Best 50 icebreaker questions for virtual teams in 2021

Here is a list of the top 50 ice breaker questions for virtual teams. Use them for remote meetings, team building initiatives, and as opener sessions to other work-related interactions at your office. Read on!

 

What are virtual icebreaker questions?

Virtual icebreaker is a prominent method leveraged by companies to encourage interactions and interpersonal relationships. With more and more firms and organizations adopting a remote mode of employment, virtual icebreakers are gaining increased importance.

Conducting games and activities involving asking virtual ice breaker questions to each other are the means of generating harmony and bonding among the employees. Significant benefits have been achieved through these sessions where fun icebreaker questions, icebreaker quotes, etc. are shared to increase the level of interactions.

People feel comfortable conversing with each other and is a brilliant mechanism for team-building. The virtual or remote icebreaker questions are essentially asked either in a video call or webchats.

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How to create ice breaker questions for virtual meetings?

First and foremost let us discuss the key steps on how to create virtual icebreaker questions.

1. Institute the goals, purpose, and objectives

You have to determine the reason behind creating the virtual icebreaker, the outcome you want to achieve out of the exercise. There is get to know your team questions, ice breaker fun questions, check in questions for meetings, the question of the day icebreaker and many more.

2. Ensure the participants are at ease and comfort

You need to ensure the questions for icebreakers do not act as a hindrance to a person’s religious or cultural beliefs. Inappropriate ice breaker questions may lead to discomfort, eventually harming the purpose of the entire activity. Avoid virtual ice breaker questions that may lead to offence, for example sometimes jokes on a particular subject may not be widely accepted by all.

3. Simple and easy to engage

An icebreaker question and answer session must not be too complex to be understood. Frame the ice breaker questions for virtual meetings short, simple and appropriate. People with different languages would be participating, hence they must not face issues in translation or deciphering the meaning behind the questions.

4. Storytelling concepts

People like to hear stories and feel motivated to relate those to their life events. Try to create the ice breaking questions to depict a story or a real-life event to arouse the interests of the employees. You can even ask the participants to speak or write about their personal stories as one of the fun questions for team building.

5. Encourage conversations among the participants

The best icebreaker questions must allow participants to constantly converse with each other. This will inculcate a faster collaboration among the employees and resolve the objectives of the sessions at a rapid pace.

The answers must not be in a monosyllable of “Yes” or “No”, but sharing details and participating in others’ responses too. You need to articulate the meeting opener questions or the funny icebreaker questions for meetings accordingly.

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Virtual meeting ice breaker questions benefits

Virtual icebreaker questions foster greater interactions, and collaborations among the teams located remotely at their home or in a co-working space. Let us understand the key benefits of virtual meeting ice breaker questions,

1. Introducing the new employees inducted into a company through fun get to know you questions for work; adjusting or introducing them to the company’s culture and way of working
2. Help employees working remotely to recover from a sense of anonymity and isolation through team meeting icebreaker questions
3. Games conducted via icebreak questions offer opportunities to share knowledge and experiences; sometimes from people with expertise on a particular subject
4. Generate motivation to work within a team by supporting and learning from each other; asking getting to know you icebreaker questions, on diverse topics related to personality or work
5. Opportunity for the employees to know each other’s expertise on any domain or technology through ice breaker get to know you questions; for communicating or connecting in future

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Fun icebreaker questions

Here are some of the fun ice breaker questions to ask in a team event,

1. If you ever get a chance to change your name, what would be your selected name (three choices)?
2. Think of yourself as a vegetable, what would be one of your choices and what would the reason for the selection?
3. If you are provided with an opportunity to act in a movie, which character you would love to enact and why?
4. If aliens land up in a spacecraft and you are offered a chance to visit their planet, what would you do? – one of the funny getting to know you questions for work
5. If you are put inside a time machine and granted a chance to select a year in the future, which year you would like to travel and why?

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Icebreaker questions for work

A list of good ice breaker questions for work are mentioned below,

1. One of the common icebreaker questions for work meetings is to ask about the skills and expertise of the participants
2. The second important among work related icebreaker questions is to enquire about the past interesting experiences
3. Thirdly if you want to focus on fun icebreaker questions for work, then you can ask about any client with a weird attitude
4. Another among the icebreaker questions for work is to talk about the achievements, accolades, awards, and certifications received
5. Lastly, you can enquire about the future vision of the participants as one of the icebreakers questions for work

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Ice breaker questions for adults

The ice breaker questions for adults are focused more on personal traits. Here is a list of fun group questions for adults,

1. While on a date, what was your most embarrassing moment and how did you overcome it?
2. What childish attributes are still within you, even when you have become an adult?
3. Whom do you dream wish to be your neighbour, describe your feelings for the same? – One of the fun-filled get to know you icebreaker questions
4. How do you describe life and your vision and thoughts of leading a life in this world?
5. What do you still love to preserve in your locker as your personal belongings? – Again one of the funny questions to get to know coworkers

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Inappropriate ice breaker questions

Certain questions for ice breakers are considered inappropriate and not recommended to be asked or discussed. Here are the top five ice breakers question which you must avoid,

1. What is your age? An ice breaker question that is usually not accepted by many people
2. Have you recently lost or gained weight? One of the most inappropriate icebreakers questions to ask employees in a group
3. What is your salary and are you happy with it? – To be strictly avoided in your list of great icebreaker questions
4. What is your religion? You must never include this sensitive topic in your list of icebreaker questions
5. Are you happy in your personal life? One of the embarrassing break the ice questions that must be avoided.

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Group icebreakers questions

Group icebreakers questions must generate quality discussions and interactions between the participants. Here is a list of common ice breaker questions for a group,

1. What is your favorite sport and what is the best thing you like about it? It is one of the interesting questions to get to know your coworkers
2. Share tips for building up a great and efficient team. This is one of the best ice breaker questions that can be discussed in a group
3. What did you buy first with your own money? Considered as one of the interesting icebreaker getting to know you questions
4. Whom do you consider as an idol in your life?
5. Share your favorite quotes about life – One of the unique getting to know you questions for coworkers

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Interesting ice breaker questions

Here are some of the best and interesting ice breaker questions for your consideration,

1. Considering yourself as a scientist, what interesting discovery you would have targeted?
2. If you would have provided an option to travel around the world, which are the places you would list as your first choices?
3. What do you like best from history and why? – Considered as one of the most interesting get to know your coworkers questions
4. How and where would you like your dream house to be?
5. If you are offered 3 boons from an angel, what would those be? – One of the thrilling and fun-filled questions to get to know your team

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Ice breakers for new employees

For new employees, you need to either select easy icebreaker questions or play some interesting games. Here are some of the good icebreaker questions for new inductions in the company,

1. Ask them to share a joke
2. Play the game “Two Truths and a Lie” – A popular and one of the great ice breaker questions
3. Conduct a get to know your coworkers quiz
4. Ask the participants to write a true story on paper and drop it in a box. The stories are then read aloud for others to guess who do they belong to.
5. Encourage them to create fun questions for coworkers

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Quarantine icebreaker questions

The best ice breaker questions related to quarantine are enlisted below for quick reference,

1. Do you like to work from home or be physically present in the office?
2. How tough it is to work remotely? One of the genuine and top icebreaker questions to ask during the quarantine.
3. How have you organized your office space at home?
4. Are you able to balance your work and personal life during quarantine?
5. Share some tips for maintaining an ergonomic lifestyle while working from home

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Easy icebreaker questions

Some of the prominent easy icebreaker questions are elaborated below,

1. How many languages do you speak?
2. What is your hobby and how do you pursue it?
3. Who is your favorite film actor and actress?
4. How many countries have you visited till now?
5. Which is your favorite food and have you ever prepared the same by yourself?

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Thought provoking ice breaker questions

A list of thought provoking ice breaker questions are mentioned below,

1. What are the lessons you have learned in life that one must try to follow?
2. Where do you see yourself both personally and professionally 5 years down the line?
3. Do you have regrets in your life? If yes then what are those?
4. How do you handle risks in your life?
5. Are you capable to handle failure and how do you face it?

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Personal ice breaker questions

Enlisted below are personal and good ice breaker questions for you to ask,

1. Where do you want to spend your retired life?
2. What are the qualities you look for in your partner?
3. How do you want to spend your dream vacation?
4. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
5. If you were given a chance to shift your career, where would that be?

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Personality icebreaker questions

The key personality icebreaker questions are,

1. Describe in 2 to 3 lines the person in you
2. Which color reflects your personality?
3. Specify the type of people with whom you are comfortable speaking to
4. If you are provided with an option to transform your personality, how would that be?
5. How do you break the ice in an initial conversation with a stranger?

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Multiple choice ice breaker questions

The list of multiple choice ice breaker questions is elaborated below. You need to provide multiple options to the participants in the array of getting to know coworkers questions,

1. What are the areas you want to focus on to increase your competency level?
2. What are the leadership qualities one must possess to strive high in a career?
3. What are the best things you like about the virtual mode of working?
4. What are the social media platforms or marketing channels best for marketing and brand promotion?
5. Which KPIs help in measuring the performance of a company?

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Famous virtual icebreaker software

The key tools, accelerators, and software for creating ice breaking questions for meetings, creating fun questions to ask at work, or conducting icebreaker survey are mentioned below,

1. unremot.com is a place where you can set up a whole environment for your teams social connections – the most important one being a virtual watercooler, followed by virtual cafeteria, food lounges, libraries, ping pong tables and much more!
2. Dice breaker game sheets
3. Online puzzles
4. Online scrambles
5. Online ice breaker survey to collect feedback on the effectiveness of the games and the sessions for ice breaker questions work
6. IQ test games
7. What if icebreaker questions to get to know someone at work
8. If questions for icebreakers or if you could 10 ice breaker questions
9. An icebreaker list containing 20 icebreaker questions focused on different dimensions