Teamwork is essential in every workplace. It takes cooperation, communication and compromise to work effectively together towards a common goal. Riddles can be a fun way to get people thinking about the values and skills that are needed for good teamwork.
Here are 67 riddles about teamwork along with their answers. Some focus on the traits people should have to be good teammates. Others highlight the need to put the team first and work together. A few riddles have double meanings related to teamwork. See how many your team can get right!
Teamwork riddles
1. What has to break before you can use it?
Answer: An egg, and similarly people have to “break out of their shell” and communicate/open up before a team can truly work together.
2. I have no life, but I can die. What am I?
Answer: A battery, or the spirit of a team.
3. What can travel all around the world without leaving its corner?
Answer: A stamp.
4. What has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Answer: A penny.
5. What can you catch, but not throw?
Answer: A cold.
6. What goes up and down without moving?
Answer: Stairs.
7. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
8. What has four legs but can’t walk?
Answer: A table.
9. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
10. What is full of holes but can still hold water?
Answer: A sponge.
11. What month of the year has 28 days?
Answer: All of them.
12. What starts with ‘e’ and ends with ‘e’ but only has one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
13. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
14. I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?
Answer: A bank.
15. What is greater than God, more evil than the devil, the poor have it, the rich need it, and if you eat it, you’ll die?
Answer: Nothing.
Teamwork riddles – putting the team first
16. What runs all around a backyard, yet never moves?
Answer: A fence.
17. I am taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case from which I am never released and yet I am used by almost everybody.
Answer: A pencil lead.
18. I have cities but no houses, forests but no trees, and water but no fish. What am I?
Answer: A map.
19. What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?
Answer: A postage stamp.
20. What has four fingers and a thumb but is not alive?
Answer: A glove.
21. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
22. What has many needles but doesn’t sew?
Answer: A Christmas tree.
23. What can you break even if you never pick it up or touch it?
Answer: A promise.
24. The more you take away, the larger it becomes. What is it?
Answer: A hole.
25. What belongs to you but is used more by others?
Answer: Your name.
26. I’m tall when I’m young, short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle.
27. What gets wetter the more it dries?
Answer: A towel.
28. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age.
29. What comes down but never goes up?
Answer: Rain.
30. What is broken every time it’s spoken?
Answer: Silence.
Double meaning teamwork riddles
31. What has to be broken before you can use it?
Answer: An egg, and barriers between team members.
32. I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old. What am I?
Answer: A candle, or a team that starts out eager but burns out.
33. What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?
Answer: Your name, or the skills you bring to the team.
34. The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
Answer: Footsteps, or delegating tasks to your team.
35. What goes through towns and over hills but never moves?
Answer: Roads, or communication between team members.
36. What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, and has a bed but never sleeps?
Answer: A river, or the constant workflow of a team.
37. What stays in the corner and travels the world?
Answer: A stamp, or sharing ideas between team members.
38. The more there is, the less you see. What is it?
Answer: Darkness, or misunderstandings between team members.
39. What goes up but never comes down?
Answer: Your age, or team morale.
40. What comes down but doesn’t go up?
Answer: Rain, or motivation levels.
Riddles about teamwork traits
41. What gets sharper the more you use it?
Answer: Your brain/mind, collaboration improves mental agility.
42. What has a head and a tail but no body?
Answer: A coin, like team members who are opposite but connected.
43. What has hands but can’t clap?
Answer: A clock, like team members need to work together to “clap.”
44. When can you add two to eleven and get one as the correct answer?
Answer: When you are figuring out the number of letters in each word.
45. What has one eye but can’t see?
Answer: A needle.
46. What has many keys but can’t open a single lock?
Answer: A piano.
47. What can fill up a room without taking up space?
Answer: Light.
48. What starts with E, ends with E, and only contains one letter?
Answer: An envelope.
49. What has 4 fingers and 1 thumb, but is not living?
Answer: A glove.
50. What has a neck but no head?
Answer: A bottle.
51. What is broken every time it’s spoken?
Answer: Silence.
52. What is full of holes but still holds water?
Answer: A sponge.
53. What is always coming but never arrives?
Answer: Tomorrow.
54. What comes down but doesn’t go up?
Answer: Rain.
55. What goes through towns and hills but never moves?
Answer: A road.
56. What has a head, tail, is brown, and has no legs?
Answer: A penny.
57. What can fill a room but takes up no space?
Answer: Light.
58. What is always in front of you but can’t be seen?
Answer: The future.
59. What can you catch but not throw?
Answer: A cold.
60. What belongs to you but others use it more?
Answer: Your name.
Classic teamwork riddles
61. A man wants to enter an exclusive club but does not know the password that is required. He waits by the door and listens. A club member knocks on the door and the doorman says, “twelve.” The member says, “six” and is let in. Another member comes to the door and the doorman says, “six.” The member says, “three” and is let in. The man thinks he now knows enough to gain entry. So he knocks on the door. The doorman says, “ten” and the man says, “five.” But he is denied entry. What should he have said?
Answer: He should have said “three.” The doorman gives the number of letters in the password, while the member responds with how many letters are in the doorman’s prompt.
62. A farmer has 17 sheep and all but 9 die. How many are left?
Answer: 9. “All but 9 die” means 9 are left.
63. How many months have 28 days?
Answer: All 12 months.
64. A doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour. How long is it before all the pills are gone?
Answer: 1 hour. After half an hour, take one pill. After another half hour, take another pill. After one more half hour, take the last pill.
65. A woman has two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they are not twins. How is this possible?
Answer: They are triplets.
66. Two people were playing chess. They played five games, and each person won the same number of games. How is this possible?
Answer: They didn’t play against each other, they played against different opponents.
67. How far can a dog run into the woods?
Answer: Halfway, after that he is running out of the woods!
Conclusion
Solving riddles as a team can reveal strengths and weaknesses in communication, critical thinking, compromise and patience. A little humor can also help bring people together! Reflecting on the process afterward helps identify areas for improvement. Most importantly, having fun together builds rapport and camaraderie among team members.
