Everyone hates meetings. Surprisingly, this holds true even if we were the ones who designed the meeting in the first place. Studies show that this feeling crosses cultures, too. Your counterparts in Beijing, Milan, London, and Nairobi hate meetings as much as you do. This universal dislike of the meeting is one good reason to consider using ice breaker questions that might help get your meetings off to a better start.

What Makes for a Great Start to a Meeting?

The goal of a meeting is to get something done. The opening to a meeting should work towards this goal. You want to create an atmosphere of camaraderie and some willingness to be vulnerable. Only if people feel comfortable with one another, will they be willing to give their opinions and work together towards a common goal.

Getting to Know Each Other

One of the reasons we hate meetings so much is that we view them as a waste of time. The average weekly meeting, according to a study done by Harvard Business Review, eats up about 300,000 hours of working time for a company in a year.

Yet one of the reasons meetings can be such a waste of time is simply that we don’t know one another. Our meeting time is occupied as much by working around one another as by actually getting work done. Things are said (and not said) out of fear of offending or annoying others. One way to address this issue is to make sure everyone in the meeting knows each other well. Ice breaker questions can help you accomplish this goal.

Creating a Positive Atmosphere

Communication through laughter is an important objective for a meeting opener. Laughing together increases the sense of community and the feeling that everyone is working towards a shared goal. Ironically, if you’ve laughed together, you’re more likely to feel free to disagree with one another; and to be able to share those disagreements in a productive way that works towards resolving them.

What Are Ice Breakers?

Ice breaker questions and activities can be anything that works to welcome people to a shared event and warm up the conversation. They usually consist of questions that each person in the group must answer, but can include more physical group activities or games.

Ice Breakers and the Group

Ice breaker questions can help the members of the group get to know each other quickly. In a minimum amount of time, group members will know a bit about the feelings, personality, preferences, and back-story of the people they’re about to work with. This allows people to show a little vulnerability without risk.

Ice Breakers and the Leader

Ice breaker questions can also be a great way for a leader to get to know a team and for the team to get to trust a leader. By choosing questions, the leader has already taken a step towards leadership. If the questions are chosen well, the group will notice. If the leader answers some of the questions personally, he or she also conveys reliability and trustworthiness.

Ice Breakers and the Conversation

Whether you’re about to hold a serious business meeting, begin training, or work towards valuable team building, you want people willing to talk and ready to hold a real conversation. Humans nearly always begin their conversations with nothing: even when we meet our closest friends, our first few minutes of chat will normally be about weather, food, or other inanities. Not until we are “warmed up” will we be ready to talk about how we feel, our kids, our jobs, or other serious and stressful topics.

Ice breaker questions allow you to skip this awkward phase—or rather, control it—and get through it in a meaningful way. Once you’re done, the meeting participants are ready to engage in “real” conversation.

Ice Breakers and Feelings

Sharing feelings is hard and never is it more hard than when we’re talking to people we don’t know well. That’s why ice breaker questions are great. The questions focus on things outside the people and issues facing the meeting. This provides participants with an opportunity to relate to one another about non-threatening issues, like choosing favorite foods, rather than potentially threatening issues, like which of three possible ad choices the company should go with.

Ice Breakers and Purpose

Some ice breaker questions can be used to lead into issues that will be discussed in the meeting. For example, if a meeting is designed primarily for team-building, ice breaker questions should divide the group up and focus on getting the smaller groups to brainstorm on a fun and non-threatening topic. Once they’ve done that, they’re ready to work together as a team on far more difficult issues.

Ice Breakers and Courage

It’s hard to stand up against the crowd. Sometimes meetings aren’t productive because no one is willing to be that one voice that says, “Hey guys. Should we be doing this? What about this issue?” No one wants to point out that something might be wrong, especially if the group seems to be largely ok with it.

How can ice breaker questions help? They help by allowing people to stand up about an issue without worrying about the consequences. Is white chocolate “real” chocolate? Which is better, Pepsi or Coke? These kinds of questions carry no threat of genuine risk, meaning that people will be more willing to take a risk and go against the crowd. That’s the kind of courage you want to foster for productive meetings.

Ice Breaker Questions to Start Your Meeting Right

Without any more ado, here are 101 great ice breaker questions that you can use to help open your meetings right. Pick and choose the ones that are best for your group and that best fit the purpose of your meeting.

1. If you were street sign, what would you say? (Allow people to come up with their own signs, or give them a choice from among options like “yield,” “stop,” “merge,” or “one way”)
2. You’re about to be marooned on a desert island for three years. Which three books do you take with you?
3. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
4. Do you name your cars? What’s the name of your current car?
5. You and your team are about to go spend the winter in the Antarctic. You may only take 10 things. What will you take?
6. Who is your favorite actor or actress, and why?
7. If you were forced to sing karaoke, what song would you choose?
8. Break up into groups of three. Find at least three things you and your group have in common.
9. If you were a vegetable, which vegetable would you be?
10. If you could ban all desserts but two, which two would you choose?
11. You’ll only be able to go to one vacation destination for the rest of your life. Which one do you choose?
12. You get to have dinner with any two historical figures. Which two would you want to spend an evening with?
13. If you had to choose an animal to live as for the rest of your life, which animal would you like to be?
14. Did you have an imaginary friend as a child? What was he/she like?
15. What movie do you tell your friends is your favorite? What movie is your actual favorite?
16. If you were to design a candy bar for national distribution, what would it be like?
17. If you were a color, which color would best express you?
18. You can ban one word from the English language forever. What word do you choose?
19. Which is your favorite season of the year, and why?
20. Your significant other is a musical genre. Which musical genre is he/she? (Note this is not the genre they prefer, but the genre they are.)
21. What well-known slogan describes your life or values?
22. What is your spirit-animal? Why do you say that?
23. Are you an animal’s spirit-human? Why?
24. You’re going to spend the winter in a lighthouse, alone. All the basic provisions and necessities are taken care of. You can bring five luxury or personal items with you. What would you bring?
25. If you had to choose to give up one of your senses, which would you be most willing to sacrifice?
26. What was the craziest thing you believed when you were a child that you later found out wasn’t true?
27. Which king or queen from history do you want to be? Why?
28. What did you most like about being a child? What did you most hate?
29. If you could wake up an Olympic champion tomorrow, which sport would you want to be master of?
30. You may go back in time and speak to one person in history to warn them: who do you choose, and when do you meet?
31. You’ve won the lottery: what’s the first thing you do?
32. If every superhero went into battle, which one hero would emerge victorious? Why?
33. If you could bring one historical figure back from the dead, who would you choose and why?
34. You are Universal Dictator for a day and can implement one rule that will be applied forever to all people. What is the one thing you want to make happen or ban from happening?
35. Which would be worse: if people were cursed so they could never tell an untruth, no matter how small, or people were cursed so they could never tell the truth? Why?
36. You are at a sundae bar. You can make your own with any kind of ice cream and toppings you can imagine, but it has to fit in a tiny Dixie cup. What do you choose?
37. Tomorrow you wake up and have completely mastered a new skill. What do you wish it was?
38. Do you love or hate surprise parties? Why?
39. Only one genre of books can be published from now on. Which one should it be? Science fiction? Romance? Historical fiction? Informational? Explain your choice.
40. You can have a superpower. Which super power do you want and what will you do with it?
41. What character from a book or a movie do you most identify with?
42. Who did you look up to when you were a child?
43. Who is the smartest person you know personally?
44. If you could have any toy you wanted for Christmas, what would you choose?
45. Disprove the existence of Santa Claus.
46. Tell us three things about your hometown that most people don’t know.
47. Which do you prefer: morning, afternoon, evening, or night? Why?
48. Tell us one thing about your college or university that only alumni would know.
49. Every restaurant except two are closing. Which two do you want to remain open?
50. Tomorrow you have the power to implement one new invention. Cost, physics, and other issues are not a factor. It can be a time travel machine or the world’s most perfect bottle opener. What do you wish was invented?
51. Which modern invention would you be most willing to do without? Why?
52. If you could go back in time and give one thing to ancient peoples, what would you want to send them?
53. Tell us about the best Christmas gift you ever received.
54. You’ve just won the ultimate vacation. You can go anywhere in the world for two weeks. Where do you want to go?
55. The zombies are coming and you can choose three people to survive with you into the post-apocalyptic mess. Who do you choose?
56. What was your first car and how did you feel about it?
57. If you were famous, what would you be most famous for doing or saying?
58. You will have to eat the same thing every day for the rest of your life. Which do you choose?
59. Choose one of these foods to ban forever: pizza, ice cream, fizzy drinks.
60. What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
61. You can go back in time to witness the discovery of one important thing. What do you wish you could go back in time to see?
62. You’re writing your autobiography: what’s the title?
63. What do you wish would be engraved on your tombstone?
64. Tomorrow, aliens land on Earth. They will take 100 humans with them back to their planet. Knowing nothing about them, would you be willing to volunteer?
65. What was your least favorite food when you were a child? How do you feel about it now?
66. What’s the best thing you’ve bought this year? Why do you love it?
67. How long have you ever gone without sleep? What’s the story behind it?
68. What is one thing you wish you could get rid of, but just can’t?
69. What is your biggest pet peeve?
70. Tell us about your favorite road trip. What made you love it?
71. Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert? Why?
72. Build the perfect meal from appetizer to dessert.
73. If one person from a book or a movie could be a real person tomorrow, who do you wish it was?
74. Describe the perfect Friday night.
75. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever bought?
76. You can only keep three apps for your phone. Which three do you choose to keep?
77. If you got a tattoo, what would it say or look like?
78. You have 24 hours to do whatever you like. There will be no consequences, you have unlimited money and can magically appear anywhere on Earth, and the day will not affect your job or your relationships in any way. What will you do with the time?
79. Which planet would you most like to set foot on?
80. Do you hope that we find intelligent life outside of Earth? Why or why not?
81. Describe your dream job (money is no object).
82. You have two wishes, and you cannot wish for more wishes. What do you wish for?
83. What was the worst present you ever received?
84. You’ve inherited millions and never have to work again unless you want to. What does your week look like?
85. You can either be invisible at will or fly at will. Which would you prefer?
86. You have to choose between being smart and being good-looking. Which do you want?
87. What’s your favorite type of cake, and why?
88. You can choose true love or a fortune that will last a lifetime. What do you choose?
89. What discontinued TV show would you most like to see come back?
90. What is your favorite song?
91. You can travel in time. You may go back to the year 1850 or forward to the year 2150. Which would you prefer?
92. What extinct animal would you most like to see?
93. You are starring in a major film. You can be the hero or the villain. Which do you choose?
94. How far east can you go before you’re actually heading west?
95. What is the most unusual thing you’ve ever eaten? Would you eat it again?
96. If you were an article of clothing, what article of clothing would you be?
97. What time is too late to call a friend? What about a co-worker?
98. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?
99. Would you rather go without movies or go without fast food for the rest of your life?
100. You’re about to be stranded on a desert island. You’ll never get off. You can be there alone or you can be there with someone you currently don’t like. Which do you choose?
101. Would you rather be four inches taller or four inches shorter? Why?

Conclusion

Use these ice breaker questions the next time you have to run a meeting. It might surprise you how effective they are and how well the group gets along after that. And here’s one last tip: try giving people a choice of questions to answer. You can learn as much by which question they choose to tackle as you can by their actual answer. Whichever questions you choose, use ice breakers effectively and your next meeting will be a success.