Good managers know teams are stronger when they work well together. When staff members get along and communicate, great things can happen. This is why today’s leaders increasingly use icebreakers to kick off team meetings and encourage in-person attendance to help employees form positive professional bonds.
Another way to bring your team together is through riddles. You can start each meeting with a brain teaser to tap into the critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills of your staff. Riddles can also help your team connect on an emotional level and get your employees laughing as they try to find the right answers. A small team-building activity like solving a few riddles can have a big impact on your meetings.
Learn why humans love riddles so much and how you can use these fun puzzles and rhymes to brighten even the earliest of meetings.
Why the human brain loves puzzles
Psychologists continue to explore why humans love riddles, brain teasers, and other puzzles. First, these challenges are a form of play and escapism that let participants relax from the other stressors in their lives. Instead of thinking about projects or deadlines, riddlers have to let their minds wander to answer what comes up but never comes down (your age).
However, the opportunity to play that comes with puzzles is paired with the satisfaction of solving them. The “aha!” moment that occurs when the solution is revealed releases dopamine in the brain and makes participants feel good learning the answer.
“[Puzzles] produce similar sensations in their players: mixes of frustration and anticipation as the hunt advances followed (ideally) by the end-pleasure of a solution,” says Dr. Thomas Henricks, a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Elon University.
When you start a meeting with a few riddles, you can build up this anticipation in your employees. Your riddles can challenge them to think creatively while they experience mild frustration at not getting the answer. Then, you can reveal the answer, creating that “aha!” moment, and start the meeting on a high note as your employees experience the feel-good brain chemicals that come with solving a problem.
How riddles support team building
Solving a brain teaser feels good on an individual level, but it can also foster team building amongst your staff. Here are a few reasons why this team-building activity engages all of your employees.
- Everyone focuses on the same problem. Instead of thinking about individual to-do lists and projects, your whole staff focuses on one task.
- Your team works together to solve the riddles. Hearing other solutions allows your team to tap into the process of elimination and work toward the result together.
- Creative answers help your staff learn how their peers think. Puzzles can provide fresh perspectives into the viewpoints of others.
- You can incorporate them into virtual and in-person sessions. Everyone can participate, even if they are dialing in from around the world.
- Everyone gets the same “aha!” response at once. This creates a collective positive emotional experience that brings people together.
Riddles have all the same benefits as other team-building activities like solving a human knot or completing a murder mystery quest. The only difference is that they are shorter, faster, and simpler for any manager to bring to a meeting.
Tips for using riddles as a team-building activity
While riddles are a free and accessible tool for managers to boost team connections and break the ice at the start of a meeting, they require a little planning on your part. Follow these best practices to successfully incorporate riddles into your workflows.
Pull from a large collection of riddles
You can find hundreds of riddles online, many of which are sorted into collections and organized by theme. You don’t have to be an expert riddler – let creative minds on the web write the brain teasers for you!
Make sure they are work-appropriate
Always choose riddles that are appropriate for the workplace. Avoid anything sexual, derogatory, religious, or political. Adult jokes can make people feel uncomfortable, especially in the workplace, and can have the opposite effect you want on team morale.
Pick a few riddles for each meeting
Try to bring between three to five riddles to your meetings or presentations. If you have a packed agenda, you can pick the best riddle and then dive into your work. If you have more time, you can let your team answer multiple riddles and brain teasers.
Give your team time to solve each one
Pause after reading a riddle and let your team work out the problem for themselves. Answering too quickly isn’t satisfying and the riddle could feel more like a joke. You may need to repeat the riddle a few times while your team works out the problems and tries to guess the answer.
We recommend introducing the riddle at the beginning of a meeting and then continuing as normal. You can then circle back to the riddle at the end of the meeting and share the answer.
Incorporate technology into your brain teasers
Poll Everywhere is the perfect tool for solving riddles in team meetings. You can get creative with how you want to present your riddle by testing out different Activities like a Clickable Image Activity. Create your riddle, present the Poll Everywhere Activity during your meeting, and allow your team to write down their answers. Review the answers together and reveal the answer at the end.
Keep the riddle habit going
Your employees might be confused the first time you bring riddles to the meeting, but they will soon love these little puzzles. Make a habit of collecting riddles and passing them on to your staff. This way they know any meeting or discussion will start on a positive note.
Let your team members bring riddles to the table
Eventually, the use of riddles as a team-building activity will grow out of your hands. Your team members might start bringing riddles to meetings and incorporating them before you. This is a good thing! It means you have team buy-in and your staff enjoys the puzzles. Save your other riddles for later and see what brain teasers your employees thought of.
Bring riddles to your next meeting
Riddles are an excellent team-building activity for in-person and virtual meetings. Almost anyone can participate, especially if you use virtual tools to let your staff submit answers. Along with gathering your favorite riddles ahead of your next call or presentation, check out the tools at Poll Everywhere. We make it simple to engage audiences, whether you are talking to a few staff members or giving a keynote speech at an industry conference. Create an account and see why Poll Everywhere is the best employee engagement software.
