A popular and versatile facilitation tool, there are many reasons a manager or facilitator may decide to bring in icebreaker questions:
- Getting to know a group of strangers
- Welcoming a new team member
- Warming up an established group
- Building stronger ties
- Getting a feel for group dynamics
- Mining for data
- Probing assumptions and paradigms
- Setting context for discussion
- To recognise/appreciate individual strengths
If you’re curious to know whether any research has been done into the most effective questions, unfortunately it’s not exactly a hot area of study, but a couple of key resources stand out:
Our Top 50
There are thousands of questions to sift through online, ranging from extremely safe and likely irrelevant (e.g., “What’s your birthday?”) to those that fit into a higher personal risk/reward category (e.g., “What’s your deepest fear?”). Looking for quality over quantity, creative over common, with a mix that can work for both personal and professional settings? Below is our list of carefully curated favourites.
- The zombie apocalypse is coming. Who are 3 people (living or dead) you want on your team?
- Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?
- What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?
- For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
- What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?
- What was your first job?
- Got any phobias you’d like to break?
- Do you collect anything?
- Have you been pleasantly surprised by anything lately?
- What’s your favourite breakfast cereal?
- If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you
most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?
- What’s your favourite 90’s show?
- What is your most-used emoji?
- If you could change your name, what would it be?
- If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be?
- What's one thing about you that surprises people?
- If you were just given a big boat/yacht, what would you name it?
- What is the secret to a good life?
- What vegetable do you dislike the most?
- What makes you laugh?
- What makes a house a home?
- What fictional world or place would you like to visit?
- Have you ever completed anything on your “bucket list”?
- What’s the most out-of-character thing you’ve ever done?
- If you could magically become fluent in any language, what would it be?
- Who is your favourite Disney hero or heroine?
- Which piece of technology do you think has had the biggest impact on your life?
- What is the best thing that has happened to you this year?
- How do you like to spend a rainy day?
- What is your biggest pet peeve?
- If you could commit a crime and get away with it, what would you do?
- What commercial song always gets stuck in your head?
- If all your clothes had to be one colour forever, what colour would you pick?
- What blog or website are you embarrassed to admit you love?
- What is your favourite smell and why?
- Which celebrity do you shamelessly follow in the news?
- If you could live one day over again, what day would you pick?
- What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever received?
- If you were a teacher, what would you teach?
- If you were sent to live on a space station for three months and allowed to bring only one
personal item with you, what would it be?
- Who was your childhood actor crush?
- What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen in nature?
- What is your least favourite sport to play?
- In your dream house, what is one weird room/feature you would include?
- What’s a hobby you always wanted to pick up, but never did?
- If you won $10,000, and you had to spend it today, what would you buy?
- If you were a wrestler what would be your entrance theme song?
- What was the worst job you ever had?
- If you could bring back any fashion trend what would it be?
- What was your favourite game to play as a child?
More Resources
107 Good Icebreaker Questions to Ask in 2021 - Icebreaker Ideas
The 55 Best Questions To Ask To Break The Ice - Forbes
The Only List of Icebreaker Questions You’ll Ever Need (100 Questions) - Museum Hack
53 Fun Ice Breakers To Help You Kick Off A Meeting - Fairygodboss
150+ Great Ice Breaker Questions to Get to Know Someone - Awesoroo
100 Funny Icebreaker Questions - Sign Up Genius
Quality over Quantity: The top 18 Icebreaker questions for any group - Speakizi