This or That Questions for Work

How to run This or That in a meeting

The point of a work icebreaker is to get everyone talking once, early, about something easy. This or That does that in two minutes if you keep it tight. This format fits most meetings.

1. Before the meeting, open this page, choose a theme from the list and decide how many questions to use: two for a standup, five for a weekly team meeting, ten to fifteen for an offsite or an onboarding session.
2. Open with one line. Something like: “Quick one before we start. Two options, pick one, no wrong answers. Raise a hand or type A or B in the chat.”
3. Read both options aloud, even though they’re on screen. People who dialed in by phone or use a screen reader will be able to follow.
4. Follow up once. Ask one person from each side for a sentence. If someone is the only one on their side, start with them: lone answers are often the funniest.
5. Move on while the energy is high. Press Page Down on a clicker or → on the keyboard, and stop before people drift back to their inboxes.

Want a time limit? Set the timer to 10 seconds for gut reactions, or 30 seconds if people are discussing in pairs. The OR badge in the middle of the screen becomes a countdown and shows “Time!” when it runs out.

Playing on Zoom, Teams, Google Meet and Slack

Remote teams need icebreakers more than anyone, and This or That works as well on a call as it does in a room.

On a video call

• Open the page before the call starts and share your screen. If viewers see a black or frozen window after you press Present, share your entire screen instead of a single window, because full screen can open as a separate window.
• Ask people to answer in the chat with A or B. Chat answers are easy to count, everyone can see them, and they include colleagues with cameras off.
• Type the totals into Count hands (press H) to show the team’s split as a bar. Those numbers stay on your computer and are never added to the public results.
• For a quick read without counting, use the call’s reactions: one emoji for A, another for B.

In Slack or a Teams channel

For an asynchronous version, vote on a question yourself and press Copy link. The link opens that exact question, so you can drop it into a channel with a line like “This or that? Vote, then tell us why in the thread.” Each person votes on their own device and sees how their pick compares. It costs nobody more than ten seconds and gets a quiet channel talking.

Starting a This or That Thursday

This or That Thursday is a simple ritual: one question every Thursday, posted in the same channel or asked at the start of the same meeting. Because it only comes around once a week, nobody gets tired of it, and over a few months the answers add up to a surprisingly good picture of the team.

• Pick an owner, then rotate. One person runs it for a month, then hands it on. New hires make great hosts in their second or third week.
• Same time, same place. Thursday at 10 in the team channel, or the first two minutes of the Thursday sync. Predictable rituals get more replies.
• Close the loop. On Friday, post the team’s split next to the result from everyone else who played. “Our team is mostly night owls, the rest of the world isn’t” starts more conversation than the question did.
• Collect suggestions. A shared doc of team-submitted pairs keeps the ritual going and gives quieter colleagues an easy way to take part.

Keeping work This or That questions safe and inclusive

“Work-safe” isn’t only about avoiding anything rude. A good work question is one every person on the call can answer without revealing something they’d rather keep private. The questions on this page stay away from politics, religion, salaries, dating and appearance, and focus instead on habits, preferences, food, travel and the quirks of office life.

How you run the game matters as much as which questions you pick:

• Passing is always fine. Say so at the start, so nobody has to ask.
• Nobody is the punchline. If one person ends up alone on a side, celebrate it instead of teasing.
• Watch for hidden assumptions. Pairs about expensive trips, cars or big homes can make some colleagues uncomfortable. Skip them if your team spans very different circumstances.
• Offer more than one way to answer. Speaking, typing and raising a hand all count. People on mobile, people with cameras off and people working in their second language will join in more easily.
• Keep holidays optional. Not everyone celebrates the same holidays, so present seasonal rounds as a festive extra rather than a requirement.

Follow-up questions that start real conversations

The pick takes a second. The follow-up is what turns an icebreaker into actual team-building. Keep a few of these handy:

• “What’s the story behind that?”
• “Has your answer changed since you started working?”
• “What would it take to change your mind?”
• “Which side do you think most of the team picked?”
• “Does that show up in how you like to work?”

That last one is the most useful. Pairs about work habits, such as email or quick call, detailed agenda or loose outline, or morning focus or afternoon focus, reveal real working preferences. A manager who runs five of them with a new team learns in ten minutes what can otherwise take weeks: who wants written updates, who thinks out loud, who needs quiet mornings. Write the answers down; they make a good starting point for a team working agreement.

Team-building variations

• Guess the team. Before anyone answers, each person predicts how the team will split. The closest guess gets bragging rights.
• Know your colleague. One person answers five questions privately while the team guesses their picks. A gentle way to introduce a new hire.
• Odd one out. Only people in the minority explain their pick. It keeps the game short and puts the spotlight on unexpected answers.
• Take a side. In person, point to opposite walls for A and B and have people walk there. Thirty seconds of movement does more for an afternoon meeting than another coffee.
• Speed round. Timer at 10 seconds, ten questions, no discussion. Then everyone names the one question they’d like to talk about.
• Us vs. everyone. Tally the team’s answer, then vote and compare your pick with the split on screen. Hunt for the question where your team is most out of step with the rest of the world.

Planning an office holiday party or an end-of-year team event? The Christmas This or That edition runs exactly the same way with festive questions. For a general mix that works with any group, play the This or That game on the home page.