10 Short Team Building Activities for Work Meetings

Are you looking for some short team building activities for work meetings or training sessions?

As a busy leader, it might be hard for you to come up with the right activities each and every time. In this article, let’s see 10 short exercises for your teams that take only 5-15 minutes.

So, let’s start!

10 Short Team Building Activities for Work Meetings

Here is the list of 10 short team building activities that you can conduct during work meetings or training sessions. At the end of each activity, there are a few debrief questions. Make sure that you ask them to your teams, and see how they respond.

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?

Alright, here we go!

#1. Astro Predictor

For: Getting to know each other better.

In this activity, a person who acts as an astrologer shares their teammates’ goals in a fun way.

Time: 5-15 minutes
Materials: Paper and pen
Participants: Minimum 3 members per team

Instructions

• Initially, divide the participants into small teams. One person on each team should act as an astrologer.
• Now, provide a pen and sheet of paper to each of the remaining team members. Ask them to write their name, date of birth, and one of their future goals (a realistic one) on the paper. Everyone must do it secretly without any discussions.
• Then, the astrologer can get these papers and talk about each person’s goal like a prediction. For example, Mr. X will reach his goal before 35 years of age.

Debrief

• During this exercise, were you able to know more about your colleagues? If so, why?
• To connect with our colleagues better, we need to respect their views and goals. What are your thoughts?

#2. Conflict Words

For: Communication and conflict resolution

This activity helps employees understand the reasons for conflict and how they can resolve it.

Time: 5-10 minutes
Materials: None (But prepare a few paper slips)
Participants: An even number of participants

Instructions

• First off, write some words that are related to conflict as well as conflict resolution on different paper slips.

Just in case you don’t have much time, you can use the words given below.

Conflict-related Words

Ego
Disagreement
Misunderstanding
Lack of communication

Conflict Resolution-related Words

Humbleness
Agreement
Mutual understanding
Effective communication

(Note: Make sure that there is an equal number of words that are related to ‘conflict’ and ‘conflict-resolution’. For example, if you have 10 conflict-related words, then there must be 10 conflict resolution-related words too.)

• Now, each person can pick a paper slip. Then, those who got a conflict-related word can pair up with someone who got a conflict resolution-related word.
• Finally, let each pair reveal the words they got and explain why they joined as a group.

Debrief

• Are conflicts bad in the workplace? If so, why?
• What lesson did you learn from this activity that you can bring to your actual work?

#3. Don’t Answer it

For: Creative thinking, communication, and listening

Here the employees realize how having a presence of mind as well as creativity help with effective communication and listening.

Time: 5-15 minutes
Materials: None
Participants: 3-6 members per group

Instructions

• First, divide the participants into small groups.
• One person in each group can ask some questions (one at a time) to a selected person. The person who responds shouldn’t answer the question. Instead, he can talk about something irrelevant to the question.

For example,

Question 1: How are you?
Answer: There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.

Question 2: I really like the shirt you’re wearing. May I ask what brand it is?
Answer: I do exercise every day.

• Anytime the responder fails to do this, he will be out of the game. However, if the responder succeeds in doing that for one minute, the person who asked the questions will be out of the game.
• Then, the game continues in the same manner and the last person standing will be the winner.

Debrief

• What was going through your mind while asking the questions?
• What was going through your mind while responding to the questions?
• Having a presence of mind as well as creativity is vital for effective communication and listening. What do you think?

#4. Emotions Rating

For: Diversity & inclusion, collaboration, and change management

This activity gives employees a chance to honestly express their emotions and collaborate well with their colleagues.

Time: You decide
Materials: Paper and pen
Participants: Any number of participants

Instructions

• Initially, provide each person with a sheet of paper and pen. Now, ask them to write what’s on their mind by rating their emotions on a scale of 1 to 5.

These emotions can be:

Feeling happy/motivated at work
Scared of changes
Sense of belonging in the workplace

(Note: You can add more emotions to this list if needed.)

• Then, each person can honestly rate these emotions. They can do this anonymously, so they need not write their name on the paper. After that, get these papers and track any patterns you see.
• Next, split the participants into small teams. Depending on the pattern you noticed, ask each team to discuss and come up with ideas on what should the company do to help them.

Debrief

• Would you rate your emotions in the same manner if you were asked to do it publicly? If so, why?
• As a team, how did you come up with the ideas?

#5. Facilitator’s Laugh

For: Creativity, collaboration, and communication

This is one of the short team building activities that can create fun. In this activity, the groups try to make the facilitator laugh.

Time: You decide
Materials: None
Participants: 2 or more members per group

Instructions

• Initially, divide the participants into small groups.
• Now, ask each group to come up with a quick joke. It can be doing a short skit or sharing a fun moment. However, their goal is to make the facilitator laugh.
• Then, each group can perform this. The team that makes the facilitator laugh will win this game.

Debrief

• As a team, how did you plan to achieve the goal?
• Do you think having some fun moments can create lots of positive vibes in the workplace? If so, why?

#6. Ideal Customer

For: Communication and collaboration

Here the teams try to create their ideal customer profile based on the given product.

Time: You decide
Materials: Paper and pen
Participants: Minimum 2 members per team

Instructions

• At first, group the participants into small teams.
• Now, show a random object to the teams (or talk about a product/service your company offers).
• Then, ask each team to create a profile of the customer who they think will buy this product. They can include things like name, age, location, occupation/job title, industry, etc. An example is given below.

My Ideal Customer Profile

Name: Sam
Age: 35
Location: Florida, USA
Occupation: Business Owner
Industry: Finance

• Finally, each team should explain why they target such a customer.

Debrief

• What were the discussions in your team during this activity?
• Would you have approached this exercise the same way if you were asked to do it individually? If so, why?

#7. King, Queen, Cop, and Thief

For: Communication, creative thinking, and problem solving

One of the short team building activities that you try with small groups is King, Queen, Cop, and Thief. This is an old-school game that boosts the creativity and communication skills of employees.

Time: 5-15 minutes
Materials: Paper and pen
Participants: Exactly 4 members per group

Instructions

• Initially, prepare some paper slips in the following manner:

King – 1000 points
Queen – 500 points
Cop – 100 points
Thief – 0 points

(Note: If you have three groups of 4 members each, then you should prepare 12 paper slips in total. However, don’t mix them up because each group must have a King, Queen, Cop, and Thief.)

• Next, divide the participants into small groups, and let each group member pick a paper slip. Now, the person having the paper slip ‘King’ must ask ‘Who is the cop?’. Then, the person having the paper slip ‘Cop’ can come forward.
• Now, the cop should find the thief among the other two people within 2 minutes. For this, they can ask questions to those two. If the cop finds the thief within time, they will get 100 points. Otherwise, they will score 0 points and the thief will get 100 points.
• Then, continue the exercise in multiple rounds depending on your time. If you do so, the groups should write the points scored by each of its members in every round.

Debrief

• How did you deal with the situation as the cop?
• How did you deal with the situation as the thief?
• Do you believe creative thinking and proper communication can be rewarding in the workplace? If so, why?

#8. Left-Hand Statements

For: Adaptability and change management

In this activity, the employees should go out of their comfort zone a little bit and understand the importance of change.

Time: 5-10 minutes
Materials: Paper and pen
Participants: Any number of participants

Instructions

• Start by telling a statement to the participants. For example, “Blood is Red”.
• Now, ask each participant to write the statement down. For this, give them a pen and sheet of paper.
• Then, ask them to write the same using their left hand. If someone is a left-hander, they can write using the right hand.
• Finally, let them notice the change.

Debrief

• What changes did you notice while writing using your left hand compared to your right hand?
• Having a positive attitude to change can help us achieve more. What are your thoughts?

#9. Slogan Selfie

For: Collaboration, creativity, problem solving, and diversity & inclusion

This activity helps the employees to be motivated, and collaborate well as a team.

Time: You decide
Materials: A large sheet of paper, markers, and a cell phone
Participants: Any number of participants per team

Instructions

• Initially, divide the participants into teams. Next, give each team a large sheet of paper (preferably flip chart paper) and a marker.
• Now, ask them to come up with a slogan for their team. Each team should write their slogan on the paper. Then, they can get a cell phone, and take a selfie of their whole team by holding the paper.
• Finally, each team should share their photo with other teams.

Debrief

• As a team, how did you come up with the slogan?
• Collaboration can boost team spirit and create a sense of belonging. What do you think?

#10. The Language Game

For: Adaptability, communication, and listening

In this activity, the teams get a chance to learn something new through collaboration.

Time: You decide
Materials: A cell phone with internet access for each team
Participants: Any number of members per team

Instructions

• First off, divide the participants into teams. Next, the facilitator should say a greeting like “Good Morning” or “Good Afternoon”.
• Now, ask each team to say the same in different languages. They can use Google translate or something similar to find this. For this, let them use a cell phone with internet access.
• Then, each team should say the words in 3 different languages.

Debrief

• During this exercise, were you able to learn something new? Please explain.
• Working together as a team gives us a lot of confidence to take on new challenges. What are your thoughts?

Want Some Unique Team Building Activities?

If you want to try some unique team building activities during your work meetings, you can get my new e-book:

The Busy Leader’s Guide of Unique Team Building Activities: 30 Fully Customizable Exercises That You Can Conduct with Any Group of Employees, Anywhere

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:

The Empowering Guide of Unique Leadership Development Activities: 100 Fully Customizable Exercises That You Can Conduct with Any Group of Employees, Anywhere

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