What are some good social / icebreaker questions for a distributed team?

tracy·May 07, 2020

My team does weekly calls where we kick off with a social question that everyone answers. It can range from things like "What was one fun thing you did over the weekend?" to "What's your horoscope?" to "What's one thing you've learned about yourself during quarantine?" Any other tips on good questions or prompts? One fun thing is that our team is quite international and spans many countries so we can get really interesting breadth of answers sometimes.

sdeee·May 07, 2020

My favorite prompts so far have been ones that have helped us reframe this experience of quarantine/helped us be more vulnerable:1. What are you doing during quarantine, now that you no longer have a long commute- 80% of our team works from Jakarta where their commutes were previously 1.5 hours each way. 2. What are you struggling with during this time? How can we help you? I started this conversation by acknowledging what I was struggling with. It helped others be more vulnerable and everyone really came together to support each other. We are a small, close knit team so this worked.3. Which colleague did you miss the most this week? Why?

laurenplace·May 07, 2020

Some fun ones:— Give us the history an item in your zoom background/on your desk?— Most creative quarantine meal?— Share a book you couldn't put down.—What is the most difficult word for others to pronounce from your native language? (More international themed)

MelBlatt·May 08, 2020

We used to start every Monday meeting with positive focus. Could range from something work or life related. It really changed the tone of the meetings!

sheresesh·May 08, 2020

You can start asking everyone if they were to play in the summer Olympics what sport would it be and why.

teresaman·May 09, 2020

- Grab something near you and tell us the story of how you got it!- Theme day for clothing, eg. hat day / colourful pants / mismatched socks - intro becomes a bit of a show and tell :)

tracy·May 20, 2020

These are really fun ideas that take advantage of Zoom wfh life, I like them!

hazelq·May 13, 2020

A few of my go-tos:▪️What was your favorite childhood movie▪️What was you favorite vacation ▪️ What was your first jobThese kind of questions always seem to put folks at ease a bit and open up stories and common ground between teammates.

ekuacant·May 08, 2020

@tracyHi Tracy,Hope you're well. Here are my suggestions:What's 1 hobby that you've taken up in quarantine?What's the 1 place in the world that you would love to travel to and why?What is the 1 win that you would like to share from last week?What's 1 thing that you would like help to learn? What's 1 thing that makes you laugh? What's your favourite motivational song?How has someone on the team helped you this week or last week? Hope that helps!Warm Regards,Ekua