I am running a creative thinking workshop next week and have been thinking of
icebreakers and interesting games to lighten up the more theoretical part.
Last week I was in a training myself and their icebreaker, introductory question to participants was ‘What is your favorite drink?’. And although it was interesting to hear that some people prefer water over beer, I was thinking that there must be better, more creative questions to ask people.
Questions that are easy enough for participants to answer, but that may trigger interesting follow-up questions and the telling of stories.
So here is my list of suggestions to you. Feel free to add your creative questions.
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Name one thing no one in this room knows about you.
Especially good for existing teams or groups of people/friends that do know each other (or think they do). -
If you didn’t have to worry about your job and lack of time, which side project would you start?
Most people have something going on a side burner, something they are passionate about. -
What one location would you want to visit before you die?
This can be altered ‘activity you want to do’, ‘person you’d want to meet’ etc. -
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Silly, fun and likely to give the most diverse answers. -
I am creative every day by…
Replace ‘creative’ by any adjective related to your workshop. -
If I were 5 years old now, I would introduce myself like this: …
Kids are much more natural when they talk about themselves. They don’t think about etiquette and looking foolish. Allows people to dance. -
If I were a book, I would be: …
Allows for a wide range of titles. And of course: tell me what you read and I will tell you who you are. -
I am currently reading…
A variation of number 7 -
My tombstone should read the following sentence:
A bit macabre maybe, but good for coaching sessions. -
My passion, in one word is:…
People usually have one thing they LOVE. Getting it into one word makes them thing and tells a lot about them at the same time. -
If I could invent anything to solve a problem, it would be…
Oooh, let’s see: a device that cleans up after my kids
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I am going to a deserted island (with no electricity and internet connection) and I am taking the following 3 things:…
A classic, but tough when you take some modern every day connectivity away. -
Give us your favorite happy song to put us in a good mood:…
You can then play them with Spotify or Grooveshark while waiting for everyone to arrive. Put on Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves and I am instantly jumping around. -
Give us 3 random words/verbs with which your right hand neighbor has to make a sentence starting with I am…
People love to get others in trouble and this is a funny way of doing that. Of course everyone gets to be in that situation that way. -
I am a slogan and it says:
Reveals a lot about the person and their ability to present themselves in an original way.
If you want to make tags that contain these questions, you can go here.
Here are 15 more icebreaker questions.