Icebreaker Wheel

Questions people can actually answer

Most icebreakers fail because they demand a performance. "Tell us a fun fact about yourself" puts people on the spot and rewards whoever prepared one.

These sixteen are the opposite. Every question has an answer you already know, none requires you to be interesting, and none asks about anything personal. "What's the best thing you ate this week" always has an answer, and it is impossible to answer badly.

That is the whole design: low floor, no ceiling. Someone can answer in four words and move on, or tell a five-minute story. Both are fine, which is what makes a group relax.

What's on the Icebreaker Wheel wheel

All 16 options are on the wheel to start with. Edit, delete or add to them — the wheel redraws as you type.

• What's the best thing you ate this week?
• What did you want to be at age 10?
• What's your go-to karaoke song?
• What's the best advice you've been given?
• Coffee, tea or neither?
• What's a small thing that made you happy recently?
• What's your most-used app?
• Where would you go with a free plane ticket?
• What's something you're good at that surprises people?
• What's the last thing you watched?
• Morning person or night owl?
• What's a skill you'd like to learn?
• What's your ideal Sunday?
• What's the best concert or event you've been to?
• What's a book, show or album you recommend to everyone?
• What's one thing you're looking forward to?

Running it with a group

• Turn on remove-after-spin so everyone gets a different question.
• Spin for who answers with the random name picker, or let people volunteer — for a nervous group, volunteering first is kinder.
• Answer it yourself first. Whoever is running the session going first sets the length everyone else copies. Keep it short.
• One question per person is plenty. Icebreakers stop working after about ten minutes.

For classrooms, the classroom question wheel has prompts written for lessons instead.