Trivia is a universally enjoyed game because most people enjoy competing especially when it comes to a mental challenge. Demonstrating knowledge in a meaningful way is a necessary part of human existence. While trivia is typically considered a game, trivia can serve an educational purpose with benefits that will improve a work environment by fostering improved thinking and innovation.
Trivia can also be used to help employees learn more about one another which can greatly improve morale. The lack of human understanding between employees will reduce empathy needing moments so using trivia can be a great way to foster more interactions and understanding between workers.
Team Building Trivia Games
As you build a team, you can use trivia as a way to unlock more authentic relationships amongst team members. Using a trivia team building trivia exercise will not only help members of the team get to know each other better but also, understand one another.
By giving one another a little bit of insight into who we are outside of work, the better our relationships can become. We don’t have to expose ourselves in any way, but sharing our interests or experiences can show people more about who we are as people rather than just as coworkers.
Exercise 1: Team Building Trivia Game
Start the exercise by sending out a questionnaire to the team and ask them the following questions. It is important that each submission is anonymous so the answers will not be spoiled. Use this questionnaire to help create the questions. Send them out to the team and have them respond before the trivia game.
Team Building Questionnaire
- Do you have any unique pets?
- Do you have any unique hobbies?
- What is a secret talent about you people would be surprised to hear ?
- What is something you’ve done that are very proud of?
- Who was your childhood hero?
- How many countries have you been to? Please list them.
- How many languages can you speak? Please list them.
- Do you have a second job or passion? Please list.
- How many tattoos do you have?
- If you could have with anyone, who would it be? Why?
Team Building Questionnaire Responses
Now that you have your team responses, you can take them and use them to create trivia questions for your team-building exercise. The number of questions will vary depending on the size of the team, but ideally, you would want at least one question to be about each member of the team.
Doing this becomes an interesting way to learn fun facts about members of the team. Making sure each member has a question makes the game inclusive. If you have 10 employees, have at least 10 questions, with one fun fact about each employee.
Creating Team Building Trivia Questions
Creating team building trivia questions is now as simple as taking the responses from the questionnaire you sent out to the team and using the information to create trivia questions to be asked during the game. Make as many as you can depending on how long you want the game to be.
Like I’ve already mentioned, you want at least 1 question about each employee, but ideally, use a few to keep the exercise going. Here are examples of trivia questions you would create from the questionnaire responses:
- Who has a potbellied pig as a pet?
- Who is a professional juggler?
- Who can sit in a full split?
- Who won the wrestling state championships in high school?
- Who’s childhood hero was Bob Saget?
- Who has been to Italy, Spain, Germany, Thailand, and Uruguay?
- Who speaks Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, English, and French?
- Who moonlights as a piano player at The W Hotel bar?
- Who has 27 tattoos?
- Who would have dinner with Billy Ray Cyrus?
Play The Trivia Team Building Quiz
Whether you are in the office or remote, playing the game should be played in a way that fosters the appropriate interaction and encourages the most fun for the people participating.
If you are in the office, I would still play using a remote setup because it keeps things more organized and reduces the need for pen and paper. Using something like Quizizz or Kahoot! are great resources because they let you create your custom trivia quizzes and you can invite your team members to join in your quiz and play your game.
Once the trivia quiz is created, send it out to the team. Have them respond at a designated time, meaning, block calendars, and send the game invites. Have people play the game and then review the answers with them. You can either do this game show style by being the host and giving the answer in real-time using a timer, or you can send the trivia out and have the game facilitate the answers by including the answers in the game and custom game edits to enhance the game.
Exercise 2: Cognitive Development Trivia Game
Trivia can be an effective tool when it comes to promoting a learning and development focused environment. By focusing on core subjects like math, art, and science, it creates an exciting way to learn while enhancing creative thinking and fostering innovation.
Gamifying the learning experience helps bring fun to the workplace and also creates healthy thinking exercises for employees. By using trivia questions like the below, you are enabling an environment where employee brain function is taken into account.
Cognitive Development Team Building Trivia Questions
Math Team Building Trivia Questions
1. What is the only number that can’t be represented in Roman numerals?
Zero
2. What is another name for the shape of a baseball diamond?
Rombus
3. Among all shapes with the same area, which will always have the smallest perimeter?
A circle
4. What is the only even number that is also a prime number?
2
5. The square root of two is also called this.
Pythagoras’ Constant
6. Is zero an odd or even number?
Even
7. What is the smallest perfect number?
6
8. How many days are in most months?
31
9. What is the only temperature that is the same in both Fahrenheit and Celsius?
40 Below
Science Team Building Trivia Questions
1. What color is oxygen?
Blue
2. Who are more likely to be colorblind men or women?
Men
3. This newly discovered organ connects the intestine to the abdomen and is believed to perform important functions for the body ranging from helping the heart to aiding the immune system.
The Mesentery
4. What is the world’s largest amphibian that can grow up to 5 feet in length?
The giant salamander
5. Where are the ears of a cricket located?
The front legs
6. What is the typical lifespan of a housefly?
Two weeks
7. Which animal lays the largest eggs in the world
The whale shark
8. Which is the only planet in our solar system that rotates in the opposite direction of all the other planets?
Venus
Art & Literature Team Building Trivia Questions
1. Which artist has 5 of the most expensive paintings in the world?
Pablo Picasso
2. This famous artist, called the Pablo Picasso of pumpkin carving, is known for carving human-like Halloween pumpkins.
Ray Villafane
3. Who famously created the Rolling Stone’s emblem depicting the big tongue, which first appeared on the cover of the ‘Sticky Fingers’ album?
Andy Warhol
4. Who was the first living person to have art displayed in the Louvre?
Georges Braque
5. This famous Renaissance artist was a vegetarian and animal rights activist, who would buy caged birds and set them free.
Leonardo da Vinco
6. George Elliot was actually a woman. What was her name?
Many Ann Evans
7. This author of The Scarlet Letter helped start a Transcendental commune near Boston in 1841.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
8. This American author once stole a urinal from the bar Sloppy Joe’s and brought it to his Key West home.
Ernest Hemingway
9. This author helped spread the story of Sir Isaac Newton getting hit on the head with an apple in 1727’s “Essay on Epic Poetry”.
Voltaire
Play The Cognitive Development Team Building Trivia
Use questions like the above to ask trivia questions of your team members. Use these as a starting point and frame up your way of playing trivia either remotely or onsite. Either way, facilitate the game using a trivia hosting site like Quizizz or Kahoot!. You can use these tools to create your own game and ask questions.
These tools are handy because they facilitate the game and help you structure a way to have your team members play trivia and stimulate healthy productive thinking. If you need help creating the questions once you’ve used these, try using a trivia questions creator site like Random Trivia Generator. This never-ending stream of trivia questions is very helpful for easily creating trivia questions you can use to ask for team cognitive development trivia exercises.
Fostering Ongoing Team Building Exercises
It is important that team-building exercises be committed to and used regularly. Using an ongoing trivia game is a great way to stimulate thought and foster innovative thinking. Taking thought away from work in a fun and productive way will still benefit your business since the activity is known to promote creative thinking.
A good work environment is one that takes all the required elements of balanced work life into account. Providing an exciting outlet at work can he helpful while promoting relaxing activities that benefit productivity.
