Team Building Questions
Questions for a manager or facilitator who wants a team to know and trust each other, in a weekly meeting, at an offsite or in a retrospective. They are grouped in the order a team can take them: quick openers, getting to know each other, how people like to work, what the team should keep, stop and start, looking ahead, and a round that is just for fun. The notes say how to run each one, with ways to give quieter people a turn and keep anyone from being put on the spot, and no question asks about health, family plans, beliefs or pay.
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Quick openers
“In one sentence, what are you working on that the rest of us probably don't know about?”
Why ask it
People can sit two desks apart with no idea what the other is building. The one-sentence limit stops it from turning into a status meeting, and a common result is two colleagues finding out that their work overlaps.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Quick openers
In one sentence, what are you working on that the rest of us probably don't know about?
Why ask it
People can sit two desks apart with no idea what the other is building. The one-sentence limit stops it from turning into a status meeting, and a common result is two colleagues finding out that their work overlaps.
What's a tiny thing a teammate does that you appreciate and have never mentioned?
Why ask it
Tiny is the instruction that matters. It brings out the person who always writes the summary or refills the printer, the kind of work no review lists. Take volunteers for three or four answers, so the round stops before anyone starts counting who was left out.
What one word would you use to describe this team to someone joining next week?
Why ask it
Have everyone write the word down and hold it up or send it at the same moment, so nobody can borrow the word before theirs. Repeats are the team's reputation with itself, and the lone outlier is worth a friendly 'say more' if its owner is willing.
What's something you learned about a coworker recently that you were glad to find out?
Why ask it
Each answer hands a small compliment to someone in the room, which is why 'glad' is in the wording. On a team where a few names would collect every mention, pair people up and have each report one new thing about their partner instead.
What could you lend a hand with this week, if anyone asked?
Why ask it
Offers only, and that is deliberate: nobody has to confess to needing help in front of the group. People take each other up on it afterward, by message, and that is where you will see whether it worked.
What's one thing you're glad is not your job?
Why ask it
The answers are nearly always admiration in disguise for whoever does that thing: the person who chases invoices, takes the angry calls or reads the contracts. Point that out when it happens, and let the person named enjoy it.
Which would suit you better today: a quiet day of focused work, or a day full of people?
Why ask it
A two-option question that anyone can answer in a breath, which makes it a kind first turn for someone who rarely speaks. If most of the room wanted the quiet day and you have them in a workshop, acknowledge it and promise a real break.
What's one thing you know how to do here that nobody else does?
Why ask it
The funny answers come first: coaxing the printer, finding the last parking space, calming one particular client. Then someone says they are the only person who can run the month-end export, and you have found a gap to cover before that person takes a vacation. Note those down without making anyone feel audited.
What's the last thing you got so absorbed in at work that you lost track of time?
Why ask it
Tells you what kind of work each person finds absorbing without asking them to name a passion. Someone who cannot remember the last time is also telling you something, so do not press, and think later about how chopped-up their days are.
Who on this team do you work with least, and what would you like to know about what they do?
Why ask it
It turns a gap into curiosity, and the person named can answer on the spot in a sentence or two. On a team of four everyone already works with everyone, so keep it for larger groups, where it also shows you which pairs to put together on the next piece of work.
What's the last thing you celebrated, however minor?
Why ask it
Works because it has no wrong size. A passed inspection, a finished book and a parking spot outside the door all count. It suits a Monday or the first meeting after a hard deadline, when the room needs reminding that good things happen.
What's on your plate this week that could use a second pair of eyes?
Why ask it
Asking for a second pair of eyes is a much smaller step than asking for help, so people who never admit to being stuck will still answer. Do not solve anything in the round. Let whoever has the right eyes say 'find me after', and move to the next person.
What's the first thing you'd show a visitor to explain how this team works?
Why ask it
People point at different things: the board, the group chat, a certain person's desk, the coffee machine. The spread tells you what the team itself thinks holds it together, and it is rarely the org chart.
What would you miss about this team if you moved to another one tomorrow?
Why ask it
People name small, concrete things: the group chat, the way reviews are done, a colleague who explains twice without sighing. That list is what to protect when the team grows or reorganizes. It needs a team with some months behind it, and it is the wrong question in a week when someone is in fact leaving.
What's the last thing you asked a teammate to explain to you?
Why ask it
Makes not knowing ordinary, most of all when the longest-serving person answers with something basic from this week. Each answer also names a colleague as the one who knew. It earns its place on teams where people would sooner search for an hour than ask.
Get to know you
What was the first job you were ever paid for, and what did it teach you about working with other people?
Why ask it
Nobody's first job was impressive, so paper routes and dish pits put the director and the intern on the same footing. The lesson about other people is the part to wait for: who covered for whom, what a good shift lead did, how the rush got handled.
What did you want to be when you were a kid, and what's left of that in the work you do now?
Why ask it
Astronauts and vets turn up a lot, and the link to the present job is where it gets interesting: the child who wanted to be a detective now works in audit. Offer the link as optional, since some people will honestly say there is none, which gets its own laugh.
Think of the best team you've ever been on, at work or anywhere else: what did it do that most teams don't?
Why ask it
Sports teams, kitchen crews, choirs and school projects all count, so people early in a career have as much to say as anyone. Write the answers where everyone can see them. By the end you have the team's own description of what good looks like.
If there were a sign above your desk saying 'Ask me about...', how would it end?
Why ask it
Invites people to claim an expertise without bragging, and it does not have to be about work: sourdough and spreadsheet macros are both good answers. In a new team, write the signs down and share the list, because it becomes a directory people go back to.
What kind of problem are you quietly pleased to be handed?
Why ask it
A strengths question that nobody has to brag to answer: a tangled spreadsheet, an upset customer, a blank page, something broken for no clear reason. Colleagues learn who to bring which mess to, and a manager learns what to route where.
What could you give a five-minute talk on right now, with no slides and no warning?
Why ask it
Shows what each person knows cold, from bike repair to the full history of one baseball team. If the team meets regularly, turn the best answers into a standing slot where one person gives the talk for real each month. That part is for volunteers.
What's a hobby or interest of yours that has quietly made you better at your job?
Why ask it
Lets people mention life outside work on their own terms, with a built-in reason to. The climber talks about planning, the choir member about listening. Anyone who would rather keep their evenings private can answer with a past job or a class instead.
What's the most unexpected line on your work history?
Why ask it
Plenty of people have a season as a lifeguard, a call-center stint or a summer on a farm that never comes up. It makes long-serving colleagues new to each other again. If the group is over eight, talk in pairs first, then have each pair share the better story.
Which former colleague's habit have you copied and kept?
Why ask it
A generous question, because the answer credits someone else. You will hear habits worth copying, like sending the agenda the night before or reading a message twice before replying. Jot them down: the team is telling you what good practice looks like to them.
What's a piece of advice about work that you were given early on and still follow?
Why ask it
Short answers, and nearly always quotable. The advice a person kept says a lot about what they value, so listen for whether it is about people, about quality or about getting things finished. Follow up by asking who gave it.
What part of your job would surprise your friends if they watched you do it for a day?
Why ask it
Friends tend to hold a cartoon version of what we do. Describing the real one, colleagues find out how much of each other's day is negotiation, waiting or careful checking. It is a gentle route into how people see their own role.
Which three words would a past teammate use to describe working with you?
Why ask it
Borrowing a past teammate's voice makes it easier to say something good about yourself, and easier to slip in something honest like 'blunt' or 'last-minute'. Give people a minute to write the three words first. Never ask the current team to vote on whether they agree.
What's a place that shaped how you work: a kitchen, a shop floor, a classroom, an earlier team?
Why ask it
Where someone learned to work explains a great deal about how they do it now. The person trained in a restaurant cleans as they go, and the one from a newsroom treats every deadline as fixed. Good for teams with mixed backgrounds who find each other's habits puzzling.
What's one thing about your working day that looks different from everyone else's here?
Why ask it
Teams assume each other's days are alike and plan badly because of it, when the hours, the commute, the time zone and the customers can all differ. Let people pick what they share, and make clear that nobody has to explain why their day is arranged the way it is.
What's a firm opinion about work you used to hold and have since dropped?
Why ask it
An opinion someone has reversed makes a better story than one they have always held: on open offices, on long emails, on whether meetings are ever useful. A room that has heard everyone admit to being wrong once tends to find later disagreements less tense.
What's something you've stuck with for more than ten years, at work or outside it?
Why ask it
Ten years brings out choirs, a weekly pickup game, a vegetable patch, the same Saturday phone call. Each person decides how personal to make it, and anyone early in a career can count from childhood. Ask what has kept them at it, since the reason often explains how they stay with long projects too.
How we work
If the team wrote a short 'how to work with me' card for you, what would the first line be?
Why ask it
The whole user-manual exercise shrunk to one line, which is about as much as colleagues will remember anyway. Have everyone write theirs before anyone reads, so the fifth answer is not a copy of the first. Collect the lines in one document and pin it.
Do you think out loud, or think first and speak second?
Why ask it
One of the most useful facts a team can know about itself. The out-loud thinkers fill the meeting, and the think-first people get mistaken for having no view. Once you know who is who, send questions ahead and invite the reflective ones in by name later in the discussion, with warning.
When someone needs something from you, what should the first message include so you can just get on with it?
Why ask it
People have firm views on this and seldom get asked: the deadline, the context, the file itself and not a description of it. Their answers are instructions the team can follow from tomorrow. Expect the bare 'hi' followed by silence to be named, and expect whoever does it to laugh loudest.
What do you need before a meeting to do your best thinking in it?
Why ask it
Some people need the paper in advance and some would rather walk in cold. If several say an agenda, that is a cheap fix with your name on it. No question here does more for quieter colleagues, who are often the ones wanting time to prepare.
Which part of a project are you best at: getting it started, the messy middle, or finishing?
Why ask it
Three choices and no bad one. Stand in three corners of the room if you have the space, and the team sees its own shape at a glance. A team with ten starters and one finisher has just learned why things stall near the end.
What does 'done' mean to you: finished, checked, or finished and handed off?
Why ask it
Plenty of team arguments turn out to be about this one word. Hear everyone's definition without ruling on any of them, then agree on one for shared work. Write it somewhere visible, because the agreement fades by the next deadline.
What helps you concentrate, and what reliably breaks it?
Why ask it
Half of each answer is a request colleagues can honor at no cost: fewer drive-by questions, no pings before ten, headphones meaning do not disturb. Repeat a few of those back before moving on, and ask the team which one it wants to adopt.
What's a reasonable time to reply to a message, and what do you assume when someone doesn't?
Why ask it
Answers run from ten minutes to two days, and each person believes theirs is obvious. What people assume is the valuable part: some decide a colleague is busy and others that they are being ignored. Agree on a rough norm for each channel while the subject is open.
When you disagree with a decision, how do you prefer to raise it?
Why ask it
There is no right answer here, only a spread: some speak up in the room, some write afterward, some go straight to the decider. A team needs to know that the colleague who stays quiet and writes later is taking part and has not given up. Ask in a calm week, never straight after a contested call.
When two of us disagree and both have a point, what's a fair way to decide?
Why ask it
Without an agreed answer, the decision tends to go to whoever can argue longest. Useful answers sound like 'whoever owns the result decides' or 'try the cheaper option for two weeks, then look again'. Write the chosen rule down, since its whole value is in being quoted later.
What do you want a teammate to do when they spot a mistake in your work?
Why ask it
Almost everyone says 'tell me', and the detail is in how: privately, straight away, with the fix or without it. Having said it aloud, a person finds it harder to bristle when a colleague takes them at their word. It also gives the careful checkers permission to speak.
What's a first impression you give at work that turns out to be wrong?
Why ask it
Typical answers are a serious face that is only concentration, or short messages that are not anger. Let people write theirs down and choose whether to read it out. Whoever leads the team should go first, with something true.
What's a sign you have too much on that the rest of us might not notice?
Why ask it
Keep this to workload and working habits; nobody needs to describe how stress feels. Common answers are going quiet in chat or saying 'fine' too quickly. The practical follow-up is 'and what should we do when we see it', which most people can answer in five words.
What are you good at that you'd honestly rather do less of?
Why ask it
Being reliable at something is how people end up doing it for years. A manager hears which tasks have become a trap, and a colleague may hear a chance to learn the thing. Ask only if some reshuffling is possible, and say plainly that an honest answer will not be held against anyone.
Where do decisions on this team really get made: in the meeting, in the chat, or in the hallway afterward?
Why ask it
An honest answer can sting, especially for the person who runs the meeting. If the room says 'afterward', then remote colleagues and quieter ones are being left out of the real conversation. Collect answers on unsigned notes or in a poll if you want the truth on the first try.
What's one of our meetings that works well, and why that one?
Why ask it
Starting from what works gets a more useful list than asking what is broken. The reasons, such as a clear owner or a fixed end time, can be carried over to the meetings that nobody praised. Notice which ones go unmentioned.
What do you need at a handoff that you rarely get?
Why ask it
Every team has a seam where work passes between people and details fall through. Expect to hear about where the files live, what was promised to whom, and what the last person was worried about. The answers make a checklist, so have someone type them up as they come.
What's the difference between a good busy week and a bad busy week for you?
Why ask it
Same hours, different feeling, and the difference people name is often about control: chosen work against interruptions, progress against churn. It is answered more freely than a direct question about stress. Listen for what the bad weeks have in common across the team.
What makes it easier for you to speak up when you're not sure you're right?
Why ask it
This is the team telling you how to run its meetings: ask me directly, let someone else be unsure first, give me a chat window. Try a suggestion the same day. Use a written round, since the question is aimed at the people least likely to answer it aloud.
What's the quickest way to earn your trust at work, and the quickest way to lose it?
Why ask it
Each answer is a request to the room dressed as a general remark, such as 'do what you said' or 'admit a miss early'. Nobody should guess aloud who it is about. It suits a team that has had a few months together.
What's your pettiest work pet peeve, the one you know is unreasonable?
Why ask it
Set the rules before anyone answers: habits and not people, and nothing from this week. Then enjoy the list of reply-alls, vague subject lines and meetings that start four minutes late. It lets off steam, and the repeats are cheap things to fix.
What should we always tell each other sooner?
Why ask it
The answers show where surprises have hurt before: a slipping deadline, a changed priority, a client in a bad mood. End by picking one and agreeing how it gets shared from now on. Otherwise the question was only a complaint box.
Wins and lessons
What does this team do that we should never stop doing?
Why ask it
The 'keep' in keep, stop, start, and it belongs first: a team that has heard what it does well takes the stop and the start with less flinching. Have everyone write one answer on a note before any are read, then group the notes on a wall.
What should we stop doing because it no longer earns the time it takes?
Why ask it
Reports nobody reads and approvals that approve nothing tend to surface here. Ask about activities and never about people. Whoever owns the thing named should respond with a question and not a defense, and if the room is tense, gather the notes unsigned.
What should we start doing, even as a two-week experiment?
Why ask it
Framing it as an experiment lowers the price of suggesting something. Nobody is proposing a permanent change, only a trial with an end date. Choose one idea by a quick show of hands, name who will set it up, and put the review in the calendar before people leave.
What's a recent win of ours that we moved past too quickly?
Why ask it
Busy teams ship something and are on to the next thing by lunch. This is a chance to go back for five minutes. Ask who was involved, so the credit reaches beyond the obvious few, and let the person closest to the work describe what it took.
What's the hardest thing this team has pulled off, and what got us through it?
Why ask it
Shared history is part of what makes a team more than a list of names. Newer members hear the stories they missed, and the answers to 'what got us through' are the strengths to lean on next time. Good on an offsite, with time to tell it properly.
When were we at our best as a team, and what was different about that stretch?
Why ask it
The second half does the work. A smaller group, one clear goal, a deadline that was real: whatever people name is a condition you might be able to recreate. Tell anyone who joined recently that they can answer about a previous team.
Whose behind-the-scenes work kept something from going wrong lately?
Why ask it
Prevention is invisible by nature, so nobody thanks the person who caught the wrong date before the invitation went out. Open the floor instead of going around, and add one yourself for anyone whose quiet work you have noticed and the room has not.
What's a problem we solved so thoroughly that we forgot it was ever a problem?
Why ask it
Takes a moment of thought, so let there be silence. Longer-serving people remember the weekly outage or the spreadsheet that was emailed around, and newer ones learn why a process exists. It is a quiet argument that fixing things is worth the effort.
What nearly went wrong recently, and what caught it?
Why ask it
A near miss is the cheapest lesson a team gets, since nothing was lost and nobody is in trouble. Keep the attention on what caught it: a checklist, a second pair of eyes, a hunch. That is the part worth protecting when time gets short.
What's a small thing you got wrong recently that the rest of us can learn from for free?
Why ask it
Small and recent keeps this to the wrong attachment or the misread brief, well away from career regrets. On a team new to talking this way, collect answers on unsigned notes and read them out together. The laughter of recognition is the sign it is working.
What did we learn on the last project that we haven't put into practice yet?
Why ask it
Plenty of teams have a retrospective document full of lessons that changed nothing, and this question admits it. Pull up the old notes if they exist, choose a single lesson, and decide who makes it real. A list of five will go the same way as the last one.
Which of our decisions from the past year has aged the best?
Why ask it
A pleasant one to ask, and more revealing than it looks, because people often credit choices that were unpopular at the time. If you know who argued for the decision, make sure they hear it. It pairs well with asking which decision the team would make differently, if the mood can take it.
Knowing what we know now, which of our decisions would we make differently?
Why ask it
'Knowing what we know now' matters: it places the fault in missing information and not in whoever decided. Discuss the choice, never the chooser. One or two answers are plenty, and it should not be the last thing a team talks about before going home.
What were we braced for that never happened?
Why ask it
A relief to answer, and useful for calibration. The launch-day disaster that never came and the client who did not mind are worth remembering the next time the team is spinning over a risk. It is often funny in hindsight, which helps.
What have you personally gotten better at in the last six months?
Why ask it
Self-praise is hard for a lot of people, so give them a minute to think and allow answers as modest as 'saying no' or 'shorter emails'. In a team that knows each other well, invite colleagues to add what they have seen improve in the speaker.
What's the best thank-you you've ever had at work, and what made it land?
Why ask it
A story question that doubles as a guide to appreciating each person. Some remember a handwritten note, some a mention in front of the whole company, some an afternoon off. Managers should listen for how specific the thanks was, which tends to be what the stories have in common.
What reaction from a customer, user or colleague reminded you why the work matters?
Why ask it
Teams far from the end user can go months without hearing that anything they did helped. One email read aloud does a great deal. If nobody has a story, that is information too, and the fix is to route more of that feedback to the people who do the work.
What slowed us down most last month that was within our control?
Why ask it
The last four words keep the discussion off the budget, the reorganization and other weather. What remains is likely to be small and fixable, such as unclear ownership or a late review. Take answers in writing first so the list is not shaped by whoever speaks earliest.
Looking ahead
What do you want this team to be known for a year from now?
Why ask it
Reputation is an easier way into goals than a mission statement. People say things like 'the team that answers quickly' or 'the one that tells you the truth'. Put the answers side by side and look for the two or three that repeat, since those are already half agreed.
What one change would make this the best team you've ever worked on?
Why ask it
Flattering and demanding at once: it assumes the team is close and asks what is missing. The answers are mostly within reach, like clearer priorities or more time together. Have people write before speaking, and resist explaining why any of it is hard.
What would you like to learn from someone in this room?
Why ask it
Naming the person is the compliment and the request in one. Pairs form on the spot: the analyst who wants to present better and the presenter who wants to understand the numbers. Protect half an hour for each pair in the following two weeks or it stays a nice idea.
What would you like a turn at that usually goes to someone else?
Why ask it
Ambitions that people would never raise unprompted come out here: running the client call, planning the launch, mentoring the intern. Say first that asking for a turn is no complaint about whoever does the job now. Then write the answers down and come back to them within the month.
What project would you put your hand up for if it existed?
Why ask it
Asks about appetite and not about gaps, so it is cheerful to answer. Listen for ideas that two people name independently, because a project with two volunteers is already staffed. Useful just before planning, when there is still room to add something.
What's the biggest thing standing between us and our next goal, as you see it?
Why ask it
'As you see it' gives permission for a partial view, and the partial views are the point: the person nearest the customer sees a different obstacle from the person nearest the code. Collect every answer before discussing any, so the first one does not become the only one.
If we had a week with no deadlines, what should the team fix, build or learn?
Why ask it
Every team carries a list of things it would do if it ever had time, and hearing them together shows which are shared. If one item gets three mentions, consider giving it a real day. Decide before you ask whether that is on the table, and say so.
If one extra person joined us for six months, what should they work on?
Why ask it
A friendlier way of asking where the team is stretched thin: nobody has to say they are struggling, only describe the imaginary colleague's job. When several descriptions match, you have a case to take upstairs, already worded by the team.
Which of our goals do you suspect we don't all understand the same way?
Why ask it
It takes some nerve to answer, so thank the first person who does. A useful test is to have everyone write the goal in their own words and compare. Differences are normal, and much cheaper to find in a meeting than in the final week of a project.
What's coming our way that we should talk about before it arrives?
Why ask it
Teams often know what is coming and avoid mentioning it: the new system, the busy season, the change of leadership. You do not need to solve anything in the meeting. Getting it named, and agreeing when to return to it, is the win.
What would we attempt if the first version were allowed to be bad?
Why ask it
Fear of an embarrassing first draft stops a lot of good ideas before they are spoken, and saying 'bad is allowed' gets the rough ones out. It suits teams with high standards, who are the ones most likely to be sitting on something.
Which other team should we know better, and what would we ask them?
Why ask it
Team building usually looks inward, and plenty of friction sits at the borders with other groups. The second half produces an agenda. Invite that team for coffee or a joint session, and bring the questions exactly as your people worded them.
What's one thing the person leading this team could do to make your work easier?
Why ask it
Only a leader who intends to act should ask it, and it lands better when they ask it themselves. Use an anonymous form or folded notes the first time. Then report back within a week on what you will do, what you cannot, and why.
What's one promise we could make to each other for the rest of this quarter, and keep?
Why ask it
The words 'and keep' push people toward modest, real commitments: cameras on for planning, no messages after seven, review comments within two days. Agree on no more than three, write them where the team will see them, and check in at the halfway mark.
What's one small thing you could do this week to make a teammate's work easier?
Why ask it
A closing question that turns talk into something that happens by Friday. Small is essential: sharing a template, reviewing a draft a day early, answering that one old message. Skip the public follow-up, and ask the next week what people noticed.
How will we know, three months from now, that this conversation was worth having?
Why ask it
Ask it last. It makes the team define its own evidence, such as a meeting that got shorter or a handoff that stopped going wrong. Set a reminder for the date and read the answers back to them, which is the step that most often gets skipped.
Just for fun
If our last project were a movie, what would the title be, and what genre?
Why ask it
Disaster film, heist, slow documentary: the genre is a verdict on the project that nobody has to defend. Small groups come up with better titles than individuals, so give tables three minutes and have each pitch one. Keep the winning title for the wrap-up slide.
What would this team's mascot be, and what would it be holding?
Why ask it
The second half is where the jokes are: a duck holding a fire extinguisher says a lot about the year. Someone will offer to draw it. Let them, and do not be surprised if it ends up as the group chat icon.
Which teammate would you want on your trivia team, and for which category?
Why ask it
Every answer is a compliment about what someone knows, whether that is geography, nineties pop or obscure regulations. To be sure nobody goes unpicked, have each person choose for the colleague to their left: 'you would be our expert on...'
Which fictional character would make a great addition to this team, and what would their job title be?
Why ask it
People pick a character to fill a gap they feel: a fixer, an organizer, someone who says what everyone is thinking. So it is a staffing wish list wearing a costume. It works across ages if you allow books, cartoons and games as well as television.
Would you rather swap jobs with a teammate for a week or swap inboxes for a single day?
Why ask it
Vote by raising hands, then ask a few job-swappers whose job they would take and what they think that person's Tuesday involves. The owner of the job gets to correct them, which is the funny part and the informative one. Inbox-swappers are mostly just nosy, and will say so.
Would you rather present to five hundred strangers or to five people who know you very well?
Why ask it
Groups tend to split, and each half is baffled by the other. It is a light way to learn who dreads the big stage and who dreads the small room, which is handy to know before you assign the next presentation.
What's a phrase or in-joke that only this team would understand?
Why ask it
In-jokes are a team's private language, and reciting them is a pleasure for the people who were there. Insist on the origin story each time. That turns a joke that shuts newcomers out into one they are now part of.
What's the best or worst team-building activity you've ever been made to do?
Why ask it
Laughing at the genre while taking part in it puts the skeptics at ease, and the stories of trust falls and raft building are reliably good. Listen closely to the 'best' answers, since they tell you what this group would enjoy next.
What would the children's book about your job be called?
Why ask it
Forces a plain-language summary of work that is normally wrapped in jargon, and the titles are funny: 'Maya and the Very Long Spreadsheet'. Give people a minute with pen and paper. Some will draw the cover, and they should be encouraged.
Give the person on your left an award for something that isn't in their job description. What is it?
Why ask it
Going around the circle means every single person receives one, which is why this beats an open vote. Say that awards must be kind, offer examples like 'calmest voice in a crisis' or 'best snack drawer', and give two minutes to think so nobody improvises something backhanded.
What superpower would help most in your particular job?
Why ask it
Each choice points at the hardest part of that person's role: mind reading in sales, freezing time in operations, being in two meetings at once for anyone who manages people. It is a complaint the team can laugh at together.
If you were in charge of the workplace for exactly one day, what rule would you add?
Why ask it
A one-day limit keeps it playful and stops anyone drafting real policy in the meeting. Mandatory nap hour will come up alongside ideas that are perfectly sensible, and the sensible ones are worth a note.
What's the worst possible name for our next project?
Why ask it
Being deliberately terrible is easier than being clever, so even the people who say they are not funny join in. Write the names on a board and take a vote. One of the bad ones will stick around as a nickname, which is how teams get their folklore.
Which contest would this team win tomorrow, and which would be a disaster: a bake-off, a quiz, a relay race or karaoke?
Why ask it
Builds a collective self-portrait, and hidden bakers and singers tend to reveal themselves. Keep the joking about the team as a whole and never about how one person runs or sings. If there is a clear winner, you have also found your next social event.
What would be in this team's survival kit for a hard week?
Why ask it
Among the jokes are real requests: snacks, a do-not-disturb sign, the phone number of whoever understands the billing system. Putting an actual box together before the next deadline costs very little and gets remembered.
What's your most useless talent, and are you willing to demonstrate?
Why ask it
'Willing' makes the demonstration optional, which is the only way to run it. Start with someone who enjoys an audience, take volunteers from there, and expect ear wiggling and old ad jingles.
What would this team's theme song be on a Monday, and what would it be on a Friday?
Why ask it
Two songs make a before-and-after joke that most people can manage. Collect the answers into a shared playlist afterward. It is a small keepsake, and someone will put it on at the next team lunch.
How to run team building questions
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Setting it up so everyone answers
Say what the session is for
One sentence is enough: 'We have three new people and I want us to know how each other likes to work.' A team that knows the purpose will play along. A team left to guess assumes it is being assessed, and gives careful answers.
Send the questions the day before
Two or three questions in the invite cost you nothing and change who speaks. People who think before they talk arrive with an answer, and the session stops being a contest of who is quickest. Surprise only suits the Just for fun group.
Write first, then talk
Give everyone a minute of silence to write an answer on a note or in a private draft before any are shared. Each person then has something in hand, later answers are not copies of the first one, and you can gather the notes unsigned when a question is tender.
Make passing ordinary
Say at the start that 'pass' and 'come back to me' are full answers, then accept the first one without a comment or a joke. If you pass on a question yourself early on, the option becomes real. Nobody should be named and waited on.
Keep off private ground
None of these questions asks about health, family plans, beliefs or pay, and the follow-ups should not either. If someone offers something personal by choice, thank them and move on without digging. Other people in the room are deciding how much to say by watching what happens next.
Match the depth to the team's age
A group that met this month should stay with Get to know you and the openers that need no shared history. How we work suits a team with a few weeks behind it. Wins and lessons and Looking ahead ask people to be candid about shared work, so save them until the lighter rounds go easily.
Three ways to run it
Ten minutes inside a weekly meeting
- 1Choose one question from Quick openers or Get to know you and put it on the agenda with its time, so it reads as part of the meeting.
- 2Ask it, then wait a slow count of ten before taking the first answer. In a video meeting, have people type and send together.
- 3Go in a set order, such as around the table or down the participant list, so nobody has to fight for a turn. Anyone may pass.
- 4Thank each person in a word and keep moving. Save the discussion for a single answer at the end, chosen by the group.
Keep, stop, start (30 to 45 minutes)
- 1Use the first three questions under Wins and lessons, in that order. Hand out notes in three colors, or open a shared board with three columns.
- 2Give five silent minutes for writing, one idea per note, with no names on them.
- 3Put the keeps up first and read them aloud. Then group the stops and starts by theme without debating any of them.
- 4Give each person three votes, and take the top stop and the top start. For each, agree on who owns it and when the team will check on it.
- 5Open the next session by reporting what happened to both. That report is what makes people write honest notes the second time.
Pairs first, then the room (new teams and offsites)
- 1Pick three questions from Get to know you or How we work and show them on a screen or a card.
- 2Put people in pairs with someone they work with least, and give each pair eight minutes for all three questions.
- 3Back in the full group, each person shares one thing their partner said, having checked first that the partner is happy for it to be repeated.
- 4Swap partners and run it again with new questions if time allows. Two rounds are usually plenty before a break.
What to do with the answers
Keep a record of the working-style answers
How people like to be asked for things, when they concentrate best and how they want a mistake raised are worth more written down than remembered. Put them on one shared page that each person can edit, and show it to anyone who joins later.
Change one thing where people can see it
After a session, pick a single request you can grant quickly, such as an agenda sent earlier or a meeting cut by ten minutes, and say that it came from the team's answers. One visible change does more for the next session than a long list of intentions.
Keep answers out of reviews
What someone says in a team building round should never turn up in a performance review or be quoted back in a disagreement. If people come to suspect the answers are being filed, they will offer the blandest thing available, and the exercise is over.
Come back to the forward-looking ones
Questions about promises, experiments and what the team wants to be known for only matter if someone returns to them. Set a date when you ask. Reading a team's own words back to it three months on is one of the more persuasive things a manager can do.
When it falls flat
The same three people answer
An open 'anyone?' rewards the quickest voices. Switch to a round in a fixed order, to pairs, or to written answers, all of which give every person a turn without singling anyone out. Calling on a quiet person by surprise is not the remedy.
The manager talks most
If you lead the team, answer briefly and, on the lighter questions, late. Long answers from the most senior person set the length and the tone for everyone after. The exception is anything about mistakes or first impressions, where your honest answer at the start makes the others possible. Better still, hand the running of a session to someone else now and then, so you can answer as one of the team.
A retrospective turns into a complaint session
Stop and start questions can drift toward things nobody present can change. Bring the discussion back with 'which part of that is ours?' and park the rest on a visible list for whoever can act on it. Then make sure that list is delivered.
The funny ones land on a bad week
A mascot question in the middle of layoffs or a missed deadline reads as tone deaf. Check the mood first with an opener such as the last thing anyone celebrated. When the room is heavy, a wins question or no question at all is the better choice, and the fun can wait for next month.
Remote colleagues become the audience
In a mixed meeting the people in the room laugh together and the ones on screen watch. Have everyone answer through the same channel, such as the chat or a shared board, even those sitting side by side, and take the first answer from someone who is dialing in.