 2023)

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In business, teamwork is more important than ever, but getting people to cooperate toward a common goal isn’t easy. Successful teamwork requires aligning a number of factors, including strong leadership, a sturdy organizational framework, and the right technology for connecting remote teams. 

Of course, we must consider other factors as well. The failure of interpersonal relationships is one of the biggest causes of team breakdowns. Politics, infighting, mistrust, and even sabotage can thwart a team leader’s best efforts. 

To counteract these issues, you can build and strengthen relationships with team building questions. In this article, we’ve created the ultimate resource for team builder questions. The following guide includes more than 230 questions in various categories such as icebreakers, personal interests, trivia, and values, plus games and activities using team building questions. You can even download Getting to Know You Bingo cards.

An Overview of How Team Building Questions Can Help Your Team

How well does teamwork work? And, why is teamwork so much work? These sound like tongue twisters, but they are relevant questions in today’s workplace. 

We hear a lot about how important teamwork is, and many organizations spend a great deal of time and resources seeking to foster it. However, the reality is that we’re not very good at it, and we don’t like it very much. 

According to a 2013 survey by the University of Phoenix, only about a quarter of American workers who have worked on teams say they prefer teamwork to working on their own — even though almost all of them say that teams serve an important function in the workplace. Put simply, only one in four people who say teamwork is important actually prefers working on a team to working on their own. 

That’s a pretty dramatic discrepancy. However, it’s not surprising, given that seven in 10 workers who have taken part in teams have experienced a dysfunctional team at least once. (See the aforementioned survey.) Moreover, dysfunctional doesn’t simply mean unproductive - it can mean downright ugly. Forty percent say they’ve seen a verbal confrontation between teammates, and 15 percent say they’ve actually seen arguments escalate into physical confrontations. In addition, about a third say they’ve seen teammates start rumors about each other. 

These numbers make clear that many teams struggle with maintaining good relationships. Consequently, they struggle to create synergy. (Synergy refers to an interaction producing a sum greater than the parts, and is what differentiates a team from a group of people simply working together mainly to meet individual goals.) Teams use specialization, complementation, and coordination of efforts to achieve a common goal. A team without synergy isn’t really a team at all.

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Team Building Questions Boost Team Cohesiveness

Of course, just because teammates get along doesn’t mean the team will succeed in its objectives. Teamwork entails lots of moving parts. Team cohesiveness is vital, but ineffective leadership, a lack of direction or motivation, resource cuts, competing responsibilities, or any number of other hurdles can undermine this cohesion. 

Picking members for a team may be an inexact science, but there’s a method to choosing teammates who occupy different, complementary roles. If they don’t, you could end up with a group of people who think similarly and get along but don’t have much synergy. 

Furthermore, in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team , business consultant Patrick M. Lencioni writes that people with close personal relationships may hesitate to hold each other accountable because they’re afraid of damaging these relationships. So, some types of personal relationships may actually not benefit the team’s performance.

While that’s an important caveat, a team’s cohesiveness and ability to get along remain critical to its performance. This is because a team that lacks cohesion and chemistry is likely to underperform - even if it has everything else going for it. For one, we know that workplace team relationships are associated both with employee well-being (unsurprising given that half of American employees spend more time at work than by themselves and with family) and with employee engagement. Employee engagement, in turn, is associated with a number of performance outcomes . At a time when, according to Gallup data from 2016 and 2017, only about one in three American employees is engaged at work , people with friends among their coworkers find work much more satisfying. Those who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged at work . 

In a Harvard Business Review article “We All Need Friends at Work ” ,leadership author Christine M. Rierdan writes that camaraderie creates a shared sense of purpose and a we’re-all-in-this-together mentality. In effect, this camaraderie increases the extent to which people identify with the group. As people identify more with a group, they expend more effort to meet the group’s goals, a psychological phenomenon called social laboring . Also, allowing people to relate to each other by building positive relationships decreases hostility and the likelihood of damaging conflict.

Team Building Questions Help Teams Break Through Relationship and Technology Barriers

Teams maximize their potential when positive relationships span 360 degrees, rather than just form horizontally between teammates. Key relationships extend vertically to one’s boss and direct reports. That doesn’t mean everyone should be buddies with their boss and subordinates (they probably shouldn’t). However, there’s strong evidence that building a relationship of trust and respect with your boss, as well as perceiving yourself to be part of your boss’ inner circle, leads to improved performance . Also, on an emotional level, an employee’s relationship with a boss is one of the most important determinants of their job happiness. We’ve all heard the adage about people quitting their bosses, not their jobs. A 2016 study shows that the vast majority of respondents (93 percent) believe trust in their direct manager is essential to workplace satisfaction.

So, we know that building relationships of mutual trust, respect, and even friendship between teammates and bosses improves the quality of the team experience as well as the level of job satisfaction and performance. Why, then, do so many teams struggle with building these relationships?

The answer is simple: You can’t force relationships. Instead, you must foster them by giving teammates the opportunity to build, grow, and maintain bonds. 

This is where team building becomes relevant. Team builders seek to enhance interpersonal relationships and communication, team spirit, and team identity. All of these factors contribute to synergy.

Creating synergy through team building has never been more relevant than in this technology-dominated era. The drive for more efficient and instantaneous business communication means that coworkers today are more likely to communicate by email, app, text message, mobile device, or online platform than by in-person interaction. One survey finds that 95 percent of managers and senior executives plan to use these tools over in-person meetings .  

This trend has created a desire to “disconnect to connect,” i.e., take a step away from technology to nurture relationships. While a status update shares critical information, it doesn’t do much to strengthen the bonds among team members. A face-to-face team builder activity like asking thought-provoking and revealing questions will foster those connections.

The History of Workplace Team Building Activities

We can trace the history of organizational team building in the United States back to the late 1920s. The Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago conducted research now known as the Hawthorne Experiments . Harvard University Professor Elton Mayo began experimenting with how physical conditions at the workplace affected productivity. He then grew interested in how psychological and social phenomena impacted productivity. His eventual findings included the following observation: positive group identity, a sense of group and individual achievement, good individual relationships with the manager, and a more democratic approach to decision making all improve productivity.

Team building went mainstream in the 1970s and 1980s when the focus of American organizational practice shifted from individual performance to team performance. As Dr. Marilyn S. Wesner of George Washington University’s Executive Leadership Doctoral Program in Human and Organizational Learning describes in her history of organizational team building , organizations began offering team-based reward systems. As assigning work to teams became more common at companies and other organizations, interest in team building among personnel training practitioners skyrocketed. Team building expanded to emphasize frontline workers rather than just managerial staff (as had been the case before the 1970s), and the field turned toward finding solutions to real workplace problems. 

By the 1990s, consulting firms were offering team builder methods and activities as part of their approach to improving organizational performance, a practice that continues today. With the arrival of the Millennial workforce, team building activities have grown to embrace the element of fun by incorporating competition and gameplay. You can find an exhaustive resource for team building activities and games here and here . 

The simplest team building exercises in use today involve team builder questions. These provide a platform for conversation, relieving interpersonal tensions, and a non-threatening opportunity to talk about themselves, therefore allowing participants to build positive relationships.

Team Building Question Categories and How to Use Them

Team building questions can be broadly categorized by what they aim to do. Icebreakers get new people comfortable with each other and can also “break the ice” at the start of a meeting, conference, workshop, seminar, or retreat to set the tone for group work.

Questions about personal tastes, hobbies, and pastimes help people discover what they have in common, and provide food for conversation and perhaps even suggestions on how to make workplaces more employee friendly. Humorous questions bond people through laughter, which de-stresses everyone a little. Problem-solving questions allow people to exercise teamwork skills while promoting friendly competition. Questions relating to values and a sense of purpose allow people to learn about what drives them, which fosters motivation and team spirit.

We’ll discuss each of these categories in more detail later, but all of them share some broad aims. First, they encourage communication by creating an opportunity that inspires everyone (even shy people) to participate. Second, these questions give people the chance to share personal details about themselves that they otherwise might not, and an opportunity to open up, empathize with each other, and build trust with both peers and supervisors. In workplaces dominated by digital interactions, these moments would otherwise be hard to come by.

In case you need to get buy-in for a team building questions event, here is a recap of all the benefits of and purposes for using questions with teams:

  • Breaking the ice
  • Fostering communication
  • Encouraging “disconnect to connect”
  • Learning each other’s values
  • Increasing trust in the boss and each other 
  • Increasing participation, even that of shy people
  • Relieving stress
  • Generating laughter, happy feelings
  • Promoting healthy competition
  • Getting to know one another
  • Revealing more about the personal side of people
  • Strengthening bonds
  • Discovering what drives other people 

Types of Team Builder Questions for Every Occasion

You can use team building questions almost any time, provided, of course, that they don’t get in the way of important work. 

Icebreakers are a good idea when convening new groups of people, whether teams or simply groups attending workshops, conferences, or seminars. Humorous questions can be a welcome break during periods of stress or when people simply need to recharge. Problem-solving questions work best when your group is away from the regular workplace, especially at retreats or picnics. Questions about values and a sense of purpose can set the tone for recognizing and appreciating colleagues’ efforts. Finally, you can use questions about tastes, hobbies, and pastimes to learn about each other when your colleagues have a few minutes to spare, such as during commutes or over lunch.

Team building questions work best when used in face-to-face interactions. Managers may use them to open sessions or incorporate them into games, such as Icebreaker Bingo or Circle of Questions . If getting everyone together in the same place at the same time is too difficult, you might post a daily question on a wall where everyone can see it, or, if all else fails, email questions to colleagues once a week, and give incentives for replies. You can circulate the answers to keep the cycle going. 

Unfortunately, we sometimes view team building questions as a fun, but forgettable activity. To counter this tendency, try using questions that encourage people to talk about intellectual or skill-based interests (these interactions will have more staying power). Good discussion topics include favorite books, hobbies, and talents (e.g., playing an instrument, dancing, running long distance, etc.). 

Occasionally, team builder questions reveal things about teams that a manager can use to make long-term improvements to the workspace or the team dynamic. For example, there’s evidence that playing music in the workplace correlates positively with changed moods and improved quality of work - if your team building questions reveal that half the people on your team like piano jazz, it may be worth updating the office playlist. If you discover that a few members of your team really love their goldfish, perhaps it’s time to rethink the office policy on pets. And, if someone wants to try hiking a trail after a teammate tells them about it, that’s a valuable idea for the next office retreat. Travel is an excellent way to connect people, and physically challenging trips can do wonders for strengthening team bonds.

Finally, you can connect people’s responses to team building questions to the results of their personality assessments, such as the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) . This exercise will help teammates understand how responses to problem-solving and value-based questions are indicative of personality types and thinking styles. Some personality classifications may be quite abstract and difficult to link to behavior, so questions help contextualize how personalities influence the way people fill roles and functions at work.

How Not to Use Team Building Questions

We have made a good case for the value of asking questions when you are building a team. However, remember that it’s crucial to ask these questions in an appropriate setting so they don’t backfire.  

You can use questions as a stepping stone to increase openness, trust, and camaraderie among team members. However, group members often cover a wide personality spectrum. So, be sure to select questions that encourage sharing and sociability rather than vulnerability. For example, avoid questions like, “What has been your worst failure and why?” 

Even some questions that seem innocuous, such as, “What would you change first about our office?” could be stressful. People may worry that their responses will displease the manager or won’t be kept confidential. Team members will then be unlikely to answer honestly, with overly confrontational questions defeating the purpose of the exercise.

Naturally, you should also avoid divisive, gossip-oriented, or intimate questions about sex, politics, office romance, and money. Other off-limits topics include opinions regarding senior staff, salaries, and hot-button cultural, legal, and religious issues.

The Ultimate List of Team Building Questions

Now that you know why and when to use team builder questions, you’re probably looking for the ideal material to get you started: great questions. We’ve got you covered. 

In the sections below, you’ll find a list of over 230 questions spread across several categories: icebreakers; personal hobbies, tastes, and pastimes; humorous questions; problem-solving questions; values and sense-of-purpose questions; and trivia questions. You’ll also find information on how best to use each question type.

Icebreaker Team Building Questions

A perennial favorite with new teams, icebreakers warm up groups and reduce the awkwardness of meeting several new people at once. Since their primary aim is to introduce people to new colleagues or teammates, icebreakers typically prompt sharing personal details. Unsurprisingly, introverts or shy people often dislike icebreakers, even if those icebreakers are well-designed and conducted. Moreover, icebreakers can feel like a chore if they aren’t tailored to a group’s makeup, function, or relevant activities. 

A well-designed icebreaker introduces people to each other while setting up the group for the activities to follow. For example, an icebreaker for a team of junior news reporters and editors may ask people to talk about the most challenging story they’ve ever covered or, on a lighter note, the funniest typo they’ve ever let slip into print or on the air. 

Following are a list of 83 icebreakers to get your team going: 

  • If you could be any animal for a week, which would you choose to be and why?
  • Who’s your favorite superhero and why?
  • What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?
  • Do you have any pets?
  • What is/was the name of your favorite pet?
  • Who is your favorite cartoon character and why?
  • Describe yourself in three words.
  • Where did you grow up?
  • When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you do?
  • What is your favorite movie quote?
  • Show us the most interesting thing you have in your purse/wallet.
  • At which store do you shop the most?
  • What’s the longest time, in a single stretch, that you’ve ever been in a car?
  • What’s the best Halloween costume you’ve ever worn?
  • What’s the lowest grade you ever received in college, and which class was it for?
  • How many keys are on your key ring right now?
  • What’s your favorite song?
  • How many siblings do you have, and where are you in the order?
  • What is one food you can’t give up?
  • Which sport do you most like to watch?
  • Describe your team in one word.
  • Tell us something about yourself that would surprise most people who know you.
  • What do you admire most about the person to your right?
  • What is your favorite outdoor activity? 
  • What do you do to beat stress?
  • What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
  • What’s your favorite genre of movie?
  • What’s your favorite genre of music?
  • What is your dream car?
  • What’s the most surprising thing that’s ever happened to you in another country?
  • Are you a plant person?
  • What kind of chocolate do you prefer — white, dark, or milk?
  • Do you have a favorite animal?
  • What was your favorite TV show as a teenager?
  • Where were you, and what were you doing when [insert name of famous event] happened?
  • Have you ever written a letter to the editor of, or an article or opinion piece for, the local paper?
  • How many languages can you speak?
  • Are you good at fixing things?
  • Which is your least favorite fruit?
  • How long have you lived in [insert name of place]?
  • What do you like to do on weekends?
  • What’s your favorite color?
  • What’s your favorite nursery rhyme?
  • Have you ever traveled in a submarine or helicopter, or on a dogsled?
  • Who played at the first live concert you ever attended?
  • Have you ever climbed a mountain or run a marathon?
  • Which sports team(s) do you support?
  • What’s your favorite video game?
  • Have you met anyone famous in the last year? If you have, may I see a photo?
  • Do you cook? What’s your favorite recipe?
  • Do you play a musical instrument?
  • Name one movie you think should have had a sequel.
  • What was your favorite board/card game as a child?
  • Have you ever driven anything other than a car or light truck?
  • What’s your favorite time of year?
  • When it comes to candy, what is your guilty pleasure?
  • Can you read music?
  • What do you like on your pizza?
  • What’s the oldest article of clothing you still wear?
  • Have you ever skydived? Would you?
  • What’s the longest book you’ve ever read?
  • What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
  • Which show are you currently watching?
  • What do you usually have for breakfast?
  • What is your middle name?
  • What is your favorite junk food?
  • What car do you drive?
  • What color is your kitchen?
  • Which is your favorite brand of clothing?
  • Where would you like to move when you retire?
  • What happened on your worst birthday?
  • What is your favorite dessert?
  • Which is your favorite flower?
  • What date on your calendar are you looking forward to this year?
  • Which is your favorite restaurant in [insert name of place]?
  • What is your favorite drink?
  • Do you prefer dancing with others or alone?
  • If I opened your closet, I would find __________.
  • Who is your favorite comic-book character?
  • Who is your favorite artist?
  • What is your favorite work of art?
  • Are you good at imitating foreign accents?
  • Tattoos: yes or no?

Download Icebreaker Team Building Questions - PDF

Team Building Questions about Personal Tastes, Hobbies, and Pastimes

Like icebreakers, questions about personal tastes, hobbies, and pastimes help people learn about each other. Typically, however, managers do not use this category of questions for first-time groups, as the value of these questions lies almost exclusively in helping people build upon existing conversations and relationships.

Although you can use questions about personal tastes, hobbies, and pastimes along with other team building activities, this particular category of questions can make conversations with time limits feel strained. As such, these questions work best when you use them in informal settings with no time limit.

Here is a list of team building questions about personal tastes, hobbies, and pastimes:

  • If you could paint a portrait of anyone, who would you paint? 
  • What’s at the top of your bucket list?
  • If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
  • How many books have you read this year?
  • What thing are you most afraid of?
  • What was your favorite book as a child?
  • When people compliment you, they’re most likely to comment on your __________.
  • Which celebrity would you hate to sit next to on a plane?
  • Who is your favorite U.S. president?
  • What do you think is your best feature?
  • What has been your most exotic trip?
  • Which song are you likely to have on repeat this week?
  • If you could change one aspect of your appearance, what would it be?
  • What genre of music do you dislike?
  • What is your favorite type of cuisine and why? 
  • Have you ever seen a phenomenon you still can’t explain?
  • If you had a time machine and could make a single, one-way trip, where would you go?
  • Which award would you most like to win and why?
  • Tell us your earliest childhood memory.
  • What’s the best thing to happen to you this year?

Download Team Building Questions - PDF

Humorous Questions for Team Building

Humorous questions can work for almost any group of people as long as the setting, context, and content of those questions are appropriate. They serve a variety of purposes, from helping new people get comfortable with each other to relieving stress.

Here are 42 fun and funny questions: 

  •  If someone made a movie about my life, it would be a __________ (genre), and I’d be played by __________ (actor/actress name).
  •  While on a date, what’s your biggest pet peeve?
  •  What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
  •  Who is the quirkiest person in your family?
  •  Tell us about one of your quirks.
  •  What is your favorite joke?
  •  If you were on Mars, what would you do for fun?
  •  I’d hate to be stuck in an elevator with __________.
  •  Where would you go if you were invisible?
  •  When I dance, I look like __________.
  •  Tell us about a person you’ve met and wish you hadn’t.
  •  What’s your biggest pet peeve in general?
  •  If I had a yacht, it would be named __________.
  •  What’s the best thing about being really tall? 
  •  If you could change your nationality, what would you change it to?
  •  How long do you take to get out of bed?
  •  Which TV sitcom family would you fit into best?
  •  What is the best insult you can think of?
  •  What fashion trend do you just not understand?
  •  If I were a dictator, I’d name my country __________.
  •  If I could give myself a nickname, it would be __________.
  •  Tell us about the worst haircut you’ve ever had.
  •  How would your worst enemy describe you?
  •  What one sentence would you most like to hear from your boss tomorrow morning?
  •  Which TV game show would you have the best chance of winning?
  •  If you were a chef, your least favorite dish would be __________.
  •  Who is your favorite comedian?
  •  What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?
  •  Which famous person do you think you look like?
  •  When I write my autobiography, I’m going to call it __________.
  •  What’s the most exotic dish you’ve ever eaten?
  •  What is something about you most people would find funny if they knew?
  •  How would you describe what you do for a living to a bunch of five-year-olds?
  •  What never fails to make you laugh?
  •  What would you name your pet monkey?
  •  If you had a Second Life avatar, what would they look like?
  •  What makes you geek out?
  •  Which famous person would you ask to autograph your cast?
  •  Which city in America should not be included on a map for tourists? Why?
  •  When did you last get the giggles in an awkward place?
  •  How can you tell if someone’s a nerd?
  •  If you had the chance, would you choose to stay your current age forever?

Download Humorous Questions for Team Building - PDF

Problem-Solving Questions for Team Builders

Problem-solving questions are a more functional sub-category of team builder questions. Although (like other types of questions) they encourage people to learn about each other, team members gain practical insights from solving problems together. For example, problem-solving questions can reveal individual thinking styles, functional strengths and weaknesses, and the ability to cope with pressure. 

The best problem-solving questions include tasks that bring some novelty to skills that participants regularly use in team work. These questions work best with groups of people who already know each other but haven’t worked as a team before.

Here are some problem-solving questions for team builders:

  •  Have you ever had to do something for work you knew you’d struggle with? How’d you prepare for it?
  •  Which developing technology do you think will transform the future?
  •  If you were stranded on a desert island, what three things would you want with you?
  •  If you could add a word to the dictionary, what would it be?
  •  What upcoming technological innovation do you think will impact you most during the next five years?
  •  How would you spend a million dollars in 24 hours?
  •  What one skill should everyone on Earth have? 
  •  If you had an extra hour of time each day, how would you use it?
  •  Would you rather have the power to become invisible or read minds? Why?
  •  Describe one time you took a huge leap of faith. Did it pay off?
  •  What color would you paint this room?
  •  Which of your five senses do you think is the strongest? Which is the weakest?
  •  Share a good riddle or brain teaser with the group.
  •  Which amenity do you think your workspace currently lacks?
  •  If you had a chance to rescue an armful of your possessions during a natural disaster, what would you grab?
  •  If you had to pick only one type of food to survive on for a week, what would you pick?

Download Problem-Solving Questions for Team Builders - PDF

Values and Sense-of-Purpose Questions for Team Building

Questions about teammates’ values and sense of purpose are appropriate for teammates who already know each other and how they’re supposed to work together. This is because these questions require a considerable degree of openness and familiarity with the task at hand. As such, they’re not appropriate for teams who are convening for the first time.

For teammates who do know each other, questions about values offer a useful perspective on colleague conduct. In turn, this knowledge enables teammates to recognize each other’s contributions to the team. Sense-of-purpose questions are excellent for creating and recharging team spirit and motivation. Both types of questions can also increase the extent to which individuals identify with the team and its mission.

Following are 46 values and sense-of-purpose questions: 

  •  Which living person do you admire most?
  •  What is your dream job?
  •  If you could swap jobs with anyone for a day, who would it be?
  •  What would you do with fifteen minutes of fame?
  •  What one thing do you own that you wish you didn’t?
  •  What is your biggest addiction?
  •  If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
  •  What do you think is the most important quality in a friend?
  •  What is the worst job you could have?
  •  What is the meanest thing you’ve ever said to someone in person?
  •  If you could call the president, what would you say to him?
  •  Have you had a lifelong dream?
  •  If I were running for president, my campaign slogan would be __________.
  •  What product would you refuse to promote?
  •  If I were a teacher, I’d teach __________.
  •  What is the most useful advice you’ve ever received?
  •  Which dead person would you like to add to Mount Rushmore?
  •  With a million dollars, I would__________.
  •  Who is your hero?
  •  If I could write a note to my favorite school teacher, I’d say __________.
  •  What’s the best gift anyone could give you?
  •  If you were the host of a national talk show, who would you invite as your first guest?
  •  What personal attribute do you think your current role demands above all else?
  •  If you were healthy, wealthy, and had plenty of time, would you stick with your job?
  •  Which three persons, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?
  •  What do you plan to do once you retire?
  •  Which person, living or dead, would you like to have as your mentor?
  •  If you could be rid of one of your fears, which would it be?
  •  What person do you think has had the greatest influence on your life so far?
  •  If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?
  •  What single event did the most to change the way you see the world?
  •  If you could grant yourself a new professional or personal skill, what would it be?
  •  My dream business would be __________.
  •  When was the last time you stayed up all night because you were excited about something?
  •  What personal trait do you dislike most in yourself?
  •  Do you volunteer anywhere?
  •  What advice would you give to an 18-year-old version of yourself?
  •  What future event would you most like to see?
  •  The time I waited longest in line was to get __________.
  •  What did you want to be when you were little? What did you actually become?
  •  For me, the perfect day is __________.
  •  What was the highlight of the year for your team? What might have happened if you hadn’t been part of the team?
  • If you knew you only had one year left to live, what would you change about the way you live?
  • What is the thing you most want people to say about you at your funeral?
  • What thing would you most regret not doing by the end your life?
  • What is the most important thing you have learned in the past year?

Download Values and Sense-of-Purpose Questions for Team Building - PDF

Trivia Questions for Team Building

There are lots of great resources for trivia questions. You can even use cards from the game Trivial Pursuit for suggestions, or search online for general trivia questions. Here are some examples: 

  • Name all the signs of the zodiac.
  • What color jersey does the winner of each stage of the Tour de France wear? (Yellow)
  • Which chess piece can only move diagonally? (Bishop)
  • Who invented champagne? (Benedictine monk Dom Perignon)
  • What animal needs the least sleep? (Giraffes at 30 minutes a day)
  • In the Spider-Man series, who is Peter Parker’s best friend? (Harry Osborn)

For team building in a company or organization, it can be especially effective to use trivia questions related to the workplace. You can divide into smaller groups and send people off for 30 minutes to research the answers. Some questions you can use for this exercise include:

  • Who are the youngest and oldest full-time employees?
  • What’s the most expensive item in the cafeteria or vending machine, and how much does it cost?
  • What is the coffee shop closest to the office, and how far away is it in feet or miles?
  • What department occupies the most office space?
  • Who founded the organization?
  • What year was the company founded?
  • When did the organization get its first website?
  • What is the company motto or tagline?
  • How many lawyers work at the company full-time?
  •  What is the most popular product or service the organization offers?
  •  How many locations does the company have?
  •  Does the organization give anything to employees who retire? If so, what is the gift?
  •  How many sports teams does the company have? What sports are they?
  •  How many organization-wide social events does the company hold each year?
  •  What color is the carpet in the CEO’s office?
  •  Name the charities that the organization supports.
  •  What are all the different ways employees commute to work?
  •  Whose signature appears on your paycheck?

Download Trivia Questions for Team Building - PDF

How to Use Team Building Questions: Activities and Games

Although we normally think of people answering team builder questions one by one around a circle, you can actually use these questions in many other ways. 

If you’re looking to get people up and moving, a game or activity based on these questions is a great idea. And, if you want to introduce a little competition, divide your staff into teams that compete against each other. Ask team building questions like, “What things would you need to survive on a desert island?” or “What color should you paint the office?” and see who comes up with the best solution. Check out these ways to use team building questions:

  • Person Bingo: Fill the squares on a bingo card with uncommon personality characteristics you might hear in response to some of the icebreaker questions, such as whether someone plays the flute or runs marathons. Give everyone a copy of the card. Participants have to talk to each other to find the people who possess the characteristics listed in the squares on the card. When they do, they can enter that person’s name on the corresponding square. The first person to fill up all their squares with the names that correspond to the characteristics wins.

team building essay question

Download “Get to Know You” Bingo

  • Switch Sides If: This is a fun exercise and also gets people moving, so it can be a good transition activity or way to break up a long session. This activity helps people see who they have things in common with. In a room with plenty of space for your group, divide the room in half with masking tape. Start by having people stand wherever they want. Then, tell people to switch sides in response to your questions. These can be questions like, “Are you a morning person or a night person?” or “Do you speak another language?” (If people switch sides for the latter, have them tell someone what language they speak.) 
  • Question Ball Toss: Take a large, inflatable beach ball, and write questions on it in marker. Get your group in a circle, and toss the ball. Whoever catches it answers the question on the ball that is closest to his or her right thumb. After answering, he or she tosses the ball to someone else. There are also some pre-made versions of the ball, such as this one .
  • “Tell Us” Candy Game: Get a bag of different-colored candy, such as hard candies, M&Ms, or Skittles. Have each person in the group pick three or four pieces of candy. For each candy color, assign a question. For example, red could be: “What has been your favorite travel experience?” Or, green could be, “What has been your proudest work accomplishment of the past year?”  Go around the room and have people answer questions according to the colors of candy they selected.  
  • Circle of Questions: Have the group form two concentric circles, with those comprising the inner circle facing outward and those comprising the outer circle facing inward so that pairs of people are face to face. Each pair has a set amount of time — usually a few minutes — during which both members must answer a question called out by the facilitator that relates to personal tastes, hobbies, or pastimes. Once the time limit is up, the inner circle rotates clockwise and the outer, counterclockwise (or vice versa) so that everyone has a new partner for the next round of questions.
  • Team Effectiveness Exercise: This is an exercise to use with mature teams. Have each person answer two questions about each member of the team. Questions may include the following: “What is the person’s most important attribute for the team?” and “What is the person’s attribute that detracts from the team the most?” Start with the team leader, and have everyone read their positives about him or her. Ask the leader if there are any questions or surprises. Then, repeat the process with the negatives. Follow these directions with each member of the team. At the end, ask each person for one or two pieces of feedback they plan to work on.  

For more ideas, check out the team building resources on Pinterest .

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Unique And Fun: 65+ Team Building Questions To Energize Your Team

Jane Ng • 31 October, 2023 • 8 min read

Looking for good team bonding questions? In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to 65+ fun and light-hearted team building questions designed to break the ice and kickstart meaningful conversations. Whether you’re a manager looking to boost team productivity or a team member eager to forge stronger bonds, these simple yet powerful questions can make all the difference.

Table Of Contents

Good team building questions , fun team building questions , team building questions for work, team building ice breaker questions, team building questions remote workers, final thoughts.

team building essay question

Here are 50 good team building questions that can help stimulate meaningful discussions and deeper connections within your team:

  • What’s the most unique or memorable gift you’ve ever received?
  • What are your top three personal values, and how do they influence your work?
  • If your team had a shared mission statement, what would it be?
  • If you could change one thing about your workplace culture, what would it be?
  • What strengths do you bring to the team that others may not be aware of?
  • What’s the most important skill you’ve learned from a colleague, and how has it benefited you?
  • How do you handle stress and pressure, and what strategies can we learn from you?
  • What’s a movie or TV show you could watch over and over without getting tired of it?

If you could change one thing about our team’s meetings, what would it be?

What’s a personal project or hobby that influences your work, and how?

If you could design your ideal workspace, what elements would it include?

  • If you were a famous chef, what dish would you be known for?
  • Share a favorite quote that inspires you.
  • If your life were a novel, who would you choose to write it?
  • What’s the most unusual talent or skill you wish you had?

>> Related: Team Building Activities For Work | 10+ most popular types

Here are fun team building questions you can use to to add a unique twist to your team building activities:

  • What would your pro-wrestling entrance theme song be?
  • What’s the weirdest talent you have that no one in the team knows about?
  • If your team were a group of superheroes, what would each member’s superpower be?
  • If your life had a theme song that played everywhere you went, what would it be?
  • If your team were a circus act, who would perform what role?
  • If you could have a one-hour conversation with any historical figure, who would it be, and what would you talk about?
  • What’s the strangest food combination you’ve ever tried, and did you secretly enjoy it?
  • If you could time travel to any era, which fashion trend would you bring back, no matter how ridiculous it may seem?

If you could replace your hands with any object for a day, what would you choose?

If you had to write a book about your life, what would the title be, and what would the first chapter be about?

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever witnessed at a team meeting or work event?

If your team were a K-pop girl group, what would your group name be, and who plays which role?

  • If your team were cast in a reality TV show, what would the show be called, and what kind of drama would ensue?
  • What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever bought online, and was it worth it?
  • If you could trade voices with a famous person for a day, who would it be?
  • If you could swap bodies with a team member for a day, whose body would you choose?
  • If you could invent a new flavor of potato chips, what would it be, and what would you name it?

team building essay question

  • What are the most significant industry trends or challenges you foresee in the next decade?
  • What’s a recent initiative or project that didn’t go as planned, and what lessons did you learn from it?
  • What’s the most valuable piece of advice you’ve received in your career, and how has it guided you?
  • How do you handle feedback and criticism, and how can we ensure a constructive feedback culture?
  • What’s a major goal you’d like to achieve in the next five years, both personally and professionally?
  • What’s one project or task that you’re passionate about and would like to lead in the future?
  • How do you recharge and find inspiration when you’re feeling burnt out at work?
  • What’s a recent ethical dilemma you faced at work, and how did you resolve it?

What’s your go-to karaoke song?

  • What’s your favorite board game or card game?
  • If you could instantly learn any new skill, what would it be?
  • What’s a unique tradition or celebration in your culture or family?
  • If you were an animal, what would you be, and why?
  • What’s your all-time favorite movie, and why?
  • Share a quirky habit you have.
  • If you were a teacher, what subject would you love to teach?
  • What’s your favorite season and why?
  • What’s a unique item on your bucket list?
  • If you could have one wish granted right now, what would it be?
  • What’s your favorite time of day, and why?
  • Share a recent “Aha!” moment you experienced.
  • Describe your perfect weekend.

team building essay question

  • What’s a unique or interesting background noise or soundtrack that you’ve had during a virtual meeting?
  • Share a fun or quirky remote work habit or ritual you’ve developed.
  • What’s your favorite remote work app, tool, or software that makes your job easier?
  • What’s a unique perk or benefit you’ve experienced from your remote work arrangement?
  • Share a funny or interesting story about a pet or family member interrupting your remote workday.
  • If you could create a virtual team-building event, what would it be, and how would it work?
  • What’s your preferred way to take a break and recharge during remote work hours?
  • Share your favorite remote-friendly recipe or dish that you’ve prepared during lunch breaks.
  • How do you create a boundary between work and personal life when your office is at home?
  • Describe a time when a virtual team meeting took an unexpected and entertaining turn.
  • If you could trade remote workspaces with a team member for a day, whose workspace would you choose?
  • Share a remote work fashion trend or style that you’ve observed among your colleagues.
  • Share a story of a remote team member going above and beyond to support a colleague in need.
  • If your remote team had a virtual theme day, what would it be, and how would you celebrate it?

>> Related: 14+ Inspiring Games for Virtual Meetings | 2024 Updated

Team building questions are a valuable resource for strengthening your team’s bonds. Whether you are conducting team-building activities in person or virtually, these 65+ diverse sets of questions offer you a wealth of opportunities to connect, engage, and inspire your team members.

To make your team-building experiences even more interactive and engaging, use AhaSlides . With its interactive features and pre-made templates , AhaSlides can take your team-building activities to the next level.

What are good team building questions?

Here are some examples:

What are some fun questions to ask coworkers?

What are 3 fun ice breaker questions.

Ref: Indeed | Teambuilding

Jane Ng

A writer who wants to create practical and valuable content for the audience

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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Management asking team-building questions

200 Creative Team-Building Questions To Break The Ice At Work

  • Employee Management

Want a unique and fun way to break the ice and build a sense of unity and engagement among your employees? Set aside time to share team-building questions.

It doesn’t matter if you use them to onboard new hires, keep remote team members connected, or lighten the mood during a team meeting — these questions work.

In this article, the workforce-management experts at Sling discuss the best team-building questions out there, why they’re important, and how to use them in your business.

Fun Team-Building Questions

1) What struggle will kids these days never understand?

2) What is the worst gift you’ve ever received?

3) Dogs or cats?

4) You have five minutes to hide a paperclip in the office before a detective comes in and tries to find it. If the detective fails to find the paperclip, you get $10,000. Where do you hide the paperclip?

5) Other than family and friends, what are the five things that are the most important to you?

6) Thick pizza or thin?

Slicing of a pepperoni pizza

7) Do you fold your pizza?

8) If you had to title your autobiography with the last mistake you made, what would it be?

9) What is the most awful fashion trend that you followed religiously?

10) If you could compete in the Olympics, which sport would you choose?

11) What is your guilty pleasure movie?

12) What is your guilty pleasure song?

13) What horrible fashion trend do you secretly like?

14) What emoji do you use the most?

15) If you could walk into any space preceded by an introductory song, what would it be?

16) What is your favorite decade and why?

17) What is the best thing you’ve bought this year?

18) Who is your favorite Disney movie character?

19) What bucket list item do you most want to mark off in the next six months?

20) What was your favorite class in high school?

stack of books

21) What was your favorite class in college?

22) What was the last thing you ate?

23) What is your go-to book genre?

24) What is your go-to movie genre?

25) What app on your phone or tablet do you use the most?

26) What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

27) What is your favorite kitchen gadget?

28) Which song can you listen to over and over again?

29) What was your favorite show as a kid?

30) What is your favorite musical instrument and why?

31) Does your car have a name? What is it?

32) What famous person from history would you want with you during a zombie apocalypse?

33) What was the worst haircut you ever rocked?

34) What movie made you laugh the most?

35) What band would you want to play at your funeral?

36) What was your favorite gym activity in high school, middle school, or elementary school?

37) What was your least favorite gym activity in high school, middle school, or elementary school?

38) If you had to write a textbook, what would it be about?

39) Pop quiz or year-end final?

40) What is your favorite cookie?

Fresh baked cookies

41) What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

42) Do you prefer hot chocolate, coffee, or tea?

43) What do you call your grandparents?

44) What was your first job?

45) Would you rather be one of the X-Men or a Power Ranger?

46) Would you rather join Metallica or the New Kids On The Block?

47) If Aliens landed to retrieve one of their spies, you’d be the least surprised if it was whom?

48) How often do you work from bed?

49) What is your morning routine?

50) If you’re not from this city, how did you end up here?

Big City sky line

51) What’s your favorite board game?

52) Are you a morning person or a night owl?

53) Sweet or savory?

54) What food from your childhood that others might find strange do you still eat?

55) If you had to sing karaoke, what song would you choose?

56) What was your least favorite childhood chore?

57) What’s your favorite scent?

58) If you had your own late-night talk show, who would you invite as your first guest?

59) Road trip or plane trip?

60) If you were given a plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

61) Snow, sand, or something else?

62) Mountains or beach?

Landscape of mountains with snow

63) You’re going to sail around the world. What do you name your boat?

64) What was the worst injury you ever had?

65) Would you rather be trapped on a deserted island alone or with your worst enemy?

66) If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

67) What is your cellphone or computer wallpaper and why did you choose it?

68) What was the first thing you thought about when you woke up this morning?

69) If you could get rid of any current trend, what would it be and why?

70) What is something you think is totally overrated?

71) What is your all-time favorite book?

Library shelf with books

72) What is your all-time favorite movie?

73) What is your go-to music genre?

74) What is one thing that makes you feel positive in some way?

75) What is one challenge you’re experiencing at the moment?

76) You’re alone in a dark cabin. All you have is one match, an oil lamp, a fireplace, and a candle. Which would you light first?

77) What is your favorite season of the year?

78) Do you prefer to travel by planes, trains, or automobiles?

79) Would you ever ride along in a submersible that was going to the bottom of the Mariana Trench?

80) What is something you’ve been thinking about lately that no one has asked you about yet?

81) What is the silliest thing you are willing to argue about?

82) What is your favorite joke?

Group of employees asking team-building questions

83) What is the strangest gift you’ve ever received?

84) What is the most useless talent you have?

85) What is the coolest talent you have?

86) If a genie granted you one wish, what would you wish for?

87) If you could learn one secret of the universe, which one would you choose?

88) If you could have any animal as a pet, which one would it be?

89) What would your personal theme song be?

90) What was a witty comeback you thought of too late?

91) Who would you cast to play you in a movie about your life?

Woman sitting on the ground watching tv

92) Which person — living or dead — would you most like to spend the day with?

93) What is the craziest impulse buy you’ve ever made?

94) What is the silliest thing you believed as a child?

95) What is your favorite way to waste time?

96) What is a common-knowledge fact that you only just learned?

97) What is something new you learned recently?

98) What is your biggest pet peeve?

99) In what activity could you best the rest of those here today?

100) What is your most memorable — good or bad — client/customer story?

101) In which fictional world would you most like to live?

102) If your pet could talk, what would it say about you?

103) If you were a superhero, what would your name or power be?

104) What is the best prank or practical joke you ever pulled?

105) Who here is most likely to be an undercover secret agent and why?

106) Where did you go/what did you do on your last vacation?

107) Where are you planning on going/what are you planning on doing for your next vacation?

108) What is the last book you read?

109) How do you deal with stress?

110) If you could send a short message to your younger self, what would it be?

111) What would you want your future self to tell you?

112) Barring the obvious (food, shelter, water), what three things could you never live without?

113) If you had to give an impromptu 30-minute speech on any topic, what would you talk about?

a microphone on a stage

114) If you could live in any other real time period, which one would it be and why?

115) Would you choose comfort or growth?

116) Would you choose to work at home or work in an office?

117) Do you prefer to ask permission or ask forgiveness?

118) Look first or leap first?

119) Dawn or dusk?

120) Travel or stay at home?

121) If you had to go with one, would you choose emails or phone calls?

122) Would you categorize yourself as a risk-taker or a play-it-safer?

123) Group work or solo work?

124) Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

125) Which do you prefer: coffee break or happy hour?

126) Would you rather receive a long email or attend a long meeting?

127) Would you rather attend a concert or a sports game?

128) Work at home or from a cafe?

129) As a gift, would you prefer a physical thing or an experience?

130) Android or iPhone?

131) Windows, Mac, or Linux?

132) What is your preferred web browser?

133) Staying in or going out?

134) Would you rather attend a team lunch or a team dinner? Why?

135) Would you rather have a video interview or an in-person interview?

136) Which would you choose: money or influence?

137) What is one thing you want to improve about yourself?

138) What is your learning style?

139) What most surprised you about working in this industry?

140) Which of your remote coworkers do you think is the tallest?

141) If you could be any animal for a week, which would you choose?

142) What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?

143) What’s your favorite thing to do in the fall?

Trees during the fall with colorful leaves

144) What’s your favorite thing to do in the winter?

145) If you have pets, what are their names?

146) When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you do?

147) Show us the most interesting thing you have in your purse, wallet, or bag?

148) What’s the longest time, in a single stretch, that you’ve ever been in a car/on a bike/ on a plane?

149) How many keys are on your keyring?

150) What is one food you can’t give up?

151) What is your favorite outdoor activity?

152) What is your dream car?

153) Which do you prefer: white chocolate, dark chocolate, or milk chocolate?

154) Have you ever written a letter to the editor of, or an article or opinion piece for, the local paper? If so, what was it about?

155) How many languages do you speak?

156) Are you good at fixing things?

157) What is your least favorite fruit?

158) Have you ever flown in a helicopter?

159) Have you ever ridden on a dog sled?

160) Who played at the first live concert you attended?

Who played at the first live concert you attended is a great team-building question

161) Have you ever climbed a mountain?

162) Have you ever run a marathon?

163) What is your favorite video game?

164) Have you ever met someone famous?

165) Do you play a musical instrument? If so, which one?

166) Can you read music?

167) What’s your go-to pizza topping?

168) What’s the oldest piece of clothing you still wear?

169) Have you ever been skydiving?

170) Would you ever try skydiving? Why or why not?

171) What is your middle name?

172) Do you prefer dancing with a partner or by yourself?

173) What is your favorite alcoholic drink?

174) Tattoos: yes or no?

175) Would you rather be congratulated publicly or privately?

176) Would you rather sit at a desk all day or work a physical job?

177) Would you rather have little wins every day or one big win a month?

178) Would you rather be in the spotlight or behind the scenes?

179) Would you rather win the lottery or land your dream job?

180) What does your home office setup look like?

Home office space

181) What is your favorite part of working from home?

182) What is your least favorite part of working from home?

183) What does your typical workday lunch consist of?

184) What is the strangest thing you’ve ever observed during a Zoom meeting?

185) Do you ever work from bed?

186) Do you have any family traditions that you look forward to each year?

187) What is something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet?

188) If you’re not originally from this city, how/why did you end up here?

189) If you had a million dollars, what would be the first thing you bought?

190) What’s something interesting about your family history?

191) Do you have siblings? How many? Where do you fit in the mix?

192) What’s your biggest fear?

193) If you could master a new skill in an instant, what would it be?

194) What fictional family would you be a member of?

195) Would you choose sweet or savory food?

196) Do you know how to drive?

197) Do you know how to drive a car with a manual transmission?

198) What’s the last thing you got in trouble for?

199) When did you last cry in front of another person?

200) When did you last cry by yourself?

The Importance Of Team-Building Questions

board with small game pieces

Whether you ask a funny team-building question or a serious one, the point is to get the participants out of their heads and give them a chance to relax and open up.

Too often, in meetings and other group situations, your employees feel guarded and closed off. That nervous energy stifles creativity, communication , and cooperation.

Asking each member of the group which movie made them laugh the most, for instance, is a great way to lighten the mood and foster a sense of closeness that might not have been there before.

Once everyone has loosened up and shared a bit about themselves, they’ll be in a better frame of mind to get down to the more serious business at hand.

How To Use Team-Building Questions

team-building questions being asked with a group of coworkers

Regardless of how long your team has been together, individuals may be nervous before a meeting starts because they’re unsure about what’s going to happen.

Using team-building questions correctly right from the start provides a sense of order that sets the tone for the rest of the meeting and alleviates a lot of anxiety.

Here’s the best way to use team-building games for an in-person meeting, a virtual meeting , or just as a fun way to chat on email or IM.

  • Gather everyone together (online or around the conference table)
  • Before the meeting, determine the order of responses (e.g., alphabetically, around the table, attendees name who goes next)
  • Explain the activity and how the responses will proceed
  • Ask a question and answer it for yourself as a way to demonstrate the “game” and give others a chance to think about their answer
  • Ask the question again and indicate who will go next
  • Sit back and enjoy the camaraderie!

As the conductor of the activity, be prepared to restate the question, indicate who should go next, and generally keep the discussion moving should the need arise.

Make Time For Team-Building Questions

Sling scheduling app for team-building questions

Building a sense of unity and cooperation among your employees is not an easy task. It takes time and effort and a good sense of what motivates each individual.

Team-building questions pave the way for all types of growth opportunities, including:

  • Communication exercises
  • Diversity activities
  • Leadership activities
  • Engagement activities
  • Team-building games
  • Ice-breaker games
  • And much more

But the team-building questions on this list are only effective if you put them to use often. Whether you manage an on-site team or a remote team , communication and effective scheduling are the keys to success.

The Sling app makes both of those activities easier than ever before.

With the Sling suite of tools, you can:

  • Set up all manner of work schedules (from simple to complex ) and virtual team building activities
  • Customize your communication (to an individual, a location, or everyone on the team)
  • Manage time off
  • Coordinate availability
  • Simplify shift-trade requests
  • Streamline payroll
  • Track hours worked

The built-in artificial intelligence even provides suggestions for better scheduling and notifies you when there’s a conflict.

Sling truly is the all-in-one solution for your workforce management and optimization needs.

Sign up for a free account and see for yourself how Sling can help you make time for team-building questions and improve the way your whole team works together.

For more free resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.

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This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for specific advice.

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340 Team Building Questions to Build Trust in the Workplace

In order to create a trusting and productive work environment, it is important for teams to be able to build trust between each other. However, this can be difficult when team members don’t know how to start the conversation. Team-building questions might seem like they have nothing to do with work, but they actually provide […]

team building essay question

October 17, 2022

team building essay question

In order to create a trusting and productive work environment , it is important for teams to be able to build trust between each other. However, this can be difficult when team members don’t know how to start the conversation.

Team-building questions might seem like they have nothing to do with work, but they actually provide insight into how someone thinks and solves problems. By getting to know each other on a personal level, team members can develop trust and confidence in each other which will carry over into the workplace.

So go ahead and ask your co-workers any of the below questions for team-building – who knows, you might even learn something new about them!

What are team-building questions?

Team-building questions are designed to help team members get to know each other better and to promote communication and collaboration. However, not all team-building questions are created equal.

They can be used in team meetings, team-building exercises, or simply as icebreakers. While there are many different team-building questions that can be asked, some of the most popular include: “What is your favorite thing about working on this team?” and “What is your biggest challenge when working on this team?”

Asking group members these types of questions can help team members bond with each other and build a stronger sense of trust. Ultimately, team-building questions can help teams work together more effectively by fostering a greater sense of connection and camaraderie.

How do introduce team-building questions?

Introducing fun team-building questions can be a tricky business. On the one hand, you want to make sure everyone is on the same page and getting along. On the other hand, you don’t want to come off as too intense or like you’re trying to force things.

A good way to strike the right balance is to keep things light and fun. Make sure your team-building questions are mostly about getting to know each other better and building rapport. Once you’ve got everyone to loosen up a bit, you can start to introduce more challenging questions that will help the team bond and work together more effectively.

Either way, team-building questions can be a great way to bring your team closer together – just make sure to do it in a fun way!

Types of team-building questions

Team bonding questions can be a great way to get everyone on the same page. However, not all team-building questions are created equal. Here are a few of the most popular types of fun team-building questions, and how to use them effectively:

Personal Guilty Pleasure Icebreaker Questions

1. What is your all-time favorite guilty pleasure food?

2. What TV show do you love that others make fun of you for watching?

3. What celebrity do you have a major crush on, even though you know they’re not “good for you?”

4. Who is your favorite band or musician that you’re embarrassed to admit you like?

5. What one movie do you love that everyone else seems to hate?

6. What style of clothing do you love that other people think is tacky or ugly?

7. What hobby do you love even though it’s not considered “cool?”

8. What kind of food do you love that other person think is gross?

9. Is there a particular type of couple that you think is really adorable, even though others find them annoying?

10. Do you have any beauty products that you love even though they’re not fashionable?

Music, Movie, and Book-Related Icebreaker Questions for Work

1. What’s your favorite album right now?

2. Who’s your favorite musician?

3. Who would you want to play in a movie about your life?

4. What is your favorite cartoon character?

5. What’s your favorite song from a movie?

6. What’s your favorite character from the fictional world?

7. Who’s your favorite author?

8. What’s your favorite talk show?

9. Which fictional character do you most identify with?

10. How many books do you read in a year, on average?

11. What is your favorite genre of movie?

Travel-Themed Office Icebreaker Questions

1) Do you prefer to travel solo or with others?

2) What’s the furthest from your home you have ever been?

3)If you could hop on a plane right now, where would you go?

4) What’s the most interesting place you’ve been?

5) What was the best part of your last vacation?

6) What’s your dream vacation destination?

7) Have you ever had a less-than-stellar travel experience?

8) Who is your favorite travel companion?

9) What’s the best way to combat jet lag?

10) Are you a beach, city, or mountain type of traveler?

Weird and Outrageous Office Icebreaker Questions

1. If you could trade places with anyone in the world, who would it be?

2. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

3. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

4. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen?

5. Have you ever had a dream that came true?

6. What’s the funniest coincidence that’s ever happened to you?

7. If you could travel back in time, where would you go?

8. If you could be reincarnated as anything, what would it be?

9. If money was no object, what would you do with your life?

10. What’s the best prank you’ve ever pulled?

Food-Related Office Creative Questions

1. What’s your favorite breakfast food?

2. Do you like to eat at your desk or away from it?

3. What is the weirdest food that you’ve ever eaten?

4. What’s your favorite food that you can cook as well?

5. Pretend you’re the team leader for a day, what food would you order for the break room?

6. What’s your favorite potluck dish to bring to work parties?

7. What would be your dream office lunch – free reign on anything! 8. Are there any foods you refuse to eat?

9. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

10. What’s your favorite food-related story? (Could be about a time you tripped over while carrying a plate of cookies, or the best restaurant you’ve ever been to, etc.)

Unique Icebreaker Questions for Dream Job

1. What is the best thing about your job?

2. What is on your bucket list?

3. What are the most challenging aspects of your job?

4. What are the most rewarding aspects of your job?

5. What are the most common misconceptions about your job?

6. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your job?

7. What is the worst advice you’ve ever received about your job?

8. If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?

9. What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your job?

10. What are some of the highlights of your job?

11. What are some of the lowlights of your worst job?

History-Themed Team-Building Icebreaker Questions

1. If you could relive any moment in history, what would it be?

2. If you could trade places with any historical figure, who would it be?

3. If you could meet any figure from history, who would it be?

4. What is your favorite historical figure from history?

5. What is your favorite movie about history?

6. What event in history would you like to have witnessed?

7. Pretend that time travel is possible. Where and when would you go?

8. What do you think life was like for people in the past?

9. What current event do you think will be considered historical someday?

10. Do you have any family members or ancestors who were alive during a momentous time in history? If so, what do they remember about it?

Pop Culture-Themed Team-Building Icebreaker Questions

1. If your life were a movie, what would the soundtrack be like?

2. If you could instantly be fluent in any language, what would it be?

3. What reality TV show would you most like to compete on?

4. What character from a movie makeover would you like to have?

5. Who would you want to play in a movie about your life?

6. What was your favorite cartoon character growing up?

7. If you could trade places with anyone in the world, who would it be?

8. What’s your favorite comic book or graphic novel?

9. Who was your first celebrity crush?

10. Are unicorns real? Why or why not?

"Would You Rather" funny Icebreaker Questions

1. Would you rather have superhuman strength or the ability to read people’s thoughts?

2. Would you rather be able to fly or be able to turn invisible?

3. Would you rather have a pool full of jellybeans or a pool full of cake batter?

4. Would you rather live in a world with no music or a world with no color?

5. Would you rather have a pet unicorn or a pet dragon?

6. Would you rather be able to speak any language fluently or be able to teleport?

7. Would you rather have a heart of gold or a mind like a steel trap?

8. Would you rather have a talking pet or a pet that understands human speech?

9. Would you rather live in the past or the future?

10. Would you rather be able to talk to animals or talk to plants?

11. Would you rather have the worst enemy describe your morning routine to the whole world or spend a year in jail?

Hobby-Themed Team-Building Icebreaker Questions

1. What’s your favorite hobby?

2. How long have you been doing it?

3. What made you start?

4. Are there any other hobbies you’re interested in trying out? Why haven’t you started yet?

5. What’s the most challenging thing about it?

6. What are the benefits of doing it?

7. Have you ever competed in anything related to your hobby? If so, how did you do?

8. Do you follow any blogs, YouTube channels, or Instagram accounts dedicated to your hobby? Who are your favorites?

9. What was the most recent project you worked on related to your hobby? Can we see it?

Debatable Team-Building Icebreaker Questions

1. Do you think that extraterrestrial life exists?

2. Do you believe that everyone has the ability to be happy?

3. Is it better to live in a big city or a small town?

4. Would you rather have superhuman strength or the ability to read people’s thoughts?

5. Do you think that money can buy happiness?

6. Do you believe that fate or destiny governs our lives?

7. Is it better to know as much as possible or to never know anything at all?

Holiday-Themed Team-Building Icebreaker Questions

1. What is your favorite holiday?

2. What is your favorite holiday food?

3. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

4. What is the best gift you’ve ever received for a holiday?

5. What was the worst present you’ve ever received for a holiday?

6. What is your favorite holiday-themed movie?

7. What is your holiday-themed favorite song?

8. What is the best Christmas/Hanukkah/etc. a party you’ve ever been to?

9. The worst Christmas/Hanukkah/etc. a party you’ve ever been to?

Meeting Team-Building Icebreaker Questions

1. What’s something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet?

2. Do you have any pets? If not, what kind of pet would you like to have?

3. Who is your hero or personal role model? Why?

4. What are your favorite sports teams?

5. Do you have any siblings or children? How many and what are their ages/names/etc.?

6. What is your favorite board game?

7. Where did you grow up/where do you live now?

8. Did you go to college/trade school/etc.? What did/do you study/major in there?

9. What kind of work do you do now and how long have you been doing it (or how long did you do it for if you don’t currently work there)?

10. What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve done?

11. Are you comfortable with a one-on-one meeting with your remote teams?

Trivia Questions for Team Building Activity

1. What is the capital of Latvia ?

2. What is the world’s largest desert?

3. What country is both the smallest by land area and has the smallest population?

4. Which ocean has more coastline on it: the Atlantic or the Pacific?

5. How many time zones does China have?

6. What is the smallest country in the world by population?

7. The international date line runs through which ocean?

8. What is the driest place on Earth?

9. How many continents are there?

10. Mount Everest is located in which mountain range?

Values and Sense-of-Purpose Questions for Team Building

1. What is your team’s definition of success?

2. What are your team’s core values?

3. What is your team’s sense of purpose?

4. What motivates your team to achieve its goals?

5. How does your team work together to accomplish tasks?

6. How do team members provide support for one another?

7. What is your team’s communication style ?

8. How does your team handle conflict?

9. How does your team deal with adversity?

10. What makes your team unique?

Problem-Solving Team Builder Questions

1. What is the best way to deal with a difficult customer?

2. How do you handle being assigned a project you know nothing about?

3. You’re working on a team project and one team member isn’t pulling their weight. What do you do?

4. One of your coworkers is constantly gossiping and causing drama. How do you deal with this person?

5. You’re feeling overwhelmed by your workload. What do you do?

6. You’re having a disagreement with a coworker about how to complete a task. How do you resolve the situation?

7. A team member confides in you that they are struggling with personal lives. How do you support them while still maintaining boundaries?

8. One of your coworkers is constantly making racist, sexist, or homophobic remarks . How do you confront them about this behavior?

9. You’re assigned to work on a project with someone you don’t get along with. How do you make the best of the situation?

10. Your company is going through layoffs and you’re worried about losing your job. What do you do?

Team Builder Questions about Personal Tastes, Hobbies, and Pastimes

1. Do you like to be surrounded by people or have some alone time?

2. How do you like your coffee?

3. Do you prefer the city or the country?

4. Do you prefer sweet or savory food?

5. What’s your favorite thing to do on a weekend?

6. Do you prefer hot or cold weather?

7. Do you have any morning routines ?

8. What’s your favorite activity outside of work?

9. Do you prefer spending time with friends or family?

10. What’s your favorite family tradition?

11. What is your favorite video game?

12. Are you a dog person or a cat person?

13. Which is the latest fashion trend do you follow?

Hypothetical fun icebreaker Questions

1. If you could be any animal, what would you be?

3. If you could travel to any place in the world, where would it be?

4. If you could eat only 1 food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

5. If you could meet any person, living or dead, who would it be?

6. If you could own any pet, what would it be?

7. If you could have dinner with the most famous person, who would it be?

8. If you could explore any lost civilization, which one would you choose?

Virtual Work ice-breaker Questions

1. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

2. What’s the best prank you’ve ever pulled with your remote team?

3. What’s your favorite movie quote?

4. What would be your dream vacation spot?

5. What’s your favorite piece of advice?

6. What’s the best way to procrastinate?

7. What are three things you would take with you if you were stranded on a desert island?

Throwback ice-breaker Questions

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

2. If you could have any job in the entire world, what would it be?

3. What is your favorite TV show from childhood?

4. Who was your first celebrity crush?

5. What is your entrance theme song?

6. What is your favorite earliest childhood memory?

7. If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would be the first thing that you’d do?

8. If you could go back in time and relive any moment, what would it be

9. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

10. What is the best piece of advice your grandparents ever gave you?

11. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

12. What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?

13. What is the best piece of advice your parents ever gave you?

14. If you could have any career in the world, what would it be?

15. What are some of your favorite movies from childhood?

16. 20 years from now, what do you see yourself doing?

Funny team-building Questions

1. If a chicken did not have any legs, would it still be able to swim?

2. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

3. Why do we put shoes on our feet but not on our heads?

4. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

5. If you could take only ONE food item with you on a deserted island, what would it be?

6. How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?

7. What did Elmer Fudd say when he saw footprints going in circles in the woods?

8. Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

9. Do people in Australia call the rest of the world ‘upside down? Or do they just think we’re weird?

10. How come Superman could stop bullets with his chest but always ducked when someone threw a pistol at him?

11. What is your favorite knock-knock joke?

12. If all those calories I burned while jogging came back…would I be thin or simply better fed than before?!

13. Why doesn’t glue stick to its own container!?

14. Is my wheelbarrow breaking or am I just getting softer??

15. If money doesn’t grow on trees then why do banks have branches???

Common icebreaker team-building questions

1. How much does a swimming pool cost?

2. How often should I change my oil?

3. How many years does a car last?

4. What is the difference between all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive?

5. Should I buy a house or rent an apartment?

6. Is a college degree worth the cost?

7. How much money do I need to retire?

8. When should I start collecting Social Security benefits?

9. What is the best way to invest in retirement?

10. How can I reduce my taxes?

11. Are you a morning person or a night person?

12. Are you fine with late-night talk?

Growth and Development team-building Questions

1. What are some things you can do to encourage growth and development in your employees?

2. What are some techniques you can use to identify areas where employees need development?

3. How can you create a plan for employee development?

4. What are some ways you can measure the success of an employee development program ?

5. What are some common obstacles to employee development?

6. How can you overcome these obstacles?

7. What role does management play in employee development ?

8. What are some things managers can do to support employee development?

9. What is the difference between training and development?

10. What are some examples of training and development activities?

Aspirational team-building questions

1. What is your team’s ultimate goal?

2. What would your team be willing to do to achieve that goal?

3. What are your team’s core values?

4. What is your team’s biggest challenge?

5. What is your team’s greatest strength?

6. How can your team use its strengths to overcome its challenges?

7. How can your team become even more effective?

8. What is your team’s biggest opportunity?

9. How can your team best capitalize on that opportunity?

10. What is your team’s biggest threat?

11. How can your team mitigate that threat?

12. What else should we be asking ourselves?

Gratitude Team Building questions

1. What’s the best thing that happened to you this week?

2. What are you most grateful for rest of your life?

3. What was your biggest accomplishment this week?

4. Who helped you out this week?

5. What are your top 3 goals for next week?

6. What did you do for someone else this week?

7. What are you grateful for in your work?

8. Who has made the biggest impact on your life? Why?

9. What are you most proud of in your work?

10. What has been your biggest challenge at work? How did you overcome it?

11. Who do you admire most at work? Why?

12. How can expressing gratitude improve your life and work?

Feedback Team Building Questions

1. What was the last time you gave or received feedback that made you feel uncomfortable? How did you handle it?

2. What are some ways you think we could improve the way we give and receive feedback on our team?

3. What do you think is the biggest obstacle to giving and receiving feedback openly on our team?

4. What do you think would be the biggest benefit of giving and receiving feedback more openly on our team?

5. If you were feeling really struggling with something at work, who would you feel most comfortable going to for support and why?

6. Who do you think is the best at giving and receiving feedback on our team and why?

7. Is there anyone on our team whose feedback you really value and why?

8. Are there any topics that you feel are off-limits for giving or receiving feedback about? If so, why do you feel that way?

9. Do you think there are different rules for giving or receiving negative vs. positive feedback? If so, what are they?

10. What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who’s struggling with giving or receiving feedback effectively?

Team- Building Questions about improving your company/department

1. How can we increase productivity to make a million dollars?

2. How can we better utilize our resources?

3. How can we improve communication?

4. How can we better motivate employees?

5. How can we foster a more positive work environment?

6. What other improvements would you like to see?

7. How can we reduce waste?

8. How can we better meet the needs of our customers or clients?

9. How can we increase sales or revenue to million dollars?

10. How can we reduce costs?

11. How do our competitors do it better than us?

12. What would our customers or clients say about us if they were asked for feedback?

13. What would happen if everyone took a longer lunch break?

14. What if we had more team-building activities in the next meeting?

15. What if we banned all forms of communication except virtual meetings?

16. Would it be possible to eliminate cubicles altogether?

17. How would our workdays be different if we started at 10 am instead of 9 am?

Helpful Discussion Questions for Team-Building Activities

1. What are some things you’re passionate about?

2. What motivates you to keep going when things get tough?

3. What are your favorite quotes or sayings?

4. What would be your dream job?

5. What are some of your hidden talents or skills?

6. What are some of your biggest accomplishments?

7. What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

8. What is your favorite place to go on vacation?

9. What are some of your hobbies or interests?

10. Tell me about a time when you were proud of yourself?

11. What do you like about your younger self?

Company Culture and Motivation Team- Building Questions

1. Do you feel like your opinion is valued at work?

2. What motivates our team to do their best work?

3. How do we reward employees for going above and beyond?

4. What makes our company culture unique?

5. How do we foster a sense of collaboration and teamwork?

6. How do we encourage new ideas and creativity?

7. How do we handle conflict within the team?

8. What kind of social activities do we have to build camaraderie?

9. How open are we to feedback from employees?

10. What career development opportunities are available for employees?

11. What motivates you to come to work each day?

12. What was your favorite thing about your first job?

13. What is the best thing about our company culture?

14. How do you feel about our company’s core values?

15. Do you feel like you have a good work/life balance?

16. How do you feel about our communication style?

18. Do you feel like you have the opportunity to grow and develop within the company?

19. Do you feel like our company is making a positive impact on the world?

Questions to address challenges, roadblocks, and concerns

1. Why is it taking me so long to achieve my goals?

2. Why do I keep procrastinating ?

3. How will you know if you’ve successfully solved the problem?

4. How can I get out of my comfort zone?

5. How can I stay motivated for my morning routine?

6. How can I overcome my fears?

7. How can I learn from my mistakes?

8. What can I do to make things easier/better/simpler?

9. What are the consequences of the problem?

10. What are your options for solving the problem?

11. What are the pros and cons of each option?

12. What is the best course of action?

13. What are the risks and potential challenges associated with that course of action?

14. What are your contingency plans if something goes wrong?

How to Use Team Building Questions: Activities and Games

Trying to get your team to gel can sometimes feel like herding cats. You know it’s important for everyone to work together, but getting everyone on the same page can be a challenge. That’s where team-building questions come in.

By asking the right questions, you can get your team talking and start to build the communication and collaboration skills that are so essential for success. Of course, simply asking a question is not enough. You also need to make sure that you’re asking the right kinds of questions. Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Make sure that your questions are open-ended. That way, people will feel comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas.

2. Avoid yes or no questions. Instead, ask questions that require people to elaborate on their thoughts.

3. Try to ask questions that will get people thinking about their new team members in a different light. For example, you might ask them to share something they admire about another member of the team.

4. Be sure to encourage everyone to participate. No one wants to feel like they’re being put on the spot, so make it clear that everyone’s input is welcome and valued.

By following these tips, you can start using funny team-building questions to help your team work better together. And who knows? Maybe you’ll even have some fun in the process!

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51 Team Building Questions to Bring Your Team Closer Together

Is your team bonding as much as you’d like them to? Or are they struggling to overcome their differences? How can you help everyone build strong relationships to work better together?

One of the best ways is helping your team discover what they have in common, but how can you break the ice? What team building questions can everyone ask each other to better collaborate?

Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork.

Teamwork is something that often gets taken for granted. However, it is absolutely essential for the success of your team.

In fact, research from the Queen's University in Charlotte shows that “ 75% of employers rate teamwork as ‘very important’ .”

Meanwhile, data from Salesforce tells us that “86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration for workplace failures .”

So if almost everyone wants stronger team building and collaboration, and it is essential to team success, then why do teams so commonly have problems with it?

Team building is all about soft skills

It’s hard to set concrete steps for team building and improving collaboration. That's because every team and situation is a little different.

At its core, team building comes from soft skills and elements such as:

  • Building rapport and finding commonalities with your colleagues, even when on the surface you may seem quite different
  • Creating an environment of psychological safety where everyone can express their opinion and ideas without fear
  • Removing barriers that lead to people being afraid to communicate at work

A team that has done all these things is built to collaborate well and not just do “good enough” work. They can work together to create the best possible outcomes for their projects.

In today’s post, we’ll discuss these three foundations in more detail. We'll also give you 5 sets of questions your team can ask each other to build better collaboration.

Dozens of team building questions that will make your team stronger

Today’s post is split into 5 sections:

Ice breaker questions for building rapport

Virtual/remote ice breaker questions.

  • Team building questions for overcoming generational differences
  • Team building questions about improving your company
  • Team building questions about improving your team

Let’s dive in.

by asking ice breakers, you can build rapport and work better together

Rapport is the basis for every great relationship on your team. It's no surprise that the development of our brain has been accelerated by our need to be social creatures.

And as Camille Fournier once put it:

“You may find that once you start caring about people, you feel a bit happier yourself at work."

As we’ve written about in the past, building rapport can help you by:

  • Making people more engaged
  • Increasing their loyalty
  • Boosting collaboration and team morale

But what if your team members have issues breaking the ice in team building activities? What if they’re interested in different things and have different priorities?

There’s no need to worry. Here are some questions that you can share with them to overcome the first step in communication. You may be surprised what people have in common, or can relate to.

Their life history

  • Where did you grow up?
  • What’s your favorite memory from your hometown?
  • Where did you go to school?
  • Ask about their kids
  • Ask if they have siblings (if they’re close, ask more, if not, change the subject)
  • What do you like to do in your free time?
  • What are you looking forward to doing in the next few months?
  • What would you like to have more time for?
  • Do you play any sports? What’s your favorite?
  • What sport(s) do you enjoy watching? What’s your favorite team?
  • Are you watching (major sporting event)?

Entertainment

  • What’s your favorite band or artist?
  • What type of music are you into?
  • Are there any shows/movies you can recommend?

Geeking out

  • What’s your favorite podcast?
  • What’s your favorite board game or video game?

Professional

  • What do you like to do in your free time other people consider work?
  • What have you enjoyed reading about or learning lately?
  • What would you do if you had to change your profession?

With these ice breaker questions (and many others we’ve collected in the link below), your team will have no problem finding common topics to bond over and improve their relationships.

  • 82 Ways How to Build Rapport with Anyone at Work

virtual ice breaker questions

Even before COVID-19 changed everything, we knew our working environment was shifting. From 2005 to 2020, the number of remote workers grew by 140% . Buffer has also confirmed 84% of companies plan on switching to at least a hybrid model after the pandemic is over.

With that comes a lot of virtual, remote meetings and team building activities. The distance can make it difficult to read a person’s mood, or start a conversation with them. Especially if you’re continents away, starting a conversation with someone can prove difficult, and you won't immediately know what you may have in common.

And if a large group of people is on a Zoom call, the responsibility for saying something becomes diffused. That’s when you get those long, awkward silences and smiles, or people checking out.

To help people overcome those pauses, teach them to ask these virtual ice breaker questions:

  • Where are you based?
  • How is the climate like in [their location]?
  • What’s your favorite part of the town you live in?
  • Do you prefer working from home, or from an office?
  • What’s your favorite part of your setup for where you work?
  • Do you have any pets? How old are they/what are their names?
  • What are your usual working hours? How do you maintain flow during your work windows?
  • Are you a morning person, or a night owl?
  • If you could have any upgrade to your working setup, what would you want to add?
  • When do you feel most productive? How do you get “in the zone”?

Remote employees are faced with unique challenges. To truly connect with them, you have to understand them first. With these virtual ice breaker questions, your team will get a chance to find out about each other’s individual situations. They'll also be able to touch upon some things we all have in common.

We’ve written a number of posts on better managing your remote team. Check out the following links for a more in-depth overview of how to prepare for a remote-first future as a leader.

  • How to Hire Great Remote Employees - and avoid the most common mistakes when doing so
  • How to Work Remotely Effectively: Advice from an Expert on writing and asynchronous communication
  • Remote Management: 41 Questions to Ask Your Hybrid Team

generational differences in the workplace

Questions for overcoming generational differences

It's often thought that the differences between generations are huge. However, as this image representing Gen X, Y, and Z from a Universum Global study shows, we’re more alike than we think.

The same study showed that we share very similar concerns and ambitions:

  • Every generation is worried about stress and work-life balance.
  • Approximately 50% of each generation worried whether their personalities fit in where they worked.
  • About 60% of Gen X, Y, Z aspires to become a leader.

As a manager, this gives your team an idea of the topics they can discuss with *everyone* they work with.

And the best way to break down generational differences is to have everyone on your team share their specific knowledge.

Here are some questions that can support team building activities between different generations.

General questions:

  • What stereotype about your generation annoys you the most?
  • What’s your favorite stereotype about your generation?

Questions to ask more experienced team members:

  • What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in our working environment compared to when you were starting out?
  • What career advice do you wish you had when you started?
  • What, if anything, would you have done differently in your career?

Questions to ask less experienced team members:

  • What are some of the biggest challenges you’re facing at this point in your career?
  • What career goals do you aim to achieve?
  • What area of your work do you want to learn more about, or grow your skills?

These questions will help you make the most out of mixed-work teams. Learning from each other in a team of mixed experience levels and generations has proven more effective than training courses. According to The 2020 Workplace coauthor Jeanne C. Meister:

"Studies show that colleagues learn more from each other than they do from formal training. This is why it is so important to establish a culture of coaching across age groups.”

This means mixed teams are able to use their differences to build relationships and empathy for each other rather than a divider.

Despite some generational contrasts, there are still plenty of ways people can have things in common. Finding those is well worthwhile for boosting teamwork.

We’ve written more about how you can work better together across generations, which you can read about here:

  • Generational Differences in the Workplace: Essential Tips for Leaders

questions about company

Questions about improving your company/department

According to Google’s Julia Rozovsky , psychological safety is crucial for high-performing teams. People thrive when they feel safe sharing ideas and working through problems openly together.

In fact, Rozovsky’s data shows that even an average team can beat a star-filled team because of having psychological safety .

But how do you go about creating psychological safety for your team? We suggest a three-pronged approach:

  • Hiring people who have different ideas and outlooks on things than you
  • Being aware of how your presence affects their work and giving up a bit of control to allow them to express themselves
  • Making it safe for people to disagree, even with you

With this foundation, you’ll encourage more open-mindedness in group discussions about your company. You can then teach people to ask questions such as:

  • What is the company not doing today that we should do to better compete in the market?
  • What's one thing we'd be *crazy* not to do in the next quarter to improve our product?
  • Are there any aspects of our culture you wish you could change?
  • What are your favorite parts about our culture?
  • Which company values do you like the most? Which the least? Why?
  • What is the #1 Problem at our company? Why?

By truly listening to their responses, and acting on some of them when you're able, you'll build trust with your team. You'll also show them it's safe to bring up important ideas to make the team and company better, which creates psychological safety. This will encourage them to put more energy and thought that can continuously improve your team and project outcomes.

To read more about the importance of psychological safety, check out the link below:

  • Psychological Safety: A Cornerstone Key to Leading an Innovative Team

questions about your team

Questions about improving your team

Being able to discuss things that can improve your company and department is one thing. However, bringing up team improvements and issues is a lot more intimate discussion.

That’s because you need to be more direct and can potentially be criticizing other people you work with. Even if it’s constructive criticism, that takes a huge amount of effort and, in a sense, courage.

More often than not, it requires the determination to push through uncomfortable situations. Unfortunately, "69% of managers say they are uncomfortable communicating with their employees," according to a study by Interact Studio and Harris Poll.

And if managers are afraid of communicating things to their team, imagine how their team members feel!

Luckily, we have three tips to help you create a more honest, constructive atmosphere during team building exercises:

  • Help team members build rapport with each other by having them ask the questions we’ve suggested above in group team building activities.
  • Lead them by example by showing courage and overcoming the fear of giving feedback to your team. When you do, others are likely to the same.
  • Proactively manage discussions involving team feedback by setting clear rules (like no personal attacks, only blameless actions to change) and positively reinforcing when people share something helpful and constructive.

After you do this, ask your team questions like these to spark constructive conversations about improving how you all work together:

  • How could we change our team meetings to be more effective?
  • Do you feel overworked, under-worked, or just the right workload?
  • Are there any meetings or discussions you feel you should be a part of that you're not? Are you included in any you don't want to be a part of?
  • Who would you like to work more often with? Why?
  • Who is kicking ass on the team? What have they done?
  • What do you like most about working on our team?
  • Are you uncomfortable giving any of your peer's constructive criticism? If so, why?
  • What's an inexpensive thing we could do to improve our environment for the team?

Teaching your team members to be more open and honest with each other can be incredibly helpful. It can empower them to self-organize and brainstorm solutions together. They can then find a way to make things work - even if they disagree with each other.

If you're nervous talking with your team so directly, start with this post below:

  • Why is everyone afraid at work? (and what to do about it)

It’s easy to underestimate the importance of team building activities. Fortunately, it's even easier to help your team work on them.

By using the questions from this post, you’ll be able to bring them closer together. You'll also boost teamwork, honesty, and collaboration among them. You will also build a foundation for creating psychological safety, which will bring the best ideas to the forefront of your work.

To recap, the questions will make it easier for them to:

  • Break the ice and strike up a conversation around a common topic
  • Connect with each other no matter where they’re working from
  • Overcome generational differences and find things in common, regardless of age
  • Express their opinion about what can be improved in your company/department
  • Address team issues and offer constructive criticism directly

Armed with this knowledge, your people will start building stronger relationships. They'll learn how to work together to overcome issues, as well as support each other in times of crisis.

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Jason Evanish

Jason Evanish

As the founder and CEO of Get Lighthouse, Inc , Jason and the Lighthouse team have helped managers grow their leadership skills in dozens of countries around the world. They’ve worked with a variety of companies from non-profits to high growth startups, and government organizations to well known, publicly traded companies. Jason has also been featured in publications including NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company.

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Favorite questions to build trust & connection with your team.

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Relationships, both personal and professional, require conscious effort. At work, just like in our personal lives, we have to build trust with the people around us, including co-workers.

Managers have an important role to play, too. A TINYpulse report found that 93% of employees surveyed believed trust in their direct supervisor was the most important factor in workplace satisfaction.

In other words, your team members need to get to know you too.

As a leader, your most important responsibility is building trust on your team. Without it, a team can't collaborate and can't achieve its goals.

“Building trust” may sound like a big and daunting mission—but it doesn’t necessarily need to be. There are small actions you can take with your team every day to prioritize connecting and building empathy with each other.

One of my favorite ways to get to know teammates on a personal level is through team building questions . In this article, we’ll talk through what makes for productive team building activities. I’ll share with you some of my favorite questions for team building, why I like them as a leader, and how each has helped me learn something new about my teammates.

Before we get there, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about why team-building questions and icebreaker questions are so important.

Try our (free) icebreaker spinner today

Kick off your next meeting with one of 300+ icebreaker questions to help everyone feel more connected and engaged.

The importance of team building questions

Big company events and virtual team building activities—like learning how to make wood-fired pizza, a Zoom tarot reading, or the classic ropes course—are great ways to jumpstart or restart the team building of a company, but these things alone won’t establish a foundation of trust.

Believe it or not, those sometimes awkward icebreaker questions can help you and your team make great strides in establishing the sense of belonging that underlies all great teams. These questions are powerful because they provide team members an opportunity to share small pieces of themselves. (This is how we begin to build trust.) Over time, these answers begin to paint a more complete picture of the unique individuals around us.

And only by better understanding the people we work with can we hope to function as a healthy, high-performing team .

It’s been interesting to watch how something as simple as a question can morph into a powerful team bonding moment even in virtual meetings.

Icebreaker questions are especially important on a remote team because they can spark discussions that lead to deeper connections and more effective teamwork, even when in-person meetings aren’t an option.

We hope to share some of what’s been successful in strengthening our own team culture with others out there looking to do the same.

Favorite team building questions

I tend to gravitate towards creative questions and ones that are good conversation starters.

In reflecting back, these are some of the favorites that really stand out for me.

Range Icebreaker team-building question #1

1. Kids today will never understand the struggle of what?

  • Why I like this team building question: Talk about nostalgia. This is such a fun question, and it's a great one for bringing a little excitement and laughter to the start of a day or meeting. When I thought back into the time machine of my childhood history before Netflix, my family life, and my hobbies—dial-up internet, floppy disks, and trying to record mixtapes from the radio—the frustrations from my morning commute just disappeared.
  • What I learned about my teammates: I couldn't wait to see how my teammates answered this question, and I wasn't disappointed. I got a tiny glimpse into what my coworkers enjoyed or what they were like in their youth, and that told me a little about what they might enjoy today as adults. Someone who remembers waiting 30 minutes for a computer game to load, or waiting in line for hours for a movie or concert, or what their favorite book might be, might enjoy a nearby game story as a venue for our next one-on-one meeting. Like many team-building questions, it also leaves you with more potential conversation topics for the next time you come together.

Range Icebreaker team-building question #2

2. What’s the furthest away from home you’ve ever been?

  • Why I like this team building question: I went straight to a map to answer this question for myself, but this question isn't one that has to be answered literally (based on physical distance). It's up for interpretation—physical, psychological, or experiential distance and that's why I like this question so much.
  • What I learned about my teammates: “What is home?” someone asked. It sounds a bit flippant, but think about it. In the context of this question, how do you define home, and then how do you choose to interpret distance? Say San Francisco is home. Are you further away from home 6,000 miles away in Sydney (a place where you can easily navigate daily life thanks to a common language) or 3,000 miles away in a small village where communicating is a daily struggle?

Range Icebreaker team-building question #3

3. When looking back at your youth, what was your silliest fear?

  • Why I like this team building question: Some of my biggest fears as a kid are still going strong today well into adulthood. (I'm not afraid of the dark. You are!) Humans aren't designed to be rational. Sometimes we just need to be reminded that the people around us are human, too. That sameness between teammates is what this question begins to explore.
  • What I learned about my teammates: While I expected to read a response or two about ghosts, I was surprised to see that some of my colleagues took this team-building question as an opportunity to be vulnerable. Being different as a child is rarely a good thing. It's a very real fear many of us harbored. But as adults, being different is what makes us who we are and life interesting. I loved learning about my colleagues' personal growth here, and these responses were yet another point of commonality and connection we shared.

ange Icebreaker team-building question #4

4. How do you recognize when you’re stressed?

Which activity will work to diminish it does a certain month trigger your anxiety which type of experience will make your mind and body react.

  • Why I like these team building questions: The ways in which stress manifests with each of us and how we manage that stress has a direct impact on our team, our career, and our team's success. According to a Harvard Business Review article , stress makes us nearly 3 times as likely to leave our jobs, impairs our strategic thinking, and dulls our creativity. It is, of course, important for us as management, to be able to recognize when we are ourselves stressed, but sometimes we miss the signs. So imagine if your coworkers knew when your stress levels were beginning to rise and could help you prevent the impending hair pulling altogether.
  • What I learned about my teammates: When stress is on the horizon, some of us vigorously plan, some take a walk, and some make time to talk. This question helped me understand how I can best help my teammates during times of high stress. Maybe I'll suggest a walk-and-talk with one of my coworkers later this week.

Range Icebreaker team-building question #5

5. What is a passion of yours you’ve yet to act on?

  • Why I like this team building question: A seemingly simple question, this is an opportunity to share with your team some of the side projects you have (or wish you had) worked on over the years. If working to live wasn't a necessity, what else might you be doing with your time? At the very least, sharing your passions and dreams with your teammates will hopefully ensure you start receiving better gifts from them on special occasions.
  • What I learned about my teammates: A few people on your team are going to surprise you when you hear their answers to this question. I learned a lot about my teammates: what activities calm or center them; what issues or causes are important to them; and what they might be doing as an alternative career if they had the time. That last learning, in particular, made me think about how my coworkers might be able to tap into their passions through teamwork. How might we be able to make work even more interesting for them?

Range Icebreaker team-building question #6

6. Looking back, what do you admire most about your childhood self?

And what is your earliest childhood memory, as well as highlights.

  • Why I like these team building questions: Get ready for even more introspection and vulnerability with this one. What I like about this question is that it prompted me to think about the person I once was, who I am today, and who I want to be. What qualities and/or values did I like about my younger self that I wish I exhibited today? And, if I could do it then, why not now? Perhaps my teammates might even see something in me I didn't realize was still there.
  • What I learned about my teammates: So many of our responses were so similar. That genuinely surprised me. As five-year-olds we were more confident, more fearless, and more carefree. But I thought the rest of my team charted much higher in these areas than me. Through this almost unconscious act of vulnerability, I learned that my teammates struggle with some of the same insecurities as me. We're all still growing, and through this question and ensuing chat I learned we're growing together as participants. For instance, a question like “What’s your favorite song, and why?” will often reveal not just music, but an event and significant memory someone holds along with it.

Range Icebreaker team-building question #7

7. What’s one misunderstanding that’s happened on your team recently?

How was it resolved.

  • Why I like these team building questions: This one's a doozy, or at least it can be. In one response, honesty, vulnerability, and introspection were all being asked of me. And to top it off, I had to do all of that while talking about a misunderstanding (How do I even define that? ) between myself and a team member ( not just someone at my company ). But that's the mark of a strong team: psychological safety , a foundation of trust and understanding that allows you to openly discuss and work through your misunderstandings, small or large.
  • What I learned about my teammates: I found the responses of my team ran the gamut when it came to the scale of the misunderstandings they described. In some instances, a review of someone's progress was enough to resolve a small misunderstanding about a product design element. In another, an intense and perhaps difficult conversation was required to work through roles in meetings, gender dynamics, and how teammates interacted with one another. In the end, working through these misunderstandings or conflicts helped us all show up more as a team. While building trust on a team does require intention, it doesn't have to mean huge behavioral shifts or expensive team off-sites. Instead, you can do small activities or chats with your team each day that builds teamwork and increases everyone’s level of trust over time.

60 More Team-Building Questions To Use Right Now

Fun team building questions.

  • How was your weekend? What did you do?
  • What does your name mean?
  • You’re stranded on a desert island. What’s the one thing you couldn’t live without?
  • What’s the last dream that you remember?
  • What categories of trivia are you the best at?
  • What have you read or watched recently and enjoyed?
  • What’s one of your all-time favorite movies?
  • If you could make a guest appearance in a TV show, which show would it be?
  • When was the last time someone spoiled a film or TV show for you?
  • What’s the last TV show that you binged on?
  • What’s for lunch today?
  • What should be M&M’s next new color or flavor?
  • What is your favorite meal?
  • What food do you hate the most?
  • What helps you wake up: coffee, tea, or something else?

Range check-in team building questions

How are you feeling? Team building questions

  • How are you feeling today?
  • How would you describe your personality to a new friend?
  • What did you get into the most trouble for as a kid?
  • Are you afraid of heights?
  • Have you ever taken a personality test? What did you learn?

Aspirational team building questions

  • When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?
  • When was the last time you asked a teammate for help? What happened?
  • If you had to move to a different country, where would you go? What would you miss?
  • What professional skills would you like to develop next?
  • What’s one skill that you’ve improved in the last year? How did you do it?
  • Is there anything you want to do less of in the new year?
  • What does your ideal workday look like?
  • What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?
  • What’s your current state of mind?
  • In your own words, how would you describe what your team does?

Gratitude team building questions

  • What seemingly tiny thing are you especially grateful for?
  • What’s a part of your job that you particularly enjoy?
  • Who has helped make your job easier recently? What did they do?
  • What’s one thing you enjoy about your home or neighborhood?
  • What’s a simple pleasure you enjoyed this week?
  • What are two ways in which you express your gratitude?
  • Think of the last meaningful “thank you” that you received. What was it?
  • What’s one moment of success you experienced this week?
  • What’s your favorite charitable or non-profit organization? Why?
  • What do you want to do more of in the new year?

Range team building questions

Workplace team building questions

  • If you could choose your own working hours, would you be a night owl, early bird, or something in-between?
  • Where, outside of work, do you get your best ideas?
  • What distractions prevent you from doing your best work?
  • When was the last time you were so into your work that time flew by?
  • Outside of work, what activity makes you lose track of time?
  • What was a real-life situation where you stood up for someone or something?
  • What conditions help you feel comfortable when engaging in conflict?
  • What was the last team decision that felt like it took too long? Why did it take so long?
  • How do you feel about conflict? How do you react to conflict with others
  • What are you excited about this week? What are you worried about?
  • When you’re feeling stressed, how do you deal with it?
  • How do you recognize when you’re stressed?
  • How much does your workload change from week to week? How do you feel about that?

Feedback team building questions

Ironing out issues around new power structures and those learning how to become managers

  • What would you rather hear first, good news or bad news?
  • Think of a time when feedback felt like a gift. Why did it feel that way?
  • Think of a time when feedback was NOT helpful to you. What went wrong?
  • If you could give your younger self a piece of advice, what would you say?
  • How do you ensure the feedback you give is candid, and not overly critical or overly polite?

Leadership tip: Get to know your team on a personal level.

"One thing that I've employed with my reports is setting aside time with them remote or in person that is not about work. We'll talk about random stuff in our lives, what we're up to. That kind of stuff helps to create first and foremost a trusting environment where we get to know each other on the human level.”

For more on this tip, watch our Lead Time Chat with Andy Detskas , Sr. Product Design Manager at Strava.

A few bonus team building questions & ideas to use

  • How people react to art is a great category of questions to explore. What’s your favorite quote from a movie? or What’s a current trend you find interesting ? — these questions can offer a glimpse into what makes them work and can help you understand the way they think about challenges and new ideas.
  • Questions about personal and preferences can also be illuminating. Are you a cat person? A dog lover? A morning person or night person? What is your favorite food? Do you have a favorite sports team? What’s your favorite band or genre of music? Do you play a musical instrument? What’s your favorite board game? What’s your secret talent or hobbies? What are your favorite family traditions? Do you have a dream job? Is there a historical figure or artist who you admire, and why? Which cartoon character or fictional character embodies qualities that you admire? Compile a list of solid get-to-know-you questions that build knowledge and camaraderie on your team.
  • And, don't underestimate humor —funny team building questions are sure to bring memorable answers. What’s the weirdest food you've ever experienced? What was your worst haircut? What would be your ideal superpower? As an entertainer, what would be your entrance theme song? Embrace funny questions and let the good times roll.

It’s important to create a safe space around team-building questions too.

  • Folks need to know that they’re not being graded or judged through these chats.
  • There’s no smartest person or wrong answers.
  • No competition: Questions shouldn’t put co-workers against each other—they’re meant to build camaraderie.
  • Teamwork builds when there is goodwill within the team members and participants. The right questions can prompt very real and very powerful shifts in the ways we think and the dynamics of our teams.

How Range Elevates Your Team

The best way to get past the awkwardness of icebreakers is to integrate them into your daily flow of work.

Range helps teams check in asynchronously and run more collaborative meetings .

  • Deepen team connections
  • Have fewer meetings and waste less time with async check-ins
  • Reduce meeting load by keeping every team member informed and connected
  • Easily share your work plan and what you accomplished

⭐️ Range can positively impact trust and culture on your team.

⚡️ try range for free., try range for free.

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The Best Team Building Questions For Your Team and Why

Team building questions are an easy way to get to know your team better and improve its collaboration and cohesiveness. But it can be difficult to know where to start, or the right questions to ask. So we’ve written a handy guide to help you. 

What Are Team Building Questions?

Team-building questions (also known as icebreaker questions) are a series of questions meant to help your team familiarize themselves with each other. They can reach across a variety of topics, from work to personal life to hobbies and much more. They’re just one of many team-building activities that can help your team work together better.

How Can They Help You

Team-building questions can come with a variety of benefits for your team. For one, asking icebreaker questions can boost team cohesiveness, which in turn makes it easier for team members to communicate and collaborate with each other. It might seem silly, but asking a few questions really could help bring up your team’s productivity.

Furthermore, team-building questions can also be extra helpful for teams working remotely or with the help of technology — both of which have become increasingly popular over the last year or so.

When working remotely, it can be hard to build relationships with coworkers and bosses when you don’t see them in-person . Asking these questions can help your team get to know each other and build relationships of trust that might not be there otherwise.

These relationships are incredibly important to the smooth workings of a team. Asking these questions allows you to get to know important information about your colleagues, like their opinions, morals and lifestyles. This in turn can help team members feel happier and more comfortable at their jobs, improving job satisfaction and potentially productivity as well.

Team-Building Question Examples

Now that we’ve discussed what team-building questions are and how they can benefit your team, let’s go over some of the best questions to use and how they can help your team.

Work-Based Questions

These questions will focus on your team’s work experience.

Do you prefer working from home or in the office? What is your favourite thing about both?

Though many companies are focusing on remote work at this time, it can be good to get metrics on what your team prefers going forward so you can keep them satisfied when you transition back into office work..

Where do you work from most frequently at home? Do you share your space with anyone?

If your team works from home, it might be nice to get an idea of their surroundings. And learning about any kids and pets can always be a nice icebreaker and conversation starter.

What’s your favourite thing or aspect about your job?

Learning these things can help you improve your workspace and create shared experiences with coworkers.

What do you think is your biggest strength at your job? Your biggest weakness?

This question can help improve collaboration within your team, because while one team member might not be great at one aspect of their job, another coworker may excel at it. This allows you to identify who is best at what and any blindspots, and thus how to help boost your overall performance.

Personal Questions

Let’s move on to some questions that focus on personal qualities and ideals.

What’s something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet?

This question gives you insights to your team’s goals and wishes and creates opportunities for coworkers to bond over their bucket list items.

Who is someone in your life who has inspired you?

This question is great because it allows people to share details about their life; furthermore, who a person’s heroes are can tell you a lot about their core ideals and values.

What’s something you’re really proud of accomplishing?

Asking this gives your team the space to talk about themselves in a way that doesn’t seem intimidating. People like to be able to talk about their accomplishments without feeling braggy, and this gives them just the opportunity.

What’s something interesting about your family?

This gives you some insights into your team’s background and upbringing, again allowing coworkers to bond based on shared experiences.

When you’re not at work, what do you like to do?

This is just a fun little question about hobbies, but it can give coworkers something to talk about that isn’t related to work to help them bond.

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

This question can help your team feel more comfortable at work, and maybe healthily release some tensions they might have with coworkers as well. Once others are aware of these tensions spots, it gives them the opportunity to fix them.

If you could instantly master one skill, what would it be?

Learn what your team member’s interests are, and what they want to be able to do.

Fun Team Building Questions

Finally, let’s end with some fun questions.

What was your first job?

Asking about someone’s first job can invoke a lot of nostalgia, but it also can create some shared experiences; for many, the answer might be similar.

What’s your favourite TV show? Why do you like it?

This can create a great topic of discussion about TV shows and even reveal coworker’s values and interests. It’s also a great way to prompt coworkers to talk to each other.

If you could be in any movie, what would it be and what character would you play?

This question is just really fun. It can give you some great insight into your coworkers’ personalities and how they see themselves, too.

What book do you think has changed your life the most?

Your books might even be the same! And if not, you have something to add to your reading list.

If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Everyone has a comfort song, or one they could listen to forever. This question can also bring up a great discussion about music and artists.

If you could get a plane ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Find out where your team has travelled, and where they want to go next.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve eaten?

This question is just really fun. Gross or weird experiences can be some of the best experiences for bonding, too.

How To Ask Team Building Questions Asynchronously

If you don’t want to set aside time in video calls or meetings, it’s also easy to ask these questions asynchronously.

ScrumGenius allows you to create customized reports and easily get answers from your team. Simply create a report in our dashboard , choose which questions you want to ask, and send it out to your team. You can change the questions whenever you want as well, allowing you to keep reusing the same template.

Sign up for ScrumGenius today and find out how to use our templates to run automated standups , sprint retrospectives , and ask your team icebreaker questions.

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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 essay question

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.

Question games like Most Likely To , Icebreaker Questions, Never Have I Ever , and Would You Rather are all great games for such occasions.

Read more: 21 Questions: 100+ Deep & Interesting Ideas For Your Next Get-Together

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?
  • Would you rather play more or accomplish more?

Read more: 25 Best Icebreaker Questions For Your Next Christmas Get Together

Deep Icebreaker Questions For Team Building

  • What is the longest project you have ever worked on?
  • What is the right choice between a man and a woman equally qualified for a managerial position when there are no other women at the top?
  • In what ways have you seen racism at work?
  • Have you changed your occupation?
  • Is your organization a Ferrari, a Ford Taurus, or a VW Beetle?
  • What was the most difficult paycheck you have ever earned?
  • Where is the most interesting destination you have ever had to travel to for business?
  • What was the dirtiest job you have ever had?
  • What do you think about the wife as the primary wage earner?
  • What do you think about the President stepping into a labor dispute?
  • What was the most unusual job you have ever had?
  • On a typical work day, what takes up most of your time?
  • Are you hard-working or lazy?
  • Which do you prefer to do business with: a small company or a giant?
  • Who is the most naturally gifted person you have ever worked with?
  • Have you ever worked at a fast-food restaurant?
  • What work assignment(s) have you particularly enjoyed?
  • Have any major setbacks occurred in your career(s)?
  • Should employers be able to cite diversity as the reason for using race to determine who will be laid off from a job?
  • What should companies provide for child care benefits?
  • What was the most unpleasant job you have ever had to do?
  • If you did not have to worry about making a living, what would you most like to do the rest of your life?
  • What are the best and worst business decisions you have ever made and how did they affect your life?
  • Do you think it is better or worse when management and rank-and-file mix?
  • Is it easy or hard to adapt your behavior to the company you are in?
  • Has fear of sexual harassment lawsuits affected your office?
  • What do you think about the portable workplace?
  • Who was the most difficult boss you have ever had to deal with?
  • What honor would you like to attain at work?
  • What is the harshest job advice you have ever received?
  • Does creating a harassment-free workplace invade staffers’ privacy?
  • What kinds of jobs did you have as a kid?
  • Does your work define your identity, or is it defined by family role and personal interests?
  • Have you ever had a mentor?
  • What was the most creative or exciting place you have ever worked?
  • What were the most challenging working conditions you have ever had?
  • What was your first job and how did it influence your career? What did you get paid?
  • Were you encouraged to explore all your talents and interests no matter how often they changed?
  • Have you ever gone on strike or have to deal with a strike at your workplace?
  • Do you have any desire to be the President of the United States?
  • How often do you feel others are better, smarter, richer, happier, or more successful than you?
  • Have you ever achieved a success without experiencing fulfillment?
  • What is the highest honor you have ever received?
  • If you could change anything in the world’s history, what would it be?
  • For what one activity would you like to regain the hours you have lost doing it?
  • What significant social change would you like to see happen in your lifetime?
  • Do you hesitate to answer strangers’ questions?
  • What scares you?
  • What is your worst nightmare and how often do you have nightmares?
  • Which worries you more: financial or physical security?
  • What will and will you not compromise on?
  • What do you carry to protect yourself? In what other ways do you protect yourself?
  • Where have you experienced joy in your life?
  • What do you hate most?
  • What do you never seem to find time for?
  • Why do you get up in the morning?
  • What do you expect each day to bring you?
  • Do you live in the moment, dwell on the past, or dream about the future?
  • What has been the most difficult decision or series of decisions where your integrity was at risk?
  • What daily activity do you treasure more than any other?
  • Is it possible that certain difficulties require bending, giving in, and even allowing yourself to feel overwhelmed?
  • In what ways do you express anger?
  • What is your most prevailing thought?
  • Do you like snow?
  • What special places do you go to think things out?
  • How you would like to change your outer life?
  • What things were you once afraid of, but are no longer?
  • Do you ask questions like a reporter but cringe when the conversation turns back to your life?
  • Which of life’s mysteries are you most curious about?
  • If you could own the world’s largest collection of anything, what would it be?
  • What superhero powers would you like to have?
  • Of all the things someone could say about you, what would make you feel the best?
  • What did you once find frightening that no longer scares you?
  • What things do you avoid thinking about?
  • Ten years from today, what will you wish you had done now?
  • What is something you would like to do that you are not allowed to do?
  • How do you picture the end of the world?
  • What is one key thing you could do to produce a quantum leap in your personal life?
  • How do you view failure? What were important failures for you?
  • Where do you have immense patience and very little patience?
  • Do you enjoy the attention of crowds?
  • How would you rate your public speaking ability: poor, fair, good, or exceptional?
  • What are some big things that make you happy?
  • If you were to perform an act of grace, what would it be?
  • Can you manage life situations as easily as most people?
  • What gives you a feeling of abundance in life?
  • Do you enjoy reminiscing about the past?
  • When are some times you have had low self-esteem?
  • What percentage of the things that you worry about actually happen?
  • I feel alone when _____.
  • Are you an optimist or a pessimist?
  • Can you make up excuses easily?
  • List ways in which these things have had a negative impact on your life: alcohol, drugs, sex, work, money, food, family, and friends.
  • Where is apathy most present in your life?
  • Have you ever considered suicide, even fleetingly?
  • What are five reasons not to kill yourself?
  • What is something you would be tempted to do if you knew you would never be found out?
  • When you accomplish something, do you make sure everyone knows, or do you keep your success to yourself?
  • What is something you found out that you wish you never knew?
  • What three wishes do you have for your genie in a bottle?
  • What is funny about yourself that makes you smile when you think about it?
  • What are three expectations you have of yourself?
  • What are you proudest of about yourself?
  • What do you get enthused about?
  • Have you tried breaking the what-shall-I-do logjam by taking one step, any step?
  • What is your need for privacy?
  • How much do you care about your personal space?
  • What emotion do you seem to experience the most?
  • What is the greatest amount of emotional pain you have endured?
  • If your life has not gone where you thought it would, was it your actions that held you back or your thinking?
  • What things do you think you cannot live without?
  • What activities would you do if you were not so afraid?
  • How can you relate a recent dream to a current problem?
  • How do you behave when you feel depressed and what do you need most at that time?
  • What things, people, or activities give you peace of mind and restore you?
  • How do people know you are angry?
  • What is one thing you would like forgiveness for?
  • Is everything a drama with you?
  • What do you continually get away with?
  • What are three sounds that disturb you?
  • How can you tell when people are really listening to you?
  • What struggles or weaknesses in your life have brought you the greatest frustration?
  • What is a recent fad you admit to trying?
  • What is the worst thing that could happen to you if you took a risk and failed?

Read more: 10 fun Slack games and activities for remote teams

Icebreaker Questions For Team Building ‍ ‍

  • What’s your favorite trip you’ve taken to date?
  • Have you been out of the country? If so, what other countries have you visited?
  • Have you ever gone on a cruise? If so, where did you go and how long was the cruise?
  • Do you prefer traveling in airplanes or in cars?
  • What’s the longest trip you’ve ever taken? Where did you go?
  • If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be?
  • Do you prefer beach or city vacation spots?
  • What’s your favorite dessert?
  • Can you cook? If so, what’s your favorite dish to prepare?
  • Do you prefer breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
  • If you could get rid of one food forever, what would it be?
  • What’s the strangest meal you’ve ever eaten?
  • If you could play a role in any movie, what would it be?
  • What’s your favorite TV show right now?
  • What movie have you watched the most times?
  • What’s the last show you binge-watched?
  • What TV show do you think is overrated?
  • If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose and why?
  • What kind of music do you like?
  • What’s your favorite song right now?
  • What kind of books do you enjoy reading?
  • What’s the last book you read?
  • What’s your favorite book of all time?

Fun Questions For Team Building ‍

reflection questions for team building

  • What is your strangest talent?
  • Which direction do you hang your toilet paper, over or under?
  • Would you rather always be early or late?
  • What would your perfect day look like?
  • What is your guilty pleasure?
  • What one word would you want other people to use to describe you? Why?
  • If you could remove one thing from your morning routine, what would it be?
  • What is your favorite movie quote?
  • Can you play an instrument? If so, which one?
  • What's the most important lesson you've learned this year?
  • What song title best describes your life?
  • What's something that always makes you smile?
  • It's Friday night. Would you rather go out or stay in?
  • What's a charity you wish more people knew about?
  • What is your most-used emoji?
  • What was the worst style choice you have ever made?
  • If you were stuck on a deserted island, would you want to be alone or with an ex?
  • If you were famous for the last thing you did before leaving for work today, what would it be?
  • If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? - If you had a late-night talk show, what would make it unique?*
  • You're having a celebrity over for dinner. Who is it and how do you plan to entertain them?
  • What is your spirit animal and why?
  • If a movie was made about you, who would play the lead?
  • Would you rather be a nickel or a dime? Why?
  • What’s your favorite knock-knock joke?
  • What game show do you think you could win?
  • What’s the most embarrassing thing your parents did when you were a kid?
  • What’s an embarrassing memory from when you were a teenager?
  • Who did you have a crush on when you were little?
  • What did you want to be when you grew up?
  • What style trend did you follow that you deeply regret?
  • If you could hire a personal assistant, what would he or she do for you?
  • If you could have had any job in history, what would it be and why?
  • If you could work fewer hours in exchange for less pay, would you?
  • If you could choose what hours and days you work, how would you schedule your forty hours?
  • If you could trade work skills the way kids swap baseball cards, who would you trade with and for what skills?
  • If you could start your own business, what would it be?
  • If you could create a new, unique position for yourself in your organization, what it would be?
  • Do you agree or disagree that it is important to have a good hard failure when you are young?
  • Do you take more or fewer sick days from work than most people?
  • Do you take shortcuts to get your work done fast?
  • Do you define yourself by your job or other things?
  • Do you socialize with coworkers?
  • Do you feel confused if you are interrupted while working?
  • Do you call yourself ambitious?
  • Do you worry that you will lose a job?
  • What is your favourite place for a business lunch?
  • What is your favourite thing to put on after work?
  • What is your favourite day of the workweek?
  • What is your favourite thing to do after work?
  • What is your favourite word-processing software?

‍ Read more: 13 Fun Question Games to Enjoy With Friends and Coworkers

‍ Reflection Questions For Team Building

  • What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
  • What are you most grateful for right now?
  • What would you do with $1 million?
  • Who was your childhood hero and why?
  • Who influenced you the most when you were growing up?
  • What is the most challenging aspect of your job right now?
  • What is one of your worst fears?
  • What is the most important thing still on your bucket list?
  • What is your highest goal for your career?
  • What is your greatest professional success?
  • What is your greatest personal success?
  • If you had to pick another career, what would it be?
  • How do you deal with change?
  • What is something you want to be written in your eulogy?
  • Do you hold stronger opinions than most people?
  • What is the most beautiful word in the English language?
  • Do you state your opinions with vehemence?
  • Where would you move tomorrow if you could, and why?
  • What is the stupidest thing you have ever done?
  • What is your ideal living environment?
  • How much responsibility do you take for your own problems?
  • In what areas of your life do you need long-term solutions rather than quick fixes?
  • What was a decision you made in an instant that gave you a lifetime of heartache?
  • Can you confess three tiny faults and a giant one?
  • What bothers you most about your life?
  • Who is one of the luckiest people you know, and why?
  • What is one thing about your life now that you would not change?
  • What horrendous blunder did you make in the past year and what did you learn from it?
  • What do you need changed in your life before you can have more fun?
  • You love it when people ask you _____.
  • I am unhappy with myself when _____.
  • Is it essential that you succeed in life?
  • Do you approve or disapprove of casino gambling on Indian reservations?
  • Do you know someone whose life or personality has been changed by money?
  • Do you find it hard or easy to say “no” to a salesperson?
  • What is your view on selling personal items?
  • Do you feel comfortable selling anything?
  • Does legalized gambling encourage people who can least afford to squander their money?
  • Have you ever been audited by the IRS?
  • In what circumstances do you feel most susceptible to temptation?
  • How do you minimize temptation in your life?
  • What kind of person would you like to be?
  • Where does honesty work well in your life?
  • If you had to kill your own food, would you become a vegetarian?
  • Are you sensitive to the pairing of wine and food?
  • If you opened a restaurant, what would the house specialty be?
  • No electricity: how would you manage and what would be different?
  • How do you deal with things you cannot change?
  • How did you feel each time you changed homes?
  • Architecturally, what kind of house do you prefer to live in?
  • Tell about the time when you were the coldest, the hottest.
  • What do you like most about your home?
  • Describe your decorating style.
  • Which would you choose: to be the most attractive, the most athletic, or the smartest kid in your class?
  • When you are happy, you need _____.
  • In general, do you live for today or plan for tomorrow?
  • Do you agree “life begins at forty?” What would you like to be doing in twenty years?
  • What is your most treasured memory?
  • What is a word for which you have always needed a synonym?
  • How much responsibility do you have in your life, positive and negative?
  • What do you think the next ten years of your life will be like?
  • What self-limiting thoughts or fears would you like to overcome?
  • How and when do you think that the world will come to an end?
  • What do you think the world will be like 100 years from now?

Read more: 8 Fun Online Zoom Games to Play with your Coworkers

Get To Know You Questions For Team Building ‍

  • ‍ What’s one misunderstanding that’s happened on your team recently? 
  • When looking backwhen you were young, what was your silliest fear?
  • What conditions need to change in order for everyone to feel comfortable and speaking candidly?
  • What’s the underlying tone of this team?
  • How are the team’s dynamics affecting its output?
  • Is there trust among the team members?
  • What has been the most worthwhile interaction this team has had? What did we learn as a result?
  • What does the ideal team dynamic look like? How will we know when we get there?
  • What did I learn from the team? What did the team learn from me?
  • In what moments did I show up my best self? In what moments did I show up less than what I was capable of showing up as? 
  • What conditions allow us to be most productive? How might we replicate those conditions daily?
  • Do you like a peaceful or hectic life?
  • If an activity does not result in progress toward a goal, is it a waste of time?
  • What makes you blush?
  • What compliments do you receive on a regular basis?
  • If you did not have commitments to others, how would you live your life differently?
  • What have you not had enough of in your life?
  • Is your life moving ahead, backward, or is it on hold?
  • What is the greatest goal you want to achieve within the next five years?
  • What is something you believed for a long time that you do not believe anymore?
  • Do you think helmets should be mandatory for motorcycles and bicycles - for kids and/or adults?
  • What are three things that you are optimistic about?
  • What are three things that you are pessimistic about?
  • What are some of the phone calls that changed your life?
  • What would you do if you earned $100,000 a day? How would your life change?
  • Would you rather live in Los Angeles or New York City?
  • Would you feel comfortable moving to a city where you do not know the language well?
  • What can you guarantee about yourself?
  • How do you think the world will look in 25, 50, 75, 100 years?
  • What is your greatest talent?
  • How can you further develop your talents?
  • What is something you truly appreciate or enjoy doing that most others probably do not care for?
  • Which do you like best about yourself: appearance, personality, or intellect?
  • What was the greatest peer pressure you felt as an adult?
  • Are you jealous of other people’s success?
  • What legacy would you like to leave?
  • What is something you feel too young to do?
  • What parts of your life do you feel you control and how much of your life is beyond your control?
  • Do you like or dislike change?
  • How close to contentment are you in your life right now?
  • What was the most anti-establishment thing you ever did?
  • What needs to change for you to have greater contentment?
  • What is the most beautiful man-made object?
  • Define “hope.”
  • What continually robs you from appreciating or enjoying the moment?
  • What are five things you are grateful for?
  • What worries you the most?
  • Is there something you feel too old to do?
  • If you had massive energy, how would you put that energy to work?
  • What would you do if you met your exact double?
  • Do you try innovations or stick to tested methods?
  • What is something you have dreamed of doing for a long time?
  • What are the most positive changes you have seen in your lifetime?
  • What are the most negative changes you have seen in your lifetime?
  • What would you do if you had $500 to spend on anything?
  • How do you feel when someone teases you?
  • What public figure has inspired you?
  • What could you do, change, or eliminate to help simplify your life?
  • What is the most precious thing you have lost?

Also Read: 250 Random Questions to Get Better Acquainted With Your Coworkers

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?
  • How can we keep from doing that today?

Read more: 10+ leadership Games to Play as a Team Building Activity at Work

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?

Also Read: 100 Team Trivia Questions for Fun & Team Bonding

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?
  • How’d we do as a team?

Read more: 5 Fun and Innovative Teamwork Games Your Employees Will Love

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.

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FAQ: Icebreaker Questions

What are good team building questions.

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

  • Communication
  • Constructive Feedback
  • Conflict Management 

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70 Team Building Questions Your Team will Love

Team building is an important part of any organization, but it can take some time to figure out where to start. Whether you're looking for new ideas or want to ensure your current activities are effective, these 70 team building questions will help get you started. 

From fun icebreakers to more challenging exercises, there's something here for everyone!

What Are Team Building Questions?

Team building questions are designed to help groups of people work together more effectively. By promoting communication and collaboration , team building questions can help teams overcome challenges and achieve their goals . 

There are many different types of team building questions, but some common examples include icebreaker questions , icebreaker games , problem-solving questions, and questions that focus on team values and objectives. 

Icebreaker questions can help team members get to know each other better and break the ice before tackling more challenging tasks. Problem-solving questions can help teams identify areas they need to improve and brainstorm solutions to challenges. 

Questions that focus on team values and objectives can help teams clarify their goals and ensure everyone is working towards the same goal. Ultimately, team building questions can help teams function more effectively by promoting communication and collaboration.

What Are the Benefits of Using Team Building Questions?

There are many benefits to using team building questions in the workplace.

  • They help to promote communication and collaboration between team members. 
  • By encouraging employees to share their thoughts and ideas, team building questions help foster a spirit of cooperation. 
  • Team building questions help to build trust between team members. By creating an environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their opinions , team building questions can help create a foundation of trust that can be invaluable in the workplace. 
  • Finally, team building questions help promote creativity and problem-solving. By encouraging employees to think outside the box, team building questions can help businesses to develop innovative solutions to challenges. 

How To Use Team Building Questions

Team building questions can be a great way to encourage teamwork and collaboration. When used properly, they can help team members to get to know each other better, identify areas of agreement and disagreement, and work together to find solutions to problems. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when using team building questions: 

First, it is important to make sure that everyone has a chance to answer the question. Second, it is often helpful to have a facilitator who can help keep the conversation flowing and ensure everyone stays on topic. 

Finally, it is important to allow enough time for each person to answer the question fully. When used correctly, team building questions can be a valuable tool for promoting teamwork and collaboration.

How to Generate Team Building Questions

When it comes to team building, one of the most important things you can do is to choose questions that will help everyone get to know each other better. Encourage people to open up and share what they think and feel by asking the right questions. This can help to build trust and understanding within the team, which is essential for working effectively together. There are a few things to remember when creating team building questions: 

  • First, ensure the questions are relevant to the team and the work you do together. 
  • Second, avoid yes or no questions, as these tend to lead to brief, superficial answers. Instead, ask open-ended questions that encourage people to share more about themselves.
  • Third, be sure to listen carefully to the answers people give. 

You can build stronger relationships and a more cohesive team by taking the time to hear what others have to say.

How to Use Team Building Questions

Team building questions can be a great way to get to know your team members and boost team morale. However, it is important to use these questions properly to get the most benefit from them. Here are a few tips on how to use team building questions effectively:

  • Use open-ended questions: Open-ended questions allow team members to share their thoughts and feelings in their own words. This lets them feel heard and understood, which can deepen relationships and build trust.
  • Avoid yes/no questions: Yes/no questions can be limiting and often lead to short, unproductive answers. Instead, try to ask team building questions that encourage team members to elaborate on their thoughts and experiences.
  • Be respectful: It is important to respect each team member's time and privacy when asking team building questions. Avoid asking personal or sensitive questions that make team members feel uncomfortable.
  • Listen carefully: An essential part of asking team building questions is listening carefully to the answers. This helps you gain insight into each team member's perspective and allows you to better connect with them.

By following these tips, you can ensure that your team building questions are used in a productive and beneficial way for all involved.

10 Team Building Ice Breaker Questions

These icebreaker questions are perfect for team-building exercises because they help people get to know each other better and bond over common interests. You can quickly learn about someone's background, likes and dislikes, and personality by asking these questions.

  • What is your favorite childhood memory? 
  • What is your favorite book? 
  • What is your favorite movie? 
  • What is your favorite food? 
  • What is your favorite hobby? 
  • What is your favorite animal? 
  • What is another language you would like to learn? 
  • What is your favorite vacation destination? 
  • If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
  • If you could describe yourself with one word, what would it be? 

These questions can help with building relationships and developing a stronger sense of team unity. 

10 Fun Team Building Questions

Fun team building questions are a great way to get the team working together and thinking creatively. You can ask questions like:

  • What are some things you like to do for fun? 
  • What are your favorite sports? 
  • What kind of music do you like? 
  • What is your favorite video game? 
  •  What is your favorite movie? 
  • What is your favorite TV show? 
  • What is the best thing about the team's dynamic?
  • What is your favorite thing about working with the team?
  • What is your favorite office story?

10 Team Building Questions for Work

Team building questions are a great way to get to know your coworkers and boost team morale. 

  • What are your team's strengths and weaknesses?
  • What are the goals of the team?
  • How does each member contribute to the team's success?
  • How can the team work together more effectively?
  • What obstacles are preventing the team from achieving its goals?
  • What can be done to overcome these obstacles?
  • What do team members need from each other to be successful?
  • How can team members provide support for one another?
  • What role does each team member play in the team's success?
  • How can the team work together to achieve its goals?

10 Team Building Trivia Questions

Questions about team building can help identify how well members understand and work together. These ten trivia questions test participants' knowledge about team building basics, principles, and common practices.

  • What is the name of the process by which people come to develop a shared identity and a sense of purpose in a group? 
  • According to Katzenbach and Smith, what are the three main elements of effective teamwork? 
  • What are some common reasons why teams fail to achieve their potential? 
  • What is the difference between a task orientation and a people orientation? 
  • What is the difference between a functional team and a project team? 
  • What is the difference between an emergent strategy and a deliberate strategy? 
  • What is the difference between a virtual team and a face-to-face team? 
  • How can teams effectively manage conflict? 
  • What are some ways to build trust within a team? 
  • What are some common mistakes that teams make during the forming stage?

10 Funny Team Building Questions

There's no doubt that team building exercises are important, but sometimes they can get a little too serious. If you're looking for a way to lighten the mood, try these ten funny team building questions.

  • What would you do if you got trapped in an elevator with a cow?
  • What would you do if you found a million dollars on the ground?
  • If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?
  • If you could be any animal, what would you be?
  • If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
  • What would you do if you were trapped in a room with a kangaroo?
  • What's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten?
  • If you could trade places with any TV show character, who would it be?
  • What would it be if you could only speak one word for the rest of your life?

10 “Would You Rather” Questions for Team Building

“Would you rather” questions are a great way to get to know someone better? They can also be used for team building. Here are ten “would you rather” questions for team building.

  • Would you rather have a team that is always on time or a team that is always prepared?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always friendly or a team that is always respectful?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always positive or a team that is always enthusiastic?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always organized or a team that is always productive?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always willing to help or a team that is always willing to learn?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always upbeat or a team that is always calm?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always focused or a team that is always flexible?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always detail-oriented or a team that is always big-picture-oriented?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always innovative or a team that is always reliable?
  • Would you rather have a team that is always fun or a team that is always professional?

10 Team Building Get-to-Know-You Questions

These questions can help team building by allowing everyone to get to know each other personally and learn about each other's interests. Asking questions about favorite things can also be a fun and easy way to start a conversation and get to know someone new.

  • What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend? 
  • What is your favorite color? 
  • What is your favorite type of food? 
  • What is your favorite music genre? 
  • What is your favorite subject in school? 
  • What’s one word that describes you?
  • What are some of your hobbies outside of school or work? 

The next time you’re planning an event, a team building activity, or just looking for fun questions to get to know your colleagues better, check out our list of 70 team building questions. To create a successful team, it’s important to have the right tools. That’s where GoRetro comes in. 

We can provide tips and information on how to build a great team based on our years of experience working with teams across different industries. Contact us today for more information on how we can help you build a winning team.

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Outback Team Building & Training

516 Team Building Icebreaker Questions for Work

516 Team Building Icebreaker Questions for Work 1

Can you really boost employee engagement with a few simple and fun team building icebreaker questions? Absolutely. And in this article, you’ll find a comprehensive list of questions you can use to do it.  

24 icebreaker questions for work, 69 personal icebreaker questions, 25 music, movie, and book-related icebreaker questions for work, 15 travel-themed office icebreaker questions , 51 weird and outrageous office icebreaker questions , 12 food-related office icebreaker questions, 30 unique icebreaker questions for work, 12 history-themed icebreaker questions , 43 pop culture-themed icebreaker questions, 63 would you rather icebreaker questions, 20 hobby-themed icebreaker questions , 33 debatable icebreaker questions, 16 holiday-themed icebreaker questions , 18 meeting icebreaker questions, 85 icebreaker jokes for work.

Updated on March 22, 2024

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about “team building icebreakers?” If it conjures up images of a tacky pick-up line at a speed dating session or some cringeworthy “get-to-know-your-colleagues” game, that’s completely understandable.  

But hear us out because  the right  team building questions and icebreakers can be a fun, engaging, and sometimes hilarious way to get acquainted with your coworkers. 

So, whether you’re looking to onboard new employees,  keep remote team members connected with one another, lighten up the mood before a team meeting, or just help your staff have a laugh during their social  Slack  banter, make this list of icebreaker questions for work your go-to resource. 

What are icebreaker questions?

Icebreaker questions are prompts you include at the beginning of a meeting or other activity to help facilitate introductions.

They’re a great way to lighten the mood, get people engaged, and ensure people feel comfortable and ready to participate.

Your icebreaker questions for work can run the full spectrum, from fun to silly, serious, quirky, or otherwise.

Icebreaker questions do wonders when it comes to revealing personal information about participants, which may be as simple as a favorite food or movie. You can use these icebreakers for work meetings to get to know your coworkers better, at college to connect with your fellow students, or in any group setting.

516 great team building questions and icebreakers 

The great thing about team building icebreakers is that you can learn so much about your colleagues in a way that feels natural, light-hearted, and low-pressure. From their virtual working habits to their favorite foods, personal things about them, or even some hilarious, outside-the-box facts, use these icebreaker questions for work to get better acquainted.  

Whether you’re looking to host a virtual team building activity or looking to spark up some conversation with your colleagues, we’ve got you covered with the most comprehensive list of icebreaker questions for work out there.

Virtual ice breaker questions section image

If you’re looking for some fun icebreaker questions for work, we’ve got a ton of great suggestions that can help you learn more about your colleagues from a professional perspective.

Consider questions like this for your virtual icebreaker activities for team building :  

  • Do you love working from home or in the office? Is there a balance of both that you like best? 
  • Where do you work most frequently from at home? Your office? Your kitchen table? The backyard? Your bed? 
  • Can you give a tour of your office space?  
  • Be honest, how often do you work from bed? 
  • What does your morning routine look like when working from home? 
  • How many cups of coffee, tea, or beverage-of-choice do you have each morning? 
  • Do you have any pets as in-house colleagues? 
  • Do you have houseplants in your office?  
  • What’s your go-to remote work outfit? 
  • What’s your proudest professional achievement?
  • What is one work skill that you think everyone should have?
  • What are you most looking forward to doing when you retire?
  • What’s your favorite way to spend a day off?
  • At a company field day, what’s the event that you think you’re most likely to win?
  • If your job could be anything you wanted, what would it be and why?
  • What’s one thing you can’t say at work that you wish you could?
  • How do you get motivated for difficult tasks?
  • What’s something on your desk, a nearby wall, or out the window that cheers you up during the day?
  • How would you spend your days if you had unlimited time and resources?
  • What’s one work-related skill you’re currently trying to improve?
  • If you could shadow anyone in the company for a day, who would it be?
  • Describe your dream workspace.
  • What’s one professional goal you have for this year?
  • If you could eliminate one common workplace practice, what would it be?

Personal team building questions section image

Another great way to know your colleagues a little better is by asking them office icebreaker questions about themselves, their hobbies and interests, and their families. 

This can include:  

  • What’s one thing you are unbeatable at?
  • What animal represents you? 
  • What smell, image, or sound triggers nostalgia for you?
  • What was the first thing you thought about when you woke up today?
  • What’s one thing your parents or guardians constantly nagged you about?
  • Tell us about a stranger you still remember. What made them memorable?
  • What was your dream profession growing up? 
  • What ice cream flavor sums up your personality today?
  • What is something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet? 
  • Do you have any family traditions that you look forward to each year? 
  • Would you like to be famous? In what way? 
  • What’s your dream car? 
  • Who in your life has inspired you most? 
  • If you weren’t in this career, what could you see yourself doing? 
  • What is one thing on the very top of your bucket list? 
  • If you’re not from this city, why did you end up here? 
  • What is your guilty pleasure? 
  • If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be? 
  • What’s the craziest thing you have ever done? 
  • If you had a million dollars, what would be the first thing you bought? 
  • What’s your favorite thing about your job? 
  • What’s something you are really proud of accomplishing? 
  • What’s something interesting about your family history? 
  • When you’re not at work, what are your passions? 
  • Do you have siblings? How many? Where do you fit in the mix? 
  • What’s your biggest fear? 
  • What’s your secret talent? 
  • Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met? 
  • What’s your favorite hobby? 
  • What clubs were you a member of in high school? 
  • Do you speak any languages besides English? Is there a reason you learned it? 
  • What’s your favorite childhood memory? 
  • What is your biggest pet peeve? 
  • Name three things you and your partner have in common. 
  • What’s your most treasured memory? 
  • For what in your life do you feel most grateful? 
  • If you could pick up a new skill in an instant what would it be? 
  • What would you like to be known or remembered for? 
  • What would your dream house be like? 
  • What sport would you compete in if you were in the Olympics? 
  • Do you collect anything? 
  • If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be? 
  • Who’s someone you really admire? 
  • What’s your favorite quote? 
  • What’s your favorite board game? 
  • What’s something you love that people wouldn’t expect? 
  • What fictional family would you be a member of? 
  • What was the worst job you ever had? 
  • If you could change places with anyone in the world, who would it be and why? 
  • If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be and why? 
  • If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would you teach? 
  • If you could magically become fluent in any language, what would it be? 
  • Are you a morning person or a night person? 
  • Sweet or savory? 
  • Did you ever have an imaginary friend? If so, what was its name? 
  • What was your least favorite food as a child? Do you still hate it or do you love it now? 
  • If you were forced to sing karaoke, what song would you choose and why? 
  • What was your least favorite childhood chore and why? 
  • What’s your caffeinated beverage of choice? Coffee? Cola? Tea? 
  • What’s your favorite scent? 
  • What was the last thing you gave 100% to? 
  • If you could say one thing to the entire world right now, what would you say? 
  • Do you care about your astrological sign? 
  • What’s the last thing you got in “trouble” for?  
  • What’s a recent book or movie that made a big impression on you?
  • Share one habit you’re proud of.
  • Describe your perfect weekend.
  • What’s one hobby you’d love to get into?
  • If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?

Hobby-related questions for ice breakers section image with Netflix on TV

If there are two things universally loved by almost everyone, it’s movies and music. Use these fun office icebreaker questions to find out what your colleagues are into.  

  • Do you have a favorite song to listen to when you need your spirits lifted? 
  • What is the most feel-good film you’ve ever seen? 
  • What type of music do you prefer? 
  • What’s an album you recommend that has no bad songs?
  • What’s your favorite TV show and why? 
  • Have you ever been in a movie, TV show, or play? What was your role? 
  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why? 
  • If you could be in any movie, what would it be and what character would you play? 
  • Which actor would you want to play you in the movie about your life? 
  • What book did you read that changed your life the most? 
  • If you could see one movie again for the first time, what would it be and why? 
  • You have your own late-night talk show. Who do you invite as your first guest? 
  • What would the title of your autobiography be? 
  • What was your favorite band ten years ago? 
  • If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? 
  • If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be? 
  • What’s the greatest TV show ever made? 
  • What’s the worst TV show ever made? 
  • Do you watch any TV shows that you pretend you don’t watch when people ask? 
  • What was your favorite movie as a kid and why? 
  • Which book character do you relate to most?
  • Share a song that you think everyone should listen to.
  • What’s a movie that you think is underrated?
  • If you could write a book, what genre would it be?
  • Share your favorite movie quote.

Travel-themed ice breaker questions section image with map and passport

Most people have a list of places they’d like to visit and that’s what makes these office icebreaker questions so fun and engaging.  

Get to know how worldly your colleagues are with questions like:  

  • If I handed you a plane ticket right now to anywhere in the world, where would you go? 
  • What was your favorite trip you went on? 
  • Road trip or plane trip? 
  • What is your favorite thing to do locally? 
  • If you could either live where it only snows or the temperature never falls below 100 degrees, which would it be? 
  • If you could live in any country, where would you live? 
  • Snow, sand, or other? 
  • You’re going to sail around the world. What’s the name of your boat? 
  • If you could have the power of teleportation right now, where would you go and why? 
  • When was the last time you went somewhere for the first time? 
  • What’s the most adventurous thing you’ve done on a trip?
  • If you could live in a book or movie world for a week, where would you go?
  • Describe your last travel destination in three words.
  • What’s one city you visited just for its food?
  • What’s the longest trip you’ve ever been on?

Weird team building questions section image with lady covering her eyes

Ready to get (or give) a hilarious response to some outside-the-box icebreaker questions for work?  

Check these out: 

  • If you could turn your belly button into a real button that you could push once a day and it would do whatever you wanted, what would you make it do?
  • If you could go back in time 10,000 years ago and make a cave painting to confuse everyone in the future, what would you draw?
  • What was the worst injury you ever had? 
  • What’s the weirdest thing in your fridge right now?
  • If you were setting off to Mars and could take only one luxury item with you, what would it be?
  • If you could become a supernatural creature at night, what would it be, and why?
  • Which fictional character would you want by your side during a zombie apocalypse?
  • If you were a cocktail, which one would you be?
  • If your home was packed full of golf balls, how would you remove them?
  • Would you rather talk like Yoda or breathe like Darth Vader?
  • Would you rather speak all languages or be able to talk with animals?
  • What would you do if you came home and found a penguin in your freezer?
  • What takeaway food represents you today and why?
  • If you could invent a holiday, what would it be, and what would you call it?
  • If your car had vanity plates, what would they say?
  • What is the best bird?
  • Do you have a favorite dinosaur?
  • You’ve been chosen to represent your country in a global competition. What sport or activity are you doing?
  • Tell me an embarrassing story about yourself. 
  • When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself? 
  • If you could add a word to the dictionary what would you add and what would it mean? 
  • The zombie apocalypse is coming. Who are three people you want on your team? 
  • If you could choose your age forever, what age would you choose and why? 
  • Teleportation or flying? 
  • If you could be any supernatural creature, what would you be and why? 
  • If you were a vegetable, what vegetable would you be and why? 
  • If you had to lose all your memories, which one would want to lose last? 
  • What are your biggest phobias? 
  • If you were left on a deserted island with either your worst enemy or no one, which would you choose? Why? 
  • What would be the most surprising scientific discovery imaginable?  
  • If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore who would it be and why? 
  • If someone offered you a million dollars to give up your smartphone forever, would you do it? 
  • What’s your cellphone or computer wallpaper?  
  • If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be any why? 
  • If you were forced to participate in a flash dance, what song would you perform to and why? 
  • What’s your favorite plant? 
  • If you had to be transformed into one household item, what would it be and why? 
  • If you could bring back any fashion trend what would it be? 
  • If you could get rid of any current trend, what would it be and why? 
  • What’s one frequently used word that you can’t stand? 
  • What was the first thing you thought about when you woke up this morning?  
  • If you were a fridge, what item would you hate to hold? What item would you love to hold? 
  • If you had to eat a crayon, what color would you choose? Why? 
  • Would you show everyone in this meeting your browser history? 
  • What’s the most embarrassing thing you ever accidentally messaged to somebody? 
  • Have you ever pretended you didn’t see somebody to avoid talking to them? 
  • If you could have a mythical creature as a pet, what would it be?
  • What’s the most unusual hobby you’ve heard of?
  • If you had to wear a costume every day for a month, what would you choose?
  • If you could have any superpower, but only for mundane tasks, what would it be?
  • Describe the most bizarre dream you’ve ever had.

Food-related ice breaker question ideas section image with guy eating spaghetti   and meat balls

The kinds of food a person loves can tell you a lot about their personality! Picking their brain about their favorite dishes with these office icebreaker questions is a great way to get some insight about them. 

Try testing their palette with questions like:  

  • What is your favorite type of cuisine? 
  • What weird food combinations do you really enjoy? 
  • If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life what would it be and why? 
  • What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten? 
  • How do you like your eggs? 
  • If you had to give up one food forever, what would it be? 
  • What’s something you simply could never eat? 
  • What’s a food you disliked as a child but enjoy now?
  • If you could only cook one dish perfectly every time, what would it be?
  • What’s your favorite dish to share with friends?
  • What’s the strangest food you’ve ever been offered?
  • If you could invent a new ice cream flavor, what would it be?

Unique icebreaker questions section image with guy sitting relaxed on his laptop

Looking for interesting responses? No problem. All you need to do is ask interesting office icebreaker questions!  

Try these ones.  

  • Suppose you were going to be frozen tomorrow for a one-way 1,000-year interstellar voyage. What would you most want to communicate (and to whom) before you leave?
  • What looks easy-peasy lemon squeezy but is actually difficult difficult lemon difficult?
  • If you could have an animal sidekick, what would it be? Why?
  • You’ve died, but instead of entering the afterlife, you’ve entered Earth 2.0. What are some things that make Earth 2.0 better?
  • What is something you think is totally overrated? 
  • What’s one piece of advice you wish you’d gotten sooner?
  • What’s your best scary story? 
  • If you had 25 hours each day, how would you use your extra time? 
  • If you were a wrestler what would be your entrance theme song? 
  • If you were a superhero what would your name be? 
  • If you were a superhero what would your superpower be and why? 
  • What’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given? 
  • What’s the best advice you’ve ever given? 
  • If you could be guaranteed one thing in life (besides money), what would it be? 
  • If you could be the funniest or smartest person in the room, which would you choose? 
  • If extraterrestrials landed on earth and offered to take you with them, would you go? 
  • If extraterrestrials landed on earth, who would you recommend as their first point of contact and why? 
  • If you could go to Mars, would you? Why or why not? 
  • If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you want to have with you? 
  • If you could be the world’s best athlete in any sport, which one would it be any why?
  • How would you describe your sense of humor? 
  • What’s your most-used emoji? 
  • What emoji best describes you? 
  • If you ran the world, what’s one thing you’d change?  
  • What would be your campaign slogan if you were running for office? 
  • If you could bring one fictional character to life, who would it be?
  • What’s a skill you’ve learned outside of work that helps you at work?
  • What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read or seen this week?
  • If you could start a company, what would it sell or offer?
  • Share something you’ve done that’s outside of your comfort zone.

History-themed team building questions section image with chest filled with old photos

Go back in time or jump forward to the future with your colleagues with these office icebreaker questions. 

  • If you could meet any historical figure, who would you choose and why? 
  • If you had a time machine, would go back in time or into the future? 
  • What was the first thing you bought with your own money? 
  • What was your first car? 
  • If you could live in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s, which would you choose and why? 
  • If you could travel back in time to meet your ancestors or to the future to meet your descendants, which would you pick? 
  • If you could go back in time and pay more attention in one class, what would it be?  
  • If you could witness any historical event firsthand, what would it be?
  • Which historical figure would you like to interview?
  • If you could add any event to history textbooks, what would it be?
  • What era of history do you find most fascinating?
  • If you could preserve one historical site forever, which would it be?

Pop-culture themed ice breaker questions section image with rock star performing on stage

Get to know more about your colleagues’ favorite pop culture mementos with these office icebreaker questions focused on pop culture.

  • Are you team Android or team Apple?
  • Who’s your favorite celebrity?
  • What book changed your worldview the most?
  • If you could only watch three movies for the rest of your life, what would they be?
  • What’s the most recent movie you’ve seen, both at home and in theaters? Would you recommend them?
  • What TV shows have you been watching lately?
  • What’s the most bingeable show you’ve ever watched?
  • What’s your guilty pleasure TV show?
  • What celebrity do you not like that everyone else loves?
  • If you could live in any TV show, what would it be?
  • What book do you bring along on airplanes?
  • What’s your go-to karaoke song?
  • What’s your favorite reality TV show?
  • Which celebrity was your childhood crush?
  • If you could be friends with any celebrity, who would it be?
  • If you had an entrance song play every time you entered a room, what would it be?
  • Which actor or actress do you think deserves an Oscar but doesn’t have one yet?
  • What album could you listen to over and over again and not get sick of?
  • What artists have you seen live? Which was the best?
  • Which musician, alive or dead, do you wish you could see perform?
  • Have you ever met anyone famous?
  • What’s your favorite podcast right now?
  • What’s your favorite animated movie?
  • Which celebrity has your favorite social media presence?
  • Who’s your favorite superhero?
  • What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen? Funniest? Saddest?
  • If you could have lunch with any public figure, dead or alive, who would it be?
  • What’s your guilty-pleasure song?
  • What’s your favorite social media platform?
  • What recent social media trend makes you cringe?
  • Do you like reality tv shows?
  • Do you listen to the news?
  • Spotify or Apple Music?
  • What was your favorite cartoon show growing up?
  • Who was the best batman?
  • Could Jack have fit on the door with Rose in the Titanic?
  • What’s your favorite Disney movie?
  • Which recent trend do you think will be considered iconic in the future?
  • What’s your favorite viral video?
  • Who’s a celebrity you admire for their work outside of entertainment?
  • If you could guest star in any TV show, which would it be?
  • What pop culture event were you most excited about in the past year?
  • Blue and black dress, or white and gold?

220px The Dress viral phenomenon

With these “would you rather” style icebreaker questions for work, you can give your colleagues the choice between two things to find out about their preferences (with often hilarious outcomes).

  • Would you rather have the ability to see 10 minutes into the future or 150 years into the future?
  • Would you rather be able to swim underwater limitlessly or fly?
  • Would you rather travel to a beach destination or ski resort?
  • Would you rather go deep-sea diving or bungee jumping?
  • Would you rather for your birthday, receive cash or gifts?
  • Would you rather travel to space or travel to the past?
  • Would you rather smell with your hands or talk with your feet?
  • Would you rather go to a house party or a bar?
  • Would you rather be too hot or too cold?
  • Would you rather travel by train or travel by plane?
  • Would you rather trapped in an elevator or stuck on a suspension bridge?
  • Would you rather be a kid your entire life or be an adult?
  • Would you rather get a hand-written card or a phone call?
  • Would you rather hear holiday-themed music forever, or never heard it again?
  • Would you rather know the answer to every trivia question or the lyric to every song?
  • Would you rather go for a run or go for a hike?
  • Would you rather watch a TV show or watch YouTube?
  • Would you rather be on a survival reality show or dating show?
  • Would you rather be a detective or a scientist?
  • Would you rather go to the movie theaters or watch a movie from home?
  • Would you rather live in a remote destination or the heart of a metropolitan city?
  • Would you rather have telekinesis (the ability to move things with your mind) or telepathy (the ability to read minds)?
  • Would you rather be forced to sing along or dance to every single song you hear?
  • Would you rather be in jail for five years or be in a coma for a decade?
  • Would you rather be chronically under-dressed or overdressed?
  • Would you rather have everyone you know be able to read your thoughts or for everyone you know to have access to your Internet history?
  • Would you rather swim in a pool full of Nutella or a pool full of maple syrup?
  • Would you rather buy 10 things you don’t need every time you go shopping or always forget the one thing that you need when you go to the store?
  • Would you rather never be able to go out during the day or never be able to go out at night?
  • Would you rather always have B.O. and not know it or always smell B.O. on everyone else?
  • Would you rather spend a week in the forest or a night in a real haunted house?
  • Would you rather have a pause or a rewind button in your life?
  • Would you rather always have a full phone battery or a full gas tank?
  • Would you rather get a paper cut every time you turn a page or bite your tongue every time you eat?
  • Would you rather be able to take back anything you say or hear any conversation that is about you?
  • Would you rather have to wear every shirt inside out or every pair of pants backward?
  • Would you rather travel the world for free for a year or have $50,000 to spend however you please?
  • Would you rather be in a zombie apocalypse or a robot apocalypse?
  • Would you rather give up your cellphone for a month or bathing for a month?
  • Would you rather lose the ability to read or lose the ability to speak?
  • Would you rather be always stuck in traffic but find a perfect parking spot or never hit traffic but always take forever to park?
  • Would you rather have to wear sweatpants everywhere for the rest of your life or never wear sweatpants again?
  • Would you rather detect every lie you hear or get away with every lie you tell?
  • Would you rather listen to your least favorite song on a loop for a year or never listen to any music at all for a year?
  • Would you rather win the lottery but have to spend it all in one day or triple your current salary forever?
  • Would you rather be able to run at 100 miles per hour or fly at 10 miles per hour?
  • Would you rather live without heat and AC or live without social media? 
  • Would you rather always be 10 minutes late or always 20 minutes early?
  • Would you rather have unlimited sushi for life or unlimited tacos for life?
  • Would you rather live without heat and AC or live without social media?
  • Would you rather give up breakfast, lunch, or dinner forever?
  • Would you rather be able to talk to land animals, animals that fly, or animals that live under the water?
  • Would you rather have a personal chef or a personal driver?
  • Would you rather see what was behind every closed door or be able to guess the combination of every safe on the first try?
  • Would you rather spend a week in the wilderness or one night in a real haunted house?
  • Would you rather have a completely automated home or a self-driving car?
  • Would you rather be able to breathe underwater or have the agility of a cat?
  • Would you rather have the ability to speak all languages or play all instruments?
  • Would you rather never have to wait in line or always find a parking spot?
  • Would you rather travel to the future or the past?
  • Would you rather be an expert at one thing or decent at many things?
  • Would you rather work in complete silence or with background noise?

Looking for even more? Then check out our comprehensive list of 131 would-you-rather questions for team building .

hobby-themed team building questions section image with two people playing playstation

Learn a bit more about the things your colleagues like to do in their spare time with these hobby-themed icebreaker questions.

  • If you could instantly learn a new talent, what would it be?
  • Do you play video games?
  • What’s your favorite hobby right now? What’s a hobby you’ve always wanted to take up?
  • Can you play any instruments? If not, what do you wish you could play?
  • What is your favorite thing to do by yourself?
  • What is your favorite sport or physical activity?
  • What crazy activities do you dream of trying someday?
  • What is your idea of fun?
  • What two things do you consider yourself to be very good at?
  • What two things do you consider yourself to be very bad at?
  • If money and time were no object, what would you be doing right now?
  • What is something you hate doing? Why?
  • What is something you love doing? Why
  • Do you have any hidden talents? What can you do?
  • What was one new experience you tried that was completely unknown or uncomfortable to you at the time you tried it?
  • What’s a hobby you’ve always wanted to start but haven’t yet?
  • Do you have a “guilty pleasure” hobby that surprises people?
  • Share a hobby that helps you unwind after a long day.
  • Have you ever turned a hobby into a side hustle?
  • What’s a hobby you can lose hours in without realizing?

Debatable icebreaker questions section image with person having conversation while drinking coffee

Get a dose of healthy debate with these polarizing office icebreaker questions that will get people talking!

  • Is soap clean or dirty?
  • Is a hotdog a sandwich?
  • Why do people say “slept like a baby” when babies wake up all the time in the middle of the night
  • If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is it homeless or naked?
  • Is water wet?
  • Do you eat rice with a spoon or a fork?
  • Is a thumb a finger?
  • Is cereal a soup?
  • Should pineapple go on pizza?
  • Is GIF pronounced gift (with a silent “t”) or jif (like the peanut butter)?
  • Are noodles pasta?
  • Are tomatoes a fruit?
  • How many holes does a straw have?
  • Is cheesecake a cake or a pie?
  • Which letter is silent in the word “scent”, the “s” or the “c”?
  • Are bacon bits a seasoning?
  • Should you recline your seat on a flight?
  • If tomato is a fruit, is ketchup a jam?
  • How deep does a pan have to be before it is considered a pot?
  • Should toilet paper be hung over or under?
  • Is a fritter a donut?
  • What color are mirrors?
  • Why is it called quick sand if you sink slowly in it?
  • If you mix dirt and water, are you making water dirty or dirt wet?
  • If a tree falls in the woods and nothing is there to hear it, did it make a sound?
  • Does the person flying in the middle seat get both armrests?
  • Are dogs’ front limbs arms or legs?
  • Why do we say pair of paints, when it’s just one article of clothing?
  • Is it better to ask for permission or forgiveness?
  • Should pineapple ever be on pizza?
  • Is it more essential to develop new skills or perfect the ones you have?
  • Books or movies: Which do you think is better at storytelling?
  • Do you think remote work is the future?

Holiday-themed team building questions section image with gold ornament and abstract lighting

It doesn’t have to be the holiday season to try out these holiday-themed office icebreaker questions! Use them to get festive at any time of year.

  • Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
  • If you had to choose only one holiday to celebrate each year, which would it be any whyu?
  • What’s your favorite holiday?
  • What’s your favorite childhood holiday tradition?
  • What’s your favorite holiday movie?
  • Who’s the toughest person you have to buy for during the holidays?
  • What’s your favorite—or least favorite—holiday song?
  • If someone gifted you a gift card to any store, where would you want it to be for?
  • If you could travel anywhere for a holiday, where would it be and why?
  • What’s the best gift you’ve ever given anyone? What’s the worst?
  • What do you do when you get a holiday gift you hate?
  • What’s your favorite holiday tradition that you think is unique?
  • If you could invent a holiday, what would it celebrate?
  • Which holiday do you think is the most overrated?
  • How do you usually start the New Year?
  • What’s the best holiday gift you’ve ever received?

If you’re looking for a fun way to kickstart your next meeting with some fun and energy, there’s no better way to do it than with these meeting icebreaker questions.

  • You get to redecorate the conference room! What color do you paint these walls? What decorations do you put in here?
  • What is one interesting fact about your high school or college?
  • What is an interesting fact about you that nobody in this room knows?
  • What is a slogan that describes you or your values?
  • What’s your favorite tech toy, for work or play, that you can’t live without?
  • Who is the smartest person you know?
  • If you could go back and do your college years over, what would you do differently?
  • Who was your toughest teacher? What made them so tough?
  • What’s your most annoying quality or habit?
  • If you could spend a day with any businessperson in the world, who would it be and why?
  • Would you rather go back 20 years knowing everything you know now or go ten years into the future with a million dollars in the bank?
  • What’s your go-to workday breakfast?
  • Do you pack lunches or buy them?
  • If this meeting were a TV show, what would it be called?
  • What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this week?
  • Share one success (big or small) you’ve had recently.
  • If you could have any guest speaker at our next meeting, who would it be?
  • Describe your mood today as a weather forecast.

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If your team loves to share in a laugh, there’s no better way to get comfortable than with a couple of icebreaker jokes for work.

  • We both have something in common. You don’t know what I’m going to say, and neither do I.
  • My memory has gotten so bad it has actually caused me to lose my job. I’m still employed. I just can’t remember where.
  • Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • A bear walks into a bar and says, “Give me a gin and … tonic.”
  • “Why the big pause?” asks the bartender. The bear shrugged. “I’m not sure; I was born with them.”
  • I recently started speed reading. So far, I can read “War and Peace” in ten seconds. It’s only three words, but it’s a start.
  • I bought the world’s worst thesaurus yesterday. Not only is it terrible, it’s terrible.
  • What is worse than raining cats and dogs?
  • Hailing taxis!
  • You know what a clean desk is a sign of? A cluttered desk drawer.
  • My teachers told me I’d never amount to much because I procrastinate so much. I told them, “Just you wait!”
  • Two cows are in a field. The first one says, “Mooooo!” The second one replies, “that’s what I was going to say!”
  • When does a joke become a “dad” joke? When the punchline is a parent.
  • I can’t take my dog to the park because the ducks keep trying to bite him. I guess that’s what I get for buying a pure-bread dog.
  • Why was the math book sad? Because it has many problems.
  • How does a farmer count a herd of cows? With a cow-culator.
  • What did one hat say to the other? You stay here, I’ll go on a head!
  • What has six eyes but cannot see? Three blind mice.
  • What do you get if you cross an insect with the Easter rabbit? Bugs Bunny.
  • I’ve only been fired from a job once. It was a calendar factory. All I did was take a day off.
  • Why are penguins socially awkward? They find it difficult to break the ice.
  • How does a pig go to the hospital? In a hambulance.
  • Why did the gum cross the road? Because it was stuck to the chicken’s foot
  • Two goldfish are in a tank. One looks at the other and says, “You know how to drive this thing?!”
  • What has one horn and gives milk? A milk truck.
  • What washes up on very small beaches? Microwaves.
  • What did the man say when he slipped and fell on ice? Nothing he just gave everyone the cold shoulder!
  • When I meet women, I immediately start talking about global warming. It’s a real ice breaker.
  • What do cats like to eat for breakfast? Mice Krispies.
  • Want to hear an icebreaker? Fat penguin
  • What did one elevator say to the other? I think I am coming down with something!
  • What occurs when you are alone and you get too cold? You are totally ice-olated.
  • What is the best thing to do if you find a gorilla in your bed? Sleep somewhere else
  • What do superheroes put in their drinks? Just ice!
  • Did you hear about the traveling snowman? He did his sales calls by i-cicle
  • There were three tomatoes, a mom, a dad, and a son. The son lagged behind and fell splat on the floor. His dad yelled to him, “Ketchup, son”.
  • What kind of cat likes to go bowling? Alley cats.
  • What did the right eye say to the left eye? Just between you and me, something smells!
  • Why does the Easter Bunny have a shiny nose? His powder puff is on the wrong end
  • What does the ice say to the fire? Fire listen, you might be hotter, but I’m cooler.
  • How do you make a hot dog stand? Steal its chair
  • What do you call a cat on ice? One cool cat!
  • What’s the best thing about Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a huge plus.
  • Where do you learn to make ice cream? Sundae school.
  • Why were the teacher’s eyes crossed? She could not control her pupils.
  • Why did the scarecrow get a promotion? Because he was outstanding in his field.
  • What is green and loud? A frog horn.
  • What country makes you shiver? Chile.
  • What did the mother broom say to the baby broom? It is time to go to sweep.
  • A man has died after falling in a vat of coffee; it was instant.
  • Are you a 45-degree angle? Because you’re acute-y.
  • What did Delaware? Her New Jersey.
  • What bone will a dog never eat? A trombone.
  • Why does a chicken coop have two doors? Because if it had four, it would be a chicken sedan!
  • What has many keys but cannot open any doors? A piano.
  • What is a tree’s favorite drink? Root beer.
  • Why can’t the bike stand on its own? Because it’s two-tired
  • What do you get when you cross a stream and a brook? Wet feet.
  • What’s not a good icebreaker? Global warming.
  • What can you hold without ever touching it? A conversation.
  • What kind of eggs does a wicked chicken lay? Deviled eggs.
  • Why was Cinderella thrown off the basketball team? She ran away from the ball.
  • What happens when frogs park illegally? They get toad
  • Why do cows wear bells? Because their horns don’t work
  • Did you hear about the adventurous snowman? He had quite the ice-capade.
  • What do you call a song sung in an automobile? A cartoon.
  • Everyone is gifted, but some people never open their packages.
  • What did Tennessee? The same thing Arkansas.
  • Nobody is born cool, except of course… an ice cube
  • I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
  • What did the Buffalo say to his son when he left for college? Bi-son
  • What do you call kids that love to spend time on the ice? Chill-dren.
  • What did the necktie say to the hat? You go on ahead. I will hang around for a while
  • What did the big furry hat say to the warm woolly scarf? You hang around while I go ahead!
  • What clothes does a house wear? Address.
  • Why are mountains funny? Because they’re hill areas.
  • How can you get four suits for a dollar? Buy a deck of cards.
  • What do you get if you cross an elephant and a kangaroo? Big holes all over Australia!
  • What kind of bird can lift the most? A crane.
  • Why didn’t the lifeguard save the hippie? Because he was too far out. Ha!
  • Why did the spreadsheet go to therapy? Because it had too many cell issues.
  • What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backwards? A receding hare-line.
  • Why did the computer go to the doctor? Because it had a virus!
  • What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta.
  • Why don’t scientists trust atoms anymore? Because they make up everything!

Next time you’re looking for a way to help your colleagues connect, get to know each other, or even just share a light-hearted banter, reference this list. Whether you’re starting a meeting on a fun note or simply circulating this to your team for a laugh, your team is sure to get some enjoyment out of these team building icebreakers and questions. 

Do you have any favorite team building questions and ice breakers that we didn’t include in your list? Tell us what they are in the comments section below!

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This is such a genuinely helpful article. Since this pandemic, it has become quite a pain for for everyone to properly connect with peers. Naturally we are never used to this kind of setup. As a human we are used to all face to face conversation and stuff and then this happened. Here are some really good trick that actually helped me get the attention back of my team in just like a few second. With a sudden question like all these, it can drastically change the atmosphere.

Kazu Nakazawa

This is a great list of ice breaker questions! Will definitely ask some of these questions for our team building activity and maybe before the meetings. With these list,s it will definitely change the atmosphere of any virtual meetings.

Banj Par

This is a great list of ice breaker questions! nice music it will definitely change the atmosphere of any virtual meetings.

biolean price

Wow wonderful blog layout How long have you been blogging for you make blogging look easy The overall look of your site is great as well as the content.

Kavya Bansal

Great list! So many options to choose from, which makes it easy to find the perfect icebreaker for any team event or meeting. Thanks for sharing!

169 Teamwork Topics & Essay Examples

You’re better to check a teamwork essay example or two if you want to write a good paper on this subject. Good thing that here you will find great topics and samples collected by our experts.

✨ Top 12 Teamwork Topics to Explore

🏆 best teamwork topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good topics on teamwork, 📌 most interesting teamwork topics to write about, ❓ teamwork discussion questions.

  • Leadership.
  • Workplace Family.
  • Team Games.
  • Collaboration.
  • Team-Building Activities.
  • Personnel Selection.
  • Importance of Individuality.
  • Safety Training.
  • Group Management.
  • Teamwork Skills.
  • Teamwork as Dream Work.
  • An Analysis of the Experience of Teamwork I was also worried as I was not sure that I could be an effective member of the team for I had not had any experience in accreditation.
  • Teamwork and Leadership From diversity to team hierarchy, many factors influence the eventual output of the team, affecting the leader, team members’ performance, and client’s satisfaction.
  • Southwest Airlines: Organizational Behavior and Teamwork The company encourages self-actualization by motivating employees to be creative and innovative to be all they can, to improve effectiveness. Positive reinforcement is also used when employees contribute to increasing productivity and profit margins for […]
  • Group Project Management and Teamwork Reflection The success of our group depended on the effectiveness of contribution to the project by each member of the group. The only mistake that the group made was it did not elect an interim leadership […]
  • Teamwork and Individual Work in Various Situations The challenges in the contemporary environment and the various situations that individuals have to encounter push people to think about how it is better and more effective to handle them.
  • Team-Building Strategies of Apple The most judicious way to cultivate the Five Cs is by recruiting applicants that are team players and compatible with the company culture. Employees should be incentivized to participate through financial compensation and the offer […]
  • Teamwork: Aspects of Problems and Solutions In this report, we present our findings on a group project in Team building with real-world simulation of soft skills necessary to build a high performance winning team. Learning about team building values which aid […]
  • Watson Engine Company Organization Structure and Teamwork The organization structure of the company is old fashioned and hierarchical in nature that minimizes the influence of the employees in the running of the organization.
  • Significance of Teamwork in Schools However, teamwork in schools is initiated by the administration and embraced by teachers in their respective departments. Teamwork is important in ensuring the success of schools.
  • The Teamwork in Nursing Similarly, if the nurse manager or the physician blame the nurse for the error, it could affect trust within the team and create obstacles to teamwork in the future.
  • Personal Development Plans: Teamwork and Culture Shock In an effort to achieve the desired level of personal development, it is important for one to take into account the concept of culture. The resultant effect is that the students are able to fit […]
  • Team Building Issues The process of team building is not as easy as it may seem since there are factors to be considered if the goals of developing the team are to be achieved.
  • Teamwork Issues Effects in Japanese Organisations The reason is that employees and management are in good terms and able to agree informally on various procedures and practices without compromising the quality of the organisational practices and objectives.
  • Teamwork in organizations The practice of team work has been established in several workplaces and has proved to be not only effective in managing organisations but also a prudent measure of assessing the performance of employees and growth […]
  • Teamwork’s Achievements and Challenges This difference can be attributed to the competence of the team members. These researchers found that poor communication is one of the major causes of misunderstanding and conflicts in a team.
  • Team Building and Team Development The team has to attain the next stage of the development life cycle, which is the performing stage. At the initial stages of development, a team is expected to engage members to pursue goals or […]
  • Importance of Teamwork Skills One of the strategies I can utilize to improve my teamwork skills is to understand and contextualize my role within the group.
  • Teamwork Concept in Nursing and Its Consequences Working in teams is crucial for nurses, and the concept of teamwork becomes central to the nursing practice. Teamwork is a positive concept, the occurrence of which results in desirable outcomes for all members and […]
  • Team Building and Facilitation It further discusses group work in detail by focusing on concepts of team buildings, the life cycles of teams, types of teams, advantages of team focus in an organization, how to build effective teams and […]
  • Team Building Activity The team building activity included identifying the purpose of the team, the needs of the team, composition of team members, the time the team was likely to last, and the benefits to the designate individuals […]
  • Communication and Teamwork in Providing Quality Healthcare In the quest for addressing the challenges of communication and teamwork at Quality Hospital’s ICU, this paper provides a breakdown of the formation of a task force that will help the ICU to address the […]
  • Business Simulation Exercise’s Effect on Teamwork The aim of this paper is to describe the effects of the use of simulation exercises on teamwork. This section will undertake a detailed study of effective training in team building and contribution of simulation […]
  • Team-Building Lessons from Chinese Restaurant Anina Blecher demonstrates many qualities that the Protagonist is expected to have. Her employees are friendly; everybody knows and promotes the values of the restaurant.
  • Motivational Strategies for Teamwork When members of a team desire to advance their skills and the team leader cannot offer the opportunities, the team members are likely to be less motivated and therefore perform poorly.
  • The Discussion Feedback: Teamwork In the above reasoning, it is indicated that the team director is always nearby, but this is not the most effective way to save the team management. Perhaps his constant presence and dedication are not […]
  • Nursing Leadership and Team Building Strategies A Doctor of Nursing Practice leader has a number of responsibilities, and one of them is to motivate a team and increase engagement toward a vision and goals.
  • Teamwork in Business: Role and Impact on Work Environment In order to ensure and achieve a sufficient level of team cooperation, cohesiveness, and unity, the most critical qualities include trust, ownership, creativity, risk tolerance, effective conflict management, competence, open communication, and inclusiveness.
  • Teamwork and Critical Thinking The analyst role is essential to team thinking in nursing practice because it enables the nurses to realize all the aspects of the situation, providing a wider view.
  • Teamwork Experience and Recommendations Teamwork is a process in which each participant has equal rights and responsibilities, which are adjusted depending on the goals and objectives of the company.
  • Teamwork Safety and Efficiency in Medical Emergencies: Rogers’s Theory In the third phase, the individual will consider the innovation’s pros and cons and weight change. The researcher will implement the innovation in the fourth stage and adjust the novelty to the state.
  • Aspects of Teamwork in Healthcare It is essential in the United States to optimize the communication between all the employees of the organizational unit to provide medical aid according to the standards of care.
  • Team Building: Understanding the Project’s Goals Being a supervisor of any project is a challenging task, requiring a creative and intelligent team and a lot of time and effort.
  • Teamwork in Ireland’s Healthcare Organizations The team members understand that they have unique roles and positions in the group and do their best to support their teammates.
  • Team Building and Its Practical Benefits In business, it is imperative for all in the office or factory to work in sync with each other for a common goal to enhance productivity and profitability, which in turn leads to individual growth […]
  • Teamwork in the Nursing Healthcare Environment The impact of organizational change is dependent on three factors; the stage of organizational development, the degree of flexibility, and the history of response to change.
  • Biblical Foundation of Teamwork Teamwork and the team ministry started before the birth of Christ, and the bible encouraged people to work as a team.
  • The Importance of Teamwork With Limited Resources The aviation industry on the other hand has been shown as one that has been facing teamwork problems since the beginning of the 21st century due to downsizing of the workers, resulting in a breach […]
  • Emotional Intelligence’s Support for Teamwork and Teambuilding in Nursing In instances where a nurse lacks the luxury to pick a team with which to work, understanding others allows the individual to conduct amicable relations for the sake of proper execution of tasks, the health […]
  • Teamwork Essay 100 Words The foundation of trust is likely to be beneficial because of the manner in which different interests are going to come together and be harmonized.
  • Team Building and Teamwork Principles to the Areas of Health Care The literature shows that self-reflection and peer ratings are fantastic ways for small groups to gauge their level of functioning, cooperation and how to overcome interpersonal conflicts that may affect the outcome of group goals.
  • Teamwork Dynamics, Motivation, Conflict Resolution, and Leadership In this scenario, such an approach is crucial, since the team is experiencing difficulties of the unclear origin and they can be identified and analyzed by engaging in the workflow.
  • Communication and Teamwork in the Healthcare Facilities After picking the sample and identifying the patient by the bar code, I perform the test and report the results to the doctor.
  • Teamwork Is Essential, but Impossible The challenge is the creation of real working teams, in a business situation where individuality is rewarded and team work ignored.
  • Impact of Race, Age or Gender on Teamwork This is based on the difficulty of ascertaining in what way productivity is affected by a change in the age composition of the workforce.
  • The Importance of Team Building in Companies In order to analyze the nature of the problem, it is necessary to inquire on whether the manager did everything possible to make the work knowledge and councils available.
  • The Win-Win Approach: The Advantages and the Challenges of Teamwork The piece of the teamwork which we have fulfilled in a group of three has precisely demonstrated the advantages and challenges of any team activity described in numerous sources devoted to the team work.
  • Teamwork Impact Within the TMC In this case, executives allow the employees to make decisions on what is to be manufactured; the intended quality and marketing procedures of the manufactured product; based on their talents and skills.
  • Calling a Team: Successful Teamwork In particular, the authors emphasize that frequent meetings are necessary to set realistic goals and discuss the objectives of the teamwork.
  • Lions Share Inc.’s Virtual Teamwork The team’s vision is to create a company that will provide new and unique products to the world, influence technology, and ensures that products’ quality is incomparable to that of other products, which will not […]
  • Conflict Management: Teambuilding and Dynamics Each team has to perform the assigned task and in addition it must coordinate with other teams to ensure smooth progress in operations.
  • Role of Communication and Teamwork in Improving Patient Safety In fact, research suggests the existence of communication difficulties between several departments and levels of hospital and healthcare settings including doctors, doctors and nurses, between nurses and between nurses and doctors, which have often resulted […]
  • Organizational Behaviour: Teamwork in a Canadian Pub The main issues in the case are as follows: In the case, during the Brainiac game, a regular player Hannah suggested the other regulars to play cooperatively to improve the answering.
  • Teamwork, Team Dynamics and Communication However, the success or otherwise of group dynamics is determined by many factors such as the large context of a country and its geographic features, the organization in which the group operates, the nature of […]
  • Team Building and Role Assignment in Nursing When nurses engage their colleagues who have the requisite skills in community service and team building, they increase the scale of knowledge held by the new professionals in the team.
  • Empowering People and Fostering Teamwork The strategy that I prefer to use to empower people in my team is different from the previous one when it comes to all-or-none situations that require taking well-considered decisions.
  • The Secrets of Great Teamwork When all individuals in the team know the direction of the team and how they support the objective and target of the team, productivity improves.
  • Mighty Tech Company’s Leadership and Teamwork For instance, Ben and Beatrice disagreed on the approach to follow in order to complete the job in time. Facilitation of the audit process also is constituted in the throughput since it is the organization […]
  • Organizational Behavior: Teamwork and Leadership The attributes of a strong and successful group encompass effective communication, facilitated morale, excellent leadership, and the ability of the members to perceive themselves as valuable players.
  • Leadership and Teamwork Experience Evaluation In order to record positive records, most of the members in the team focused on the targeted outcomes. Every member of the team was ready to engage in meaningful communication.
  • Teamwork and Teambuilding The cons of this team are that work progress is hard to track and only depends on the honesty of team members, it is difficult to create a team culture since members are not close […]
  • Group Conversations About Teamwork You have not provided the things that should be avoided when using your approaches to solve the conflict in the scenario.
  • FireArts Company Teamwork Management Issues The key individuals in this case study are Erick Holt, FireArts new director of strategy, charged with the responsibility of putting together a team of top individuals within the organization, and Randy Louderback, the sales, […]
  • Dysfunctional vs. Highly-Effective Teamwork The current essay aims to examine the experiences of the writer with a dysfunctional team and the factors that might have contributed to this.
  • Team Building in the United Arab Emirates In this instance, volunteering not only contributes to the improvement of the team dynamics within the organization but also to the integration with the community and development of the positive brand image by taking responsibilities […]
  • Team Building Exercises in Project Management Through the use of metaphors below, I will demonstrate to the group members the importance of working in a group. The birds asked how they were going to help and the lizard suggested they bite […]
  • Teamwork and Self-Awareness In order for a group of people to effectively collaborate and ensure long-term teamwork on a project, there must be a sense of self-awareness in each member.
  • Effective Teambuilding for Childcare Center After pairing the teachers, the third stage will be used to guide and mentor the team. The fifth stage is to celebrate the functions and successes of the team.
  • Healthcare: Collaborative Teamwork Evaluation The development of a stable leadership structure in the team is important because it can significantly lower the number of possible miscommunications and misunderstandings of the final goal.
  • Hewlett Packard’s and Chartered Management Institute’s Teamwork At CMI, the idea of teamwork is taken seriously in an attempt to deliver positive results. Leaders should also be appointed and encouraged to meet the needs of different team members.
  • Non-Profit Organisations and Team Building The authors of the article introduce the notion of feedback interventions, or FI, as a tool for managing the organizational performance, and provide a historical review and meta-analysis of the evidence for its efficiency and […]
  • Motivational Aspects of Teamwork in Schools The problem that this paper is going to dwell on relates to the diverse impact of motivation on the eminence of teamwork in a school environment.
  • Proctor & Gamble Company’s Effective Team Building The purpose of this study was to examine the major strategies used by companies to build effective teams. The main purpose of the study was to identify evidence-based strategies that can be used to develop […]
  • Interdisciplinary Teamwork and Group Communication All group members should treat one another with respect, avoiding discrimination and conflicts; All group members should attend each meeting; In case of an emergency, the member should notify the rest of the group […]
  • Fundamentals of Management: Leadership and Teambuilding They are also responsible for keeping the team on focus and functioning as a single unit. Interpersonal and communication are the life of a team.
  • Proposal Preparation and Effective Teamwork One of the pillars of effective proposal preparation is the interaction with team members as it can ensure the effective functioning of the team.
  • Teamwork for Organizational Efficiency In order to improve the efficiency of teams, it is important to enhance the effectiveness of teams. In Ruth Wageman, Heidi Garner, and Mark Mortensen’s article entitled Teams Have Changed: Catching Up to the Future, […]
  • 1996 Mount Everest Disaster and Teamwork Factor The Everest case study illustrates some key problems that need to be addressed to avert the recurrence of errors or omissions that may have occasioned the deaths of the climbers.
  • Teamwork Leads in Labor Force Improvement Teamwork plays an important role in the achievement of the positive results of the organization and promotes the maintenance of the competitive strengths of the company.
  • Managerial Duties, Teamwork and Corporate Culture One of the most important duties of the contemporaneous manager is to assist the group affiliates in receiving new material, to give grounding in the best-known practice apprehensions, and to interfere in the work procedure […]
  • Group Dynamics, Effective Teamwork and Technology Effective teams in an organisation are characterised by commitment between the members of the team. Understanding and support among team members are also important in determining the effectiveness of the team.
  • Interprofessional Healthcare Teamwork By the end of the six-month period, the physical state of Carla will improve as cases of pneumonia will decrease by about 25%, as a result of the physical therapy, medication therapy, and changes in […]
  • CMA Company’s Team-Building and Communication The focus on improving communication and promoting teamwork is crucial because of the lack of trust by which the relationships between the company members can be characterized. Therefore, it will be reasonable to focus on […]
  • Teamwork Role in Patient Safety Promotion According to Manser, some of the most important considerations that either promote or hinder patient safety include the perceived quality of teamwork between professional groups, the quality of relational coordination and communication between team members, […]
  • Multicultural Teamwork Approaches This was done to provide the team with the essential elements of the presentation in a shorter period and show an adequate level of collaboration.
  • ABC Hospital’s Effective Team Building Building an effective team within a micro-system requires one to understand the mission of the micro-system and organization, and the goals that should be achieved by the team.
  • Managers, Team Building and Results Orientation If a manager is in charge of a department, he or she should not try to win the false authority by being good.
  • Diversity Consciousness in Team Rapport Building In regards to online communal, the designers’ key concentration is to generate the expertise that abide by the welfares, and the societal and basic requirements, of the online communal.
  • Cognition and Emotions, Teamwork and Management The concepts of power and approach are used to organize the management process most efficiently. In any organization, power is the prerogative of the executive management and the managers of the middle level.
  • Teamwork Management: Roles Identification and Ideas Transformation It is not only necessary to define the roles; it is more important to prove the importance of the identification process and the essence of each role in a team.
  • Teamwork and Motivation Importance The motivation plan should outline steps that employees should take in order to guarantee realization of their mandate within the organization.
  • DHL & Qantas Flight 32: Teamwork and Creative Approaches One of the most important aspects that need to be noted is that the crew that the issue that it was an uncontained failure of the engine at first, but smoke was noticed.
  • Teamwork: Theory, Research and Practice Teamwork is one of the most imperative considerations not only in school but also in the current working environment because of the benefits acquired in the process of mixing and sharing with other people in […]
  • Teamwork and Leadership: Overcoming Challenges Knowlton was the leader of the group, as he was arguably the one with the best leadership skills and had the best experience and knowledge regarding the project.
  • The Company’s Teamwork Training Program One of the strategies that the manager intends to apply in achieving this goal is training employees on the significance of teamwork.
  • Technology Support Team Building In a well orchestrated team the operation is so smooth it is difficult to recognize the role of the team leader. This can be taken to signify the absence of egocentric motives and personalities in […]
  • Team Building: Good Planning of Participants Interaction Developing a team and being part of a team require first to understand the team dynamics and purpose of the group.
  • Teamwork Behavior: Concept and Aspects An issue of immediate concern to these people is to understand the dynamics of team behavior and the factors that influence them.
  • The Efficiency of the Teamwork The efficiency of the teamwork has to be profoundly analyzed since it defines the quality of the performance of the organization.
  • Groupthink as the Curse of Teamwork Instead of members individually evaluating project alternatives, they just second ideas of group leaders or group members so as not to be seen to derail the team.
  • WooWoo Company Management: Teamwork and Motivation The motivation plan of the company that manufactures ‘WooWoo’ would offer rewards to many employees of the company. The rewards would strive to meet the specific needs of the employees.
  • Strategic Role of Human Resources and Promoting Effective Teamwork in the Workplace As the team leader, I had to ensure teamwork and cooperation among the players in order to enhance the team’s performance.
  • Teams and Communication in Healthcare: Importance of Good Teamwork The article, titled “Importance of Good Teamwork in Urgent Care Services”, makes reference to a case study to investigate the topics of teamwork and communication in a London emergency department resuscitation unit, and also to […]
  • Leadership, Teambuilding and Communication The task of building and managing diverse teams in an organization is similarly critical to the process of organizational leadership. Such barriers to communication affect the performance of the group and work teams in a […]
  • Personal Skills Development in the Teamwork In the team, the management ensured that organizational goals are achieved by modifying the tasks of individuals and the organization structure.
  • Teamwork and Motivation: Woowooo Inc. With the entry of new workers, the next part of the motivation plan is to create a working schedule that will see the workers give the best output throughout the production and marketing process.
  • The Concept of Organization Structure and Teamwork The amount of time team members commits to team assignment relates to team efforts and success of the team. The team members become more committed and extend their effort in ensuring a proactive achievement in […]
  • Emotional Intelligence in Teamwork and Mutual Cooperation From this argument it is right to claim that the virtues of emotional intelligence contribute greatly to the aspects of personality and other individualistic provisions.
  • Virtual Teams as Teamwork Efforts In this article the maturity and efficiency of virtual team is measured by a Virtual Team Operation Survey tool that assesses the indicators of virtual team performance.
  • Conflict Resolution in a Team Building This would then be followed by drawing a scene in the office and each member of the team participating in the role that they had read in the card. In this activity, members of the […]
  • The Role of Teamwork in Management Gupta is of the opinion that working as a team motivates individuals to be more risk taking in order to attain their goals.
  • Teamwork, Decision-Making, and Strategy It is with the same intent that the manager intended to use the help of his team to launch a new division that manufactures liquid soap brands for the market by using the potential of […]
  • Effective Team Building in Bell ExpressVu To organize an effective team-building event, the theme of the event should be exciting and inspiring to the employees. Such a theme helps to motivate and communicate effectively with the participants of team building.
  • Teamwork and Communication Errors in Healthcare This paper states that medical errors have a number of underlying causes, including the fallibility of medical personnel, uncertainty of medical knowledge and imperfection of organizational systems, and pays special attention to the negative outcomes […]
  • Leadership and Teambuilding The author classified important stages in the process of becoming a team as the following; Emergent themes The themes of “Speaking to” and “getting to know” were introduced at the beginning of project, a strategy […]
  • Importance of teamwork, cohesiveness, consensus decision Teamwork is an initiative established by employers and employees to ensure people work together to achieve the objectives of their organizations.
  • Project Success and Team Building Overall, the development of these indicators is one of the first steps that managers should take prior to the start of any project.
  • Effects of Generational Differences on Teamwork in Organisations in the UK However, in the UK, employees in most organisations belong to the Baby boomers generation, Generation X and Y. According to Lyons, Baby boomers prefer to work in teams because they are keen on learning new […]
  • Teamwork Spirit Improvement The eventual beneficiaries of the project done by the group are the consumers of the company. This is a clear indication that the employees will find it unbearable to work one another and this will […]
  • Corporate Team Building Strategies The choice of team designs range from self-directed teams, problem-solving teams, cross-functional teams and virtual teams. The type of design that firms adopt impact on the effectiveness of the teams and thus team building must […]
  • Five Approaches to the Successful Team Building A team leader should consider explaining the mission of the team to the members because if he/she assumes that they understand it, he/she will be surprised later on because people understand things differently and this […]
  • Teamwork and Collaboration First of all, one should speak about the role of “most responsible nurses” who had to care about a set of patients. The authors demonstrate that the partnership of nurses is critical for improving the […]
  • Thinking Problem Solving and Team Building First and foremost, as a person endowed with the knowledge and a little bit of experience in offering engineering services for a range of pharmaceutical machines and equipments, it was my obligation to ensure that […]
  • Challenges in Virtual Team Building On the other hand, a team is a group of individuals in the same region working together to achieve a common goal.
  • When Collaboration Enhances Team Performance In addition, the background information on the nature and role of collaboration contributes positively towards the development of a logical argument.
  • Teamwork as the Primary Determinant of Success Regardless of the size of an entity or the nature of activity which a group of individuals are involved in, teamwork is one of the primary determinant s of a group’s level of success.
  • Teamwork and as an Important Part of Effective Performance The doubling of the number of calls at the call center is indicative of deterioration of customer service due to the above reasons.
  • Teamwork Survey by Tuckman’s Model These scores show that the team is in the Performing stage, since the highest score is 38 and the highest possible points are 40.
  • How Does Feedback Help Teamwork?
  • How Does Effective Teamwork Look?
  • How Do Teens Learn Teamwork: Agentic and Constructive Peer Processes?
  • What Is the Power of Teamwork?
  • How Idea Generators Juggle Between the Pros and Cons of Teamwork?
  • Why Is Teamwork Essential in Life?
  • What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Teamwork?
  • What Skills Are Necessary for Teamwork?
  • How Could Teamwork Leaders Cope With the Acceleration of Internationalization?
  • Does Effective Teamwork Need Leadership and a Formal Structure This?
  • How Can Teamwork Be Effective?
  • What Makes Teamwork Efficient?
  • Why Team and Teamwork Come Up With Better Solutions?
  • What Are Three Essential Skills for Teamwork and Collaboration?
  • What Does Teamwork Mean?
  • What Is Teamwork Short Note?
  • How Can Teamwork Damage Productivity?
  • What Makes a Team Successful?
  • What Are the Qualities of Good Teamwork?
  • How Diversity and Teamwork of a Company?
  • Can Teamwork Overcome the Negative Aspects Associated With Scientific Management Workplace Practices?
  • What Are the Benefits of Teamwork?
  • Why Is Teamwork Important in Life?
  • Why Is Teamwork Essential in Research?
  • How Do Teams and Teamwork Affect Individual Satisfaction?
  • How Can Teamwork Improve Organizational Performance?
  • Does Poor Supervisability Undermine Teamwork?
  • Why Is Teamwork the Key to Success?
  • What Does the Research Say About Teamwork?
  • How Does Communication Affect Teamwork?
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

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IvyPanda . "169 Teamwork Topics & Essay Examples." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/teamwork-essay-topics/.

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  • 110+ icebreaker questions for team buil ...

110+ icebreaker questions for team building

Julia Martins contributor headshot

Icebreaker questions help you learn who your teammates are as people—beyond just their work habits. This team building activity focuses on answering fun questions, and is a simple way to build trust and morale. Get started with these 110+ prompts, which range from favorite knock-knock jokes to existential questions (e.g. is a hot dog a sandwich?).

How much do you know about your team members? You probably know how they work, their strengths and weaknesses, and what times they’re online and available. But do you know their favorite movie, or where they’re from? How about what artist they listened to the most this year, or their favorite local bakery?

So whether you want to start with some icebreaker games to get to know your new team members, some quirky questions to heighten your teamwork , or some team building activities to connect with your remote team, try the best 110+ icebreaker questions to encourage team building.

Funny icebreaker questions

Make sure you aren’t just asking “intense” icebreaker questions—throw some funny icebreaker questions into the mix, too! The funniest icebreakers are lighthearted questions that open up the conversation and help your team warm up to one another. Then, once your team is more connected, you can bust out the more “serious” questions.

[inline illustration] Icebreaker question on knock-knock jokes (example)

1. Who’s the most famous person you’ve ever met? Tell us the story of how you met.

2. What’s your guilty pleasure?

3. Looking back at when you were younger, what was your silliest fear?

4. What is your current desktop or cell phone wallpaper? Why did you choose that image?

5. Tell us about your worst hair day.

6. If you had to give your car a name, what would it be?

7. What’s your favorite knock-knock joke?

8. If you could host a talk show, which one would you pick?

9. What was your best Halloween costume? Worst?

10. Tell us a story of an embarrassing thing that happened to you.

11. What’s the last thing you got in “trouble” for?

12. What would the title of your autobiography be?

13. If you could add a word to the dictionary, what would you add and what would it mean?

14. If you could bring back any fashion trend or old slang, what would it be?

15. If you had to talk like a cartoon character for the rest of your life, who would you choose? Do an impression of them now.

16. What’s the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

17. If you had to eat a crayon, what color would you choose?

Unique icebreaker questions

If you’ve tried icebreakers in the past, you may have struggled to come up with uncommon icebreaker questions. Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered! Use these questions to learn something completely new about your teammates. 

18. What game show do you think you could win?

19. If you could only use one emoji for the rest of your life what would it be?

20. What’s your favorite movie quote?

21. What’s something you think is totally overrated?

22. If you were an athlete, what would you choose as your walkout song?

23. What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?

24. Name one movie you think should have a sequel.

25. If you had to email the CEO an emoji right now, what would it be?

26. What was the first thing you thought about this morning?

27. What has been the best day of your life so far?

28. If aliens landed on Earth, who would you recommend they talk to?

29. Is a hotdog a sandwich?

“Would you rather” icebreaker questions

In a “would you rather” icebreaker question, you pose a scenario to your team members and ask them to pick from one of two fun options. These questions are pretty engaging, and they’re a great way to dig deeper into team preferences. To get a good conversation going, ask your team members why they chose the option they did.

30. Would you rather go on a relaxing vacation or an adventure hike?

31. Would you rather be a member of the Avengers or the Justice League?

32. Would you rather star in a romance-based or adventure-based reality TV show?

33. Would you rather have a theme song for your life or a constant soundtrack playing in the background?

34. Would you rather be a superhero or the world’s best chef?

35. Would you rather compete in the Olympics or direct a movie that was nominated for an Oscar?

36. Would you rather sing karaoke with the head of our department or be on a group call with the CEO and your parents?

Team icebreaker questions

If you have a small team, consider asking more open-ended questions and following the discussion where it leads. Instead of being rapid fire questions, these team icebreaker questions are designed to spark a conversation among team members.

[inline illustration] Icebreaker questions about beating stress (example)

37. What’s your favorite local restaurant and why?

38. What’s something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet? Why not?

39. When was the last time you did something for the first time?

40. What do you do to beat stress?

41. What’s the most surprising thing that’s happened to you in another state or country?

42. Tell us something about yourself that would surprise most people who know you.

43. Describe an experience in life that changed your values.

Virtual work icebreaker questions

Connecting with and motivating remote teammates during virtual meetings can feel even harder than team building in the office—but it doesn’t have to be. Use these virtual work icebreaker questions to connect with your team.

44. Do you have any “coworkers” (partners, roommates, siblings, parents, pets)?

45. Have your working hours changed as a result of remote work?

46. Do you prefer working remotely or working in an office?

47. What’s your best WFH accessory?

48. What’s your go-to WFH beverage? Do you prefer coffee? Tea?

49. Is there a spot in your house where you feel most productive?

50. If you could have any upgrade to your WFH setup, what would it be?

51. What’s your morning routine?

52. How often do you work in your PJs?

Throwback icebreaker questions

Getting-to-know-you questions are a fun way to learn more about your teammates. People usually like talking about their past, so these questions can be an easy place to start if your team is new to using icebreaker questions. Plus, knowing where your teammates come from is a great way to start understanding them more personally.

53. Do you have any siblings? Are you the eldest, middle, or youngest child?

54. Where did you grow up?

55. Did you have any pets as a kid? Did you want any pets?

56. Did you play sports as a kid? Do you play any sports now?

57. Do you speak any other languages?

58. What’s your favorite place in the world?

59. What was your first job?

60. What was your favorite cartoon as a kid? What was your favorite cartoon character? If they weren’t the same, why not?

61. Who in life has inspired you the most?

62. What’s one family tradition you want to pass down to your kids?

63. What’s a piece of advice your parents or grandparents gave you that you want to pass on?

64. What were your favorite subjects in school?

65. Did you have an imaginary best friend when you were younger? What were they like?

66. Have you ever been mistaken for someone famous?

Common icebreaker questions

Want to make sure you’ve covered your bases? Try some tried-and-true icebreakers. Curious about what your teammates’ favorite TV show is? Or, how about what’s on their bucket list? These common icebreakers include go-to questions for getting to know your team better.

67. What book are you currently reading? What’s your favorite book?

68. What’s your favorite TV show?

69. What’s your favorite movie?

70. What’s your favorite song?

71. What was your first concert? What was the best concert you’ve ever been to?

72. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book or object would you bring?

73. If you could have dinner with one historical figure, who would it be? What about one currently living celebrity?

74. What’s the greatest gift you’ve ever received? What about the best gift you’ve ever given?

75. Do you have any hidden talents?

76. When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

77. If you were granted three wishes, what would you wish for?

78. If you won a million dollars, what’s the first thing you’d do?

79. What are you passionate about outside of work?

80. If you had an extra hour per day, what would you do?

81. What’s your favorite genre of music?

82. Are you a dog person, a cat person, or both?

83. What’s on your bucket list?

Travel icebreaker questions

Whether your teammates love traveling or prefer finding local gems, talking about travel is a great way to take a break from work and get to know your team on a personal level. Travel icebreaker questions are also a great way to learn more about who your teammates want to be. You can learn a lot from people’s favorite trips and top travel destinations.

[inline illustration] Icebreaker question about traveling (example)

84. What’s your #1 travel destination?

85. What’s your favorite place?

86. Have you ever traveled outside of the country?

87. Mountains or ocean?

88. Snow or sand?

89. Where did you go the first time you traveled (or remember traveling)?

90. What is your favorite thing to do locally?

91. If you were to move to another country, where would you move?

Food icebreaker questions

Food icebreaker questions are a great way to dig into your team members’ pasts and preferences. If you’re a team lead —take note! You can always use these preferences to bring a special touch to future team lunches, happy hours, and celebrations.

92. What’s your favorite breakfast food?

93. What are your favorite pizza toppings?

94. What’s your favorite type of ice cream?

95. What’s your favorite happy hour drink?

96. If you could name a cocktail, what would you call it?

97. Spicy or sweet?

98. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?

99. Was there ever a food you didn’t want to eat, but you loved it once you tried it?

Hypothetical icebreaker questions

Hypothetical icebreaker questions are things that will probably never come to pass but can be fun to brainstorm anyway. To take team bonding to the next level, make a game out of explaining your answers in great detail. The team member who commits most passionately wins!

100. If you had to live in a video game, which one would it be?

101. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

102. If you could remove one word from the dictionary, what would it be?

103. If you could be any animal, which would you be?

104. If you could control one element (air, water, earth, fire), which would it be and why?

105. If you had to live in one Disney movie, which would you choose?

106. If you could send a message out to the entire world, what would it be?

107. If you could only watch one movie for the rest of your life, what would it be?

108. If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

109. If you were a potato, how would you like to be cooked?

110. You have 20 minutes to plan for the zombie apocalypse—what do you do? What if you had 24 hours?

Additional team building activities

Icebreaker questions are great because they’re so short—you can throw in an icebreaker before your weekly team meeting to start creating strong team bonds. But to take your team building to the next level, try more involved team building games , like:

Team trivia

To host a team trivia event, ask each team member to submit trivia questions about themselves. Consider giving them a list of prompts, like:

What’s your least favorite food?

What did you want to be when you were younger?

Do you have any secret talents?

What’s your pet peeve?

The easiest way to turn these questions into a trivia game is to come up with “fake” answers and ask your team to guess which is correct. For example, you could ask: What candy does Brian hate: Skittles, Mars Bars, or Laffy Taffy?

Keep track of everyone’s answers during the trivia event. Then, the team member who guesses the most right answers wins a small prize—maybe they get to host the next team trivia!

Virtual games

If you’re working from home, you still have plenty of team building opportunities. There are a variety of online games you can play. Usually, these games will have a “room” that everyone joins. Then, get everyone on a Zoom call while you play for some trash talking and encouragement—you know, team building essentials. Try online games like:

Scattergories

Coffee chats

Not all team building activities need to revolve around carefully planned activities. Sometimes, the best way to bond with a team member or group of team members is to grab coffee from a nearby cafe. Take the time to get to know each other outside of a work context, while also enjoying a nice cup of coffee (or tea).

Working virtually? Schedule a virtual coffee chat with a coworker. This is a great excuse to get yourself some specialty coffee or brew your favorite at home.

Break the ice and boost team collaboration

Nearly 50% of knowledge workers believe engaging and enjoyable work is the #1 factor in achieving their best work. Team building is a great way to do just that. Build lasting relationships and boost team collaboration with icebreaker questions and team building activities. Or if your team is feeling bold, try inventing your own!

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66 team building activities to bring your team together (and have fun!)

team building essay question

Team building activities can make all the difference when it comes to job satisfaction , employee engagement and organizational success . But even with the best intentions, it’s not sufficient to simply bring a group of people together. Effective team building activities can help your group feel more connected and able to collaborate more effectively .

But how do you choose the right activity, and where do you get started when trying to encourage team bonding or alignement? We're here to help with this collection of simple and effective team building activities!

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Building a highly effective team takes effort , consideration, and the deployment of a thoughtful group process . Remember that teams are composed of relationships between people and all relationships need care and attention. The team-building activities below are a great place to start!

That said, some employees may bristle or cringe at the mention of team building activities, and with good reason. Done badly, team building at work can be frustrating , unproductive, or a waste of time for all involved . 

We’ve put together a collection of proven team-building activities, games, and exercises that cover everything from communication and collaboration to alignment and vision . 

Whether you’re working in a small team or as part of a large organization, taking the time to develop your team and enable everyone in your group to do their best work is time well spent. Let’s take a look!

What are team building activities? 

Team building is an activity or process designed to help build connections between members of a team, create lasting bonds, and enable better teamwork and working practices.

Team building activities might include running team games and activities, holding group discussions, hosting away days, or simply doing things together as a team. They key is that the exercise is designed to bring your team together in a fun and engaging way.

team building essay question

What is the main purpose of a team building activity? 

The main purpose of any team-building activity is on improving some aspects of how a team works together while bringing everyone together in a shared experience .

This might include working on communication, collaboration, alignment, team values, motivation, and anything else that can enable a group to work together more effectively. It might also include resolving conflicts, sharing skills, or simply bringing your group together in a shared experience.

Broadly speaking, any team building effort should be designed to help bring team members closer or find ways to first define and then move towards your shared goals as a group .

As Forbes notes , team building is “most important investment you can make for your people.” On this point, it’s worth noting that team building doesn’t just happen during the activity and so being purposeful your choice of exercise is important.

The best team building activities hold space for building connections in a way that spills over into day-to-day work and creates lasting bonds. It’s not enough to throw your team into an escape room or scavenger hunt without first thinking about why or how this will benefit your team!

After you’ve chosen some engaging team building activities, it’s time to design a complete process that will engage your team while achieving your desired outcomes.

SessionLab makes it easy to build a complete team building agenda in minutes . Start by dragging and dropping blocks, add activity timings and adjust your session flow to create an effective session.

team building essay question

What are the main types of team building activities?

Team building activities are games and exercises that help a group collaborate on a shared goal, discuss important issues constructively, share in a fun experience or find better ways of working together.

These activities can take forms – from quick and funny games you use in your regular meeting, or the may be part of a larger process or team development workshop.

Being purposeful and knowing the objective of your session means you can choose an activity accordingly. Sometimes, your team will come together because they have problems to solve, or you might just want to have fun and celebrate your wins. Pick the right activity for the right time to ensure your team is onboard and ready to engage!

Here are the main categories of team building activity that you might want to use with your team. We’ve made it easy to get started with the right activity for your team by including the length of each game, how many participants can play and how hard it is to run alongside clear instructions.

Team building activities for work

Starting the team building process can be difficult, especially if you’re working with a new team who don’t yet know each other well. The activities in this section are focused on helping teams and employees get to know each other better and start to develop bonds and trust.

Even if your team has been around a while, learning more about one another and building deeper bonds is useful for both team cohesion and group happiness. These are also great activities to use when trying to improve employee engagement and company culture – any organization is only as strong as the bonds between its people!

Try these team building games for work to encourage conversation and break the ice – especially if you’re working with a remote team who might not be in the office together.

3 Question Mingle

Conversation is often the best starting point when it comes to team building, but without structure, it can be difficult for groups to get moving. In 3 Question Mingle, each team member writes three questions on sticky notes and then has a one minute meeting with another person. They each ask another one question and then trade those post-its. Invite the group to move around the room asking questions in pairs and swapping questions afterwards. 

Not only does this team building activity help an entire team get to know each other, but it also invites the group to ask the questions they want to ask. By combining structure with self direction, you can get your team building workshop off to the right start! Bonus points for adding those sticky notes to a memory wall for later reflection!

3 Question Mingle   #hyperisland   #team   #get-to-know   An activity to support a group to get to know each other through a set of questions that they create themselves. The activity gets participants moving around and meeting each other one-on-one. It’s useful in the early stages of team development and/or for groups to reconnect with each other after a period of time apart.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity

Building better team relationships and improving group dynamics often means sharing something about ourselves and finding space to discuss and be honest. In this team building exercise, give each team member a set of red, green, yellow and blue dots alongside the 9 dimensions you’ll be looking at. Each participant puts a dot on each dimension based on whether they believe they’re crushing it or need to do more work. 

By sharing some of their 9 dimensions, your team gets to surface things they’re proud of, as well as those that need work. You’ll explore what your group is aligned on in the debriefing section and then move forward together as a team.

9 Dimensions Team Building Activity   #icebreaker   #teambuilding   #team   #remote-friendly   9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members. There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.

Awareness Circle

Getting to know people is easier for some members of a group than it is for others. While extroverts can start chatting to new team members with ease, introverts may find it more difficult to bond with their team and create meaningful team bonds.

In this activity, you’ll encourage a group to get to know each other without speaking and show that everyone in a team has a connection. Another great takeaway from this activity is to take note of the diversity (or lack thereof) in the room and consider this as a point for future team development. 

Awareness Circle   #teampedia   #team   #icebreaker   #opening   This activity helps participants to get-to-know each other without saying a word.

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity

Sometimes pictures are better than words when it comes to helping a team get to know one another. Creative games like this one can also be especially effective at helping introverts or distanced teams share with the group.

Start by handing out sheets of paper and inviting each participant to draw a 2×2 grid and pose four questions to the group. Each team member draws their answer in one of the grid squares and once the time limit is up, invite the group to share. If you’re looking for a fun game that encourages creative thinking while being visual and memorable, look no further! 

Break the Ice with The Four Quadrants Activity   #team   #icebreaker   #get-to-know   #teambuilding   The Four Quadrants is a tried and true team building activity to break the ice with a group or team. It is EASY to prep for and set up. It can be MODIFIED to work with any group and/or topic (just change the questions). It is FUN, COLORFUL and works every time!

Just One Lie

Not all team building games need to reinvent the wheel. Particularly with new teams or groups that aren’t used to team building, keeping it simple with a tried and tested method can be your best bet.

Just One Lie is adapted from the well-known icebreaker two truths and a lie, though encourages participants to mingle and share lots of facts about themselves with one another – great for breaking the ice and getting to know one another too!

Just One Lie   #icebreaker   #energiser   #team   #get-to-know   This method is adapted from the well-known icebreaker ‘Two Truths And A Lie’  to create an activity that you could return to throughout a meeting.

Both groups and individuals go through many twists, turns and changes throughout their life. At its best, team building not only helps create better teams but allows time for reflection and deeper sharing between participants.

With Life Map, encourage your group to draw or create a collage of their life story they can then share with the team. This kind of deeper getting to know your exercise can really help bring a team together and allow for meaningful self-reflection too! 

Life map   #team   #teampedia   #icebreaker   #get-to-know   With this activity the participants get to know each other on a deeper level.

Personal Presentation

Team building is all about building trust and openness between teammates. Sharing personal experiences and enlarging the social aspects of the group with presentations not only allows everyone to get to know each other but also encourages team development skills too.

For this team building method, ask each participant to prepare a presentation including three things that have shaped who they are as a person. Encourage creative thinking by asking teams to use simple drawings and words to visualize their presentation too.

Personal Presentations   #hyperisland   #team   A simple exercise in which each participant prepares a personal presentation of him/herself sharing several important experiences, events, people or stories that contributed to shaping him or her as an individual. The purpose of personal presentations is to support each participant in getting to know each other as individuals and to build trust and openness in a group by enlarging the social arena.

Passions Tic Tac Toe

Helping employees get to know each other more deeply and connect beyond the scope of their job roles is a great space to explore with a team building exercise. In this activity, your entire team fills in a 3×3 grid with a passion or core value in each of the boxes. Then, ask your group to mingle and compare passions.

When someone finds a match, they each sign for the other person in that square of the grid. Declare your first winner as the person who gets three passions in a row. This team building exercise works well for remote workers and is a great way for your entire team to get to know each other a little better.

Passions Tic Tac Toe   #get-to-know   #values   #icebreaker   #thiagi   This simple game that explores the concepts from these two quotations: “Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you”. —Oprah Winfrey. “Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are.” —Penelope Lively, novelist

Quick team building activities

Team building doesn’t have to take all day. While running dedicated team workshops like a team canvas workshop can have a profound effect on team dynamics, you can also run team building exercises in as little as 5-10 minutes.

In this section, we’ll share some effective yet quick team building activities you might use to warm-up your group or inject some team building into the start of a meeting or event. If you’re looking for 5-minute team building activities to easily slot into your meetings and events, this is a great place to start!

Best and Worst

Teambuilding activities are often at their most effective when you ignite the passions of everyone in a group and bring up talking points that enable people to share something of themselves with the team.

Best and Worst asks each participant to ask one question about the best and worst thing they want to learn from the group. For example, “What’s the best recipe you know?” or “What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?” After putting all the questions in a hat and choosing a random pair, invite the group to share their answers and related stories.

Best and Worst   #teampedia   #get-to-know   #opening   #icebreaker   #team   This activity could easily break the ice at the beginning of a workshop, enabling participants to get to know each other in a fast process.

Group Order

Supporting the get-to-know process at the start of a session or with a new team can be as simple as asking participants to group themselves together based on what they know about each other and inviting them to find out what they don’t.

This activity requires nothing more than getting your group together in a room and asking them to line themselves up in an order based on a criterion such as distance from home to the workplace, birth date in the calendar year or number of different countries visited. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to get people talking and sharing when in pursuit of a common goal.

Group Order   #get-to-know   #energiser   #icebreaker   #thiagi   #team   This is an energizing activity that helps members of a group get to know each other, network, and recognize what they have in common.

Happiness Exercise

Good teams know how to appreciate one another and share joyful, happy experiences. When a new team is getting to know each other, using an exercise that encourages the sharing of positive stories and experiences not only allows people to connect but also builds a positive atmosphere in the room.

You might also use this team building activity at work or with a more established team. If your team has been going through a challenging period, it can be transformational to share things that make everyone happy and defuse stress or tension as a team.

Happiness exercise   #teambuilding   #icebreaker   #warm up   #remote-friendly   This exercise is a simple application of the principles of Appreciative Inquiry.

Name Juggling

Working with new teams means having new names to learn. Team building starts with getting to know everyone, but how can we make this more fun and dynamic than simple introductions?

In this get to know you game, start by having everyone stand in a circle and introduce themselves by name. Introduce a ball and have people state someone’s name before throwing the ball to that person. That person thanks the person who passed the ball by name before then passing the ball on to someone else. Once people get comfortable, spice things up by introducing more balls and trying to keep them in the air!

Name Juggling   #teampedia   #icebreaker   #energiser   #get-to-know   #team   Name Juggling is another variation of a try-to-learn-everyone’s-name but the game guarantees high energy level as well as some strategic thinking.

Finding you have things in common with other team members is one of the cornerstones of effective teamwork and communication. While conversation games or other team building activities might ask for an in-depth approach, Open Fist helps teams bond with a simple, effective activity.

Sharing little known facts about ourselves can help teams be more cohesive and by limiting the number of shared facts to the amount of fingers on a hand, this quick team building activity can fit into an agenda with ease.

Open Fist   #get-to-know   #icebreaker   #thiagi   #team   Teams work better when they find things in common. Stronger teams reduce turnover, increase pleasant interactions, and improve productivity.

Cross the Circle

Finding common ground and shared experiences across a diverse group is what team building is all about. In this playful team building activity, participants are encouraged to cross the circle in response to questions posed by a person in the middle.

For example, “Cross through the circle if you have worked here more than 5 years.” or “Cross through the circle if you can play an instrument.” After each stage, a new person gets to pose a question and your team gets to know one another and their commonalities in a simple, effective way.

Cross the Circle   #teambuilding   #get-to-know   #energiser   #team   #thiagi   This activity provides a playful way for participants to find commonalities among themselves.

This fast-paced exercise is fun but gently challenging game that helps create focus and presence in a group. Get started by getting your team into a circle and ask them to move a clap around the room quickly by having two members clap at the same time.

By asking your group to synchronize and move quickly, sync claps is a fun way to energize the room and help your group feel more connected.

Sync Claps   #hyperisland   #energiser   This circle exercise is simple, but challenging and very effective for generating focus and alignment in a group. Participants stand in a circle and send a clap around the circle. Each clap involves two members of the group clapping their hands at the same time. The group tries to move the clap around the circle faster and faster with as much synchronization as possible. The exercise gets even more challenging when the “double clap” is introduced and the clap can change direction.

Fun team building activities

In an increasingly stressful environment of deadlines and meetings, it’s worth remembering the value of joy, play and simply have fun as a team.

Injecting fun and laughter into your team building event is effective on many levels. We often recommend starting a session with one of these activities, as they can help set a more relaxed and personable tone in an instant.

We’ve also found that some of the more memorable moments of our sessions have come out of these kinds of activities. It’s lovely to have something funny to reference in future meetings too!

Bringing team members out of their shells and loosening them up with a funny game can also help prevent existing hierarchies or team structures from affecting the team building session. 

You can also use these funny team building activities to kick off your session, or when the energy levels drop and you need to get your team re-engaged for the team workshop ahead. Let’s take a look.

Having fun and energizing your team is a great way to kick off your team building event. Bang is a simple and effective game that encourages quick reactions and fun – perfect for both new and established teams to play together! 

Start by electing a sheriff and having the rest of the group stand in a circle around them. The sheriff spins around and points at one person in the circle and says “bang!” That person then crouches as quickly as possible. The two people on either side of the person crouching must quickly point at each other and shout the other’s name. Whoever does not react quickly enough is eliminated. Try using this one at the beginning of a team building event to really loosen up the group!

Bang   #hyperisland   #energiser   Bang is a group game, played in a circle, where participants must react quickly or face elimination. One person stands in the middle of the circle as “the sheriff”, pointing at other players who must quickly crouch while those on either side of them quickly “draw”. A good activity to generate laughter in a group. It can also help with name-learning for groups getting to know each other.

Build-a-Shake

Creating a secret handshake was something many of us did as kids. This team building activity taps into that same sense of creativity and also encourages team members to get to know each other while sharing and building on their handshake in pairs. By moving between pairs and teaching others the steps of your handshake, this also helps create group closeness and cohesion. We love team building activities or office games that encourage people to bring a little of themselves to the table and Build-a-Shake is a great example of that!  

Build-a-Shake   #teampedia   #energiser   #get-to-know   #opening   #team   How to introduce yourself in a fun, creative way? Build a handshake!

Simple tasks that require team focus, cohesion, and awareness are great for any group working on team building. In Count Up, a team has to come together and count up to twenty with their eyes closed and without any other communication. People cannot say more than one number at a time, and if two people speak at the same time, the group must start over. 

Though it seems simple, this team building exercise can really demonstrate the power of effective teamwork and is a great opener for a team building workshop. 

Count Up   #hyperisland   #team   #energiser   #remote-friendly   In this short exercise, a group must count up to a certain number, taking turns in a random order, with no two people speaking at the same time. The task is simple, however, it takes focus, calm and awareness to succeed. The exercise is effective to generate calm and focused collective energy in a group.

Follow the Leader

When performing online team building, simple activities are often the best strategy in ensuring participation and removing frustration. Follow the Leader is a great team building energiser suitable for online and offline teams.

In virtual settings, put Zoom into gallery view and invite people to perform an action in the frame of their screen that other participants have to follow. Being a little silly is encouraged and this team building exercise often results in laughter and energy as a result! 

Follow the Follower   #zoom   #virtual   #physical   #teambuilding   #connection   #energiser   #opening   #remote-friendly   #ericamarxcoaching   One person is designated as the leader.  Others copy exactly how the leader moves.  The leader calls on a new person to be the leader, and so on. Follow the follower variation is when the leading gets passed to the entire group and no single person is leading.

Portrait Gallery

Creative team building activities are great for breaking the ice or energising a team via play. In Portrait Gallery, you and your team will collaboratively create portraits of everyone in the group and have a fun, electric set of portraits to display afterward.

Start by splitting your group into two teams. Team B will draw portraits of Team A, though every 10-15 seconds, they’ll pass their current drawing to the next person to continue. By the end of this team building game, you’ll have a set of eclectic portraits for everyone in the group and have broken the ice significantly too! 

Portrait Gallery   #hyperisland   #team   #icebreaker   The Portrait Gallery is an energetic and fun icebreaker game that gets participants interacting by having the group collaboratively draw portraits of each member. The activity builds a sense of group because it results with each participant having a portrait drawn of him/herself by the other members of the group together. It also has a very colourful visual outcome: the set of portraits which can be posted in the space.

Fun team building games are a great way to start any group development process, and they’re even better if they energize the team too! Snowball is a great activity for getting people out of their seats and moving around while also breaking the ice. 

Start by asking a question relevant to your group and ask each participant to write an answer on a piece of paper. Once that’s done, invite everyone to crumple their paper and come to the centre of the room to have a snowball fight! After a few minutes, ask everyone to keep a snowball and find the person who wrote the answer. Not only does this team building exercise invite energy into the room, but it encourages people to get to know each other too.

Snowball   #get-to-know   #opening   #energiser   #teambuilding   #team   This is a great activity to get people up and moving around in a playful way while still learning about each other. It can be related to any topic and be played at any time during the group’s life.

Celebrity Party

You’ve likely played the game where you stick the name of a random celebrity on your head while then asking questions to help you guess who it is. (Or at least seen a film where someone else does it!) It’s simple, but it absolutely works when you want to break the ice or just generate some laughter and conversation.

This classic team building game is a great way to warm up large groups, encouraging mingling and have fun too. Ask participants to be creative, keep it light and not to give hints and you have all the makings of an effective team building exercise.

Celebrity Party   #teampedia   #icebreaker   #communication   #diversity   #team   #action   Great activity to help people warm up in a new environment.

Non-verbal improv

Whether you’re working with remote teams or co-located groups, having fun when you get together should never be undervalued. We love simple games that are also ways to begin conversations about how we’d like to work together more effectively.

This improv game is easy to touch and is a great way to build team connections while raising some smiles. Start by preparing some actions on post-it notes, such as drinking a glass of water or eating pasta. Next, invite participants to mime the action without speaking. Include more difficult and amusing scenarios to challenge the group and create some funny opportunities for team connection!

Non-verbal improv   #improv game   #energiser   #fun   #remote-friendly   An improv game where participants must use non-verbal communication and actions to communicate a phrase or an idea to other players. A fun game that’s a great way to open a discussion on better communication!

Rock, Paper, Scissors (Tournament)

Encouraging team members to play and have fun is an often overlooked aspect of building better teams. Play is an inherently human activity, and by doing this as a team, we can start to see ourselves as more than just a group of people who work together.

In this version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, large groups pair off until only two players remain for a final showdown. We love that losing players become fans of the winners and cheer them on. This is a quick and easy team game that can build excitement and get the group ready for deeper team building activities to come!

Rock, Paper, Scissors (Tournament)   #energiser   #warm up   #remote-friendly   This is a fun and loud energiser based on the well-known “Rock, Paper, Scissor” game – with a twist: the losing players become the fan of the winners as the winner advances to the next round. This goes on until a final showdown with two large cheering crowds! It can be played with adults of all levels as well as kids and it always works! 

Fun team building activities often ask the group to let go of their inhibitions and find space to be playful and silly. This game from Hyper Island encourages the group to perform some loud, exuberant moves to emulate our favourite historical raiders – the Vikings.

You might use this activity during a longer workshop or meeting to energize a group and create a memorable moment with your team. For bonus points, have a group photographer capture those moments and put them on a history wall for reflection later!

The Viking   #hyperisland   #energiser   In this group game, players stand in a circle and perform a series of loud physical moves, passing from one person to the next. When a player hesitates or makes a mistake, he or she is eliminated and the game continues. The game generates laughter and playfulness in the group.

Wink Murder

We love team building exercises that include space for friendly competition and laughter. Wink murder is a variation on a classic party game that asks every team member to try and catch the wink assassin, whose job it is to eliminate the other players by winking at them without being caught.

We especially like the fact this game makes team members to use creative thinking while playing. Run multiple rounds with extra rules such as adding an accomplice to spice things up and have even more fun!

Wink Murder   #icebreaker   #energizer   #group game   #team   #teambuilding   A fun energizer where one player must try and eliminate the rest of the team by winking – all without being caught.

team building essay question

Corporate team building activities

Running team building games in the office can be a great way to finish up the week, onboard new team members or just boost employee engagement.

While all of the activities in this post are suitable for the office, the team building games in this section are especially effective in a corporate environment where some team members may need some coaxing or you want to gently introduce important topics.

Try these activities if you want to add an opportunity for your team to bond during a corporate training session, all-hands or other office event.

Appreciations Exercise

Office trivia can be fun, but you know what’s better? Taking a moment to appreciate each team member and uplift everyone in the group.

This method is designed to help everyone in a group receive appreciative feedback on their strengths from others. Start by sitting the group in a circle and having each participant write their name on a piece of paper and pass it to the person on their left. Each person writes down what they have most valued about the person whose name is on the sheet before passing it along.

At the end, share these appreciations and celebrate everyone in the group! You might even include this activity during a happy hour to truly celebrate one another!

Appreciations Exercise   #team   #appreciation   #self esteem   #remote-friendly   When you hear about your strengths from others and acknowledge them to yourself, this builds your motivation and self-confidence. If you do this at the end of a workshop, you go away feeling good about yourself and your colleagues too.

Cover Story

Bringing an activity that encourages creative thinking and imagination can be an effective method for getting team mates involved at your next corporate event. In this game, small groups create a magazine cover with your team on it and add headlines and taglines that show the best possible version of your team.

By defining the ideal future state for the organization your group can see what actions they might take today while also creating a fun and useful artefact for the team. Use as many sheets of paper as you need!

Cover Story   #gamestorming   #idea generation   #organizational development   #vision   #strategy   Cover Story is a game about pure imagination. The purpose is to think expansively around an ideal future state for the organization; it’s an exercise in visioning. The object of the game is to suspend all disbelief and envision a future state that is so stellar that it landed your organization on the cover of a well-known magazine

Coat of Arms

Even established teams have more to learn about one another. A corporate team building activity is a great time to encourage groups to go deeper and share who they are as a team.

In Coat of Arms, each team member begins by drawing a personal coat of arms and then sharing it with a partner. The partner interprets the coat of arms and then presents it to the rest of the group. This kind of getting to know you activity taps into group creativity and is a fun way of helping your team bond. 

Coat of Arms   #teambuilding   #opening   #icebreaker   #team   #get-to-know   #thiagi   Coat of Arms exercise provides a way for participants to introduce themselves and their colleagues, particularly for groups who think they already know each other very well. Almost invariably participants discover something about their colleagues of which they previously had no idea. Occasionally this revelation has an immediate and direct application to another participant’s current project or challenge.Because this activity forces people to use drawings rather than words, it is particularly useful as a dual-purpose introductory exercise in training sessions that deal with such topics as innovation, creativity, and problem-solving.

My Favourite Manager

Leaders and managers can be a deciding factor in creating a great company culture and employee happiness. In this game, get started by bringing your team together to discuss their favourite and least favourite managers.

This corporate team building activity is great at creating a safe space to discuss management styles and create empathy between teams. You’ll often find team members can shift their perspective, learn something about how they relate to their leaders and have fun too!

My Favourite Manager   #management   #leadership   #thiagi   #teamwork   #remote-friendly   Participants work individually, assuming the roles of three different people and brainstorming their perceptions of three most favourite managers and three least favourite managers. Later, they work with a partner (and still later, in teams) to prepare a list of dos and don’t-s for improving employees’ perception of a manager’s style.

Who are you? The Pirate Ship exercise

Explore team roles and responsibilities in a lighthearted manner is a great way to spend time during an office event.

In this simple but powerful team building exercise, share the image of the crew of a pirate ship. Next, invite participants to reflect on who they most identify with on the ship. Who is the captain? Who is looking out for land or maintaining the deck? By reflecting together around a fun premise, you can encourage meaningful discussions with your grop.

Who are you? The pirate ship exercise (dinámica del barco pirata)   #team alignment   #team   #remote-friendly   #teamwork   #warm up   #icebreaker   This an easy but powerful exercise to open a meeting or session and get participants to reflect on their attitudes or feelings about a topic, in the organization, team, or in the project.

History Map

Building effective teams is often a process of ideation, reflection and iteration over time. Sometimes, it’s easy to lose sight of just how much a team or organization has grown. With this corporate team building activity, invite your group to reflect and build on their collective experience with a memory wall that collects moments over a fixed period of time.

It’s a great way of reinforcing major takeaways, celebrating the highlights and creating a sense of closure and progress. By also encouraging the creation of a shared visual resource, History Map also enables creativity and a sense of fun that can provide the perfect end to a project or working session. 

History Map   #hyperisland   #team   #review   #remote-friendly   The main purpose of this activity is to remind and reflect on what group members or participants have been through and to create a collective experience and shared story. Every individual will gain a shared idea of what the group has been through together. Use this exercise at the end of a project or program as a way to reinforce learnings, celebrate highlights and create closure.

Birds of a Feather

It’s not uncommon for teams to naturally form sub-groups with common characteristics. This exercise effectively shows how consciously creating more diverse groups can make teams more resilient and productive.

Get started by giving each team member an index card with a single letter on it. Then ask people to form a group of five people as quickly as possible without any further instructions. Next, ask the groups to form the longest word possible from their cards. It will quickly become apparent that the best way to win the game is with a team that has diverse cards.

This simple game is a great introduction to a wider conversation about diversity or inclusion. As always, debrief learnings and invite deeper conversation in the group to make this activity a success.

Birds of a Feather   #teamwork   #diversity   #team   #creativity   #thiagi   Participants naturally want to form groups with common characteristics. This exercise illustrates how diverse groups have access to more resources and provide a greater variety of solutions. Each person is given an index card with a letter on it, and then asked to form a group of five people. Participants assume that they should get into groups with others who have the same letter. However, when the facilitator asks them to form the longest word possible with the letter cards, they realize that it would have been more beneficial to have created a diverse group.

Corporate meetings can sometimes be heavy going, but they don’t need to be. In this fun teambuilding game, encourage your group to loosen up while working together to solve a puzzle that involves their bodies!

Start by getting your team members into groups of 7-12 people. Ask each group to stand in a circle, close their eyes and then link hands with two other people in the circle. Next, ask each group to work to untangle the human knot they have created without breaking the chain. This is a really fun game that requires clear communication, collaboration and a little flexibility too!

Human Knot   A physical-participation disentanglement puzzle that helps a group learn how to work together (self-organize) and can be used to illustrate the difference between self-organization and command-control management or simply as a get-to-know-you icebreaker. Standing in a circle, group members reach across to connect hands with different people. The group then tries to unravel the “human knot” by unthreading their bodies without letting go of each other people’s hands. As a management-awareness game to illustrate required change in behavior and leadership on a management level (e.g., illustrate the change from ‘task-oriented’ management towards ‘goal/value-oriented’ management).

Team building activities for small groups

Team work doesn’t always come naturally, and effective team collaboration needs attention, reflection and work in order to happen. It’s not enough to just assume your team members will be able to work together efficiently: all teams can benefit from a strategic and well-thought approach to how they communicate and collaborate.

Whether you’re having a team away day or using methods expressly designed to improve collaboration and communication in small groups, you’ll find inspiration in the activities here!

These team building games are helpful whether you’re trying to solve miscommunication or collaboration issues, or just want to strengthen your company culture or communication skills in small groups.

Conflict Responses

It’s important to remember that every team is made up of individuals and sometimes, conflicts or disagreements can arise. While its regular working practice to disagree, our responses to conflict and how we deal with them when they arise are in our control and can be improved.

In this exercise, reflect on previous conflicts as a team and collectively create a set of guidelines to use in the future. Resolving issues effectively is a massive part of team collaboration, and by including all team members in this process you can get more meaningful results too.

Conflict Responses   #hyperisland   #team   #issue resolution   A workshop for a team to reflect on past conflicts, and use them to generate guidelines for effective conflict handling. The workshop uses the Thomas-Killman model of conflict responses to frame a reflective discussion. Use it to open up a discussion around conflict with a team.

Heard, Seen, Respected

Team empathy is a vital ingredient of good team work though whatever the size of your organization, it can sometimes be difficult to walk in the shoes of others and see things from other perspectives.

Heard, Seen, Respected is a team building activity designed to help participants practice deeper empathy for colleagues and build the kinds of bonds and working practices that can improve team collaboration. By inviting participants to notice patterns in the stories shared and find common takeaways, it’s a great way to get everyone involved on the same page and improve communication skills too.

Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR)   #issue analysis   #empathy   #communication   #liberating structures   #remote-friendly   You can foster the empathetic capacity of participants to “walk in the shoes” of others. Many situations do not have immediate answers or clear resolutions. Recognizing these situations and responding with empathy can improve the “cultural climate” and build trust among group members. HSR helps individuals learn to respond in ways that do not overpromise or overcontrol. It helps members of a group notice unwanted patterns and work together on shifting to more productive interactions. Participants experience the practice of more compassion and the benefits it engenders.

Myers-Briggs Team Reflection

One potential obstacle to effective team collaboration is when members of the group don’t fully understand one another. Team building activities for work that encourage participants to not only try and understand their colleagues but themselves can be especially helpful when helping a team be more cohesive.

In this activity, invite your group to first take a version of the Myers-Briggs personality test. Start by asking each team member to reflect on their own personality type before then moving towards small group discussion. 

When using this activity, it’s important to correctly frame the usage of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) framework: This can be a useful framework to understand different communication preferences between people, but team members should not be labeled or put into boxes based on their self-reported preferences. 

Myers-Briggs Team Reflection   #team   #hyperisland   A workshop to explore personal traits and interpersonal relations using the Myers-Briggs personalities model. Use this tool to go deeper with your team to understand more about yourselves and each other on personal and professional levels.

Strength Building exercise

Exercises for team building come in many varieties. In this activity, the emphasis is on the team championing one another and increasing confidence, self esteem and mutual trust.

Start by asking team members to share an event where they accomplished something that made them feel good about themselves. The rest of the team chimes in to suggest two to three strengths they must have exhibited in order to achieve the accomplishment. Team collaboration often means helping others on the team achieve their best, and this activity helps the group uplift one another meaningfully and effectively.

Strength Building exercise   #team   #appreciation   #self esteem   #remote-friendly   People develop confidence and self esteem as they discover that their achievements and skills are valuable. This is an exercise for team building and for increasing self esteem and mutual trust.

Strength Envelopes

All members of a team have unique strengths, capabilities and working preferences. When working as a group, you can improve engagement and group workflow by having each participant utilize their strengths and do work that interests them the most.

With this team building activity, ask participants to write their name on an envelope and invite other members of their team to spend a few minutes writing down strength statements for that person. Place these in the envelope and pass them along so at the end of the session, each person has a set full of strengths they can use as the basis for reflection. 

Strength Envelopes   #appreciation   #self-awareness   #feedback   #team   #thiagi   #teambuilding   #action   This activity helps working teams to discover and share individual strengths and to increase their engagement by structuring their jobs around these strengths. Suitable for people who work together (for example, members of an intact work team) organized into playgroups of 5 to 9 members.

Team of Two

Whether you work in a small startup or a multinational organisation, the reality is that a large part of your working day will be spent working in pairs and interacting on a one-to-one basis. Whether in-person, over email or on video chat, finding ways to work together more effectively is vital for effective teams.

Try this team building exercise to help empower your groups toward more effective communication skills and have more meaningful interpersonal relationships at work. As a member of a remote team, I’ve found this method to be personally useful time and time again.

Team of Two   #communication   #active listening   #issue analysis   #conflict resolution   #issue resolution   #remote-friendly   #team   Much of the business of an organisation takes place between pairs of people. These interactions can be positive and developing or frustrating and destructive. You can improve them using simple methods, providing people are willing to listen to each other. “Team of two” will work between secretaries and managers, managers and directors, consultants and clients or engineers working on a job together. It will even work between life partners.

What I Need From You (WINFY)

Some of the best team building activities focus on helping your group improve their teamwork skills and communicate and collaborate better as a team. A sometimes overlooked part of working as a team is clearly articulating what you need from other people and knowing how to ask for it.

What I Need From You is a team building method designed to help team members better articulate their core needs and be transparent with the group. This leads to a more cohesive team that works together with integrity and understanding.

What I Need From You (WINFY)   #issue analysis   #liberating structures   #team   #communication   #remote-friendly   People working in different functions and disciplines can quickly improve how they ask each other for what they need to be successful. You can mend misunderstandings or dissolve prejudices developed over time by demystifying what group members need in order to achieve common goals. Since participants articulate core needs to others and each person involved in the exchange is given the chance to respond, you boost clarity, integrity, and transparency while promoting cohesion and coordination across silos: you can put Humpty Dumpty back together again!

Team building games for problem solving

Teams often come together to solve collective problems as a group . Whether these are large projects or simply finding better ways to work together on a day-to-day basis, solving problems is something all teams should do – in or out of a conference room!

Improving problem solving skills with a game that asks for communication, collaboration and creative thinking is a wonderful way to bring everyone together. We love using these kinds of team building exercises to bring large groups together to solve a fun, simple problem.

By engaging team members in this way, they not only have fun, but they learn how to work together more effectively and reflect on how they can take that learning back to their day work.

In this section, we’ll look at team building exercises you can use to encourage creative thinking, build problem solving skills and teamwork in an experiential way!

Blind Square – Rope Game

Nothing energizes a team workshop like a seemingly simple problem that also gets everyone moving and engaged. In this team problem solving game, start by tying a length of rope into a circle and invite the participants to plan how to make the rope into a perfect square while blindfolded.

After planning time, team members is blindfolded and has ten minutes to form a perfect square. By debriefing afterwards, your group will find communication, planning and attention to detail are all important aspects of creative problem solving – all while having fun too!

Blind Square – Rope game   #teamwork   #communication   #teambuilding   #team   #energiser   #thiagi   #outdoor   This is an activity that I use in almost every teambuilding session I run–because it delivers results every time. I can take no credit for its invention since it has existed from long before my time, in various forms and with a variety of names (such as Blind Polygon). The activity can be frontloaded to focus on particular issues by changing a few parameters or altering the instructions.

Crocodile River

We love team building activities that challenge the group to work together in inventive ways and also help energize a workshop setting. Crocodile River is a team problem solving exercise that challenges team members to support one another physically as they look to move across a wide outdoor space and reach the finish line together.

By changing the setting and inviting problem solving and strategic thinking to solve a challenge, your group not only stretches their problem solving muscles but also works on team communication, leadership and cooperation. As with any more abstract team building game, be sure to debrief afterward for best results!

Crocodile River   #hyperisland   #team   #outdoor   A team-building activity in which a group is challenged to physically support one another in an endeavour to move from one end of a space to another. It requires working together creatively and strategically in order to solve a practical, physical problem. It tends to emphasize group communication, cooperation, leadership and membership, patience and problem-solving.

Classic team building games like Egg Drop offer tried and tested ways to encourage teams to solve problems together while improving the way they communicate. This game often generates a bunch of laughter and creative thinking too – how can we save this poor egg!

In this team problem solving activity, invite small groups to build a freestanding structure that can support the dropping of an egg from seven feet. Include some caveats and challenges to make it more difficult and encourage an even greater degree of team collaboration. Just make sure you bring a mop for afterwards!

Egg drop   #teampedia   #collaboration   #teamwork   #icebreaker   #team   This fun activity could be used as an icebreaker for people who have just met but it can be framed as a method that shows and fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well.

Helium Stick

Bringing team members together with problem solving activities that also encourages play can perform multiple functions. Not only do you encourage teamwork and the building of various team skills but you can have fun and promote laughter too.

Helium Stick is an example of a simple team building game that does double duty by encouraging fun, physical activity while introducing and exploring some core team building concepts. Ask the group to lower a long pole to the ground while keeping all of their fingers in contact with the pole at all times – more difficult than it first appears!

Helium Stick   #teampedia   #team   #teamwork   #icebreaker   #energiser   A great and simple activity for fostering teamwork and problem solving with no setup beforehand.

Lego Challenge

Creating something is often the purpose of bringing your team members together. Tap into the engaging process of co-creation and collaboration with this team building game using LEGO.

Building on the concept of LEGO Serious Play, this exercise is a great way of encouraging play, out-of-the-box thinking and creative approaches to existing problems. Additionally, each team member has a secret assignment which increases the challenge and encourages finding inventive ways to cooperate effectively and achieve both personal and team goals. 

LEGO Challenge   #hyperisland   #team   A team-building activity in which groups must work together to build a structure out of LEGO, but each individual has a secret “assignment” which makes the collaborative process more challenging. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, conflict, cooperation, patience and problem solving strategy.

Marshmallow Challenge with Debriefing 

Real-life challenges are often time-sensitive and need to be considered thoughtfully and pragmatically. Team building activities for work are especially effective when they help create this same sense of urgency while encouraging team work.

In just eighteen minutes, groups must build the tallest free-standing structure out of materials including: spaghetti, tape, string, and one marshmallow, placing this last item on top. In this version of the team building game, there’s a debriefing section which encourages reflection on the roles of everyone in the team. 

Marshmallow challenge with debriefing   #teamwork   #team   #leadership   #collaboration   In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Visit the Marshmallow Challenge website for more information. This version has an extra debriefing question added with sample questions focusing on roles within the team.

Getting outside and doing fun, physical activity can be a great way to bond teams and mix up a normal working routine. In this team problem solving game, participants are asked to work to make holes in a grid of string and rope that can safely and effectively accommodate everyone in the group getting through at once. Team members are not allowed to touch the string or rope and with diverse groups, the difficulty this presents makes for an interesting problem solving challenge for teams to solve. 

Spider web   #team   #teampedia   #warm up   #outdoor   #physical   This is an active team building game and requires participants to move about a lot and so can be also used as an energiser.

Stress Balls

At one point or another, most teams will be asked to perform effectively under pressure, whether that’s generated by internal or external stressors. By using team building games that help participants work together and communicate effectively even under difficult circumstances you can prepare your team members for almost anything!

Stress Balls is a fun game to help start exploring team resilience and problem solving under pressure, and it’s easy to run with large groups too! Start by simply passing a single ball around the room before adding more complex rules to help team members learn a valuable lesson about communication and teamwork!

Stress Balls   #energiser   #communication   #teamwork   #team   #thiagi   #action   #icebreaker   Understanding the importance of communication and teamwork is an important requirement for high performance teams of knowledge workers. This exercise is an effective energizer that requires communication and teamwork. Ask participants to form a circle and throw a ball around to simulate the movement of a message. Change different variables such as speed, quantity, and complexity to create a mess.

Scavenger Hunt

Activities that encourage groups to use teamwork and communication to achieve their goals are great ways to build team spirit. A classic scavenger hunt is a wonderful way to bring large groups together and have fun doing something a bit different!

Be sure to use office trivia, inside jokes or aspects of your company culture to inform this fun team building activity. You’ll find it much more effective if it’s tailored to your group. Bonus points if you can mix in activities that speak to the various departments or skillsets in the group during your scavenger hunt!

In the virtual-friendly version below, you’ll also find rules to help you run this activity with a remote team.

Virtual scavenger hunt   #energiser   #teambuilding   #remote-friendly   A fun team-building energiser that encourages groups to recreate the scavenger hunt experience in a fully remote environment! 

team-canvas-example

Team bonding activities

Mutual trust is a vital ingredient for any group of people working together, though it doesn’t always emerge organically. Taking the opportunity to build team bonds and create trust creates benefits for team connection, happiness and your company culture too!

While many of the fun team building activities above will bring your team together in some way, these methods are designed to expressly create better team bonds and build trust.

When working on improving team trust, we recommend being open about the goals of the exercise and encouraging the group to be honest . Being intentional during these activities can really help bring the group together!

Trust Battery

Great teamwork isn’t just about bringing a group of people together into the same space. Without honesty, openness, and trust, your team can’t collaborate effectively and can lead to frustration or frazzled relationships.

Trust Battery is a team building activity designed to help all members of your group reflect on their trust levels and rebuild those batteries with lower levels. By encouraging all members of a team to meaningfully reflect, you can enable better team collaboration and help your team feel closer and more cohesive too.

Trust Battery   #leadership   #teamwork   #team   #remote-friendly   This self-assessment activity allows you and your team members to reflect on the ‘trust battery’ they individually have towards each person on the team, and encourages focus on actions that can charge the depleted trust batteries.

Telling Our Stories

Everyone has a story to tell, though without a framework or guiding principles, surfacing those stories in a way that makes everyone feel safe and head can be tricky – especially for new teams. Team building activities that combine self reflection, sharing and structure are great for helping people to get to know each other deeply and build better bonds.

In Telling Our Stories, invite participants to reflect on childhood, young adulthood and today while answering questions on colored post-it notes. By sharing from the full gamut of our experiences, your team can get to know one another meaningfully and create trust too. 

Telling Our Stories   #hyperisland   #team   #teambuilding   To work effectively together team members need to build relations, show trust, and be open with each other. This method supports those things through a process of structured storytelling. Team members answer questions related to their childhood, young adulthood, and now; then weave them into a story to share with the rest of their team.

Better Connections

Great teamwork and collaboration is all about building stronger relationships and connections and this often means taking the time to see each other as more than just our job title. Once we get a fuller picture of who we are outside the office, everyone can feel more seen and understood. This is one of the cornerstones of team bonding and trust!

Encourage people who know each other the least to pair up and create space for meaningful reflection too – your team culture will thank you for it! It’s also a great way to improve communication skills and break down silos.

Better Connections   #interpersonal relationships   #teambuilding   #team   #connection   #thiagi   #get-to-know   We build a stronger relationship with people when we see them as human beings with whom we share similarities in terms of family and life situations. It is very difficult to form strong relationships with people about whom we know very little.We feel more connected to “full” people. For example, take John, the accountant. If I think of John as an accountant, I might put him into a box of what I think I know about accountants. I might not feel connected to accountants and will treat him accordingly. But when I think of John as a keen mountain climber and outdoor adventurer with two children, one of whom is graduating from university next month, then John becomes human to me, and I can feel connected to him.

Feedback: Current Strongest Impression

Giving and receiving feedback is a great team building activity that sees benefits long after your session. When we find ways to be more open with one another and say what we really think, the results can be transformative for any group.

This activity is a great one to bring to any event where you want to improve team bonding, as it creates a safe and simple way to start practicing more honest feedback. The next time you think about how to improve the way your team works together, think about whether you have a good feedback culture. The trust that good, open feedback can create is a fundamental part of any high performing team!

Feedback: Current Strongest Impression   #hyperisland   #skills   #feedback   Regular, effective feedback is one of the most important ingredients in building constructive relationships and thriving teams. Openness creates trust and trust creates more openness. Feedback exercises aim to support groups to build trust and openness and for individuals to gain self-awareness and insight. Feedback exercises should always be conducted with thoughtfulness and high awareness of group dynamics. This is a good first feedback exercise. It supports individuals to try out giving and receiving a very basic form of feedback in a safe way.

When a team doesn’t trust one another, the atmosphere and culture of a team suffers. Creating space to align and create a shared understanding of what trust means to your team is a great way to build team bonds and improve the way you all work together.

Start this activity by bringing together a set of trust cards containing characteristics, behaviours, attitudes, habits, values, and beliefs associated with trust in the workplace. Next, ask participants to create their own trust cards and move towards creating three core trust cards for your team.

By co-creating the output together, this team building activity is great for ensuring buy-in and creating long-lasting trust.

Trust   #thiagi   #issue analysis   #trust   One of the most important concepts in the workplace is trust. It affects performance, informal and formal relations, atmosphere of the workplace etc. With this activitiy you cn discover what one thinks about trust.

Translated Rant

Team building workshops are a great place to give your team room to have fun, vent and be honest with one another. Creating space for honesty while also building communication skills is the goal of this fun team building activity!

Split your group into pairs and have one person rant about a pet peeve for 60 seconds. Next, have the other person translate this rant while focusing on what the person really cares about. This kind of deep listening activity is fundamental to creating team trust, and sharing some of our annoyances in the group is great for building bonds too!

Translated Rant   #active listening   #emotions   #values   #trust   #conflict   #introductions   #opening   #connection   One person rants for 60 seconds. The second person translates their rant into what they care about and value.

team building essay question

Team building exercises for purpose and alignment

Even the best teams can have differences of opinion and approach. While different viewpoints and perspectives are useful in many situations, it’s also vital that everyone is aligned on team purpose and vision.

Aligning on how the team will work together is an important part of helping the team be happy, productive and pulling in the same direction.

In this section, we’ll look at team work activities to help improve team alignment and get everyone working towards the same purpose. Let’s get started!

Alignment & Autonomy

Activities that help improve each member of your team work more effectively and feel empowered to operate autonomously can be great for improving employee happiness and productivity. If we feel aligned on the core purpose and goals of our team while also being given the space to work in the way that is right for us, we can boost employee engagement and job satisfaction too! 

In Alignment & Autonomy, invite participants to reflect on times when they felt aligned and autonomous versus non-aligned and non-autonomous. By sharing, reflecting, and then ideating on solutions, your whole group can move forward together.

Alignment & Autonomy   #team   #team alignment   #team effectiveness   #hyperisland   A workshop to support teams to reflect on and ultimately increase their alignment with purpose/goals and team member autonomy. Inspired by Peter Smith’s model of personal responsibility. Use this workshop to strengthen a culture of personal responsibility and build your team’s ability to adapt quickly and navigate change.

Engineering Your Team OS

When seeking to improve teamwork, it can be useful to think of your team as a system with complex, interlocking parts which may need a gradual refresh and redesign. This kind of abstraction can help prevent discussions from becoming too personal or difficult and ensure that your team alignment efforts are a success.

In this activity, your team designs an ideal working system by making aspirational statements and then methodically chooses a single statement to work towards ahead of the next meeting. By making positive changes incrementally, your team can achieve alignment and better working practices in a meaningful and sustainable manner. 

Engineering Your Team OS   #team   #hyperisland   This is designed to work as a standalone workshop or as a companion to the Team Self-Assessment tool . Using reflections and insights on your working process, your team will ‘update’ its operating system by making deliberate choices about how to work together. The goal is gradual development, not a radical shift. You will design an ideal-state for your team and slowly work towards that.

Generative Relationships STAR

Better working relationships start with shared reflection and the discovery and discussion of existing working patterns. This team alignment activity invites participants to assess their team along four vertices: Separateness, Tuning, Action and Reason and jointly shape next steps and future actions.

By including the whole team in the alignment process from start to finish, you can get meaningful buy-in and see real results! We love using this on an online whiteboard too. It can be a great way to help remote workers consider their inter-personal relationships!

Generative Relationships STAR   #team   #liberating structures   #teamwork   You can help a group of people understand how they work together and identify changes that they can make to improve group performance. All members of the group diagnose current relationship patterns and decide how to follow up with action steps together, without intermediaries. The STAR compass tool helps group members understand what makes their relationships more or less generative. The compass used in the initial diagnosis can also be used later to evaluate progress in developing relationships that are more generative.

Team Canvas Session

Team alignment isn’t always straightforward. The more large, complex or multi-discipline your team is, the trickier it can be to help the group mesh and understand their roles and responsibilities to the team and each other.

In Team Canvas Session, you and your team create a shared visual resource for understanding and articulating your goals, values and roles of your team. It can be used for general alignment, for onboarding new team members and even for defining the structure and purpose of a brand new team – simply recreate or download the team canvas and get started today!

Team Canvas Session   #team alignment   #teamwork   #conflict resolution   #feedback   #teambuilding   #team   #issue resolution   #remote-friendly   The Team Canvas is Business Model Canvas for teamwork. It is an effective technique to facilitate getting teams aligned about their goals, values and purposes, and help team members find their role on the team.

Team Self Assessment

All groups need to go through a period of reflection and self-assessment in order to grow. But without structure or a guiding framework, these discussions can become bogged down or unproductive. With this reflective team building activity, you can enable a thoughtful and thorough team self-assessment along six guiding dimensions.

Start with individual reflection before bringing everyone back together to debrief and see what you’re aligned on and what needs more work. By then narrowing these down to the most important elements, you can align and enable better co-working practices quickly and efficiently!

Team Self-Assessment   #team   #hyperisland   #remote-friendly   This is a structured process designed for teams to explore the way they work together. The tight structure supports team members to be open and honest in their assessment. After reflecting as individuals, the team builds a collective map which can serve as the basis for further discussions and actions. The assessment is based around 6 dimensions. Each one encouraging the team to reflect and analyse a different and crucial element of their behaviour.

Letter from the Future

Without a cohesive shared vision, teams can become unproductive or harbor frustration on team direction. By spending time with visioning activities, you can help everyone push in the same direction while still utilizing their unique talents.

In Letter from the Future, invite your team to imagine all the changes that might impact them in the next 5 years and write a letter back from that point. Ask your team to cover what’s been accomplished in those five years, and what kind of challenges and obstacles were overcome to make this happen. Remember to remind teams that good letters have a beginning, middle, and end and that they should read clearly – this will help during the sharing and debriefing section of this method!

Letter from the Future   #strategy   #vision   #thiagi   #team   #teamwork   Teams that fail to develop a shared vision of what they are all about and what they need to do suffer later on when team members start implementing the common mandate based on individual assumptions. To help teams get started on the right foot, here is a process for creating a shared vision.

Team Purpose & Culture

Defining your team’s purpose and culture is an integral part of team building. By clearly articulating why your team exists and how you will all work together to fulfill that purpose, you can align and bring focus to all the work you do. This team values and vision activity aims to create a shared visual resource that your team can refer to in the future.

It also uses wisdom from other successful organizations to help enable meaningful conversation and move from individual purpose statements to a single one for the whole team. If you’re looking for a complete process that can guide your team values and vision efforts, this method from Hyper Island is worth a try!

Team Purpose & Culture   #team   #hyperisland   #culture   #remote-friendly   This is an essential process designed to help teams define their purpose (why they exist) and their culture (how they work together to achieve that purpose). Defining these two things will help any team to be more focused and aligned. With support of tangible examples from other companies, the team members work as individuals and a group to codify the way they work together. The goal is a visual manifestation of both the purpose and culture that can be put up in the team’s work space.

Checkout and recap activities for your team building workshop

The process of team building and enabling a group to work together more effectively can be involved and exhaustive.

As with any group process or workshop, taking the time to reflect, recap and check out can ensure the lasting impact of what was covered in the session.

You’ll often find that finding time to close team building activities creates space for further employee engagement and reflection. Getting team members involved in choosing the next activity or coming up with a theme for the next round of office trivia!

In this section, we’ll take a look at some great team building activities for closing a session and for recapping the main learning points. Let’s dive in!

Check-in / Check-out

Ensuring everyone in a group is present, focused and committed to the work of a session is a vital ingredient in making a team building session a success. With this workshop method from Hyper Island, you can not only start and end your session the right way, but you can help everyone in your group be seen, heard and understood by the rest of the team.

This is especially useful with a remote team, where ensuring clear connection between team members who don’t share a physical office is especially important.

This activity also helps encourage reflection and brings the workshop to an effective close – be sure to give it a try!

Check-in / Check-out   #team   #opening   #closing   #hyperisland   #remote-friendly   Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

The trip back from a team building event is a great place to share feedback and appreciate one another. Don’t have a bus? No worries! Create a few rows of chairs and simulate the experience for this reflective closing activity.

Once you’ve gotten the chairs of the bus set-up, ask participants to speak the person next to them and share: what they like about the other person, what they appreciate and what about the other person makes them happy. Speak for just 45 seconds each and then ask the group to switch seats.

Bus Trip   #feedback   #communication   #appreciation   #closing   #thiagi   #team   This is one of my favourite feedback games. I use Bus Trip at the end of a training session or a meeting, and I use it all the time. The game creates a massive amount of energy with lots of smiles, laughs, and sometimes even a teardrop or two.

One Breath Feedback

In particularly large teams, it can be tempting to forgo the closing activity or individual feedback steps just because it will take so long and it can be hard to maintain energy and interest. One Breath Feedback solves this problem by giving each participant the space of a single breath to check out and reflect on the session. By ensuring that everyone has room to speak and be heard while also placing a time limit on the reflection, you can cap off a team building workshop effectively and intelligently.

One breath feedback   #closing   #feedback   #action   This is a feedback round in just one breath that excels in maintaining attention: each participants is able to speak during just one breath … for most people that’s around 20 to 25 seconds … unless of course you’ve been a deep sea diver in which case you’ll be able to do it for longer.

Team building workshop templates

Building better teams often starts with designing an effective group process. Whether this takes the form of a workshop or meeting, you’ll want a balance of activities, ice breakers and reflective methods in order to help your group align and grow together.    

In this next section, we’ll take a look at some example processes with a complete workshop template you can use to get started. Let’s take a look.

Team development day for a new team

Helping new teams to bond and find a shared purpose and value system is often best achieved with a well designed group process. Try the team development day template when working with a brand new team or one which has seen large growth and is in need of development.

Here, you’ll find a complete one-day group process full of team building activities that can take a group from getting to know each other all the way through to defining their needs and making commitments. 

Team Development Day for a New Team
Emotional Culture Workshop

Good teams are empathetic and in touch with their emotions. Using the emotional culture deck , this workshop can be run in under 3 hours and helps your team define and improve working relationships and the emotional culture of your team.

Taking the time to articulate and define these items ensures that everyone in your group is seen, understood and valued, and that you have a shared language for moving forward.

Team Dynamics Workshop

Cohesive teams that work well together are those with an understanding about what makes a team and how it functions.

Support your team building activities with this half-day workshop template and guide your group through a process of understanding and building on the dynamics of working together. 

Team Dynamics Workshop Template

Team building sessions made easy

Designing an effective team building workshop means creating a balanced agenda of activities and group discussions while also keeping everything on time.

With SessionLab, you drag, drop and reorder blocks to build your agenda in minutes.

Your session timing adjusts automatically as you make changes and when you’re done, you can share a beautiful printout with your colleagues and participants.

Explore how teams use SessionLab to collaboratively design effective workshops and meetings or watch this five minute video to see the planner in action!

team building essay question

Over to you

Enabling better teamwork and building stronger, more cohesive teams isn’t easy. Whether you’re running a team building day, team workshop, or simply adding some team building activities to your meetings, we hope that some of the methods above can help you and your group come together and do better work. 

Got a team workshop to plan? Check out our complete guide to workshop planning to make the process a breeze. Want to start creating your agenda quickly? Use a meeting or workshop template to save time designing or get inspiration.

Which of these team building activities is your favourite? Is there anything missing from the list above? Let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear about how we can all improve our team building efforts.

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Hey there, Thank you so much for sharing this interesting stuff ! I will share these ideas with my HR Departments. And I am sure this blog will be very interesting for me. Keep posting your ideas!

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All the training techniques have been well thought pit, planned and illustrated with tangible objectives which in itself is incredible to say the least. Have learnt so much which O shall incorporate and refine in my Workshops…Than you Team Session Lab

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InterviewPrep

Top 20 Team Building Interview Questions & Answers

Master your responses to Team Building related interview questions with our example questions and answers. Boost your chances of landing the job by learning how to effectively communicate your Team Building capabilities.

team building essay question

Mastering the art of team building is essential for any leader looking to foster a collaborative, productive work environment. Whether you’re aspiring to facilitate workshops or lead corporate retreats, understanding the nuances of bringing people together to achieve common goals is key. As you prepare for interviews in this field, it’s important to not only reflect on your past experiences but also anticipate the types of questions that will test your expertise in uniting diverse groups.

To assist you in preparing for these critical discussions, we’ve assembled a collection of pertinent team building interview questions. These inquiries are designed to delve into your knowledge and experience with fostering teamwork, resolving conflicts, and creating an atmosphere where everyone feels valued and motivated. With our guidance on how to approach these questions thoughtfully, you’ll be well-equipped to demonstrate your capabilities as a team-building expert.

Common Team Building Interview Questions

1. how do you assess individual strengths when forming a team.

Recognizing and utilizing individual strengths within a team is crucial for maximizing efficiency and fostering innovation. By assigning tasks that align with each member’s unique abilities, a team can operate more cohesively and effectively. This skill is highly valued as it demonstrates foresight in leveraging diverse talents towards a common goal.

When responding, focus on your approach to getting to know your team members, which might include one-on-one conversations, observing their work, and reviewing past performance data. Discuss how you use this information to determine who is best suited for various tasks or roles, and how you balance individual preferences with team needs. It’s also valuable to mention how you foster an environment where team members can discover and develop their strengths, thus contributing to ongoing team dynamics and growth.

Example: “ In assessing individual strengths, I employ a multifaceted approach that begins with direct engagement through one-on-one conversations. This allows me to understand not only their self-perceived strengths but also their aspirations and areas where they seek growth. Concurrently, I observe their interactions and contributions in a group setting, which often reveals competencies like leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving, which may not surface in a personal dialogue.

I complement these qualitative insights with quantitative data from past performance metrics, which provide an objective baseline for their skills and achievements. Balancing these methods gives me a comprehensive view of each member’s capabilities and how they can synergize within the team. By aligning tasks and roles with individual strengths, I ensure that team members are engaged and positioned to excel, while also promoting an environment that encourages personal development and the discovery of latent talents. This dynamic approach not only optimizes team performance but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and adaptability.”

2. Describe an activity that quickly breaks the ice in a new team.

Creating a welcoming and collaborative environment is key to successful team building. Initiating the right activities can help break the ice, setting the stage for open communication and encouraging the sharing of ideas and perspectives, which are vital for innovation and problem-solving within a team.

When responding to this question, it’s crucial to describe an activity that is inclusive and engaging for all team members, regardless of their background or personality type. The activity should be designed to encourage participants to share something about themselves, thereby creating a foundation for personal connections and empathy. It’s beneficial to explain why the activity is effective and how it can lead to better teamwork. For instance, you might discuss a simple game that asks team members to share interesting facts about themselves, which can help to identify common interests and experiences that can serve as building blocks for a collaborative team culture.

Example: “ A highly effective ice-breaking activity for a new team is “Two Truths and a Lie.” This simple game requires each participant to share three statements about themselves—two of which are true, and one is a fabrication. The rest of the team then guesses which statement is the lie. This exercise serves multiple purposes: it’s a light-hearted way to learn about each other, it sparks curiosity, and it often leads to laughter and a relaxed atmosphere. Importantly, it doesn’t put anyone on the spot to reveal more than they’re comfortable sharing, as they control the content of their statements.

The effectiveness of “Two Truths and a Lie” lies in its ability to uncover unexpected commonalities and differences within the group, fostering a sense of connectedness and understanding. As team members engage in this activity, they practice active listening, respect for diversity, and empathy—key components of a cohesive team environment. The activity also subtly encourages strategic thinking as team members try to craft statements that are not easily decipherable, setting a tone of friendly competition and collaboration that can be beneficial for subsequent teamwork.”

3. What strategies do you employ to maintain team morale during challenging projects?

Sustaining team morale goes beyond keeping spirits high; it involves maintaining productivity and fostering collaboration, especially during high-stress projects. A leader’s strategies during these times are indicative of their understanding of group dynamics and their ability to inspire and motivate.

When responding to this question, candidates should highlight specific techniques they’ve employed in the past, such as regular check-ins to gauge team sentiment, transparent communication about project hurdles, recognition of individual and team efforts, and the facilitation of team-building activities that promote unity and relieve stress. Additionally, candidates should demonstrate an understanding of when to pivot strategies if the current approach isn’t working, showing adaptability and a commitment to the team’s well-being and success.

Example: “ To maintain team morale during challenging projects, I prioritize transparent communication and regular check-ins. This approach ensures that team members are aware of project developments and that their concerns or suggestions are heard and addressed promptly. By fostering an environment of openness, team members feel valued and more invested in the project’s success.

I also implement recognition practices to celebrate milestones, both big and small. Acknowledging individual contributions and team achievements reinforces a sense of purpose and appreciation, which is vital for morale. Additionally, I organize team-building activities tailored to the team’s interests and the project’s intensity. These activities serve as a pressure valve, allowing the team to decompress and bond, which in turn enhances collaboration and resilience. If these strategies do not yield the desired effect, I am prepared to reassess and pivot, perhaps by introducing more frequent feedback sessions or adjusting goals to be more achievable, ensuring that the team remains motivated and focused on the end goal.”

4. In what ways have you handled conflicts within a team setting?

Navigating conflicts within a team is a critical test of problem-solving, empathy, and communication skills. Effective conflict resolution is not just about resolving disputes but also about creating an environment where diverse ideas and personalities can thrive and contribute to the team’s success.

When responding, it’s vital to showcase specific examples that highlight your conflict resolution skills. Outline the situation succinctly, explain your role in the conflict, describe the steps you took to address the issue, and reflect on the outcome. Emphasize your listening skills, how you remained impartial, and the strategies you employed to ensure a fair resolution. Illustrate how the experience helped you learn and has since informed your approach to team dynamics.

Example: “ In addressing conflicts within a team setting, I’ve always prioritized open communication and active listening to understand the root causes of the disagreement. For instance, during a project where there was a significant clash between team members over resource allocation, I facilitated a mediation session. By creating a neutral space, I encouraged each party to voice their concerns without interruption, ensuring that all perspectives were heard and validated.

After gathering all viewpoints, I guided the team through a collaborative problem-solving process. This involved identifying common goals and utilizing interest-based negotiation techniques to shift the focus from positions to interests. By doing so, we were able to develop a compromise that acknowledged each member’s needs and advanced the project’s objectives. The resolution not only defused the immediate tension but also strengthened the team’s resilience and cohesiveness, as members felt more equipped and willing to handle future conflicts constructively.”

5. Share an example of how you’ve integrated diverse skill sets into a cohesive team unit.

Fostering a team with diverse skill sets is crucial for innovation and problem-solving. A leader must be adept at integrating these varying abilities, recognizing the unique contributions of each team member, and encouraging collaboration to enhance the team’s overall effectiveness.

When responding, it’s important to focus on a specific example that illustrates your ability to evaluate the distinct skills within a team. Describe how you identified these skills, and then explain the strategies you used to combine them in a way that benefited a project or the team’s overall performance. Emphasize the outcomes of your efforts, such as improved productivity, enhanced innovation, or a more harmonious work environment. Highlight any methods you used to ensure all team members felt valued and understood how their contributions fit into the larger team goals.

Example: “ In one project, I was tasked with assembling a team to tackle a complex marketing campaign which required a mix of creative, analytical, and strategic skills. I began by conducting individual interviews to understand each team member’s core competencies and areas of expertise. Recognizing that we had a blend of creative designers, data analysts, and strategic planners, I designed a workflow that allowed for iterative collaboration. I paired designers with analysts to ensure that our creative concepts were grounded in data-driven insights, and involved strategic planners early in the process to align our efforts with broader business objectives.

To capitalize on our diverse skill sets, I facilitated regular cross-functional meetings where each member could present their work and solicit feedback from the group. This not only fostered a culture of mutual respect but also sparked innovative ideas that would not have emerged in silos. The result was a campaign that exceeded our targets for customer engagement and ROI. Post-project reviews highlighted team members’ appreciation for the opportunity to step outside their traditional roles and learn from each other, which reinforced the value of integrating diverse skills into a cohesive unit.”

6. Detail a time when you had to rebuild team trust after it was compromised.

Rebuilding trust within a team showcases a leader’s ability to confront issues, guide the team toward healing, and restore confidence. This process is fundamental to effective collaboration and the overall success of projects, reflecting a leader’s emotional intelligence and conflict resolution skills.

When responding, it’s important to outline the situation with clarity, emphasizing the steps taken to identify the root cause of the trust breakdown. Discuss your process of engaging with the team, such as holding open discussions or one-on-one conversations, to understand their concerns and perspectives. Highlight your commitment to transparency, active listening, and your method for rebuilding trust, which may include setting new ground rules, follow-up meetings, or team-building activities. Conclude by sharing the positive outcomes that resulted from your efforts, like improved team dynamics or successful project completion.

Example: “ In one instance, trust within the team was compromised following a project that fell short of expectations, primarily due to miscommunication and a lack of accountability. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, I initiated a series of open discussions to provide a platform for team members to voice their concerns and experiences. It was crucial to approach these conversations with empathy and without placing blame, to foster an environment where honest feedback could be shared.

Through these dialogues, it became clear that unclear roles and responsibilities were at the heart of the issue. To address this, I facilitated a workshop to redefine roles, ensuring everyone understood their tasks and the importance of their contributions to the team’s success. I also implemented regular check-in meetings to monitor progress and provide support where needed, reinforcing a culture of transparency and collective responsibility. These actions not only restored trust but also strengthened the team’s cohesion, leading to a significant improvement in our subsequent projects, both in terms of process and outcomes.”

7. Which metrics do you track to gauge team effectiveness?

Measuring team performance through metrics is not just about collaboration; it’s about achieving results. Interviewers are interested in your approach to quantifying success, your analytical skills, and how you align team performance with organizational goals.

When responding, you should focus on the key performance indicators (KPIs) that are most relevant to the team’s objectives. These might include project completion rates, quality of work, customer satisfaction scores, team member productivity, and adherence to deadlines. Explain how these metrics have helped you identify areas for improvement, drive strategy, and celebrate successes, thus fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement within the team.

Example: “ To gauge team effectiveness, I prioritize a balanced scorecard of metrics tailored to our strategic goals. Project completion rates are critical, as they directly reflect our ability to deliver on commitments. I closely monitor the quality of work through client feedback and error rates, ensuring that our output meets the high standards expected by stakeholders.

Team member productivity is assessed through individual contributions to our collective goals, while adherence to deadlines serves as a barometer for our operational efficiency. These metrics are instrumental in pinpointing areas where processes can be optimized or where additional training may be necessary. By leveraging these KPIs, I’ve been successful in driving strategy, identifying opportunities for team development, and celebrating achievements that reinforce a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.”

8. Can you recall a situation where you turned around a disengaged team member’s performance?

Understanding and addressing the root causes of a team member’s disengagement is a subtle art. It requires emotional intelligence and the ability to empathize and intervene effectively to restore motivation and commitment within the team.

When responding to this question, it’s essential to outline a specific situation, detailing the signs of disengagement you observed and the steps you took to address it. Describe your approach to communication, whether you provided additional support or resources, how you involved the team member in finding a solution, and the outcome of your actions. Focus on conveying your ability to listen, your patience, and your strategic thinking in re-engaging the team member, as well as the positive impact this had on the team’s overall performance.

Example: “ In one instance, I noticed a team member’s engagement and productivity had noticeably declined. They were missing deadlines and their usual enthusiasm was absent. Recognizing these signs, I scheduled a one-on-one meeting to open a dialogue and understand the root of the issue. During our conversation, it became clear that they felt their skills were underutilized and they were struggling with some personal challenges that affected their work.

To address this, I worked with them to realign their role to better match their strengths and interests, ensuring they felt valued and understood. I also connected them with resources to support their personal situation. We set clear, achievable goals and I increased my check-ins to provide guidance and recognize their progress. This personalized approach rekindled their motivation and, within weeks, their performance improved significantly. Their renewed energy and commitment had a contagious effect on the team, enhancing overall morale and productivity.”

9. Outline steps you take to ensure all voices are heard during team meetings.

Promoting inclusivity in team meetings ensures that all voices are heard, tapping into the collective intelligence of the group. This approach prevents groupthink and fosters an environment where team members feel valued and confident in contributing.

When responding, outline a clear and structured approach. Begin with setting ground rules for meetings that encourage participation, such as a round-robin speaking order or a no-interruption policy. Discuss the use of collaborative tools or techniques like brainstorming sessions or anonymous suggestion boxes that can make it easier for quieter team members to share their ideas. Mention how you actively engage with more reserved individuals by asking for their input directly, and how you manage dominant personalities to maintain balance. Highlight your commitment to follow-up on discussions, ensuring that all team members feel their contributions are taken seriously and have an impact on team decisions.

Example: “ To ensure all voices are heard during team meetings, I establish ground rules that promote equitable participation. This includes a round-robin format for sharing ideas, which prevents dominant personalities from monopolizing the conversation and ensures that each member has a dedicated time to speak. Additionally, I implement a no-interruption policy to foster a respectful environment where team members feel safe to express their thoughts.

I also leverage collaborative tools like shared digital whiteboards for brainstorming, which allows for real-time, visual collaboration, and anonymous feedback platforms, enabling those who may be less comfortable speaking up to contribute their insights. Recognizing that some individuals may be more reflective, I make a point to directly solicit input from quieter team members, ensuring they are provided with the opportunity to prepare and present their thoughts. After meetings, I prioritize follow-up on the ideas discussed, demonstrating that every contribution is valued and has the potential to influence our team’s direction. This approach not only empowers all team members to have a voice but also cultivates a culture of inclusivity and mutual respect.”

10. Provide an instance where cross-functional team collaboration led to greater success.

Harnessing the collective intelligence of cross-functional teams is essential for complex projects. This question evaluates a candidate’s experience in driving success through collaboration across different departments and navigating the inherent challenges.

To respond, choose a specific project where cross-functional collaboration was key. Detail the roles of the different team members involved, the challenges faced, and how you facilitated communication and cooperation among them. Emphasize the positive outcomes of the collaboration, such as increased efficiency, innovation, or revenue, and reflect on what you learned from the experience about managing diverse teams.

Example: “ In a project aimed at developing a new software platform, we brought together a cross-functional team comprising software developers, UX/UI designers, quality assurance testers, and marketing professionals. The developers were focused on creating robust code, the designers on ensuring an intuitive user experience, and the marketing team on preparing a launch strategy that would resonate with our target audience. Initially, the team faced challenges in aligning their different priorities and communication styles.

To facilitate effective collaboration, I initiated regular inter-departmental meetings where each team member could share updates and provide feedback on the project from their perspective. This not only fostered a shared understanding of the project goals but also allowed for the identification of potential integration issues early on. By encouraging open dialogue and leveraging each team member’s expertise, we were able to innovate solutions that would have been overlooked in siloed teams. The result was a software platform that was not only technically sound but also user-friendly and well-received in the market, leading to a 25% increase in customer acquisition within the first quarter post-launch. This experience reinforced the value of cross-functional collaboration in driving innovation and achieving superior results.”

11. Illustrate how you adapt leadership style according to different team dynamics.

Adapting leadership styles to the unique needs of a team is a hallmark of effective leadership. This approach requires emotional intelligence and the flexibility to foster a productive environment where each member feels valued and motivated.

When responding, candidates should draw on specific examples from their past experiences where they’ve shifted their leadership style to suit different team needs. For instance, they might discuss how they transitioned from a directive approach to a more collaborative one when the team was composed of highly experienced professionals. Conversely, they might illustrate a situation where they adopted a more hands-on, coaching style for a team that was new or lacking in confidence. The key is to demonstrate an understanding of the impact of these adjustments on team performance and morale.

Example: “ In one project, I encountered a team of seasoned experts who were highly autonomous and skilled in their respective fields. Recognizing their expertise, I shifted from a directive to a facilitative leadership style, focusing on enabling communication and collaboration rather than dictating processes. This approach fostered a sense of ownership among team members, which led to innovative solutions and a high level of engagement.

Conversely, when leading a team that was less experienced and somewhat hesitant, I adopted a coaching style. I provided structured guidance and set clear goals, while also encouraging individual development through skill-building tasks. This not only built the team’s confidence but also helped to establish a strong foundation of trust and respect. In both scenarios, adapting my leadership style was crucial to align with the team’s needs, which ultimately enhanced performance and cohesion.”

12. What is your approach to delegating tasks among team members effectively?

Delegating tasks effectively is a critical managerial skill that involves understanding team members’ strengths, weaknesses, and capacities. It reflects a leader’s trust in others and their ability to empower the team towards achieving common goals.

When responding, outline a clear strategy that includes evaluating the skills and interests of team members, considering the complexity of tasks, and matching them accordingly. Highlight your communication methods to ensure clarity in expectations and deadlines. Share examples of how you’ve monitored progress and provided feedback, and how you’ve used delegation as a tool for mentoring and encouraging autonomy in your team. Your answer should convey that you are thoughtful and strategic in your delegation, enhancing team efficiency and morale.

Example: “ In delegating tasks, my primary focus is on aligning individual competencies and aspirations with the needs of the project. I start by thoroughly understanding each team member’s strengths, areas for growth, and professional interests. This knowledge allows me to assign responsibilities that not only play to their strengths but also challenge them and contribute to their development.

Once I’ve matched tasks with team members, I set clear expectations and measurable outcomes to ensure accountability. Communication is key, so I establish open channels for dialogue, encouraging team members to voice concerns or seek guidance. This approach not only clarifies the objectives but also fosters a collaborative environment where everyone is invested in the project’s success.

Monitoring progress is a continuous process, where I provide constructive feedback and adjust task allocations as necessary. This dynamic approach ensures that delegation serves as a catalyst for skill enhancement and promotes a sense of autonomy, ultimately boosting team morale and efficiency.”

13. Give an example of a successful team turnaround you’ve led and the key factors involved.

Turning around a struggling team is a true test of leadership, requiring strategic realignment and the ability to motivate and inspire collective buy-in. This question probes a candidate’s problem-solving skills and their capacity to improve team dynamics.

When responding, recount a specific situation where you identified a team’s shortcomings and the steps you took to address them. Highlight your strategic thinking, the actions implemented, and how you communicated with the team to encourage their commitment to change. Demonstrate your understanding of team dynamics by discussing the interpersonal challenges faced and the methods used to overcome them, showcasing the end results and lessons learned.

Example: “ In a recent project, I was tasked with revitalizing a team that was underperforming due to low morale and lack of clear direction. Recognizing the issues, I initiated a series of one-on-one conversations to understand individual concerns and to rebuild trust. This direct communication allowed me to identify common themes, such as a feeling of disconnect from the project’s goals and a lack of recognition for individual contributions.

To address these issues, I realigned the team around a shared vision by facilitating a workshop where everyone could contribute to the project’s objectives, ensuring their voices were heard and valued. I also implemented a transparent system for tracking progress and celebrating milestones, which provided the team with a sense of achievement and momentum. These steps, coupled with consistent feedback loops and the empowerment of team members to take ownership of their tasks, led to a significant improvement in both productivity and team cohesion. The turnaround was evidenced not only by the successful completion of the project but also by the positive shift in the team’s engagement and collaborative spirit, which was sustained in subsequent initiatives.”

14. How do you cultivate a culture of continuous improvement within a team?

Instilling a culture of continuous improvement is vital for long-term success. It speaks to a leader’s ability to inspire growth and adaptability, and it examines their commitment to setting higher standards and encouraging proactive problem-solving.

When answering this question, focus on concrete strategies that you’ve implemented or would implement to encourage your team’s growth. You might discuss how you set clear, achievable goals and provide regular feedback, or how you lead by example in seeking out learning opportunities. Emphasize the importance of creating an environment where team members are comfortable voicing their ideas and concerns, and how you facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing. Share specific instances where your efforts led to measurable improvements in team performance or morale.

Example: “ Cultivating a culture of continuous improvement within a team begins with establishing a clear vision of excellence that aligns with the team’s objectives. I implement a framework of SMART goals to provide focus and direction, ensuring that each team member understands how their individual contributions advance the collective mission. Regular feedback loops are integral to this process; I facilitate open and honest communication through structured retrospectives where successes are celebrated and opportunities for growth are identified collaboratively.

Leading by example, I continuously seek out professional development opportunities and share insights with the team, fostering an atmosphere where learning is both encouraged and expected. This approach not only keeps me informed about the latest industry trends and best practices but also demonstrates my personal commitment to growth, inspiring the team to pursue their own learning paths. By recognizing and rewarding initiative and innovation, I create an environment where team members feel empowered to experiment and share their ideas without fear of failure. This empowerment, coupled with a supportive structure for implementing and tracking improvements, has consistently led to enhanced team performance, adaptability, and a proactive mindset that thrives on challenge and change.”

15. When introducing new processes to a team, how do you secure buy-in from all members?

Securing buy-in for new processes is crucial for successful implementation. This question uncovers a candidate’s change management skills and their ability to persuade team members to embrace new ways of working by addressing concerns and aligning with team goals.

When responding, it’s vital to outline a clear strategy that includes actively listening to team members’ feedback, clearly explaining the rationale behind the change, and being transparent about the process and its potential impact. Discuss the importance of engaging the team early on, possibly even involving them in the design of the new process to ensure it aligns with their work practices and addresses their needs. Highlight past experiences where you’ve successfully navigated change, the steps you took to facilitate the transition, and the positive outcomes that resulted from securing team buy-in. This approach not only demonstrates your leadership skills but also your commitment to team cohesion and success.

Example: “ Securing buy-in when introducing new processes starts with understanding the perspectives and concerns of team members. I engage with the team early, presenting the vision and the strategic importance of the change. This dialogue is crucial for acknowledging their expertise and incorporating their input, which often leads to a more refined and accepted process. By demonstrating how the new process aligns with our collective goals and showing empathy for the adjustments required, I create a sense of shared ownership and commitment.

In past experiences, I’ve facilitated workshops where team members could simulate the new process, providing a hands-on understanding of its benefits and challenges. This participatory approach not only demystifies the change but also empowers the team to be change advocates. I’ve found that transparent communication, coupled with a supportive transition plan that includes training and resources, significantly reduces resistance. The result is a smoother implementation, with team members who feel valued and are more likely to contribute positively to the new process.”

16. What techniques do you use to encourage creative thinking in a group setting?

Encouraging a team’s collective creativity is key to innovation. Employers value individuals who can inspire creativity and direct it towards productive outcomes, leveraging the team’s diversity of thought to prevent stagnation.

To respond to this question, focus on specific methods you’ve employed in the past, such as brainstorming sessions, mind mapping, or design thinking workshops. Discuss how you create a safe space for all members to contribute, perhaps by setting ground rules that prevent criticism during the initial idea generation phase. You could also mention any techniques you use to build on others’ ideas, such as the ‘Yes, and…’ approach, and tools you’ve used to capture and develop these ideas further. Emphasize how you measure the effectiveness of these techniques through the successful implementation of new ideas or improvements in the team’s problem-solving capabilities.

Example: “ To foster creative thinking within a group, I implement structured brainstorming sessions, where the focus is on quantity over quality in the initial stages. This technique is grounded in the principle that a large pool of ideas, even far-fetched ones, can later be refined into innovative solutions. I facilitate these sessions by encouraging an open, non-judgmental atmosphere, using the ‘Yes, and…’ approach to build on each participant’s contributions. This not only amplifies the creative synergy but also ensures that all voices are heard, fostering a sense of inclusivity and collective ownership over the ideas generated.

In addition, I employ mind mapping tools to visually organize thoughts and identify connections between seemingly disparate ideas. This visual approach often reveals novel pathways for innovation that might not be immediately apparent through verbal discussion alone. The effectiveness of these techniques is evident when the group moves from ideation to the implementation phase with a suite of actionable and innovative solutions. I gauge success by the team’s ability to tackle complex problems with a diverse set of strategies and the tangible improvements these solutions bring to the project or organization.”

17. How would you integrate remote workers effectively into existing teams?

Integrating remote workers into teams requires a strategic approach to ensure inclusion and alignment with goals. It’s important to understand the unique dynamics of remote work, such as potential isolation and communication barriers.

When responding to this question, it’s important to convey a clear plan that demonstrates your ability to foster a unified team culture regardless of physical location. Discuss specific tools and practices you would use to facilitate communication, such as regular video conferences, collaborative online platforms, and virtual team-building activities. Emphasize the importance of setting clear expectations for availability and responsiveness, and share examples of how you would encourage informal interactions to build personal connections among team members. Highlight your commitment to inclusivity by ensuring remote workers have equal access to information and opportunities to contribute to team decisions and projects.

Example: “ To effectively integrate remote workers into existing teams, I would first ensure that all team members have access to a robust suite of communication and collaboration tools. This includes platforms for video conferencing, real-time document collaboration, and project management software that allows for transparent tracking of responsibilities and progress. Regular video conferences would be scheduled not only for formal meetings but also for casual ‘virtual coffee breaks’ to foster informal interactions and relationship building.

I would set clear expectations for availability and responsiveness, creating guidelines that respect different time zones while ensuring that remote workers are included in key discussions and decision-making processes. It’s crucial to establish a rhythm of daily or weekly check-ins to maintain alignment and provide a forum for remote workers to voice their ideas and concerns.

To reinforce a sense of belonging and inclusivity, I would implement virtual team-building activities tailored to engage remote workers meaningfully. For example, I might organize online workshops, remote-friendly games, or group challenges that emphasize collaboration and creativity. By doing so, I aim to cultivate a team culture that values each member’s contribution equally, regardless of their physical location, and promotes a cohesive, high-performing team dynamic.”

18. What methods do you apply to monitor and address team workload balance?

Balancing team workloads to prevent burnout is a priority for employers. They seek candidates who can manage team dynamics thoughtfully, ensuring equitable task distribution and utilizing tools for tracking progress.

When responding, a candidate should outline specific strategies and tools they use for monitoring workloads, such as project management software or regular check-ins. They should discuss how they assess the team’s capacity for work, adjust responsibilities based on individual team members’ strengths and bandwidth, and how they foster open communication to ensure issues are addressed promptly. It’s also beneficial to mention how they provide support and resources to the team to prevent burnout and maintain high morale.

Example: “ To effectively monitor and address team workload balance, I employ a combination of project management software and regular, structured check-ins. Utilizing software like Asana or JIRA, I can visualize each team member’s tasks and deadlines, which allows for a transparent overview of who may be overburdened or underutilized. This real-time data is critical for making informed decisions on workload distribution.

During check-ins, I focus on open communication, encouraging team members to voice concerns about their workload or capacity. This dialogue is essential for gauging not just the quantity of work but also the complexity and emotional toll it may take. Based on these insights, I adjust responsibilities to align with individual strengths and current bandwidth, ensuring a more equitable distribution of tasks. Moreover, I prioritize the provision of support and resources, such as training or additional manpower, to mitigate the risk of burnout and maintain a healthy, productive team environment.”

19. Share your experience with using technology to enhance team collaboration.

Leveraging technology is essential for team collaboration and peak performance in today’s work environment. Employers assess candidates’ familiarity with collaboration tools and their adaptability to use technology innovatively within a team.

When responding, highlight specific platforms or tools you’ve used, such as project management software, communication apps, or file-sharing systems. Explain how these technologies facilitated better teamwork, improved productivity, or even resolved particular challenges. Share a success story that illustrates your ability to integrate technology into team processes effectively, demonstrating your role in enhancing overall team performance.

Example: “ In leveraging technology for team collaboration, I’ve found that the strategic use of project management tools like Asana and Trello, coupled with real-time communication platforms such as Slack, has been instrumental in streamlining workflows and enhancing team synergy. For instance, by integrating Slack with Asana, our team was able to receive instant updates on project milestones, which significantly improved our response times and decision-making processes. This integration enabled a transparent and dynamic environment where team members could track progress and accountability in real-time, fostering a culture of open communication and collective responsibility.

A particularly successful application of technology was during a complex project that involved cross-functional teams. By utilizing a shared cloud-based file system like Google Drive alongside our project management software, we ensured that all team members had up-to-date access to relevant documents and resources. This not only eliminated the bottlenecks typically associated with email-based document sharing but also facilitated a more cohesive and efficient review process. The result was a 20% reduction in project completion time, underscoring the effectiveness of these technologies in enhancing team collaboration and productivity.”

20. Describe a scenario where you had to motivate a team under tight deadlines without additional resources.

Motivating a team under tight deadlines and limited resources is a critical leadership skill. Employers are interested in a candidate’s ability to maintain morale, leverage strengths, and allocate resources strategically to meet objectives without compromising work quality.

To respond, one should highlight a specific instance where they successfully rallied their team under similar constraints. The answer should detail the communication approach taken, the methods used to prioritize tasks, and how individual strengths were utilized. It’s important to demonstrate an understanding of the team’s dynamics and to reflect on any lessons learned from the experience that could be applied to future challenging situations.

Example: “ In a scenario where a project’s deadline was looming and resources were fixed, I recognized the importance of clear, transparent communication and the strategic allocation of existing resources to maintain team motivation. I convened a meeting to openly discuss the challenges, setting the stage for a collaborative approach. By fostering an environment where team members felt heard and their concerns validated, I was able to harness their collective commitment to the project’s success.

I facilitated a prioritization exercise, where we collectively identified critical path tasks and allocated them according to individual team members’ strengths and expertise. This not only ensured an efficient workflow but also instilled a sense of ownership and personal responsibility for the project’s outcome. Throughout the process, I maintained an open-door policy for any team member needing support, and I provided regular progress updates to keep the team aligned and motivated. This approach led to the successful completion of the project on time, and it reinforced the team’s ability to perform under pressure, a lesson that has since been integrated into our standard operating procedures for future tight-deadline scenarios.”

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100 Team-Building Questions for Stronger Team Bonds

Maggie Tully

Teams with the strongest relationships often have the most successful outcomes and highest levels of productivity, as team members feel comfortable leaning on one another for support. 

But for many teams, conflict and differences of opinion can drive a wedge in team dynamics, which can easily begin to impact your team’s efficiency and quality of work. So, how can you prevent this from occurring? 

Well, strengthening relationships using team-building questions is a good place to start. Asking questions that allow team members to bond over their commonalities and understand one another on a deeper level can lead to improved teamwork. 

Fortunately, we’ve compiled a list of 100 different questions for team-building to help you out. Let’s take a look.

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What are team-building questions? 

As a team leader, you should treat team-building questions as an opportunity to help team members get to know each other while also prompting creative conversations on various topics. While not all of these questions are work-related, they can help people find common ground, which will ultimately strengthen your team. 

Team-building questions can vary widely in terms of their purpose. But overall, they serve as a team-building activity that allows people to get to know one another in a very low-stakes context. They provide an opportunity for everyone to share information about themselves, even if they might ordinarily be more quiet or reserved. 

Benefits of asking team-building questions

Why waste time on team-building questions that oftentimes have nothing to do with work? Well, good team leaders know that building strong relationships among team members is key to improving team outcomes . 

In case you’re still not convinced let’s take a look at a few of the top benefits of integrating team-building questions into your project activities: 

Improves communication

Some teams — especially ones that are remote or hybrid — often struggle with effective communication . Starting team meetings with a few team-building questions can help start a casual dialogue that encourages communication in other work areas. 

Illustration of team communication

Promotes trust

Team-building questions and exercises help team members find common ground, which strengthens their relationships with one another. This typically makes people feel more comfortable working together and leaning on each other for support. 

Illustration of trust

Related: 12 Ways to Improve Team Accountability [Remote & Onsite]

Increases creativity

Some team-building questions are more creative, prompting participants to broaden their thinking. Hearing team members’ answers also encourages them to consider alternative perspectives that could result in more creative project outcomes . 

Helps in avoiding conflict

Team-building questions provide a glimpse into coworkers’ personalities and modes of thinking, which can be incredibly helpful when navigating situations that may result in conflict. 

Also read: The Secret to Successful Cross-Functional Collaboration

How to integrate team-building questions into your team’s routines

We’ve all been asked icebreaker questions — usually when you find yourself in a new context with people you’ve never met before. 

But, contrary to popular belief, these types of questions don’t need to be reserved for these rare occasions when you’re meeting a large group of new people. Instead, asking your team icebreaker questions on a regular basis can be a fun and beneficial activity. 

You might be wondering how you can introduce these questions regularly in a casual way. Here are a few ideas: 

  • Write a question of the day on an office whiteboard and encourage your team to record their answer underneath. 
  • Occasionally ask icebreaker questions in company Slack channels. You could even create a channel solely dedicated to team building, providing a space where people can regularly engage with these questions. Tools like Slack also allow you to set up polls for further team engagement. 
  • Ask a team-building question at the beginning of your weekly team meetings . 
  • Encourage your team members to go on virtual or in-person coffee breaks with each other so they can ask some of these icebreaker questions and get to know one another. 
  • Incorporate team-building questions into conversations during team outings, whether that be company happy hours or an employee retreat. 
  • Start your performance review meetings with questions that can help relieve stress or encourage employees to consider their role within the team. 

Categories of team-building questions

There are endless possibilities regarding the team-building questions you can ask your team members. Be mindful that the cultural background of each team member might impact how comfortable they are answering certain questions.  

Don’t forget that situational context will have a large impact on which questions are appropriate to ask too. For example, personal questions might feel out of place during casual conversations. 

For this reason, we’ve broken our questions down into 10 different categories with 10 questions within each to give you a variety of options to choose from. 

General icebreaker team-building questions 

When asking questions for team building, general icebreaker questions are a good place to start. These tend to strike a balance between funny, personal, and serious and are a great way to bring people together who have never met before. 

  • If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?
  • What’s the number one thing on your bucket list? 
  • What emoji most describes your personality? 
  • If you could have a dinner party with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why? 
  • What’s one of your unpopular opinions? 
  • What cartoon character do you most relate to and why?
  • Which time period would you most want to live in? 
  • If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three items would you bring with you?
  • Are you a cat or dog person? Do you have any pets?
  • If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you’d buy?

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Serious team-building questions 

From dream job to greatest achievement, there’s a lot that you can learn by asking your team more serious team-building questions. These types of questions tend to be more reflective and may have more of a professional tone. 

Illustration of critical thinking

Because these questions tend to have more substance, they’re helpful in building trust and paving the way for more meaningful relationships. The following questions might also be insightful to include during interviews with potential job candidates. 

  • What’s your greatest professional achievement? 
  • What was your dream job when you were younger? 
  • How do you approach work on days when you’re not feeling motivated or inspired? 
  • What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? 
  • What strategy do you use to overcome challenges at work? 
  • How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? 
  • What’s a skill you’re currently working on developing? 
  • What motivates you? 
  • Have you ever experienced a career setback that you had to bounce back from? 
  • What’s a personal habit or routine that’s contributed to your career success? 

Personal background questions 

Think of personal background questions as an opportunity to learn more about where each team member was raised, the unique experiences they’ve had, or what they’re passionate about outside of work. These questions should still be lighthearted and should avoid delving into overly personal matters. 

  • Where did you grow up?
  • Have you had any interesting or unique jobs before joining our team?
  • What do you enjoy doing outside of work? 
  • How do you like to unwind after a busy day?
  • Do you have any siblings? 
  • Favorite family tradition?
  • Do you speak any other languages? 
  • Are you a morning person or a night person?
  • Are there any mentors who have influenced your career or personal development? 
  • What’s your earliest childhood memory?

'Would you rather' team-building questions

Would you rather questions tend to be some of the best conversation starters since the answers are so subjective and will differ by team member. 

Because these questions aren’t personal, they might be good to include at the beginning of team meetings or on an office whiteboard to encourage discussion and engagement. 

  • Would you rather eat your favorite food for every meal for the rest of your life or never eat your favorite food again? 
  • Would you rather have the ability to fly or be invisible?
  • Would you rather have a time machine that only goes to the past or one that only goes to the future?
  • Would you rather live in a world of perpetual summer or perpetual winter?
  • Would you rather be the funniest person in the room or the most intelligent?
  • Would you rather be a contestant on a dating reality show or a survival reality show? 
  • Would you rather be able to teleport anywhere instantly or read minds?
  • Would you rather be able to speak and understand every language or master every musical instrument?
  • Would you rather explore the depths of the ocean or outer space?
  • Would you rather be able to run at 100 miles per hour or fly at 10 miles per hour?

Funny team-building questions 

In the same vein as would you rather questions, funny team-building questions are an excellent way to ease tensions and encourage laughter. Keep in mind that every team member will likely have a different sense of humor, so picking the right questions for your team is important. 

  • What's your most embarrassing childhood fashion choice or hairstyle?
  • What’s your most memorable "you had to be there" moment?
  • If you were a food, what food item would you be, and why?
  • Do you have a favorite knock-knock joke?
  • What’s a weird food combination that you enjoy? 
  • If you were a potato, how would you be prepared? 
  • Would you rather have to dance everywhere you go or have to sing everything you say?
  • If your life had a blooper reel, what would be the funniest blooper on it?
  • Would you rather have to always wear a clown wig or oversized clown shoes for the rest of your life?
  • If you could have a conversation with any inanimate object, what would it be, and what would you ask it?

Entertainment team-building questions 

Entertainment-themed questions can help your team identify commonalities in terms of the books they read, the shows they watch, or what their favorite movie is. Questions about pop culture might also fall into this category. 

  • What’s your guilty pleasure TV show? 
  • What’s one movie that should not have had a sequel? 
  • What’s your favorite book? 
  • What was the last concert you attended? 
  • Do you listen to podcasts? What are your top favorites? 
  • What famous person would you cast to play you in a movie about your life? 
  • What’s your go-to karaoke song? 
  • What’s the last TV show you binge-watched? 
  • What’s your favorite board game to play with friends? 
  • Have you ever had a memorable celebrity encounter? 

Values-based team-building questions 

Values-based questions tend to be more thought-provoking questions that provide insight into each team member’s sense of purpose and their view on life. These questions are often serious, so they might not be appropriate for lighthearted, casual environments. 

  • What’s one thing you wish you could change about the world? 
  • How do you define happiness?
  • If you were running for president, what would your campaign slogan be? 
  • What’s a personal motto or philosophy that guides your decisions and actions? 
  • What’s a value or belief you have that has changed or evolved over time? 
  • Is there a social or environmental cause that you’re passionate about? 
  • What do you view as the most important quality in a friend? 
  • Do you volunteer?
  • What’s the most valuable life lesson you’ve learned in the last year? 
  • What teacher in school had the biggest impact on you and why? 

Travel team-building questions 

Travel is a passion for many people, and as such, it can be a great way to foster connections among your team and share stories and experiences. Here are a few ideas of questions to ask. 

  • What’s your dream travel destination?
  • If you could spend a year living in any city in the world, where would you choose?
  • What's your favorite mode of travel: road trips, flights, or train journeys?
  • Do you prefer a trip to the mountains or beach? 
  • What’s a unique cultural tradition or festival you've experienced during your travels?
  • What's the most challenging travel experience you've had, and what did you learn from it?
  • What’s your favorite trip you’ve ever been on?
  • Is there a unique food or dish you've tried during your travels that you loved? 
  • What's the best piece of travel advice you've ever received or would offer to someone planning a trip?
  • What's the most unusual souvenir you've ever brought back from a trip?

Debatable team-building questions 

Debatable team-building questions serve to encourage healthy debate among team members. There’s no right answer to any of the following questions, and yet, many people feel strongly about their answers. 

  • Should a hot dog be considered a sandwich or a taco? 
  • Which should you pour first, cereal or milk? 
  • How many holes does a straw have?
  • Does pineapple belong on pizza?
  • Is water wet? 
  • What came first, the chicken or the egg? 
  • Can you cry underwater? 
  • Can a pop-tart be considered a type of ravioli? 
  • Is cereal a soup?
  • If a tree falls in the woods when nobody is there, does it make a sound? 

'If you could' team-building questions

These questions encourage creativity, as they encourage your team to put reality aside and consider scenarios they’ve likely never thought of before. Your team’s answers will showcase their values and personalities.  

  • If you could be a fictional character from a book, movie, or TV show, who would you be?
  • If you could have any job for a day, what would it be?
  • If you could meet your future self, what would you ask them?
  • If you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would it be?
  • If you could be the best in the world at something, what would you choose?
  • If you could spend a day as a professional athlete, which sport would you choose?
  • If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
  • If you could eliminate one global issue, what would it be?
  • If you could have a pet from any species, which would you choose?
  • If you could invent a new technology, what would it be?

All in all, asking icebreaker questions is a great way to encourage team building. Whether you’re looking to encourage connections with a new team member or help your entire team deepen their connections with one another, hopefully, these 100 questions will prove useful. 

And if you’re looking for project management software to help keep your team’s work organized, Rodeo Drive can help you out. The tool allows you to create budgets for projects, plan your team’s activities , track time , and access reports on your team’s performance. 

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How to Create an Effective Team Building Questionnaire in 2024 (with Examples)

Questionnaire on Team Building

Pro-Tip from The Assist : The team-building activity that shatters communication barriers: Learning new languages together. Treat your staff to group language classes. Target the most-spoken languages (other than English) at your company and encourage everyone to continue practicing together after the lesson. People who speak other languages will feel more welcomed, and everyone will enjoy expanding their communication capabilities.

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Tips on Creating an Effective Questionnaire on Team Building:

1. Keep it short and sweet. No one wants to spend hours filling out a questionnaire. Stick to the basics and ask only what you need to know.

2. Be clear and concise in your survey questions. Avoid ambiguity by being as specific as possible.

3. Make sure your questions are relevant to the event.

4. Give employees the option to skip questions they don’t want to answer. Some respondents may not be comfortable sharing certain information, so it’s important to give them the option to opt out.

5. Offer incentives for completing the questionnaire. You’d be surprised how much this motivates employees to complete it.

How to Send Out a Questionnaire on Team Building

1. Decide what format you want to use for your questionnaire. An online survey is often the most accessible and most convenient option to evaluate team dynamics and remote teams .

2. Draft your questions and send them to a few employees to get feedback. This will help you fine-tune your questionnaire before sending it out to the entire team.

3. Send out the questionnaire a few weeks before the team building event. This will give you enough time to collect and analyze the data.

4. Follow up with employees who haven’t completed their survey responses. You may need to offer a reminder or incentive to get them to complete it.

5. Analyze the survey data/survey results, and use them to plan your team building event. Be sure to consider your team’s specific needs and interests.

Examples of Effective Team Building Questionnaires:

1. what are your thoughts on team building.

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: It helps gauge employees’ overall opinion on team building and whether or not they think it’s valuable.

Sample answer choices to put on your team building questionnaire:

  • I think it’s a waste of time.
  • I’m not sure, I’ve never done it before.
  • It’s ok, but I’d rather be doing something else.
  • I love team building!

2. Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve our team building activities?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows employees to provide input on making the team building activities more enjoyable and productive.

Sample answer choice to put on your team building questionnaire:

  • Offer a space for your team members to give suggestions.

3. What are your thoughts on working in a team?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: It helps gauge employees’ overall opinion on teamwork and whether or not they think it’s valuable.

5 Sample answer choices to put on your team building questionnaire:

  • If I have to I will
  • I like it when I’m in the mood
  • It’s great!

4. What did you think of the last team building activity we did?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows employees to provide feedback on the last team building activity, which can be used to improve future events.

5. Would you be interested in attending a team building event? If so, what type of event would you like to see?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows employees to express their interest in attending a team building event and gives you an idea of what type of event they would be interested in.

  • Offer a space for your employees to give suggestions for team building events.

6. Would you prefer to do team building activities on the clock or during non-work hours?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question helps you gauge employees’ schedules and preferences when it comes to team building activities.

  • On the clock; during the workday
  • On weekends

7. Are there any team building activities you participated in with another group that you feel your coworkers would benefit from or enjoy?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows employees to suggest team building activities that they think would be beneficial or enjoyable for the team.

8. How well do you work with others in a team setting?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to gauge employees’ opinions on teamwork and how well they work with others.

  • I only work independently
  • I work best when I collaborate with my teammates
  • I can do both
  • I always am the team leader
  • I am usually quiet but I enjoy problem-solving with my team

9. What, in your opinion, is the biggest barrier to effective teamwork within your current group?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows employees to share any recent barriers to teamwork that can be addressed during team building activities.

10. Is there any other way we can improve teamwork within the company?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question promotes open communication with your employees and gives you an opportunity to make important company culture changes.

11. What are your thoughts on collaboration?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question can help you identify work environment preferences to foster more collaboration and team effectiveness among your employees.

  • I don’t like to collaborate
  • I will collaborate if necessary for the task at hand
  • It’s okay to do it sometimes
  • When I’m in the mood
  • I love to collaborate!

12. How well do you handle conflict within a team?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to identify potential areas of conflict within your team along with ideas on how to resolve them.

  • I don’t handle conflict well
  • I’d rather not address it
  • I am somewhere in between
  • It’s all chill with me
  • Yes, I love working out issues to make us better!

13. What is your preferred method of communication within a team?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question will give you a better understanding of how to send out your questionnaire and have employees complete them.

  • Over the phone
  • Through text

14. Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve communication within our team?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows for open-ended suggestions on how to improve communication among employees.

15. Do you feel as if you can go to any member of your team for help?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to gauge how approachable team members are and if they feel comfortable asking for help.

4 Sample answer choices to put on your team building questionnaire:

  • Yes, always
  • Depends on who

16. Do you feel that your supervisor is fair, supportive, and invested in your growth?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to identify any potential issues with team members’ supervisors and how that might be impacting the team’s morale.

  • There are things they could work on
  • If so, what? (Offer a space for team members to give suggestions)

17. Do you feel as if you have a voice in the company?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to identify how much employees feel like they are a part of the company and if they have a say in decision-making.

3 Sample answer choices to put on your team building questionnaire:

18. Do you enjoy working here?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to get a general idea of job satisfaction , along with what’s strengthening company culture and what can be improved upon for higher retention .

  • Depends on the day
  • I think we need to work on my happiness
  • It’s not me, it’s you

19. Do you enjoy working with your current team?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to identify how much employees enjoy working with their current team and if they would prefer to be on a different team.

  • We could use more team bonding
  • With some members of my team, yes

20. Do you feel like you are a valued member of your team?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows you to identify how employees feel about their importance within the team and if they feel like their skills are being utilized to make a strong team.

21. Is there any other way we can make the workplace a more enjoyable environment?

Why you should ask this in your team building questionnaire: This question allows for open-ended suggestions on what steps you can take to create an environment that improves employee engagement and overall employee experience.

  • More team building exercises
  • Better benefits
  • More collaborative workplace

People Also Ask These Questions About Employee Questionnaires

Q: how do i create a questionnaire for my team.

  • A: There are a few things to keep in mind when creating a questionnaire for your team. First, you’ll want to make sure that the questions are relevant to your team’s goals and objectives. Second, you’ll want to ensure that the questions are clear and concise. Finally, you’ll want to make sure that the questionnaire is easy for employees to complete.

Q: What type of questions should I ask in a work questionnaire?

  • A: There are a variety of questions that you can ask in a work questionnaire. However, some examples include asking about employees’ satisfaction with their job, their team, and the company as a whole. You can also ask about how employees feel they can contribute to the team and if they have any suggestions on how to improve teamwork within the company.

Q: Why should I survey my employees?

  • A: Surveying your employees is a great way to collect feedback on a variety of topics, including team morale , job satisfaction, and communication. Additionally, surveys can help you identify potential areas of improvement within your company. Consider creating a survey template so you can reuse it for future instances.

Q: What are the benefits of sending out employee engagement surveys at work?

  • A: Employee engagement surveys can benefit both employers and employees. For employers, surveys can provide valuable insights into employee morale and job satisfaction. Additionally, surveys can help identify areas of improvement within the workplace. For employees, surveys provide a chance to share their opinions and feedback on a variety of topics.

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