How to Ask and Answer Great Icebreaker Questions

Whether it’s two truths and a lie, or being asked to state “an interesting fact about yourself”, there are some icebreakers that make your team die inside a little. 

Not all icebreaker questions are equal. A bit like stand-up – do them wrong and you can fall flat on your face.

Our goal in this blog is to prevent that happening and give you the tools to run great icebreakers that help you build team cohesion. 

By the end of this article you will:

We’ve all answered icebreaker questions in the past, often reluctantly.

But how can you make sure your social check-in or icebreaker activity is able to effectively prime your team, build relationships and form a culture?

That may sound daunting, but we’ve got four tips to help you run icebreakers and social check-ins your team will love.

Many icebreaker questions fail to get team buy-in and wind up in an awkward silence.

That’s because not all questions are up to the task of breaking the ice. 

If you want your team to engage in the check-in, icebreaker questions need to capture their interest.

There’s a quick sense check you can do to check if your questions are good enough.

Before asking your icebreaker make sure that: 

Self-expression in social check-ins is vital because that’s what promotes human bonding. Self-expression also makes icebreakers fun and fosters connection that leads to team members feeling safe expressing concerns in the group. 

You don’t want to ask a question that has a right or wrong answer and risks someone feeling bad about themselves.

Asking factual questions risks making people feel stupid or inadequate if they get the question wrong, which will negatively impact how much people contribute. 

Remember that your icebreaker round is meant to prime your team to contribute and be open. You don’t want to accidentally prime them to feel their opinion doesn’t matter or isn’t good enough. 

✅ Good icebreaker question: What’s something new or interesting you’ve learned recently?

❌ Bad icebreaker question: Who is your favorite mid-90s sports player?

If you need some inspiration, we have a list of 200+ great icebreaker questions to try out.

It’s not just the question that matters, but how you ask it. 

As a meeting facilitator answer your own social check-in question. If the team is pretty new and not comfortable with one another, answer first to get the ball rolling. 

As a meeting facilitator your goal is to get everyone to open up and express themselves. And you’ll only be successful if everyone in the room feels safe. 

Psychological science tells us that making yourself vulnerable is a fast-track way of building trust and helping others open up. If you can answer an icebreaker first, you lead by example and create the psychological safety net needed for others to answer honestly and openly. 

Your job is to create a relaxed and safe environment. But when you’re the one setting the icebreaker questions, there’s a fine line between openly asking a question and sounding like an interrogator. So you’ll want to be mindful of your tone as well!

Something simple like an icebreaker can become very complicated, very quickly. Remember that icebreaker question ‘two truths and a lie’? It can be pretty time consuming…

Not only does it require every team member to come up with three pieces of information, but it encourages your team to develop value judgments about each other. Is Steve really the kind of guy who listens to heavy metal? Is Laura the type of person who rides horses?

Those kinds of judgements can offend your colleagues and damage team relationships. 

You want to make sure your social check-in is simple, fun, informative, and free of judgement! 

Keeping your icebreakers simple also helps you keep a hold on the time. You want to spend no more than 5-10 minutes on your check-in. With teams that are comfortable with one another, you’ll find that people talk more, and stretch out the check-in round. With larger teams, each additional reply adds time. 

To keep the time with larger or more talkative teams, ask questions that participants can answer with one word or expand if they choose. 

Simple icebreaker questions for large or talkative teams: 

It can be easy to run over when you’re having fun getting to know each other, but keeping your question simple should keep you on time. 

It’s also about simply getting everyone to say something.

Good icebreakers can be answered without demanding cognitive strain. The purpose of an icebreaker is to warm everyone up, not burn everyone out. After all, you want to save your team’s brain power for the central questions and challenges you’re tackling in your team meeting.  

If someone in your team seems nervous about answering the question, you can always come back to them at the end of the round. They might feel more confident after hearing everyone else’s answers.

The best icebreaker questions are fun. Above all, they’re a time for you to come together with your team and bond. This time is especially sacred if you’re working remotely or running a fully distributed team. 

You can make sure your icebreakers are fun by thinking about:

The positive benefits of social check-ins should extend beyond the context of the meeting. You want social check-ins to help your team members connect with each other outside the meeting and build complex relationships built on points of common interest. 

Building a team culture isn’t just about finding your groove. It’s also about building cultural and social reference points that help you gel with each other. Whether it’s some kind of in-joke, nicknames, or analogies based on books, movies, or other icebreaker answers! All of these things make people feel they are part of something meaningful and fun that they have helped to create. 

When we’re having fun we’re more expressive and more open. Our conversation flows more naturally and we enjoy our time with each other. 

Life’s too short for more boring meetings, so make sure to have some fun in your icebreaker round. 

You’re ready to start investing in your team relationships and culture! 

Let’s quickly recap all the key points we discussed. 

Good luck running your next icebreaker.

Need some inspiration for your next meeting? 

Check out our icebreaker resources here: