Get to Know You Questions for Work
Get to Know You Questions: Generator for Work Teams
Choose from 420 get to know you questions written for the workplace and sorted by depth, setting and theme. Pick your filters, then ask for one question or ten. For someone who has just joined, the new hire welcome pack puts together 10 questions for a first week. Every question is also listed further down this page.
Your shortlist
Nothing saved yet. Select “Add to shortlist” on any question. The shortlist lasts until you close or reload this page, and nothing is stored or sent anywhere.
How to use get to know you questions at work
The search for get to know you questions covers dating, classrooms and parties as well as offices. This page is only about work. Every question here is one a manager could ask in front of a team, and one a colleague could answer without giving away anything private.
Choosing a depth
- Light (168 questions): answered in a few words. Allow about 30 seconds per person. Use these with people who have just met and with big groups.
- Medium (170 questions): a short story or an opinion. Allow about a minute per person. Use these in small teams and first-week conversations.
- Thoughtful (82 questions): these need a pause before the answer. Allow two minutes or more. Keep them for a one on one or a mentoring conversation.
Guidance for managers
Ask one question, answer it first yourself and keep your answer short. Your answer shows people how long and how personal theirs needs to be. Tell the group that anyone can pass. Amy Edmondson defined team psychological safety as "a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking" (Edmondson, 1999, Administrative Science Quarterly). Letting people pass on a question is a small, practical way to respect that.
Use what you hear. If someone tells you they like a day’s notice before presenting, give them a day’s notice. People stop answering get to know you questions for work when the answers change nothing.
In a one on one, pick questions from the “Work style” theme early on. Answers to “How will I know when you’re stuck but haven’t said so?” save weeks of guessing. Stay away from health, family, relationships, money and age, even when the conversation feels friendly. Nothing in this generator asks about them.
Guidance for new hires
You can ask questions too. In your first week, choose two or three light questions and use them when you meet each colleague for the first time. People like being asked about how they work and what they know, and the answers tell you who to go to for what.
If you are asked a question you would prefer not to answer, it is fine to say “I’ll pass on that one” or to answer a nearby question instead. If your manager sends you a welcome pack of questions ahead of your first meeting, pick the ones you like and skip the others.
Questions to get to know someone at work, by setting
- New team: light and medium questions that everyone answers, so no one person is in the spotlight.
- New hire’s first week: questions about working and learning preferences, plus a few easy ones.
- One on one: medium and thoughtful questions, with time to listen.
- Team lunch: light questions that start a conversation and need no turn-taking.
- Mentoring: learning, hopes and plans.
- Remote team: questions that work in the chat as well as out loud.
- Big group: short answers only. Use pairs, the chat or a show of hands.
Worked example
You are taking a team of six to lunch. Choose “Light” and “Team lunch”. The generator shows 160 matching questions. Select “Give me 10”, add three to your shortlist and keep them on your phone. At about 30 seconds per person, one question goes around the table in about three minutes.
A new colleague starts on Monday. Select “New hire welcome pack”. The generator draws from the 256 questions tagged for a new hire’s first week and returns 10: six light, one from each theme, and four medium from four different themes. Copy them into your welcome email and ask the new hire to choose any three to talk about in your first one on one.
When questions are not enough
Questions help people learn about each other. Shared experience does more. If you are planning a team day or an offsite, the EmEx Something Different directory lists team experiences to consider.
420 get to know you questions, by theme
The full question bank, in plain lists you can read, copy or print. Each theme runs from light to thoughtful. The generator above draws from these same lists.
Get to know you questions for work: work style
How each person likes to plan, communicate and share tasks. These are the most useful questions for a team that will work together for a while.
Light
- Do you like a tidy end to each day, or are you happy to stop mid-task?
- Do you like to plan your week on Friday afternoon or Monday morning?
- Do you keep one long to-do list or several short ones?
- What’s a feature in a tool we use that you think most people miss?
- Do you like a message to get straight to the point or start with some context?
- How many browser tabs do you have open on a typical day?
- Do you eat lunch at the same time every day or whenever there’s a gap?
- Would you describe your desk as minimal, lived-in or somewhere in between?
- Do you prefer feedback on a draft early or when it’s nearly done?
Medium
- How do you like people to bring you a problem: with options or just the facts?
- What’s the best way to give you a heads-up about a change of plan?
- How much notice do you like before a meeting where you’ll need to present?
- How do you like a request to be written so you can act on it quickly?
- What kind of instructions work best for you: a goal, a checklist or an example?
- How do you like to split work when you share a task with someone?
- How do you like decisions to be written down?
- How do you decide what to do first on a crowded day?
- What’s a small thing that makes a shared document easy to work in?
Thoughtful
- What kind of task do people tend to underestimate?
- What’s the most useful question someone has asked about a piece of your work?
- What do you find harder to do remotely than face to face, or the other way around?
- What’s something about your working style that has changed over the years?
- What’s a part of your work that takes longer than people think?
- How do you tell the difference between a task that’s urgent and one that’s only loud?
- What’s a habit you’ve dropped because it stopped helping?
- What would you like colleagues to check with you before they assume?
- What do you do differently when you’re leading a piece of work instead of supporting it?
Show 43 more work style questions
More light questions
- What’s your favorite kind of task to start the day with?
- Do you finish one thing before starting the next, or keep a few going at once?
- What’s a task you’re always happy to pick up?
- Do you like to read papers before a meeting or hear them presented?
- What’s one thing that makes a meeting invite useful to you?
- Are you someone who reads the instructions first or dives straight in?
- Do you like to review your own work right away or after a break?
- Do you prefer meetings with a fixed end time or ones that run until the work is done?
- What kind of meeting do you look forward to?
- When you join a new project, what’s the first thing you want to see?
- Do you prefer a fixed weekly routine or a different shape every week?
- Do you prefer to start a task with a plan or with a rough first attempt?
- What does your ideal Friday afternoon at work look like?
More medium questions
- What’s your usual way of asking for help?
- How do you like to celebrate a colleague’s good work?
- How do you like to plan a piece of work that will take several weeks?
- What’s your preferred length for a meeting?
- Which part of a project do you enjoy most: starting, the middle or finishing?
- What’s a decision you’d like to be involved in early?
- What’s the best format for a status update from you: a call, a message or a shared document?
- What’s a working habit of yours that people sometimes misread?
- What’s one thing a past manager did that made your work easier?
- How will I know when you’re stuck but haven’t said so?
- How do you like to share work in progress with the team?
- What’s a type of request you’re always glad to get?
- How do you approach chairing a meeting for the first time?
- What do you like to have agreed before a project starts?
- Do you think best alone, in a pair or in a group?
- What’s a piece of work this month that you enjoyed doing?
- What’s a tool or template you’ve made for yourself that you still use?
- How do you keep track of things you’ve promised to do?
- What’s your approach to an inbox after a few days away?
- What’s one meeting habit you wish every team had?
- How do you stay in touch with colleagues you don’t see every day?
- What’s your best trick for getting back on track after an interruption?
- What’s a sign that a team is working well together?
- How do you like to organize shared files and folders?
- What kind of working session suits you: a long quiet block or short sprints?
More thoughtful questions
- What’s the most useful thing you’ve learned about working with people who think differently from you?
- How do you like to disagree with a decision once it’s been made?
- What does being well prepared mean to you?
- What kind of team role do you tend to drift into, even when nobody assigns it?
- What’s a piece of work you’d like a second opinion on at the moment?
Get to know you questions about learning
What people know, how they learn and what they would like to pick up next. Good for mentoring and for a new hire’s first weeks.
Light
- What’s something you learned to do from a video?
- What’s a website or newsletter you learn something from every week?
- What’s a skill you picked up faster than you expected?
- What subject did you enjoy most at school?
- Do you learn better in the morning or in the evening?
- What’s a myth about your field that you’d like to correct?
- Have you ever taken a class just for fun? What was it?
- What’s a skill you’d love to learn in a single weekend?
- What’s a skill you learned from a friend or colleague instead of a course?
Medium
- What’s a skill you’re working on at the moment?
- What’s a mistake beginners often make in your kind of work?
- What’s a rule of thumb you rely on in your work?
- What’s a piece of software you’d like to learn properly?
- When you’re learning a new tool, what helps most in the first week?
- What’s a topic you’d be glad to explain to the rest of the team?
- What do you do to make something you’ve learned stick?
- What’s a part of this field you’d like to understand better?
- Who do you go to when you want to learn how something really works?
Thoughtful
- What do you want to be better at explaining?
- What’s a lesson you had to learn more than once?
- What’s something you used to find difficult that now feels easy, and what changed?
- What’s a book or guide you’d give to someone starting out in your field?
- How do you decide what’s worth learning in depth and what you only need to know a little about?
- What’s a skill you think will matter more in your work over the next few years?
- What have you learned about how you handle being a beginner?
- What’s an area where you’d like honest feedback, even if it’s hard to hear?
- What’s a topic where your opinion changed as you learned more?
Show 43 more learning questions
More light questions
- What’s a word or phrase from your field that outsiders find confusing?
- What’s a word or phrase from another language that you like?
- What’s the last how-to guide you followed from start to finish?
- What’s a game or puzzle that taught you something useful?
- What’s a museum, exhibit or talk you’ve enjoyed?
- What’s a topic you’d happily watch a two-hour documentary about?
- If you could sit in on any class tomorrow, what would it be?
- What’s a craft or practical skill you admire in other people?
- What’s something you learned from a hobby that helps you at work?
- What’s the best question you’ve been asked recently?
- What’s a subject you didn’t like at school but find interesting now?
More medium questions
- What’s a skill from an earlier job that turned out to be useful later?
- What’s something you learned by getting it wrong the first time?
- What’s a book or article that changed how you do your job?
- How do you keep up with changes in your field?
- What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to learn, and how did you get there?
- What would you like to be shown, not told, in your first few weeks?
- What’s one thing you’d like to be able to do without asking anyone by the end of this month?
- Which part of our work would you like to watch someone else do first?
- What’s the best way for us to check that something has made sense to you?
- What have you had to learn quickly before, and what helped?
- What’s a process here that you’d like to know the history of?
- What kind of documentation do you find useful, and what kind do you skip?
- What’s something you’d like to find in our files or systems but don’t know where to look?
- What’s a skill you used a lot in your last role that you’d like to keep using?
- What’s a skill you’d like to practice in a low-stakes setting before using it for real?
- What’s a resource you wish you’d found sooner?
- What kind of mistakes do you think are useful to make early?
- What’s something you’ve learned from someone much newer to the field than you?
- What’s a skill you’d like the team to learn together?
- What’s a diagram, chart or picture that helped you understand something hard?
- What’s something you taught someone else recently?
- What’s a simple technique you wish you’d learned years earlier?
- What’s a subject you keep meaning to read more about?
- What’s a learning habit you’ve kept for a long time?
- What’s the most unexpected place you’ve learned something useful?
More thoughtful questions
- What’s an area of your field where the experts still disagree?
- What’s a shortcut you stopped taking once you understood the full process?
- Who would you like to mentor one day, and what would you want them to take from it?
- What’s a piece of knowledge on this team that lives in one person’s head and should be shared?
- What’s the best example you’ve seen of someone teaching well?
- What’s a stretch assignment you’d like to take on?
- What’s a skill you’d like to build that isn’t in any job description?
Fun get to know you questions: favorites
Easy questions with short answers. They suit a team lunch, a big group or the first minutes of a call.
Light
- What’s your favorite kind of weather?
- What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?
- What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy afternoon?
- What’s a movie you can watch again and again?
- What’s your favorite thing to do on a train?
- What’s your favorite kind of flower or plant?
- What’s your favorite kind of fruit?
- What’s the best sandwich filling?
- What’s your favorite font?
Medium
- What’s a book you’ve read more than once?
- What’s your favorite kind of day trip?
- What’s your favorite thing to make, whether it’s food, craft or something else?
- What’s an album, artist or style of music that reminds you of a good time?
- What’s your favorite piece of design, such as a poster, a chair or a sign?
- What’s a hobby you’ve kept up the longest, and what keeps you at it?
- What’s your favorite kind of problem to solve?
- What’s a piece of music you’d play to someone hearing it for the first time?
- What’s your favorite word game?
Thoughtful
- What’s a favorite memory from a job you’ve had?
- What’s a piece of writing, music or art you return to when you need to think?
- What’s a favorite of yours that has changed over the years, and what replaced it?
- What’s a skill you’re glad you kept practicing?
- What’s a piece of advice from a book that stuck with you?
- What’s your favorite kind of conversation?
- What’s a favorite project you’d gladly do again from the beginning?
- What’s something you love doing that you’re not especially good at?
Show 43 more favorites questions
More light questions
- What’s your favorite hot meal on a cold day?
- What’s a topic you’d love someone to make a podcast about?
- What’s your favorite kind of cookie or cake?
- What’s your favorite thing to see in a city?
- What’s your favorite thing to pack for a long journey?
- What’s your favorite style of architecture?
- What’s your favorite kind of soup?
- What’s your favorite kind of bread?
- What’s a piece of instrumental music you like?
- What’s your favorite kind of shop to browse in?
- What’s your favorite kind of picnic food?
- What’s your favorite kind of museum or attraction?
- What’s the best live event you’ve ever been to?
- What’s your favorite thing to do outdoors?
- What’s your favorite kind of story: funny, tense, true or made up?
- What’s a small everyday pleasure you never get tired of?
- What’s the best view you’ve ever seen?
- What’s your favorite vegetable, and how should it be cooked?
- What’s your favorite sound?
- What’s your favorite spreadsheet or slide trick?
- What’s your favorite way to start a Monday?
- What’s the best work-related gift you’ve ever been given?
- What’s your favorite kind of team activity?
- What’s your favorite email sign-off?
- What’s your favorite way to share good news with the team?
- What’s your favorite piece of stationery or office gear?
- What’s the best office or workspace you’ve ever worked in?
- What’s your favorite kind of message to receive from a colleague?
- What’s your favorite kind of workshop or training format?
More medium questions
- What’s your favorite kind of feedback to give?
- What’s a dish from another region that you’ve grown to love?
- What’s a creative work you wish you’d made yourself?
- What’s your favorite way to spend a free Saturday morning?
- What’s a game you take more seriously than you should?
- What’s your favorite thing to explain with a drawing?
- What’s a story or character you’ve never forgotten?
- What’s the most memorable meal you’ve had while traveling?
- What’s a festival, fair or community event you look forward to?
- What’s a sport or activity you love to watch even if you don’t play?
- What’s your favorite thing you own that was made by hand?
- What’s the best thing you’ve discovered by accident?
- What’s a hobby of someone else’s that you love hearing about?
- What’s a public space you really like, such as a library, a park or a station?
- What’s your favorite kind of art to look at?
Get to know you questions for coworkers: everyday life
Routines, weekends and interests. Each one leaves the person free to choose how much to share.
Light
- What’s your favorite way to learn about a new place?
- Do you plan your weekends or see what happens?
- What’s the last thing you borrowed from a library?
- What’s on your playlist or radio during a commute or a break?
- Are you a list maker outside work too?
- What’s the last photo you took on your phone?
- What’s a hobby supply you always have too much of?
- What’s something you collect, or used to collect?
- Do you prefer printed books or reading on a screen?
Medium
- What’s an interest you’ve taken up in the past year or two?
- What’s a routine that has made your weeks run more smoothly?
- What’s an activity outside work that makes time fly for you?
- What’s a club, class or group you’re part of outside work?
- What’s a gadget or tool you use every day outside work?
- What’s something you’re the go-to person for outside work?
- What’s a weekend activity you’d recommend to anyone?
- What’s a project you have going on outside work at the moment?
- What’s something you’ve made or grown that you’re pleased with?
Thoughtful
- How do you keep work and the rest of your life from blurring together?
- What’s a part of your week that you protect?
- What’s something outside work that you’re proud of figuring out?
- What does a good balance look like for you at the moment?
- What’s a habit you’re trying to build, and how is it going?
- What do you do when you need to clear your head before a big decision?
- What’s something you’ve made time for this year that you’re glad about?
- What’s something you do that helps you concentrate?
- What’s a pastime that taught you patience?
Show 43 more everyday life questions
More light questions
- What’s something you do every single day without fail?
- What’s the most used app on your phone that isn’t for work?
- What’s a small thing you learned to do recently?
- Do you keep plants, and how are they doing?
- What’s your go-to meal when you don’t feel like cooking?
- What’s a book you’d lend to a friend?
- What do you like to do on a long weekend?
- What’s the last thing you built, fixed or put together?
- What’s your idea of a slow morning?
- What’s a skill you’d like to get back into?
- What’s your favorite way to get around town?
- What’s the last thing you stayed up late to finish?
- What’s a routine you look forward to each week?
- What’s something in your bag or pocket you never leave without?
- What’s a yearly event at work that you look forward to?
- What’s the last new food you tried?
- What’s a local event or place you’ve discovered recently?
- What’s your favorite thing to look at on a map?
- What’s a skill you think everyone should learn?
- What’s a puzzle or game you play on your phone?
- What’s a type of music you’ve only recently started to enjoy?
- What’s your trick for remembering names?
- What’s the first thing you notice when you walk into a new place?
- What’s a sound or song that tells you it’s the weekend?
- What’s something you own that people always ask about?
More medium questions
- What’s a type of article you always read first?
- What’s something new you’ve tried in the past few months?
- What’s a weekday evening activity you look forward to?
- What’s a type of event you’d like to try for the first time?
- What’s a ritual that helps you start a new project?
- What’s an unusual job you’d like to try for a day?
- What’s a recent day that went really well, and what made it good?
- What’s the best thing you’ve cooked or eaten in the past month?
- What’s a question you’ve always wanted to ask an expert?
- What’s a board, card or video game you’d teach a beginner?
- What’s a hobby you’ve picked up and put down more than once?
- What’s a story you heard recently that you keep thinking about?
- What’s a show, book or game that everyone seems to love and you haven’t tried yet?
- What’s a regular outing or errand you enjoy?
- What’s the most interesting tour or guided visit you’ve been on?
More thoughtful questions
- What’s something you used to rush that you now take slowly?
- What’s an ordinary moment in your week that you’d miss if it disappeared?
- What do you like people to know about your life outside work, if anything?
Questions to get to know someone at work: hopes and plans
What people are looking forward to and working toward. The thoughtful ones belong in a one on one.
Light
- What’s a new recipe, route or routine you’d like to try?
- What’s a big building project you’d love to watch from start to finish?
- What’s a craft or skill you’d like to try at a workshop?
- What’s one thing you’d like to do this weekend?
- What’s a puzzle or project you’d like to finish this month?
- What’s something you’d like to try cooking?
- What’s a small goal you’ve set yourself lately?
- What’s an exhibition, show or performance you’d like to see?
- What’s the next thing you’re planning to celebrate?
Medium
- What’s one thing you hope to get out of this role?
- What would you like to be working on six months from now?
- What’s a kind of project you’d like to be part of?
- What’s a part of the organization you’d like to learn more about?
- What’s a professional milestone you have your eye on?
- What’s something you’d like to try at work that you haven’t had the chance to do yet?
- What would make this year a good one for you at work?
- What’s a project in another team you’d like to help with?
- What’s a type of meeting you’d like to get better at running?
Thoughtful
- What kind of work do you want to be doing in three years?
- What’s a skill you’d like to be using every day by next year?
- What’s a long-term goal you don’t often get asked about?
- What’s a problem at work you’d like to own?
- What’s a contribution you’d like to make here that would outlast your time in the role?
- What’s holding back a goal you care about, and what would move it forward?
- What’s a direction you’re curious about but haven’t committed to?
- What part of your current work would you like to still be doing in ten years?
- What’s a piece of work you’d like to restart with what you know now?
Show 43 more hopes and plans questions
More light questions
- What’s a hobby you’d like to share with the team one day?
- What’s a famous view you’d like to sketch or photograph?
- What’s a record you’d like to beat at a game you play?
- What’s a kind of place you’ve never been to but would like to see, such as a desert, a rainforest or a big city?
- What’s something you’d like to build or make one day?
- What’s a challenge you’d like to try just to see if you can do it?
- What’s the next thing you want to learn about for fun?
- What’s a skill you’d like to swap with a colleague?
- What’s a film you keep meaning to watch?
- What’s something you’re hoping to finish before the season changes?
- What’s a tradition you’d like to start?
More medium questions
- Who would you like to work more closely with, and on what?
- What’s an idea you’ve been carrying around that you’d like to test?
- What kind of work would you like to do more of?
- What’s a piece of work you’d love to see through from start to finish?
- What’s a quick win you think this team could go after?
- What would you like your calendar to look like by the end of your first three weeks?
- What kind of work would you like to shadow before you lead it?
- What are you most hoping to find on this team?
- What would you like your first small win here to be?
- What’s one thing you’d like to understand about our goals for the year?
- What’s a skill from outside work that you’d like to use here?
- What’s a relationship at work you’d like to build early on?
- What would you like to contribute in your first team meeting, if anything?
- What would you like a typical week here to include?
- What are you hoping stays the same from your last job, and what are you hoping is different?
- What’s something this team could achieve this year that you’d be excited about?
- What’s a trend in your field that you’re glad to see?
- What’s an event, conference or meetup you’d like to go to?
- What’s a professional book or course you plan to finish this year?
- What’s something you’d like to do more often with colleagues?
- What’s a sector or field you’d like to learn more about this year?
- What’s a goal you reached that you once thought was out of reach?
- What’s a plan you’re glad you changed?
More thoughtful questions
- What’s a question you’d like to have a good answer to by next year?
- What’s a hope you have for this team?
- What would you like to look back on at the end of this year and feel good about?
- What’s a goal you’ve outgrown?
- How can I help with something you’re aiming for?
- What’s something you’d like to make room for in the next year?
- What’s a professional goal you’d be happy to share with the team?
- What’s a plan you’d make if you had one free day a month to spend on anything at work?
- What’s a kind of impact you’d like your work to have on the people who use it?
Fun get to know you questions for work: hypotheticals
"If you could" questions. Nobody needs a true story to answer one, so they are a low-pressure choice for a group that has just met.
Light
- If you could add one new letter to the alphabet, what sound would it make?
- If you could instantly learn to draw anything, what would you draw first?
- If you could fix one annoying thing about email, what would it be?
- If you had a free plane ticket to anywhere, where would you go first?
- If you could visit any library in the world, which would you choose?
- If you could add one new event to the work calendar, what would it be?
- If you could live in any period of history for a week, when would you pick?
- If you could have a lifetime supply of one thing, what would it be?
- If you could open a museum of anything, what would it show?
Medium
- If you could set aside one afternoon a week for a side project at work, what would it be?
- If you were given a small budget to improve the team’s week, what would you spend it on?
- If you could clone yourself for one day at work, what would your clone do?
- If you could spend a month working from anywhere, where would you set up?
- If you could commission a short film about any part of our work, what would it show?
- If you could redesign one everyday process at work, which would you pick?
- If you could have any expert on call for a year, what would their specialty be?
- If you could sit in on any meeting in the organization, which would it be?
- If you could have any piece of equipment or software for your work, whatever the cost, what would you choose?
Thoughtful
- If you could change one thing about how your field works, what would it be?
- If you had a year to work on any problem you chose, which problem would you pick?
- If you could guarantee one outcome for this team by the end of the year, what would it be?
- If you were starting your career again, what would you do the same?
- If you could have had one piece of advice a few years earlier, what would it have been?
- If you didn’t have to worry about getting it right the first time, what would you try at work?
- If you could measure your work by one thing only, what would you choose?
- If you could remove one obstacle for everyone on the team, which would it be?
- If a new colleague asked what you stand for at work, what would you tell them?
Show 43 more hypotheticals questions
More light questions
- If you ran a food truck, what would be the one item on the menu?
- If you had an extra day in every week, what would you call it and what would you do with it?
- If you could shrink any chore down to one second, which would you choose?
- If you could star in any kind of movie, what genre would it be?
- If you could invent a new kind of meeting, what would it be for?
- If you could write a guide to anything, what would it be called?
- If the team went on a field trip tomorrow, where should we go?
- If you could spend a day as an apprentice to any craftsperson, what craft would it be?
- If you had to describe your job using only three words, which would you use?
- If you could ask a future version of this team one question, what would it be?
- If you could have one superpower that only worked at the office, what would it be?
- If you could only use one app for a week, which would you keep?
- If you could design a new holiday, what would it celebrate?
- If you could name a new color, what would you call it?
- If you could learn the full story behind one everyday object, which object would you pick?
- If you had a personal theme for this year, what would it be?
- If you could make one rule that everyone in the world had to follow for a day, what would it be?
- If your commute could be by any means at all, how would you travel?
- If you could create a new word, what would it mean?
- If you could have lunch with anyone on this team you haven’t met yet, who would it be?
- If you could add one thing to your first week here, what would it be?
- If you could ask the whole company one question, what would you ask?
- If you could redesign our workspace, online or in person, what would you change first?
- If you could set up one new club at work, what would it be?
- If you could pick the music for the office for one day, what would we hear?
More medium questions
- If you were writing the welcome guide for this team, what would the first page say?
- If you could borrow one habit from another team here, which would it be?
- If you could try a completely different career for a year, with a guaranteed return, what would you try?
- If you could get an honest answer to one question about your industry, what would you ask?
- If you could design a training course for this team, what would it cover?
- If you could add one ritual to the end of every project, what would it be?
- If this team were a recipe, what would the ingredients be?
- If you could give a prize to one unsung task at work, which would win?
- If you had to plan a team day with no screens, what would be on the schedule?
- If you could invite any kind of guest speaker to our next meeting, what would they talk about?
- If your job were a board game, what would the rules be?
- If you could visit a team in another organization, which would you pick?
- If our team planned a quiz, what would the rounds be?
More thoughtful questions
- If you could join any team from history for one project, which would it be?
- If you could leave one piece of advice for whoever does your job next, what would it be?
- If you could design your ideal working week from a blank page, what would it look like?
- If you were asked to teach one thing you’ve learned the hard way, what would it be?
- If the team had to drop one tool, which could we live without?
Questions about getting to know coworkers
What are good get to know you questions for work?
Good get to know you questions for work are easy to answer, have no wrong answer and let each person choose how much to share. Three examples from this page are "Do you keep one long to-do list or several short ones?", "What’s a skill you picked up faster than you expected?" and "What’s your favorite kind of weather?". The generator holds 420 questions in six themes.
What are fun get to know you questions?
The Favorites and Hypotheticals themes on this page hold 140 fun get to know you questions, such as "What’s the best sandwich filling?" and "If you ran a food truck, what would be the one item on the menu?". They take a few seconds to answer, so they suit a team lunch or a big group.
What questions should I ask a new hire in their first week?
Ask light and medium questions about how the person likes to work and learn, and leave the thoughtful ones for later. Select "New hire welcome pack" on this page to get 10 questions for a first week: six light and four medium, taken from the 256 questions tagged for a new hire’s first week.
How many get to know you questions should I ask at once?
One question is enough to open a team meeting. Allow about 30 seconds per person for a light question, a minute for a medium one and two minutes or more for a thoughtful one. In a one on one, two or three questions spread through the conversation work better than a list.
What get to know you questions work for coworkers on a remote team?
This page has 248 questions tagged for remote teams. Choose "Remote team" in the setting filter. Ask people to answer in the chat when the group is large, and use the same question for everyone so that answers are easy to compare.
Which questions should I avoid when getting to know someone at work?
Avoid questions about health, family, relationships, money, age, politics and religion. A colleague may not want to answer them, and a manager should not ask them. None of the 420 questions on this page asks about those subjects, and anyone should be free to pass on any question.
Use these get to know you questions to help new and existing colleagues learn something real about each other, at the depth that suits the group.
Looking after your team: find a team experience
Looking for something different for your team? The EmEx Something Different directory lists unusual team experiences from UK and US suppliers. You contact the supplier direct, with no fees or commission.
