Board games are designed to enhance play, relaxation, and communication, all essential parts of the human bonding experience. When creating a workplace that fosters team-building, it is best to focus on how people come together first and then worry about the specific workplace logistics.
Through board games, colleagues engage in healthy competition, encouraging each other to excel while strengthening bonds and fostering camaraderie. Many team-centric games have collaboration baked into the rules, and players can strategize together, communicate effectively, and leverage each other's strengths to achieve common goals. Playing together allows employees to develop problem-solving skills, enhance communication, and build trust while enjoying engaging and interactive experiences.
Now, let's look at a selection of board games specifically chosen to promote team-building and collaboration within the workplace.
14 board games to encourage team-building in the workplace
These board games will provide a welcomed break from routine tasks and help build stronger relationships in the workplace.
1. Codenames
A classic word association game with players divided into two teams, Codenames is a great game for building communication skills.
Each team has a “spymaster” who provides one-word clues, which are used to help their team guess the correct words on the board. The words on the board represent agents, bystanders, and an assassin. Taking turns guessing which words correspond to their agents based on clues, the team that identifies all their agents first wins, but guessing the assassin ends the game immediately, resulting in a loss.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages effective communication skills
- Promotes strategic thinking
- Fosters collaboration and teamwork among colleagues
- Enhances trust and mutual understanding within teams
- Provides a platform for constructive competition in a fun and engaging manner
Encouraging teamwork by requiring players to communicate effectively, collaborate to decipher clues, and develop a shared strategy to outwit the opposing team.
2. Pandemic
A cooperative game where players work together as a disease control team. The shared goal is to stop global outbreaks and find cures for four deadly diseases presented in the game. Players must strategize, coordinate their actions, and prioritize tasks to succeed.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages collaboration and cooperation
- Promotes decision-making skills
- Fosters strategic planning and problem-solving abilities.
- Builds trust and camaraderie as players work together towards a shared goal
- Provides opportunities for leadership development and team bonding
Pandemic can help teams think on their feet and learn the importance of decision-making under pressure. This game is beneficial for nurturing communication in the context of collective problem-solving.
3. Settlers of Catan
A popular strategic board game, Settlers of Catan, asks players to build settlements, roads, and cities on an island while trading resources. It encourages teamwork through negotiation, trading, and forming alliances to gain resources and expand territories. The first player to accumulate ten victory points through settlements, cities, development cards, and notable achievements wins the game.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages negotiation and trade among team members
- Promotes strategic thinking and resource management skills
- Fosters collaboration and teamwork as players form alliances and make deals
- Enhances communication and problem-solving abilities during gameplay
- Provide opportunities for friendly competition and bonding
Settlers of Catan is a popular game perfect for getting coworkers together on a half day on Friday or for a game night on the weekend while engaging in friendly competition, fostering a balance of cooperation and healthy competition.
4. Ticket to Ride
In this fun and strategic game, players build train routes across a map of various regions, aiming to connect cities and complete destination tickets. While players compete to claim routes and fulfill their tickets, they must adapt their strategies based on their opponents' actions. Players earn points by completing routes and connecting cities based on destination tickets and the longest continuous route.
Team-building benefits:
- Promotes strategic thinking and planning
- Encourages healthy competition, as players may need to vie for the same routes
- Enhances decision-making skills as players manage resources
Teamwork is integral to Ticket to Ride as the game requires players to anticipate each other's moves, negotiate routes, and make strategic decisions to achieve their goals.
5. Escape Room (The Game)
Like the popular in-person team-building game, Escape Room recreates the experience of solving puzzles and riddles within a limited time frame in board game form. Players must work together to solve clues, unlock mysteries, and ultimately "escape" from the game scenario. Using a series of puzzle cards, a decoder device, and a countdown timer, and players must use clues and hints provided by the game components to solve puzzles and progress through the scenarios.
Team-building benefits:
- Promotes collaboration and teamwork as players must work together
- Enhances communication skills as team members share ideas, observations, and insights
- Fosters creativity and problem-solving abilities as players think outside the box
- Builds trust and camaraderie among colleagues
- Provides a fun and engaging platform for fostering positive relationships
Relying on communication, collaboration, and the pooling of diverse skills and perspectives, teams solve challenges under pressure to beat the game successfully.
6. Dead of Winter
A well-known cooperative survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies, teams must work together to get out alive! Players must complete various objectives while managing limited resources and confronting internal and external threats. Throughout the game, players must manage resources, explore locations, and fend off zombies while dealing with hidden objectives and potential traitors in the group.
Team-building benefits:
- Promotes collaboration and teamwork as players must work together to survive
- Enhances communication skills as players discuss strategies, share information, and make decisions collectively
- Fosters problem-solving abilities as players analyze situations, assess risks and adapt to changing circumstances
- Builds trust and camaraderie among team members
- Provides a shared experience that encourages bonding and strengthens relationships
Dead of Winter encourages teamwork by requiring players to trust each other, allocate resources efficiently, and make collective decisions to ensure the group's survival.
7. Forbidden Island
Players gather together in this cooperative game to retrieve four treasures from a sinking island before it disappears underwater. Forbidden Island features a modular board that changes as the island floods, increasing the difficulty and urgency of the mission. To win, players must collect all four treasures and escape the island before it sinks, but they lose if certain areas sink entirely or cannot retrieve the treasures in time.
Team-building benefits:
- Enhances communication skills as players discuss strategies, allocate resources, and coordinate actions
- Fosters problem-solving abilities as players analyze the evolving board state and adapt their plans accordingly
- Builds trust and camaraderie among team members as they support each other and share responsibilities
- Provides a shared experience that encourages bonding and strengthens relationships among colleagues.
A game that depends on teamwork, Forbidden Island emphasizes communication, asking questions, collaboration, and shared problem-solving to achieve common objectives.
8. Hanabi
Hanabi is a cooperative card game where players work together to create a fireworks display by playing cards in the correct sequence. The catch is that players hold their cards facing away so they can only see their teammates' cards. Players must rely on verbal clues and deduction to coordinate their moves and avoid mistakes.
Team-building benefits:
- Enhances communication skills
- Promotes collaboration and teamwork
- Fosters problem-solving abilities as players analyze the available information and strategize together
- Encourages empathy and understanding as players learn to see situations from their teammates' perspectives
By fostering clear communication and mutual reliance on each other's information to achieve a common goal, Hanabi provides an excellent platform for building trust between coworkers.
9. Werewolf
A social game that encourages teams to use their deduction skills for survival, players are villagers trying to identify and eliminate werewolves hiding among them. During the night phase, werewolves secretly choose a villager to eliminate while other characters perform their nighttime actions.
Players work together to discuss suspicions and accusations and vote to eliminate those that they believe are werewolves. The game continues alternating between the night and day phases until all werewolves are eliminated or those that remain outnumber the villagers, which is a loss.
Team-building benefits:
- Promotes strategic thinking and analysis as players interpret clues
- Fosters empathy and understanding as players take on different roles and consider different perspectives
- Builds trust and camaraderie among team members as they collaborate to root out the hidden threats
- Provides a fun and interactive platform for team bonding
The game promotes teamwork by encouraging players to communicate, analyze information, and collaborate to root out the hidden threats within their midst.
10. Spyfall
In this espionage-based game, players are given secret roles as innocent bystanders or spies. Each round, players take turns asking and answering questions about the location without giving away too much information to the spy.
Players take turns asking each other questions to determine who the spy is. In contrast, the spy tries to blend in and figure out the location everyone is in. In the end, the spy must try to figure out the location based on the questions and answers provided by other players. In contrast, innocent players try to identify the spy.
Team-building benefits:
- Promotes critical thinking
- Fosters creativity and adaptability as players think on their feet
- Builds trust and camaraderie among team members as they collaborate to identify the spy
- Provides a fun and lighthearted atmosphere for team bonding
The game encourages teamwork by fostering communication, observation, and critical thinking skills as players work together to identify the spy without giving away too much information.
11. Dixit
A fun and active storytelling and deduction game, Dixit has players take turns being the storytellers by giving clues that are neither obvious nor vague, allowing some players to guess the correct card while avoiding unanimous agreement. The storyteller selects a card from their hand and gives a clue or phrase related to the card's illustration. Other players then choose cards that match the clue from their hands, and everyone votes on which card they believe belongs.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages creativity and imagination
- Promotes active listening and understanding
- Fosters empathy and perspective-taking as players consider different interpretations and viewpoints
- Builds trust and rapport among team members as they share insights
A great team activity for promoting creativity through communication, Dixit provides a relaxed and enjoyable environment for team bonding and fostering positive relationships in the workplace.
12. Telestrations
A perfect game for all the artists on the team, Telestrations has teams play by drawing and guessing. Players alternate between drawing a secret word or phrase and guessing what others have drawn. After a set time, players pass their drawing pad to the next player, who guesses what the drawing represents based on the sketch. The next player then draws a representation of the guessed word or phrase on the next page, and the process repeats until the drawing pads return to their original owners. Finally, players reveal the sequence of sketches and guesses, resulting in often humorous interpretations and misinterpretations.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages creativity and spontaneity
- Promotes active listening and communication skills as players try to understand and guess each other's drawings
- Encourages playful moments and laughter players share in the game's humorous moments and unexpected twists
- Builds trust and rapport among team members as they engage in a light-hearted and enjoyable activity
- Provides a fun and relaxed atmosphere
Telestrations encourage teamwork by fostering communication, creativity, and problem-solving skills as players collaborate to decipher drawings and share laughter-filled moments.
13. Mysterium
Mysterium is a cooperative deduction game where players work together to solve the mystery of a ghost's murder by interpreting abstract clues presented through illustrated cards. One player acts as the ghost, providing cryptic visions to guide the other players toward identifying the culprit, location, and murder weapon. Players must decipher the clues provided by the ghost and collaborate to solve the mystery before time runs out.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages collaboration and teamwork as players work together to solve the mystery
- Promotes critical thinking and deduction skills as players analyze the ghost's clues and make informed decisions
- Fosters creativity and imagination as players interpret abstract vision cards and develop theories about the murder
- Builds trust and camaraderie among team members as they rely on each other's insights and observations to progress in the game
By playing this game, coworkers learn how to share insights and collaborate through resource management and strategic planning.
Board games, whether in a small team or large group, offer diverse experiences that foster collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. Another significant aspect of board games is that they are easy to transport and can be played in the office or during a workplace retreat, making them valuable tools for enhancing team-building and interpersonal relationships even on the go.
14. Wingspan
Designed for 1 to 5 players, Wingspan has each participant take on the role of a bird enthusiast, aiming to attract a diverse array of bird species to their wildlife preserve. The game takes four rounds, with players strategically managing resources and habitats to accumulate points based on the birds they attract. On a turn, players select from various actions, including drawing bird cards, gaining food tokens, laying eggs, or playing bird cards from their hand onto their preserve.
Team-building benefits:
- Encourages strategy development like thinking and planning, fostering collaboration and problem-solving among team members
- Promotes prioritization of tasks
- Fosters communication and coordination as players discuss and execute their strategies
- Provides an enjoyable and engaging platform for team members to bond
Wingspan is an excellent game for small teams or breakout groups on a game night, as it's fun and highlights individual strengths and working together towards common goals.
Bring games along to off-site team retreats
Off-site retreats are pivotal for effective workplace team-building as they offer a refreshing change of scenery, foster a sense of camaraderie, and provide a dedicated space for colleagues to bond and collaborate outside the constraints of the office environment. Getting out of the office offers opportunities for team members to connect more personally, fostering trust and understanding that can translate into improved communication and collaboration at work.
Games like Escape Room: The Game and Settlers of Catan are excellent choices for team-building retreats. Escape Room: The Game challenges participants to solve puzzles and unravel mysteries, fostering collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Settlers of Catan emphasizes negotiation, resource management, and strategic decision-making, encouraging teamwork and healthy competition among colleagues.
The Surf Office can help plan the fun and games
The Surf Office can help coordinate the details when planning an off-site team-building retreat, from scheduling activities to structuring the retreat around the specific team-building goals. For example, we can help seamlessly integrate game nights into your retreat, striking that perfect balance between work and play.
At the Surf Office, we are experts in implementing a productive and pleasurable off-site retreat. We can help ensure that your company retreat is well-balanced, engaging, and tailored to the needs and dynamics of the team, ultimately leading to strengthened relationships and improved collaboration among colleagues.
Contact us Today.
