Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Pictionary is a game of charades where players draw words instead of acting them out.

To get started, follow these steps:

1. Split the group into teams.
2. For every round, pick one team member to draw.
3. Provide the drawing team member a word.
4. Set a timer for up to sixty seconds for teammates to guess.
5. Use a point system where if the team guesses correctly, they get one point.

You can make things more challenging by giving teams the opportunity to steal or move onto the next team’s turn. This game is not only a good way to learn new vocabulary, but to help with visual skills as players connect a word with an image. You can also play this game virtually, so it’s perfect for almost any gathering.

Companies can use milestone celebrations as a way to show gratitude to employees and recognize their contributions.

By hosting an event to honor a team member or a group project, here are some ideas companies can use to host a milestone celebration in their community to express gratitude:

• Anniversaries. Acknowledge employees' years of service with the company, typically done at the 5, 10, 15, or 20-year mark. Personalized gifts, extra time off, and even raises are great ways to honor someone's years of service.
• Employee of the Month. Recognize outstanding employees by designating them as the Employee of the Month or Quarter. Organize a small ceremony to present them with an award.
• Employee appreciation. Dedicate a day to celebrating your employees' hard work and dedication. Arrange activities, games, and treats.
• Company-wide recognition. Recognize milestone achievements by sending a thank you message through a newsletter or social media. Highlight the accomplishments and contributions of the employees and celebrate these successes by offering an incentive like professional development opportunities, flexible work options,
• Peer-to-Peer appreciation. Encourage employees to appreciate and recognize each other's contributions by letting them offer gifts, public acknowledgments, etc.

Recognition programs that celebrate milestones effectively ensure leadership expresses gratitude, letting employees know their hard work does not go unnoticed. Showing appreciation for your team's hard work will boost morale, increase job satisfaction, and foster a positive workplace environment.

How to play Lip Sync Battle

Instructions: Divide participants into teams. Each team chooses a song and choreographs a lip-sync performance. Each team takes turns performing, and judges or fellow team members select the winning performance based on creativity, stage presence, and enthusiasm.

Materials needed: Music player, microphone (optional).

Lip Sync Battle allows team members to showcase their creativity, performance skills, and sense of humor. It promotes camaraderie, boosts morale, and creates a fun and entertaining atmosphere where everyone can participate and enjoy the performances.

How to play Angry customers

This is a simple and popular activity that involves real-life scenarios and role-playing. Have your team divide into pairs, with one of them playing the role of “angry customer” and the other being the employee trying to appease them. Have them go through a conversation where the customer is upset about something, and discuss the potential resolution. Then they switch places and come up with a new scenario. If time allows in your training session, have each pair present to the group and share which conflict resolution measures they took and what they learned.

How to play Miniature problem solving

Teams use small objects like paperclips, rubber bands, or sticky notes to devise a solution to an everyday office problem, such as tangled wires or tricky door handles. It’s a playful way to encourage innovation while improving problem-solving skills. Plus, you might even come up with a practical fix for those annoying little issues!

How to play Minute to Win It Challenges

Instructions: Set up a series of minute-long challenges where participants must complete a task using everyday objects. Examples include stacking cups or moving cookies from the forehead to the mouth using only facial muscles.

Materials needed: Everyday objects (cups, cookies, etc.).

Prepare for the Minute to Win It Challenges, where lightning-fast antics and friendly rivalry collide. These challenges ignite creativity, force adaptability, and unveil hidden talents as team members scramble to conquer the clock.

Body language is a big deal when it comes to active listening. It's like the unsung hero of effective communication. Think about it – when you're really listening, you naturally make eye contact, nod along, and maybe even lean in a bit. These little gestures show the speaker that you're engaged and tuned in. Plus, mirroring their body language can create a connection.

So, it got us at Surf Office thinking; What game could incorporate body language and active listening?

*Lightbulb ping moment*

Introducing Body Language Detective, a Surf Office exclusive!

How to play

1. Create scenario cards with various social situations or emotions. For example, "Job interview," "First date," "Conflict resolution," "Surprise party," "Job promotion celebration," and so on. Each card should describe the setting and the emotions or dynamics involved.
2. Gather the participants in a circle or sitting in a room.
3. One participant (the "actor") selects a scenario card without revealing it to the others.
4. The actor then starts enacting the scenario silently through body language and facial expressions only, without using any verbal communication.
5. The other participants (the "detectives") observe the actor's body language closely.
6. After a set period (e.g., 1-2 minutes), the actor stops the role-play.
7. The detectives then take turns discussing what they observed:

• What emotions or situations did they perceive?
• What specific body language cues led them to their conclusions?
• Did they notice any changes in body language during the role-play?

8. Once the detectives have discussed their observations, they collectively make a guess about the scenario being portrayed.

Werewolf strategy is a hidden role card game where some players secretly take on the role of werewolves, and the rest must work together to figure out who they are before it’s too late. Bluffing, strategy, and teamwork are key as everyone tries to survive—or deceive!

This game is a fun way to mix logic with social interaction, and it often leads to hilarious accusations and unexpected alliances.

How to play:

• Players are secretly assigned roles as werewolves or villagers.
• Villagers work together to identify and eliminate the werewolves.
• The game continues until all the werewolves are eliminated, or they outnumber the villagers!

Discover more team building activities for small groups to keep your team engaged and collaborating.

How to play Rice bowl

Everyone could use more practice with chopsticks. Have players use them to transfer as much rice as possible from one bowl to another with only one hand (and their chopsticks). If you want to make things more difficult, you can use uncooked rice, which is much harder to maneuver.

John: Hey, what’s your favourite superhero movie?

Jane: 🕷👨

John: Really? Batman’s my favourite too!

Jane: 🤦

If you’re like John, you won’t be any good at the Emoji Quiz. But if you’re like the other 99% of the population, capable of deciphering emojis without a second thought, then we have the perfect game for you!

Great for: Creative thinking, problem-solving

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 4+

You’ll need: A list of movie, book or song titles written in emojis

How to play Emoji Quiz

Setup: Before playing Emoji Quiz, you need to create a list of movie, song or book titles written in emoji form. Here are a few examples:

• ⚫ 🦅 ⏬ = Black Hawk Down (film)
• 🍍 🚄 = Pineapple Express (film)
• 🐦 🐦 🐦 = Three Little Birds (song)

To play: Separate your group into equal teams. Then, display each title (written in emojis) on a screen and ask the teams to write down the name of the movie, song or book. Once you’ve asked all your questions, go back and reveal the answers. The team with the most correct answers wins!

Cool off and blow off some steam with super soaker showdown! Teams engage in a friendly water gun fight, battling it out while dodging sprays and soaking each other. It’s a fun, refreshing way to unleash some energy and enjoy the outdoors.

This is perfect for adding a bit of action-packed excitement to a team day out—and there’s nothing like a good water fight to get everyone laughing.

How to play:

• Equip each team with water guns and create boundaries for the battle.
• Teams strategize to soak their opponents while staying as dry as possible.
• The team with the driest members (or the most soaked fun) wins!

Discover more funny team-building activities for small groups to add energy and excitement to your next team event.

It’s charades, but with a twist. In mimic madness, one player acts out words or phrases from charades cards, while their teammates try to guess what they’re acting out—no talking allowed!

This classic team-building game is perfect for boosting communication skills and bringing out everyone’s inner performer. It’s a fun, energetic way to get people working together while adding some laughs to the office atmosphere.

How to play:

• One player selects a charades card and acts out the word or phrase.
• Teammates guess the word based on the actions—no talking allowed!
• The team with the most correct guesses wins.

Get ready to belt out some tunes with virtual karaoke jam! Team members take turns singing their favorite songs in an online karaoke session. For extra fun, you can even vote on the best performance, though it’s really all about letting loose and having a laugh.

It’s a great way to inject some fun and energy into a virtual meeting and maybe even discover a few hidden vocal talents on the team.

How to play:

• Each person picks a song and sings it in an online karaoke session.
• Optional: Vote for the best performance.
• Sit back, sing along, and enjoy the musical chaos!

Browse more team-building activity ideas to keep your virtual meetings lively and engaging.

Get ready to sweat, strategize, and laugh together. The Obstacle Course Challenge throws your team into a physical adventure filled with ropes, walls, and adrenaline. But it's not just about conquering obstacles; it's about conquering them together. You'll shout encouragement, lend a hand, and celebrate each victory as a united front. Through the sweat and cheers, you'll find yourselves communicating better, trusting more, and learning that each member's strength boosts the whole team. It's teamwork, it's a workout, and it's a whole lot of unforgettable fun.

Instructions

• Nominate a team leader for organized coordination.
• Familiarize teams with the course layout and safety rules.
• Teammates support each other to conquer physical challenges.
• Offer encouraging words and provide guidance during tough spots.
• End the challenge with a triumphant team cheer to boost morale.

How to play Mock commercials

This activity is the opposite of a quick office game. It requires some time and preparation, but is worth it! Have employees choose a product or service and then create a commercial to sell it. You’ll need a space for everyone to act in, plus recording devices and a way for everyone to watch. Some companies add another layer of complexity by using two bowls.

Each bowl has several slips of paper with a word written on it. In one bowl is the style of commercials, such as humorous, scary, or emotional. In the other bowl is an object, such as soda or a copy machine. Have each group pick one paper from each bowl and base their commercial on that. So, you might have one group that creates a scary commercial about a copy machine. Doing it this way necessitates more creativity and often leads to a lot of laughs.

How well do your team really know each other? Team Trivia is a fun and simple game that will put your employee’s relationships to the test.

Great for: Interpersonal bonding

Duration: 10 minutes

Players: 6+

You’ll need: Nothing

How to play Team Trivia

Setup: Before you can play Team Trivia, you need to compile interesting facts about your employees. The easiest way to do this is to send out a survey designed to extract as many cool facts as possible.

To play: Team Trivia can be played online or in person, making it a great solution for remote teams. Bring your team together and start asking questions to your team. These can be things that they might already know, like, “Who is the tallest member of the team?” Or things they will need to guess at, like, “Who in the office has eight siblings?” The player with the most correct answers is the winner!

How to play Don’t answer that

Fun and laughter are guaranteed with Don’t Answer That. A verbal exercise this time, all participants have to do is stand in a circle asking each other questions! As you’d expect, though, there’s a caveat…

You don’t answer the questions directed at you.

The person standing to your left does it instead. For example, imagine that James asks you, “What’s the most embarrassing moment of your life so far?” You’d have to stay silent while Jeanette – the person to your left – claims it was when you got drunk at the last Christmas party and told the CEO you loved her.

The idea isn’t necessarily to be truthful (although it isn’t a rule that you can’t be!). The goal is simply to have a good time, make people laugh, and lift the mood.

How to play Jump over the imaginary ball

This is a warm-up game for many theater groups. It involves leaping over an imaginary ball. Everyone should stand in a circle and the leader will throw “the ball” to a participant. They jump over it and pretend that it rolls to another person for them to jump over. The game goes until everyone has had a chance to jump.

How to play Human Hungry Hippos

Do you remember the game Hungry Hungry Hippos from childhood? Bring the game to life with this super physical challenge. You’re guaranteed to get some laughs after even the longest meetings. The concept is simple: you recreate the classic game using your own bodies, skateboards, laundry baskets, and plastic balls. You can have 3 or 4 people go against each other every round.

To start, one person lays on their stomach on a skateboard, and another participant holds their feet in order to steer. The laying-down player should hold a laundry basket upside down, ready to snatch the balls. The leader should dump a basket of small plastic balls onto the floor to start the game. From there, each pair of players scrambles to grab as many balls as they can with their basket. The pair with the most balls at the end wins. This game is best suited for people who don’t mind getting physical and aren’t afraid of looking silly.

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As well as being a good energizing activity for large groups, Your North is a great exercise for sparking conversation about the importance of team alignment and direction. Even better, it’s also simple and fun to play.

Here’s how it works:

1. Ask the group to stand up, leaving plenty of space between them (everyone should be able to put their arms out to the side without touching anyone or anything)
2. Show the team where north is (this could really be north if you have a compass on your phone, but feel free to make it up otherwise!)
3. Tell everyone to cover their eyes with their left hand and spin around 10 times, keeping their eyes covered the whole time
4. When they’re done, ask everyone to stretch out their arm and point toward where they believe north is now (their eyes should still be shut)
5. The team can then open their eyes to see the many different directions in which people are pointing

How to play:

Create a set of cards with safety-related images or terms and their corresponding definitions or explanations. Lay the cards face down and have employees take turns flipping two cards to find matches. The player with the most matches wins.

A safety memory match game is a fun and engaging way to reinforce safety concepts and terminology. It improves memory and recall while adding a playful element to learning. A simple game that can be enjoyed by everyone, making it a great addition to training sessions.

Championship showdown lets you stretch out the fun with a long-term tournament. Whether it’s chess, trivia, or something quirky like a fitness challenge, teams compete over time until one winner emerges.

It’s like office bragging rights, but official. And hey, it’s a great way to keep everyone invested while getting some friendly competition going.

How to play:

• Pick a game or challenge (chess, trivia, anything really).
• Set up a bracket for teams or individuals.
• Whoever makes it to the top wins and gets the glory!

For more fun team-building activities that bring out a little healthy competition, take a look at our full guide.

Soccer was the first team sport to be introduced to the Olympic games in 1900, so in the spirit of teamwork, it’s a great game to integrate into your Office Olympics.

How to play Office soccer

You can use desks, or even chairs set apart from one another, to serve as the goal.

If you’re pressed for space, you can play Desk Top Soccer. Find a tabletop with enough length to set up two goals and crumple some paper to create a soccer ball.

This event allows coworkers to team up and play a friendly match of office soccer, promoting play and teamwork.

How to play Who did it?

This game is helpful for learning about what your colleagues do outside of work. To begin with, everyone should get a piece of paper and pen, and write down one interesting thing they’ve done. Then, all the notes are placed in a container, and a facilitator pulls them out one at a time and reads them alive. Everyone else in the room should guess who the individual was who completed that activity. For example, if one prompt is “skydiving”, then everyone would guess who among them was most likely to have done that. The more creative people get, the better!