How a 2pm ice breaker helps build company culture (and how you can do it too)

What if a simple (and non-work-related) question could do more than just spark conversation? What if it could strengthen your company’s culture, build trust across distributed teams, and create space for everyone’s voice? At Workshop, we’ve seen it firsthand. Every day at 2pm, a Slackbot drops a new ice breaker question into our designated Slack channel.

The responses? Delightful, surprising, and often hilarious.

But this isn’t just about fun (though there’s plenty of that too). It’s a consistent and lightweight way to make connection part of our culture. These daily moments help engage employees, spark cross-functional interaction, and create a workplace that feels a little more human. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to get started!

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Why ice breakers work for internal communication

As internal communicators, we’re often looking for high-impact, low-barrier ways to reach our employees and ice breakers can do just that! They create opportunities for everyone—from engineers to sales reps to marketers—to participate without pressure or prep work. It’s asynchronous, automated, and best of all, genuinely enjoyable.

Our daily ice breaker channel (called #ice-breakers) has become a place where inside jokes or lore is born, pet photos are shared, and personality shines. Whether it’s a friendly debate on candy corn or a passionate take on the “best” karaoke song (we’re a bit partial to Mr.Brightside), the answers spark conversation and bring colleagues closer together—even across departments or time zones.

If you’re already wondering how you measure “success”, don’t overthink it! Some ice break questions get 50+ responses, while others barely get 10. There’s no science to this, instead a consistent opportunity for your employees to engage regardless of where they may be working.

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How we built our ice breaker Slack channel

Here’s how we made it happen! 

First we created a dedicated Slack channel. We named ours #ice-breakers, but pick something that fits your team’s tone and culture. Then, used Slackbot to automate the daily question.

• Go to your Slack workspace and click your workspace name.
• Select “Customize Slack.”
• Navigate to the “Slackbot” tab.
• Create a new Slackbot response with a trigger like “ice breaker” and set the response to your daily question.
• Use a scheduling tool (like Zapier or Slack workflows) to post the trigger phrase in your channel at 2pm daily. You can also pin a welcome message to let your employees know this is a low-pressure, fun space for connection.

Bonus! Don’t forget to celebrate employee engagement (especially as you’re just getting started!). Drop emojis, reply to threads, and help the conversation grow naturally.

As this habit takes root, you’ll start to see it pop up beyond Slack. At Workshop, these questions have made their way into all hands meetings, onboarding sessions, and even team retreats—adding moments of personality and lightness to balance out the more serious, work-focused content. It’s a small way to remind everyone that being human at work is not just allowed, it’s encouraged.

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Or using Microsoft Teams? You can do this too.

If your team uses Microsoft Teams instead of Slack, you can still create your own daily ice breaker ritual. While Teams doesn’t have a built-in Slackbot equivalent, there are simple workarounds:

• Use the Power Automate tool (previously Microsoft Flow) to schedule a daily post in a designated Teams channel.
• Create a recurring message using Planner or Shifts, and assign it to a team member to manually post each day.
• Pin a rotating list of questions in your ice breaker channel and encourage team members to take turns kicking off the daily prompt.

The format may look a bit different, but the impact is the same! Regular, low-lift conversations that bring personality, levity, and connection into your workday.

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25 ice breaker questions that spark real engagement

We aim to go beyond the typical “What’s your favorite food?” prompts to ask questions that inspire curiosity, bring out personality, and make space for real dialogue. Below is a list of questions we’ve asked (and loved!) at Workshop.

• What movie quote do you say most often?
• What’s an unusual food combination that you love?
• If you could have an endless supply of anything, what would it be?
• What’s the strangest gift you’ve ever received?
• What’s your biggest pet peeve while driving?
• What was your first job?
• If you had to teach a class on one thing, what would it be?
• If you could stay the same age forever, what would it be?
• What’s your favorite useless fact?
• What is your most used emoji?
• What is your favorite TV show?
• Have you ever met a celebrity? If so, who?
• What’s the better dessert: cake or ice cream?
• Does your car have a name? What is it?
• Which song can you listen to over and over again?
• Beach, safari, or big city vacation?
• What is your favorite holiday?
• Favorite self-care practice?
• Candy corn: yes or no?
• What’s your go-to karaoke song?
• Team dog or team cat?
• What color are mirrors?
• Greatest sports moment in history?
• What’s on your bucket list?
• Post a photo of your pet!

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The impact: a culture of connection

Ice breakers aren’t part of a formal engagement or internal communications strategy—and that’s kind of the point. It’s meant to be informal, but we can tell it makes a difference. We see more cross-team conversations, more moments of laughter, and more opportunities for people to show up as themselves.

And here’s the best part: you can replicate it. 

Launching your own daily ice breaker channel doesn’t require a big rollout, just a thoughtful list of questions, a Slackbot reminder, and a bit of curiosity. It’s one of the easiest ways to make internal comms feel more engaging and meaningful.

Because sometimes, all it takes to spark connection is one good question.