What are good team-building activities?
Good team-building activities offer a fun way for colleagues to get to know each other, boost team morale, reduce team conflicts, and encourage problem-solving. By collaborating with colleagues on team-building exercises, employees get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, build trust, and improve communication.
When colleagues work well together, the entire organisation runs more smoothly. So, if you want to bring the best out of your team and your entire organisation, read on…
Team building activity 1: Two Truths and a Lie
As the name suggests, Two Truths And a Lie involves telling colleagues two truths and one lie about yourself. The trick here is to make the lie believable. So, unless you work at NASA, don’t try to convince your colleagues you’ve been blasted into space to clean a satellite.
The aim of the game is for colleagues to find out more about you. They can learn a lot about your life and experiences by asking probing questions to find out what is true and what is false.
Studies show that people who know a lot about their teammates find it easier to cooperate and collaborate. You can play this fun team-building activity in the office or on Teams, Google Meet, or any other digital meeting platform.
Team building activity 2: Roses and Thorns
Roses and Thorns help team members open up to each other by speaking honestly about good and bad experiences inside or outside the workplace. Every team member discusses one positive and one negative aspect of work or life.
You don’t have to talk about your deepest and darkest disappointments while playing this game. Your “thorn” can be something as simple as the office’s broken coffee machine. Don’t be afraid to share what’s bugging you. Nobody likes cold coffee, and showing a bit of vulnerability in the workplace boosts emotional well-being.
Team building activity 3: Show and Tell
Do you remember the fun of showing your new Pokemon cards or telling the saga of your trip to LEGOLAND to your classmates at school? Well, the fun can continue in the workplace.
Workplace Show and Tell is perfect for sharing your achievements, hobbies, and weekend activities with colleagues. Sharing a bit more about your personal life is a great way to strengthen your bond with your teammates and even gives your and their esteem a shot in the arm.
Show and Tell is an easy game to play and only requires about 30 minutes a week. Playing on a Monday morning can put everyone in a good mood for the entire week.
Team building activity 4: Team Lunches
Why sit in the office or in front of a computer when you can bond with your teammates over some delicious dishes? Eating with others helps us make friends and strengthens social bonds.
You don’t have to go to a restaurant to enjoy this activity. If your team is filled with people from diverse backgrounds, ask each individual to bring some of their national food to the office and let the good times, cultural education, and conversations flow.
Team building activity 5: Brainstorming Sessions
A brainstorming session is an important professional workplace activity with all the fun of a free lunch. In this relaxed environment, you can discuss your long-term goals, agree upon KPIs, and talk about what’s going well and what can be done better.To kick off a productive brainstorming session, ask your team to think of a few ideas beforehand so they can come prepared. Brainstorming sessions are great for exploring each other’s ideas and coming up with solutions in less time.
Team building activity 6: Book Clubs
Team book clubs aren’t just a good way for teams to bond. They can be educational, too. If you want your book club to be more of a casual affair, you can discuss your views on the latest Stephen King novel outside the workplace.
But you can also treat your book club as more of a professional training opportunity. If time permits, give your employees around an hour a week to read something related to your industry so they can share their new-found knowledge with their colleagues.
Employees don’t necessarily need to read books. They can educate themselves by reading competitor white papers, reading up on SEO to boost your company website, or even learning a new skill to advance their career and the company.
Team building activity 7: Trivia Day
Like book clubs, trivia days can be as professional or as casual as you like. You can ask questions about which celebrity starred in a certain film, or you can make it more business focused by quizzing and discussing matters such as competitor turnover, your social media engagement figures, and how many sales have been made, etc.
Team building activity 8: Blind Retriever
Blind Retriever is a fun game that builds trust and improves communications among teams. To play this game, simply split up into smaller teams, blindfold two volunteers, place a random object in the room, and then help them find it by giving them hints. The first team to find the object wins.
It’s best to play this game in a large room with very little furniture. Nobody likes hitting themselves on the sharp end of a table. Ouch!
Team building activity 9: Office Debates
Healthy office debates are great for sharpening soft skills such as public speaking, communication, and empathy. Get two volunteers in a boardroom to debate a topic and choose the winner by the number of people who agree with their argument.
Office Debate is a great game to play because it can be as casual or as business-like as you want.
Players can debate trivial things like if The Beatles are better than the Rolling Stones or debate business matters like if a casual, laid-back, or more serious tone of voice will work better on the company’s social media channels.
Team building activity 10: Four Question Mingle
Four Question Mingle is great for new teams to get to know each other and for established teams to find out more about their colleagues. To play this game, you’ll need a timer, some marker pens, and some paper.
Each team member writes a question for their partner to answer. Then, they swap questions. Four Question Mingle encourages communication, which is good news because 69% of employees believe that improved workplace communication enhances their work output.
Team building activity 11: Movie Night
Movie nights are easy to organise and generally don’t cost much, either. Before heading out to the cinema, give your team some options on what to watch by sending out a survey so the majority can watch a movie they’ll enjoy.
Of course, the rise of remote work in this post-pandemic world means you might have to organise a remote movie night. Luckily, there are many free apps that enable people to watch the same movie remotely. Enjoying a good film together is a fun experience, and discussing it afterward improves team communication.
Team building activity 12: Escape Room
Escape rooms have grown massively in popularity over the past decade, so you won’t have any trouble finding one that offers an affordable and interesting experience. As well as being a fun night out, escape rooms encourage teams to use their problem-solving and collaboration skills.
If you’re working with a remote team, you can play online in a virtual escape room, which also encourages collaboration and a fun challenge.
Team building activity 13: Puzzle Race
Puzzle races are a free activity that teams can do in the office. To play Puzzle Race, split employees into two teams and give them an equally challenging puzzle. The team that completes their puzzle first is the winner. You can even spice things up by adding a time limit.
Completing a puzzle is a fantastic workplace activity as it sharpens many soft skills, such as problem-solving and paying attention to detail.
Team building activity 14: Pictionary
Pictionary is another fun game that’s free to play. All you need is a whiteboard, some basic artistic skills, a scoreboard, and someone to time the players. Pictionary encourages team communication and can even be conducted remotely. Many online services enable remote workers to enjoy all the fun of an office environment.
Like most fun games, Pictionary is guaranteed to cause a few laughs, which is actually great for business. Laughter in the workplace relieves stress, boosts engagement, and promotes creativity and collaboration.
Team building activity 15: Charades
Charades is a free and fun game that improves non-verbal communication skills and helps strengthen relationships amongst teams. The game can be played inside the office, outside in a nice park, and virtually.
Charades in the workplace can be fun and business-focused. For example, the themes can revolve around products your company sells, the role of various departments, or even the names of competitor companies.
The Bottom Line
Team building activities in the workplace help strengthen bonds, improve communication, improve morale, increase motivation, and more.
If you want to get the best out of your team, check out our team-building workshop, which is specifically designed to improve team cohesion, enhance communication, and strengthen collaboration.
