How to start a conversation with your RandomCoffee match?
If you want your employees to get out of their comfort zone and meet with new colleagues, but you want to help them initiate a conversation, then this article is for you.
Before breaking the ice, you need to identify what this ice represents:
When you need to bring people together, ice represents that they have never met before.
When you bring people together from different backgrounds, ice represents the difference in perceptions.
When you bring together people from different levels of an organization, the ice represents the differences in status.
Here are some helpful conversation starters. The following phrases are great when you want to start a conversation with someone you've never spoken to before. And they’re far more interesting than the standard “Where are you from?” and "What do you do?" which are typical questions. Try these instead:
1. Work Ice Breaker Questions:
It is the most common topic that would be used to initiate a conversation among colleagues since it is so natural to discuss work-related tasks, where everyone would be eager to share their experiences, challenging tasks, and the significance of their department. In order for them to understand each other's roles, challenges, and skills, you can incorporate some of the following questions into your email templates. This will enable them to continue the discussion.
What's your favorite aspect of your job? Why did you decide to work in [X field]?
Many of my clients in [X role] tell me [Y detail about job]. Has that held true in your experience?
Which skill do you use the most in your work? Is that what you expected?
What was your dream job when you were a kid?
What is the one thing that would actually help remote teams to function better?
What is the most memorable thing you bought with your first salary?
How did you end up here? Using this as a conversation opener is fascinating because it invites the other person to tell you a story about them, and you don't know what kind of story they'll share.
What was the highlight of your day today? This is a nice alternative to asking “how are you?” and it gets more interesting answers.
2. Life Ice Breaker Questions:
Face it, we're all in the same boat. People are curious about one another's lives. However, some people enjoy sharing anecdotes from their personal lives, while others do not. As a result, we shared with you some of the questions that are private, but still formal. By doing so, no one would intrude on others' privacy.
What’s been inspiring you recently? Anything you’d like to share? With this question, you can discuss creativity and not just work projects. By doing so, you will learn about relevant resources and your coworker will be able to share what interests him or her.
What inspires you the most in your life?
What's your favorite place on earth?
What's your biggest regret?
What are you passionate about? What gets you up in the morning?
Do you have a bucket list? If yes, what's listed in it?
3. Fun Ice Breaker Questions:
Human connections can be made much easier with a sense of humor. Our sense of humor is what captivates us in a conversation. If we can make the encounter fun, we become more receptive to it. We thought we'd share with you some questions that might help your employees display their sense of humor. Ultimately, don't you think that such encounters aim to get people to know each other and share a few laughs?
A question like “What do you do in your free time?” not only gives you an insight into their life beyond working hours, but it is also a helpful way to suggest a topic for discussion with them in the future.
Right now, what project is fulfilling your passion? You never know what someone's secret side hustle is. When you meet people in one context, such as at work, it's nice to ask questions like this to learn more about them.
Have you been working on anything exciting lately? This is an alternative to “What do you do?” Asking about something interesting in their life rather than just an update helps the other person feel more comfortable talking about something exciting in their life.
What’s the worst thing you ever did as a kid — and got away with?
Who was your childhood actor/actress crush?
What’s the most embarrassing moment from your teen years?
What interesting skill do you want to learn?
Note that you can replace the cliché question of "How are you doing" with more specific questions like:
How’s your morning going so far?
How’s your day been?
How’s your day been going?
How’s your morning been going?
How’s your afternoon been going?
Has your day been busy so far?
My afternoon’s been kind of slow. How’s yours going?
We highly recommend including questions of each type in your match email template. This will allow users to start a conversation and feel more at ease during the meeting.
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