Are you concerned about weather conditions or not having enough outdoor space to gather your employees? Then, you might want to try some indoor team building activities. As you already know these are the activities that you can conduct inside your office or a room.
In this article, let’s discuss some amazing indoor office games for your employees.
10 Indoor Team Building Activities for Your Employees
Here is the list of 10 team building exercises that you can try inside your office. The games listed below are useful whether you have a small group or a large one.
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 start!
#1. A Penny for Your Thoughts
For: Breaking the Ice
In this activity, the employees should share something that happened to them in a particular year.
Time: 5-10 minutes
Participants: Less than 6 members per group
Materials: A penny (no more than 10 years old) for each person
Steps
- Initially, give a penny to each person.
- Now, ask each person to share something substantial or exciting that happened to them in that year. Then, they need to share it with their teammates.
#2. Break the Code
For: Problem Solving
In this exercise, the employees need to solve a given code or puzzle.
Time: You decide
Participants: 4-10 members in a group
Materials: Nothing (provide a pen and paper sheet if required)
Steps
- Initially, provide a secret code to each group. This can be anything like picture puzzles, logic problems, riddles, etc.
- Now, the goal for the groups is to break the code as quickly as possible. So, set a time limit to complete the task if required.
- Eventually, the first group that breaks the code will win the game.
#3. Company Trivia
For: Getting to know each other
This is one of the quick office games. Here the employees need to answer a list of questions that are related to the company.
Time: Nearly 5 minutes
Participants: Less than 5 members per group
Materials: Nothing
Steps
- First, prepare a list of at least 10 trivia questions. These questions can be anything related to your company or office.
For example,
Which cell phone does our CEO use?
What’s our company’s mission?
How many senior employees are there in our department?
- Then, ask these questions to the groups and let them answer those.
#4. Debate Game
For: Conflict Resolution
Here the employees should engage in a debate and explore the impact of workplace conflicts.
Time: You decide
Participants: Any number of people in a group
Materials: Nothing
Steps
- Start by splitting each team into two sub-groups.
- Then, invite each sub-group to participate in a debate for a few minutes. Here one party should argue why conflict is good in a workplace and the other party should argue why it is bad in a workplace.
- Finally, each sub-group should unite and summarize what they learned during the debate.
#5. Escape Room
For: Problem Solving and Collaboration
This is one of the best indoor team building activities. In this activity, the employees need to escape from a locked room by solving a set of puzzles.
Time: You decide
Participants: Less than 6 individuals per team
Materials: Nothing is needed for the participants except a room
Steps
- At first, the facilitator should hide several clues at different places in a room along with its door key.
- Then, lock the whole team inside this room. Now, their goal is to find the key to the door and escape from the room.
- For this, they need to find each clue that is hidden, solve it, and ultimately find the room’s key to escape from the room. Make sure that you give the first clue before locking them.
#6. Memory Wall
For: Getting to know each other
Here the employees create a memory wall by sharing various personal or professional stories about themselves.
Time: At least 15 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: Paper sheets and pens
Steps
- Initially, the facilitator needs to share a few topics with the teams.
This can be something like:
First day at work
Favorite boss
Best friend at work
- Now, encourage each person to choose a topic they are excited about and write a short story about it in a few sentences. For this, provide a pen and paper sheet to each person.
- Finally, each member should share their stories with the rest of the group and post them on the wall.
#7. Origami
For: Communication and Listening
Here the employees should follow the instructions to fold a paper while keeping their eyes closed.
Time: Around 10 minutes
Participants: Any
Materials: Old Newspapers
Steps
- Initially, provide a newspaper to each member.
- Now, ask them to close their eyes and follow your instructions during the whole activity. Also, they should not ask any questions during the exercise. Then, give instructions to fold and rip the paper multiple times.
- Finally, let everyone open their eyes, unfold the paper, and compare what each one looks like.
#8. Silence is Golden
For: Adaptability and Cooperation
In this activity, the employees should draw their ideal workplace by communicating with their colleagues in a non-verbal manner.
Time: 15-20 minutes
Participants: 5-6 members per team
Materials: Flipchart, colored markers, pens, and paper sheets
Steps
- At first, distribute a flipchart as well as some colored markers to each team.
- Now, ask them to draw their ideal workplace on the flipchart, regardless of the cost. For this purpose, give them some time. Verbal communication is prohibited in this activity so the group members must not speak.
- Then, provide some paper sheets to each member so that they can communicate with their partners by writing down their ideas.
- Finally, each team should explain its design.
#9. The SWOT Game
For: Strategic Planning
Here the employees try to have a deeper understanding of their team by performing a SWOT analysis.
Time: Your choice
Participants: Any
Materials: A pen and paper sheet for each team
Steps
- At first, ask the members to conduct a SWOT Analysis for their team. For this, give them a paper sheet and pen. Now, they can create four different columns with these titles – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
- Then, the members should discuss and fill up each column. In the end, each team should discuss the ways to best utilize their strengths and overcome their weaknesses.
#10. Unknown Friend
For: Communication and Trust Building
This exercise acts as a starting point to build trust among colleagues.
Time: Your choice
Participants: Any number of members per group
Materials: A pen and paper sheet for each individual
Steps
- Initially, get some paper pieces and write the names of all the team members in each. Now, distribute these paper pieces to each person in the group, but make sure that nobody gets his own name.
- Then, instruct each person not to reveal the name to anyone else.
- Next, provide a sheet of paper to each person. Now, they need to write a clue that is quite difficult to guess about the person they got.
- Then, they should hold it in such a way that everyone on the team can see it. Finally, the other members can guess who is that person.
Want Some Unique Team Building Activities?
If you want some unique team building activities that you can conduct anywhere, you can get my main e-book:
Or Want Some Unique Leadership Development Activities?
If you want some unique activities to equip your employees with leadership skills, qualities, and mindset, you can get my new e-book:
Final Words
Indoor team building activities can benefit you when outdoor space or climatic change is an issue. Hopefully, the above exercises will help you engage your employees while staying inside the office.