My master list of icebreaker questions

One of my favorite icebreakers is to go around the room and ask people to respond to 1-3 fairly innocuous questions. I wrote about this kind of icebreaker in an earlier post that turned out to be quite popular.  So I thought I’d devote a post to listing all the questions I could think of.

Together we can make this even better

Add your questions in the comments.  I’ll move them into the main list, editing only for clarity, and credit you in the comments.   If you want to add your story about how you used these questions, and what happened, that would be great too.  To those of you who have already done this – thank you!

How to use these questions:

You can use one or more questions to start your weekly staff meeting  or any gathering so your group can get to know each other over time.  For larger groups or longer time slots, putting 24 of these on a bingo card is a fun mixer.  No matter how well team members know each other, they always learn something about each other. Thanks to coach Michael Tertes for the original list all those years ago.

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1. What time did you get up this morning?

2. Diamonds or pearls?

3. What was the last film you saw at the theatre (not at home)?

4. What is your favorite T.V. show?

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?

6. What is your middle name (and where did it come from)?  You can do this with first names too.

7. Favorite cuisine?

8. What foods do you dislike?

9. What is your favorite chip flavor?

10. Who is your favorite musician/song/recording right now?

11. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you like your car?  Why?

12. Favorite sandwich?

13. What characteristic do you most dislike in yourself? In others?

14. Favorite item of clothing?

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?

16. What color is your bathroom?

17. Favorite brand of clothing?

18. Where would you retire to?

19. What was your most memorable birthday?

20. Favorite sport to watch?

21. Most embarrassing moment?

22. Proudest moment?

23. Goal you have for yourself?

24. How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

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

26. What is your favorite dessert?

27. Pets?

28. What is your hobby?

29. What did you want to be when you were little?

30. What did you actually become?

31. What is your favorite candy?

32. What is your favorite flower?

33. What date on your calendar you are looking forward to?

34. What do you listen to in the car?

35. What is the last book you read?

36. What is your favorite food?

37. What is your favorite restaurant?

38. What is your favorite drink?

39. Which is your favorite way to dance:  With others or alone?

40. What is your favorite color?

41. What’s the most unusual job you’ve ever had?

42. What’s your favorite travel destination? (been there or want to go)

43. What characteristics do you admire (in yourself or others)?

44. What always makes you laugh?

45. What is something no one here knows about you?

46.  What’s your idea of the perfect day?

47.  How do you describe what you do for a living to your friends?  To strangers at a party? To your family?

48. Describe your closet.

49. How do you take your coffee/tea?

50. Sweet or salty?

51. Most important quality in a friend?

52. What would you name your pet gorilla (lizard, ferret, kangaroo, clown fish, etc.)?  (you could fill an entire bingo card with animals)

53. Describe your perfect day off.

54. Favorite museum?

55. What interest haven’t you pursued, but have always wanted to and what draws you to it?

56.  Oils, pastels, acrylics or water colors?

57. Favorite comic?

58. Favorite comic strip character?

59. Favorite artist?

60. Piece of art that moved you deeply?

61. All-time favorite movie?

62.  Favorite game?

63. If you had a second-life avatar, what would it look like?

64. Favorite character (book, TV movie)?

65. Cook in or eat out?

66. Favorite drink?

67. What’s your favorite season (Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring)?

68.  Have you ever played the accordion?  Has anyone in your family?

69. Have you ever played the banjo?  Has anyone in your family?

70.  What makes you laugh out loud?

71.  When was the last time you got the giggles at an inappropriate time?

72. What is your favorite kind of music?

73.  What movie star, musician or artist have you spent hours learning about?

74.  What was the last thing you geeked-out about?  Where were you?

75. Tell us a funny family story…

76. What do you think the secret to a good life is?

77. If you could go on a road trip with any person (dead or alive), who would you choose and where would you go?

78.  Why should trust you to pet sit for me?

79.  How do you get your news?

GOOD ANNUAL OR QUARTERLY QS:

80. What was the highlight of the year for you?

81. What might not have happened if you hadn’t been involved? (this one is especially good for those who have trouble claiming their successes)

82.  What was your proudest moment this year?

83.  When did your team pull together in ways that surprised you?

Comments

  1. I truly appreciate the quality of the ice breaker questions

  2. Thanks to Janet Falk for questions 75 and 76. You can learn more about Janet at http://www.janetlfalk.com

  3. Brilliant list! Thanks so much!

  4. I recently hosted a meeting at work where the main object was for new employees to get to know more about each other. These are the three questions I chose, which I found from another list…
    Tell us about a funny family story…
    What do you think the secrete to a good life is?
    If you could go on a road trip with any person (dead or alive), who would you choose and where would you go?

    • Thanks so much for these Irma. I’ll add them to this list. If you get a chance to post the link to where you got them here, and vice versa, that might help future readers.

  5. It is always helpful to reinforce that learning how to learn is one of the major goals of my course. Learning psychology is rooted in the understanding that you can foster your own learning and use your own techniques. Teaching is about my helping you or offering insight. Learning is your own interpretation and experience. Dewey postulated that real learning includes a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience. Learning how to learn is a laudable goal.

  6. A good icebreaker is always a self-introduction and brief background overview.

  7. I agree that icebreakers are helpful.

  8. The master list of icebreakers was helpful.

Trackbacks

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