What are the best team building activities for work?
You might have asked this question before.
Whether you have a small business or a large one, you know the value of teamwork for your business’s success. To promote teamwork, your employees need the right mindset to cooperate with others and work towards achieving a common goal.
Conducting the right team building exercises help your employees interact with their colleagues and know each other better.
15 Team Building Activities for Work
Here are 15 activities that will create great team spirit in your workplace. It is necessary to conduct a debrief session after each activity. For that, you can use the “Debrief Questions” section below each activity. Okay?
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!
Team Building Activities for Getting to Know Each Other (Icebreakers)
#1. Life Highlights
This icebreaker activity helps a person to know more about the lifestyles, passions, and personalities of his/her teammates. The Life highlights game is ideal before a team meeting or presentation.
Time Required
15-30 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
No materials required
Instructions
- Ask the participants to close their eyes for one minute and think about their best life moments like moments with family or friends, personal/professional achievements, etc.
- Once they review their life highlights, ask them which moment they want to relive if they only have 30 seconds left in their life and why.
Debrief Questions
- How comfortable were you when you had to share your life experiences?
- What difference did you feel when you knew more about your coworkers?
#2. 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.
Time Required
15-20 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
Pen and paper pieces
Instructions
- 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.
Debrief Questions
- Were you curious enough to know more about your colleagues? If so, why?
- What was your plan in order to find out the lie?
#3. Coin Logo
The coin logo is one of the quick team building exercises for work. In this activity, the participants are required to create a logo using coins.
Time Required
5-10 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
A private room
Tables
Coins
Instructions
- Ask the participants to empty their pockets or wallets and place their coins on the table in front of them (If you have a large number of participants, split them into smaller teams).
- Have some coins spare if someone doesn’t have enough coins.
- Now, allow some time for each team to create a team logo using their coins.
- Then, ask each team to describe their logo such as what is its meaning, what made them create such a logo, etc.
Debrief Questions
- How did you come up with your logo? Also, explain its meaning.
- Do you think your logo clearly conveys its purpose? If so, why?
Team Building Activities for Communication
#4. The Blindfold Game
The blindfold game helps to improve communication and listening skills and build trust between coworkers. In this activity, the blindfolded members need to rely on their sighted partners and follow their instructions.
Time Required
15-20 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
A large private room
Furniture and other objects that act as obstacles
Blindfolds for half of the people
Instructions
- Scatter furniture and other items around the room as obstacles.
- Group the participants into pairs and one person from each pair must be blindfolded.
- The sighted members must direct their blindfolded partners across the room, and provide instructions to overcome the obstacles.
- Once each team reaches the other end of the room, switch roles and repeat the activity.
Debrief Questions
- As a sighted partner, how did you communicate differently with your blindfolded members?
- Were there any changes in the way you listen to others when you were blindfolded? If so, why?
#5. Circle Story
In this activity, the participants need to create and tell a story one phrase or sentence at a time. It boosts communication, creativity, and teamwork.
Time Required
5-10 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
A large private room or outdoor space
Instructions
- Group the participants into different teams. Then, ask each team to sit in a circular shape.
- One person on each team should start a story with the phrase “once upon a time” and the person on his right side should continue the sentence.
- Go around the circle 3 or 4 times before concluding the story.
Debrief Questions
- How creatively did you express your idea while creating a fresh story?
- As a group, were you able to maintain the flow of the story? If not, what were the issues?
#6. Make Your Team
This activity promotes quick and effective communication skills. In this activity, the goal is to form a team by identifying the people who belong to the same category.
Time Required
10-15 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
A large room
Paper slips for the whole number of participants
Instructions
- The facilitator should equally divide the paper slips into 4 or 5 different sections. Pick the first section, write “RED” in all slips. In the second section, write “GREEN” in all slips. Similarly, write different color names in the remaining sections.
- Ask each participant to pick a paper slip, identify the other members with the same color and form a team.
- Allow some time for the participants to find their partners. The team that finishes first will win the game.
Debrief Questions
- How did you communicate differently in order to find your team members?
- Have you found any “shortcuts” or “communication tricks” to quickly form the team?
Team Building Activities for Trust Building
#7. Minefield
Minefield is one of the fantastic team building activities for work and is similar to the blindfold game. Here a sighted person guides his blindfolded member, but only through verbal instructions.
Time Required
You decide
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
A large indoor or outdoor space
Soft objects like cones, foam balls, large paper cups, empty plastic bottles, etc.
Enough blindfolds for half of the people
Instructions
- Set up the “minefield” by placing obstacles like empty plastic bottles, cones, foam balls, large paper cups, etc. all over the space.
- Divide the participants into different pairs. In each pair, one person should be blindfolded and is not allowed to see or talk. The other person is able to see or talk, but must not enter the minefield or touch his blindfolded partner.
- Now, the blindfolded person should walk through the minefield (without touching the mines) by listening to the verbal instructions of his/her partner.
- Once the blindfolded person reaches the other side, switch roles and repeat the activity.
Debrief Questions
- How did you guide your blindfolded partner considering you couldn’t help them physically?
- As a blindfolded person, how well did you listen to your colleagues?
#8. 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.
Time Required
5 minutes
Participants and Materials
An even number of participants
No materials required
Instructions
- Divide the participants into pairs and each pair stand facing each other.
- Ask each pair to stare into their partner’s eyes for at least 60 seconds. Remember, people are not allowed to wear sunglasses in this activity.
Debrief Questions
- How did you feel when someone’s attention was fully on you?
- Did you become uncomfortable at any point during this exercise? If so, why?
#9. Snakes
This exercise focuses on building trust between coworkers by helping each other. In this activity, a sighted person should guide the rest of his teammates by providing nonverbal instructions.
Time Required
You decide
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
A large room
Soft objects that can be picked up easily
Enough blindfolds
Instructions
- Place the soft objects all around the room and divide the participants into small teams, preferably 6 members.
- Each team should stand in a line where the first five members should be blindfolded and the last member (tail end) is able to see.
- The sighted member should guide the “snake” to pick up the object by providing nonverbal instructions to his partners in front.
- The blindfolded person who is standing at the head end should pick the object. Once this is done, he can remove the blindfold and go to the tail end.
Debrief Questions
- As a blindfolded partner, did you have any difficulty trusting your sighted partner?
- How well did the sighted partner communicate with you through nonverbal instructions?
Team Building Activities for Creativity and Planning
#10. The Paper Tower
The paper tower is one of the simple team building exercises for work. It focuses on testing and improving the creativity and planning skills of people.
Time Required
5 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
Paper sheets
Instructions
- Split the participants into small teams.
- Give a large sheet of paper to each team and instruct them to build the tallest free-standing structure.
- Set a time limit for this activity and each team should build a structure only using paper.
- Finally, review each structure.
Debrief Questions
- How did you plan differently to build the tallest structure?
- What were the difficulties in your planning and how did you overcome them?
#11. Road Map Game
The Road Map Game is an excellent activity to improve the planning skills of the employees. In this activity, the group members should plan an event through collaboration.
Time Required
You decide
Participants and Materials
4 or more members per group
One map (a state map, country map, or any specific location) for each group
Papers
Pens
Instructions
- Divide the participants into several groups and instruct each group to plan a vacation based on the available resources and information.
- Provide a map to each group and also a list of available resources and information for the trip such as the money in hand, type of car, price of fuel, towns they can find fuel, etc.
- Give a paper and pen to each group and tell them to write down their travel plans. Make sure that any group that runs out of money or fuel will be disqualified.
- Finally, you can give awards to the group that did the most with what they had or for the most exciting trip.
Debrief Questions
- Were you able to effectively utilize the resources you had? If so, why?
- How did proper planning help you avoid waste of time and resources?
Team Building Activities for Adaptability
#12. Tag Team Game
Tag team game helps a person adapt to their weaknesses by learning more from their colleagues. In this game, each person will know the attributes of a great team.
Time Required
20-30 minutes
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
Large sheet of papers
Pens
Instructions
- Divide the participants into small teams (4-6 members).
- Now, ask each person to write down their qualities as well as strengths that help their team succeed and share it with their teammates.
- Instruct each team to create a “virtual teammate” by combining all those qualities and strengths and write a profile/story about him.
- Finally, each team can share this with others so that everyone can identify their own strengths and weaknesses.
Debrief Questions
- As a group, how did you adapt to the new situation or change?
- During this exercise, were you able to understand your strengths and weaknesses as a group? If so, why?
Team Building Activities for Problem Solving and Decision Making
#13. Jigsaw Puzzle Pieces
This activity is to improve the problem solving skills of your employees through discussion, negotiation, and collaboration. In this activity, participants are required to complete a puzzle with the help of others.
Time Required
You decide
Participants and Materials
8-16 people per team
Small indoor or outdoor space
1 x large jigsaw puzzle
Small bags to hold the pieces
Instructions
- The facilitator should divide the jigsaw puzzle and put an equal number of pieces into different small bags.
- Split each team into 2 small sub-teams and give a bag of puzzle pieces to each sub-team. Make sure that each team’s puzzle pieces appear to be a whole puzzle.
- Ask each sub-team to assemble the puzzle within a certain time limit. Each sub-team may think that they are competing against each other, but they can’t complete the puzzle unless they discuss and collaborate with the other sub-team.
- Allow enough time for each sub-team to discuss, negotiate and collaborate with the other sub-team and complete the puzzle.
Debrief Questions
- During this exercise, how did collaboration helps with better problem solving?
- What were the important decisions you made during the activity and why?
#14. Inter-Group Problem Solving Challenge
This activity helps to improve the creativity as well as problem solving skills of your colleagues. Here each group should create a unique problem and challenge the other groups to solve it.
Time Required
You decide
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
Pens
Papers
Instructions
- Divide the participants into small groups.
- Instruct each group to come up with a self-created, unique problem and write it on paper.
- Now, ask each group to share their problems with the other groups and let them find the solution in a given time.
- Finally, find out the best-performing group by evaluating which group created the most complicated problem and which one solved more problems.
Debrief Questions
- How did you come up with a unique problem as a group?
- How did you manage to solve multiple problems at a time?
#15. Who is The Best Decision Maker?
The main goal of this activity is to improve the decision making skills of employees. In this activity, each team needs to analyze a very complicated situation and take the right decision.
Time Required
You decide
Participants and Materials
Any number of participants
Pens
Papers
Instructions
- Group the participants into small teams.
- Explain a business/management-related problem with each team.
For example, Shop A and Shop B are selling product X for $100 and they are getting equal number of customers per day. Suddenly, Shop A reduced their price to $80 and they started getting more number of customers as well as profit compared to Shop B. Now, what should Shop B do in order to get more number of customers and increase their profit?
- Ask each team to come up with the right decision to solve the issue and explain why. Then, allow them to write this on paper.
- Once this is done, share it with other teams and find the best decision.
Debrief Questions
- How decision making through group discussion differ from individual decision making?
- What alternatives did you consider before making the final decision?
Want Some Unique Team Building Activities?
The above-mentioned activities are conventional. If you want some unique team building exercises for your employees, you can get my new 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: