The Questions, Not The Mints

I don’t know exactly how to phrase this in a way that makes any sort of sense, but I don’t hate icebreaker questions and I don’t not hate them. I find the ritual that goes around them tedious (i.e., “Let’s go around the room and say our names and what you would do if you found yourself arm wrestling a bear.”), but questions themselves not as much (though the arm-wrestling a bear one would probably get an eye roll from me and not much else). I sympathize with people who hate them; they can often turn into inside joke factories that do nothing but alienate people not in the loop. But observing how people deal with unexpected queries has to have some amount of merit.

I think sometimes people don’t like icebreaker questions because the answers are all the same. There’s a moment in the movie Adaptation. written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman where Nicolas Cage’s character exclaims, “People who say Jesus or Einstein are liars.” That particular question was “Which person, living or dead, would you most want to have dinner with?” which of course is a boring question. It’s a stereotypical icebreaker at this point. People already know their answers. Even if they are Jesus and Einstein.

So what I suggest are some off-the-wall icebreaker questions. I’ve prepared five below:

What is the least interesting thing about you? Why did you think that answer will still “break the ice?”

The apocalypse has finally arrived! Assuming you survive the initial wave of casualties, how long do you think you would last? What regrets would you have?

People always wonder what animals would say if they could speak, but they don’t take into account all the microorganisms inside their own mouth. If you had to rely on these microscopic cells to speak for you for twenty four hours, what do you think the consequences would be the week after?

What scientific breakthrough do you wish would happen, even if it would be totally pointless?

What is your favorite icebreaker question and why didn’t you ask it first?

-F