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.