Work doesn't have to be all serious business. Injecting some fun into the workplace through trivia activities can liven up meetings, build camaraderie among teams, and provide a mental break to refresh and recharge employees. Here's an overview of how to effectively use trivia at work.
Benefits of Workplace Trivia
Trivia activities at work come with a range of benefits when done right. Here are some of the top advantages:
- Improves morale and job satisfaction. Trivia breaks up the monotony of work and gives employees something entertaining to look forward to. This boosts morale and increases employee happiness.
- Promotes team bonding. Friendly competition helps coworkers get to know each other better and bond over common interests uncovered through trivia.
- Boosts engagement. Trivia grabs employees' attention and gets everyone participating. This increases meeting engagement.
- Adds fun without wasting time. Short trivia activities energize teams without eating up large blocks of time. The refreshment can actually help refocus employees.
- Provides mental breaks. Trivia allows the brain to switch gears and relieve stress, acting as a mental palate cleanser. This helps employees return to work refreshed.
- Encourages learning. The right kinds of trivia introduce new and interesting information to employees. This turns trivia into an opportunity for growth.
Best Practices for Work Trivia
To maximize the advantages of workplace trivia, follow these best practices:
- Keep it short. Limit trivia to 5-10 minutes max to avoid eating up valuable time. Short bursts are best.
- Make it optional. Not everyone will want to participate, so avoid singling employees out. Keep trivia opt-in so it stays positive.
- Vary the topics. Include trivia on a wide range of topics so there’s something for everyone - sports, pop culture, science, history, and more.
- Keep scores lighthearted. If you track scores, don’t overemphasize winning and losing. Keep the focus on having fun.
- Test questions ahead of time. Ensure trivia questions and answers are clear and accurate before running a game.
- Make questions accessible. Avoid overly difficult or obscure questions and aim for a reasonable level of challenge.
- Set a consistent schedule. Having trivia at regular meetings or times during the week helps employees anticipate and look forward to it.
- Offer small prizes. Hand out fun office prizes like gift cards, plaques, or trophies to boost engagement and participation.
Trivia Ideas and Topics
The sky's the limit on trivia topics that will engage your team! Here are some fun category ideas to get you started:
- Pop culture - Cover TV shows, movies, music, and celebrities.
- Sports trivia - Test knowledge of current players, championships, records, and more.
- History - Explore world history, US Presidents, major wars, and ancient civilizations.
- Geography - Ask capital cities, country locations, geographical features, and more.
- Science and nature - Cover physics, chemistry, biology, animals, space, and more.
- Food and drink - Explore fruits, vegetables, cooking, brands, and anything edible.
- Books and authors - Quiz on bestsellers, literary genres, famous authors, and memorable characters.
- Games and puzzles - Challenge people with brain teasers, riddles, sudoku, word puzzles, and board games.
- Current events - Draw from the latest news, technology, business, and pop culture stories.
- Company trivia - Test employee knowledge of your own company history, values, stats, and products.
Fun Trivia Formats
Trivia can be structured in many engaging formats beyond simple Q&A. Consider these fun options:
- Trivia quiz show - Split into teams and use buzzers to ring in answers to trivia questions. Track scores for some friendly competition.
- Trivia game show - Make a big production with a host announcing questions and keeping score. Include sound effects and music.
- Trivia Jeopardy - Follow the Jeopardy format of category headers and dollar values for questions. Allow teams to ring in and pick questions.
- Who am I? - Put name tags of famous people, characters or celebrities on employees' backs and have them ask yes/no questions to guess who they are.
- Photo puzzles - Show close up photos of objects or places and see who can guess what they are first.
- Scavenger hunt - Give employees a list of work-related facts or items they need to search for and document. Award prizes to the fastest team.
- Trivia bingo - Create bingo cards with facts and have employees cross them off as they appear in a trivia game. First with a full row wins!
Trivia Aftermath with Supernormal
Supernormal offers a great way to keep the fun going after team trivia! Our team recently hosted a Wacky Wednesday team meeting that included a trivia game. The team had a blast but thanks to Supernormal, the fun didn’t end when the meeting ended.
Supernormal took detailed meeting notes outlining who won the game, who were runners up, and all the silliness that entailed. Teammates were quick to highlight and screenshot notes from the meeting to share in other Supernormal channels like Slack. Thanks to Supernormal, the fun was just getting started.
Adding a dose of trivia at work is a fun, simple way to break up the routine, engage teams, encourage bonding, provide mental breaks, and boost learning. With the right trivia topics, formats, and platforms, you can easily incorporate trivia in meetings, events, and company activities in ways that feel fresh and customized for your organization. Just keep the games short, accessible, voluntary, varied and, above all, fun! With tools like Supernormal, bringing trivia to work has never been easier. Give it a try - your employees will thank you.