100 icebreaker questions to get the conversation started

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So… What’s your superpower?

Is it your ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube in 30 seconds? Or maybe make the world’s best lasagna? 

Whatever it is, is there a better superpower than watching your team bond over a couple of icebreakers you prepared before the meeting?  

Nope. We don’t think so, either. 

In fact, icebreakers help get the conversation going before any team meeting and even in classroom settings. They’re also wonderful activities to improve team communication and build team spirit.

If you’re looking for inspiration, we have 10 icebreaker categories to kickstart fun and productive meetings:

• Team-specific icebreakers
• Get to know your team icebreakers
• Funny icebreakers
• Would you rather icebreakers
• Thought-provoking icebreakers
• Fun and light icebreakers
• Seasonal and holiday icebreakers
• World travel icebreakers
• Music icebreakers
• Company-themed icebreakers

5 tips to help break the ice

These four icebreaker tips will help you navigate the start of group discussions and get the team comfortable and excited to answer questions. 

1. Whoever leads the meeting should answer the icebreaker question first. This helps break the tension and immediately opens up the conversation.
2. Listen actively, and ask follow-up questions if necessary. The goal is to unite the team and give each person the opportunity to answer.
3. Let people interact with one another. 
4. Allocate enough time, and don’t rush the team-building activity.
5. Consider the context of the meeting and the people involved when choosing your icebreaker question.

Team-specific icebreakers 

The benefit of using team-specific icebreakers is that everyone can have an open conversation about their thoughts and ideas regarding the dynamics and collaboration of a team. 

1. What is your favorite team memory?
2. Describe your team in one word.
3. What is your team’s biggest strength?
4. What are the top three must-have office items?
5. Best professional development book you’d recommend?
6. What is your most valuable soft skill for successful teams?
7. What is your favorite tool to use for team productivity?
8. How do you describe your job to a three-year-old?
9. What is your go-to office lunch?
10. What makes your team unique?

Our top pick: Describe your team in one word.

This question reveals what their team means to them and enables managers to spot the strengths of their team.

Related: Try these 25 icebreaker activities for virtual meetings

Get to know your team icebreakers

Use icebreaker questions to break barriers and understand the personalities and characteristics of each member. In the long run, it helps build compassion and relationships between team members, which results in improved communication and teamwork.  

These icebreakers are especially helpful when new employees join a team, as the questions enable them to meet each team member in a fun environment.

1. Where did you grow up?
2. What day in your life would you like to relive?
3. What is the kindest act you have ever done?
4. Describe yourself in three words.
5. What was your dream job as a kid?
6. What are the top three items on your bucket list? 
7. What movie scene is worthy of an Oscar?
8. Who would be the three guests at your dinner table?
9. What is your proudest achievement?
10. Five things that make you happy?

Our top pick: What is your proudest achievement?

This question unveils the events and achievements that are important to each individual. It gives insight into the personality and how each team member defines success.

Funny icebreakers

Use funny icebreakers to lighten the mood. These icebreakers are great for Friday meetings ahead of the weekend or to bring laughter to the team after a rough week.

1. Do you consider yourself a lemon or a lime? Why?
2. What is your DJ name?
3. What is your superpower?
4. What three things would you do if you were invisible?
5. What is the best prank you’ve experienced or planned?
6. Tell us a weird fact you happen to know for no reason.
7. If you could take one prop from any movie set, what would it be?
8. Tell us your favorite joke.
9. If your pet could talk, what would they say?
10. If your life was captured in the “expectation vs. reality” meme, what would the two pictures be?

Our top pick: What is your superpower?

This is a fun way to ask your team members what their secret talents are and what they consider their strengths to be.

Would you rather icebreakers

Would you rather questions are fun because they don’t put team members on the spot to come up with an answer; instead, they offer two options to choose from. This is helpful for teams that might be a bit shy or for new hires at the company.

1. Would you rather get free plane tickets or free accommodations for the rest of your life?
2. Would you rather spend a weekend in a tropical paradise or a snow haven?
3. Would you rather speak 10 languages or play 10 instruments?
4. Would you rather always be two hours early or 20 minutes late?
5. Would you rather sail or van life around the world?
6. Would you rather be able to control time or fly?
7. Would you rather read the end of every book or always forget the story’s ending?
8. Would you rather be a whale or a lion?
9. Would you rather have every traffic light turn green or always have the best parking spot?
10. Would you rather have slow internet or always forget your passwords?

Our top pick: Would you rather have every traffic light turn green or always have the best parking spot?

This question challenges employees to choose between practicality and patience. Both are important skills in the workplace and fun values to discuss. 

Thought-provoking icebreakers

Thought-provoking questions are interesting ways to dig deeper into employees’ opinions and perspectives. However, they should only be asked when the team has already built a strong relationship with one another, as they require vulnerability and a safe space.

1. Why do we create art?
2. What subject do you wish was taught in every school?
3. If you could know the answer to any question, what would it be?
4. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?
5. When do you feel the most courageous?
6. What piece of advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?
7. When was the last time you tried something for the first time?
8. What are the three values you treasure the most in a friendship?
9. What is the best piece of feedback you have ever received?
10. Where do you find inspiration?

Our top pick: If you could know the answer to any question, what would it be?

This is our favorite question as it reveals what deeper topics employees find interesting and what problems they'd like to solve. 

Fun and light icebreakers

Fun and light icebreakers let employees bring out their creativity and have fun getting to know one another with questions that are unrelated to work.

1. What is your favorite cereal?
2. Which two companies would you like to be sponsored by?
3. What was your last Netflix binge?
4. If you could be a character in any movie, what character and what movie would it be?
5. If you invented an ice cream flavor, what ingredients would it have, and what would it be called?
6. If you could make an office rule that everyone had to follow for a day, what would it be?
7. What is the best concert/ festival you have ever been to?
8. A genie grants you one wish; what do you wish for?
9. What would you title your biography?
10. What three items would you bring with you on a deserted island?

Our top pick: If you could be a character in any movie, what character and what movie would it be?

This reveals what characters employees admire, which is a fun way to understand a person! 

Related: Try these icebreakers for smaller groups

Seasonal and holiday icebreakers

Get your team in the holiday mood with seasonal icebreakers. These are great for celebrating the change of seasons and building holiday spirit in the workspace.

1. What is your favorite season?
2. What’s your favorite holiday?
3. Do you over or under-decorate for the holidays?
4. What is your favorite summer activity?
5. What is your favorite winter meal?
6. If you could add an additional holiday to the calendar, what would it be and when?
7. Do you have any special traditions for the new year?
8. Do you create a New Year’s resolution list?
9. What is your favorite holiday movie?
10. What is your favorite holiday song?

Our top pick: Do you create a New Year’s resolution list?

This is a great opener to discuss each individual's New Year’s resolutions and to create a team New Year's resolution list.  

World travel icebreakers

After any vacation, travel icebreakers are a great way to bring out stories and understand what type of activities and experiences your team enjoys outside of work. 

1. If you had to sleep on a beach anywhere in the world, where would it be?
2. If you could live in a different country for a year, which country would you choose?
3. What is your favorite travel story?
4. What is the most underrated city you have ever visited?
5. What country impacted you the most?
6. What is your favorite travel hack?
7. If you could organize a team retreat, where would it be?
8. Who is your favorite travel buddy or group?
9. What is more important for you when traveling, comfort and relaxation or energizing new experiences?
10. Who is the most interesting person you’ve met while traveling?

Our top pick: What is your favorite travel story?

Traveling always creates new memories and stories. It's a great question to understand how employees overcome challenges, their goals during their time off, and how they learn from their experiences.

Music icebreakers

Music questions are helpful for teams in the early stages of getting to know one another because they are lighthearted and fun to share without needing to get too personal. 

1. What song brings back childhood memories?
2. Which artist would you like to meet?
3. Which band would you join? And what would your role be?
4. If you could name a band, what would it be called?
5. What song has the most beautiful lyrics?
6. How has your taste in music changed in the past 10 years?
7. What is your go-to karaoke song?
8. What movie has the best soundtrack?
9. What song would be the anthem of your life?
10. If you were a genre of music, what would it be?

Our top pick: What song would be the anthem of your life?

This is a creative question to see how your employees would describe their lives and to inspire discussions over the answers.

Company-themed icebreakers

Company-themed questions are helpful and relevant icebreakers before any company event, like an all-hands meeting. They keep the attendees on track and focused on the company discussion.

1. If you could swap roles with anyone at the company for one day, who would it be?
2. What advice would you give a new hire at the company?
3. What do you most enjoy about your job?
4. How do you define success at the company?
5. What is your favorite company value?
6. What do you think is your company's biggest strength and weakness?
7. Where do you see the company in a year?
8. If you could change the company's name, what would it be?
9. If the company had a mascot, what would it be and why?
10. Who has influenced your work ethic the most?

Our top pick: What is your favorite company value?

This creates an insight into what value each employee finds the most important and chooses to live by. 

Now you’ve broken the ice...what’s next? 

Once the ice is broken, it’s time to get your team to collaborate through plans, strategies, and development. 

However, starting a meeting with an icebreaker doesn’t automatically mean your team will continue to collaborate effectively. They will still need the support of collaboration tools and continuous team spirit to maintain the trust they’ve built.

That’s where a tool like Mural can step in, helping facilitate teamwork with a collaboration platform to express ideas, share thoughts, and plan together. 

Take a peek at how our virtual whiteboards can bring your team’s imagination to life.

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