Do you want to surprise your employees during a lunch or tea break? Are you looking for several quick and easy-to-setup team building games that don’t take much time? Here are 12 amazing 5-minute team building games for your employees.
5-Minute Team Building Games for Your Employees
Before You Start
If you want to know how you can conduct team building activities, you can read this article for inspiration: How to Facilitate Team Building Activities in Your Workplace?
So, let’s get started!
#1. Story Starters
The goal of this game is to create a story step-by-step.
How to Play?
- Get some small pieces of paper and write the opening lines for stories. For example, once upon a time, a long long time ago, etc.
- Ask a member from each team to pick one piece of paper and continue the sentence.
- Once he says one sentence, the next team member can tell another sentence. Then, move on to the next member.
- This process repeats until the story is completed.
#2. Coin Logo
The goal of this activity is to create a logo using coins and explain its meaning.
How to Play?
- Request each team to place their coins (from pocket and wallet) on the table.
- If a team doesn’t have enough coins, they can borrow from others.
- Give some time for each team to create a team logo using their coins.
- Once this is done, ask each team to discuss about their logo such as its meaning, reason for creating it, etc.
#3. Tug of War
The goal of this game is to pull off the rope and make the other team cross the line.
How to Play?
- Divide the participants into two equal teams.
- Get a large rope and draw a straight line on the ground.
- Ask each team to stay on different sides of the line by holding the rope.
- The team that successfully makes the opponent cross the line wins the game.
#4. Alphabet Game
The goal of this game is to find objects in the room that start with a particular letter of the alphabet.
How to Play?
- Split the participants into small teams.
- Give a number of letters of the alphabet to each team.
- Instruct them to find as many objects in the room as they can that start with one of the given letters.
- Allow a few minutes for them to deal with this task and see what happens.
#5. The Paper Tower
The goal of this game is to build the tallest free-standing structure with the help of paper.
How to Play?
- Divide the participants into small teams.
- Give a large sheet of paper to each team.
- Instruct each team to build the tallest free-standing structure by using paper.
- Set a time limit for this activity and once completed, review each structure.
#6. Brainstorming Session
The goal of this activity is to brainstorm ideas based on a topic through collaboration.
How to Play?
- Start by giving a topic to each team and instruct them to brainstorm ideas based on the topic.
- Appoint an individual to write down the ideas of each team member.
- Once this is done, check the ideas and share them with everyone.
#7. Eye Contact
This is another simple, yet powerful exercise for trust building. Eye contact enables members to trust each other and makes them work towards a common goal.
How to Play?
- Divide the participants into pairs and each pair should stand face-to-face.
- Ask each pair to gaze into their partner’s eyes for a minute or more.
- Remember, people are not allowed to wear sunglasses in this activity.
#8. Your First Job
This is an icebreaker activity that helps team members get to know each other better and is ideal before a team meeting.
How to Play?
- Ask your team members to tell a brief story about their first job or even worst job.
- Now, each team member should tell a brief story about their first/worst job.
- To save time, you can also instruct your team members in one day advance to come up with their story.
#9. Two Truths and a Lie
Two truths and a lie will help individuals to know more about the people around them through interaction. The goal of this activity is to identify the lie from three different statements.
How to Play?
- Ask each participant to write two truths and a lie about himself/herself in a paper piece and advise them not to reveal the lie to anyone.
- Now, the rest of the participants should try to find out which one is the lie by asking different questions.
#10. Create an Ad
The goal of this game is to create an advertisement for the suggested product. This game really helps to improve the creativity of the team members.
How to Play?
- Divide the participants into small teams.
- Introduce a new product to each team and explain its features as well as benefits.
- Now, instruct them to create an advertisement for this product.
- Then, each team should create a script through discussion.
#11. Memory Test of Words
The goal of the game is to memorize a good number of words in a short period of time.
How to Play?
- Create a list of 30-50 random words of different things such as the battery, cell phone, gold, pen, etc.
- Display the list on the screen and allow the participants 1 minute to memorize as many words as possible.
- After 1 minute, hide the list and instruct each participant to write down the words they remember.
- Then, check what each person has written and ask them to share their list with their teammates.
- Finally, each team should come up with a master list by combining all the words written by their team members.
#12. Human Knot
The goal of this activity is to create a knot by holding the hands of others and untangling everyone without letting go of their hands.
How to Play?
- Instruct the team members to form a circle by standing shoulder to shoulder.
- Then, each person should lift their right hand and try to catch the hand of another person who is standing across the circle.
- After that, each person should lift their left hand in the air and catch the hand of a different person.
- Make sure that no member is holding the hand of someone who is standing directly next to them.
- The purpose of this activity is to untangle everyone without letting go of their hands.