Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Your employees will work in teams to build the most durable boat using nothing but cardboard, sticky tape and their creativity. Whose will travel the furthest before it sinks?

Great for: Teamwork, creative thinking

Duration: 1–2 hours

You’ll need: Cardboard, tape, table tennis rackets

How to play:

• Find a suitable location to perform the boat races, i.e. a pond or swimming pool.
• Divide your group into teams of about 5–6 players, then give each team some sheets of cardboard and a few rolls of tape.
• Set a time limit for the build. Once the time is up, ask each team to present their creations and explain why theirs is best.
• Finally, ask each team to delegate a captain (it’s best to choose somebody small and light).
• Hand each captain a pair of table tennis rackets (this will help them to propel their vessel) and ask them to take their boats to the water’s edge.
• When the starting pistol fires, the captains will scramble into their vessels and paddle as fast as they can while their teammates cheer them on. The team to paddle the furthest wins.

How to play Sack Races

Hunting for more classic Field Day games for adults and want something suitable for groups of any size? You can’t beat a sack race. Channel your inner child, climb into a hessian sack, and hop, skip, and waddle as fast as you can to the finish line – racing your teammates every awkward step of the way!

Sack races work great in relay races, too.

You could do an entire relay sack race, where the hessian sacks replace ordinary batons. In this case, participants would hop down a track to the next teammate along, who’d then take the sack and climb into it before hopping as fast as possible to whoever’s next. The first team to hop across the finish line wins. Alternatively, you can incorporate the sack race into one leg of a relay!

And, of course, climbing into sacks and hopping a set distance would also make an effective obstacle in your obstacle course.

Explanation:

‍Teams are given a random office item and must come up with a full marketing campaign and product launch strategy for it within one hour. It’s fast-paced, creative, and hilarious as teams scramble to sell everyday objects as the next big thing.

In the hybrid version, both remote and in-office teams are handed the same random office item, like a stapler or sticky notes, and they must collaborate to create a complete product launch strategy. Remote workers can handle the digital aspects, like designing an online ad or social media campaign, while in-office workers take on in-person tasks like creating a mock product display or filming a funny promo video.

At the end, each team presents their campaign virtually, showcasing how they turned something ordinary into the next office must-have.

It’s a great way to get everyone thinking on their feet, no matter where they are.

How to play Ranking race

Thinking critically - and quickly - is a highly coveted skill in the professional world. This game calls for creating a ranking system, which is a natural way of thinking through information and categorizing it. It’s a really versatile exercise since no materials and very little prep time are required. Start by getting people into groups of no more than 10. Then, set a timer and give each group a list of items to rank, such as the best local restaurants or top movies of the year.

Task each group with coming up with their own ranking system. When the timer goes off, everyone should present their final rankings. They can describe to the group how they came up with their ranking system and why the items are weighted the way that they are. Have teams make notes if they find a certain ranking system particularly helpful - maybe that’s a matrix that more people can use in the workplace going forward.

Ah, the classic game of Never have I ever. A staple at college parties and now...the office? Yes, that's right. This game can actually be a great team-building activity in the workplace.

How to play:

1. Gather a group of players and sit in a circle.
2. Each player takes turns stating something they have never done.
3. Anyone who has done that thing must take a forefit or lose a point.
4. The game continues with each player taking turns sharing something they’ve never done.
5. The winner is the last player left with points.
   

Now, you may be thinking, Why would we play a drinking game at work? Fear not, my friend. You can swap the drinks for something a bit more appropriate, like standing on one leg or raising both arms. It's a fun way to get to know your colleagues better and find out about their interesting experiences. Plus, it can help break down barriers and foster a more relaxed work environment. Just make sure you keep it professional and stick to appropriate topics. Cheers to that!

Most likely everyone is familiar with the old game Pictionary. This activity puts a spin on the traditional game, focusing on adaptability and quick-thinking. Adaptability is highly important in agile practices, with most teams needing to respond to changes while mid-task. This game helps with that, so here’s how to set it up:

Set up:

Get everyone into pairs or small groups, with one person from each group starting out as the “artist.” The artist draws a prompt that you give them, such as “team goal” or “product feature.” Halfway through, introduce a new element to what they need to draw, like “user feedback” or “project roadblock.” They need to adjust the drawing on the fly, while everybody else throws out their guesses.

It’s time for a verbal showdown. In debate duel, two players go head-to-head, debating opposite sides of a topic. The audience votes on the winner based on persuasion, humor, or pure passion.

This game gets the conversation flowing and lets people flex their public speaking and persuasion muscles. Whether it’s serious or silly topics, debate duels are a great way to sharpen communication skills while having a few laughs. Plus, it’s the perfect opportunity to settle those ongoing office debates once and for all!

How to play:

• Select two participants to debate opposing sides of a topic.
• The audience listens and votes for the most convincing debater.
• The person with the most votes wins!

One-word check-in is a quick activity that helps gauge the mood and mindset of all team members. It’s ideal as a warm-up or to start a meeting with a pulse check.

Set up:

In a circle, ask each team member to describe their current feeling, focus, or attitude in just one single word. They might give you positive input like motivated or focused, but they might let you know how tired and overwhelmed they feel, so it’s important to listen closely. Once everyone has spoken, look for recurring themes and reflect on those as a group.

How to play Where I'm from

‘Where I’m From’ is a fantastic no-prep game that enables team members to get to know each other better. With smaller teams, ask one person to begin by sharing three quirky facts about their hometown. For globally remote teams, home countries might work better.

Everyone has the chance to guess the speaker’s hometown or country from the three guesses, with a point awarded to any correct guess. The results might surprise you, as you find out your favorite musician comes from a land far, far away.

How to play Pick The Plot

This is an easy activity that doesn’t require much, so it makes a nice addition to any team event. Start with a moderator that will narrate the plot of a movie. Players that are grouped into teams will listen and then try to guess which movie is being described. Just try to keep it a movie that’s safe for work!

How to play Desk set makeover

Surely you can only do this with everyone in the office, right? Well, not necessarily!

To involve remote employees, they can take photos or videos of their home workspaces and submit them for a virtual desk makeover challenge. In-office employees can redesign each other’s desks, while remote participants can provide feedback, suggest ideas, or make digital mood boards for their teammates’ workspaces. The final makeovers—whether physical in the office or digital enhancements for remote setups—can be shared in a virtual gallery for everyone to vote on.

How to host Book exchange

Make everyone a bit smarter while they quench their thirst. Request that at your next happy hour, you bring a book to share. Ask people to bring their favorite book, or to choose the professional development book that’s been most helpful. Everyone should share a bit about what makes that particular book so special. At the end of the event, people can borrow the books available or just remember the title so they can find it on their own later on. This is a great way to learn more about your colleagues and learn some new things at the same time.

How to play Toss and Catch

Instructions: Pair up participants and provide them with a soft object, such as a beanbag or foam ball. Partners stand a few feet apart and toss the object back and forth, gradually increasing the distance. The pair that tosses the farthest without dropping the object wins.

Materials needed: Soft objects (beanbags, foam balls).

Toss and Catch is a simple and inclusive game that promotes hand-eye coordination, focus, and teamwork. It encourages friendly competition, provides an opportunity for participants to connect on a personal level, and adds an element of fun and physical activity to the picnic.

Ready for a question game with communication at its core? Quick, fun, and energizing, Question Game ticks all the right boxes. Here’s how it works:

Working in pairs, players must bounce rapid-fire questions back and forth for as long as possible. If someone hesitates for too long, says something nonsensical, or makes a statement instead of asking a question, they lose!

Here’s what it might sound like:

• “What’s your biggest fear?””
• “Isn’t that too personal for work?”
• “Are you dodging my question?”
• “What do you think?”
• “Why won’t you tell me what you’re scared of?”
• “Why don’t you just guess what my biggest fear is?”
• “Is it spiders?”
• “Does that mean you don’t like spiders?”
• “Are you turning the question on me?”

Another way to play the Question Game is in a group, where everyone takes turns asking the next question in the sequence. If they mess up, they get eliminated! The winner is the last person standing.

Thank you notes in the workplace are an easy and accessible way to express gratitude and appreciation. Showing gratitude is one of the best ways to voice recognition and build positive relationships with colleagues and leadership.

Here are some areas in which thank-you notes can boost morale and positive relationships in the workplace:

1. Post-job interview. After an interview is a great time to send a thank you note to express your appreciation for the opportunity to join a company, especially if it's a role you're excited about. Expressing thanks shows that you are open and communicative, which is an excellent sign that a potential employee is collaborative.
2. Teamwork. Make sure to say thanks when a team member or coworker provides support or collaborates effectively, send them a thank you note to acknowledge their efforts or take them out to lunch.
3. Recognition and thanks from leadership. When leaders in the workplace express gratitude, this can have lasting effects on productivity and the continuation of a positive work environment.
4. Random acts of kindness. Consider giving a coworker who you are close to a small gift to show your appreciation for them, especially if they have helped you professionally. Giving thanks or a small present to show appreciation will strengthen professional and personal bonds.
5. Express thanks to customers and clients. While gratitude in the workspace is vital to a healthy work-life balance, appreciation for your clients or customers helps build trust and a good reputation overall for your organization.

Expressing gratitude in the workplace shows appreciation, helps build positive relationships, and can contribute to a more harmonious and productive work environment.

Ever tried to untangle a group of adults? Now’s your chance. In human knots, everyone stands in a circle, crosses hands, and grabs someone else's hand to create a “human knot.” The goal? Work together to untangle without letting go.

It’s the perfect mix of awkward handshakes and creative problem-solving, making it an ideal icebreaker. You’ll quickly see who’s a natural leader, who’s patient, and who might need to work on their spatial awareness! This is a great way to bring your team together while sharing a few laughs—perfect for loosening up those office vibes.

How to play:

• Form a circle and hold hands with different people.
• Work together to untangle without releasing hands.
• Team wins when the knot is fully untangled.

Instructions:

1. Divide players into teams.
2. Provide each team with a set of materials such as blocks, cards, straws, cups, and tape.
3. Set a time limit of 10-15 minutes for the teams to build the tallest tower.
4. Ensure that each team follows the same rules and uses the same materials.
5. Once the time is up, measure the height of each tower and declare the winner.
6. Discuss the strategies used by each team and how they could improve in future rounds.
7. Repeat the game with different materials or variations to continue challenging the players' leadership skills.
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This game unleashes potential leaders' creativity, teamwork, and strategic thinking. Just like a tower, leadership requires a solid foundation, balance, and the ability to reach new heights. It challenges leaders to allocate resources efficiently, communicate effectively, and inspire their team to elevate their performance.

How to play Bad idea parade

In this activity, teams are tasked with coming up with the worst possible solutions to a business problem. Whether it’s “replace all employees with robots” or “sell ice cream in the middle of winter,” the goal is to think outside the box in the worst possible way. This activity allows people to bond through humor while also getting them to think creatively about real solutions. Reverse engineering these bad ideas often leads to practical and effective ones.

This is a fun twist on the traditional brainstorming session because it encourages people to loosen up and not be afraid of making mistakes. By focusing on what not to do, participants are more willing to take risks, which often leads to the discovery of innovative ideas.

How to play Panty Hose Game

Have you ever heard of “Minute to Win It” games? They’re exactly what they sound like! 60-second games that are over before you know it.

You can play for longer if you wish, but the idea is to keep things fast-paced and free-flowing. They’re ideal games for warming up, setting the tone for the day, or for whenever you want a quick-fire activity to fill a gap (or be part of another one – such as in a relay race or obstacle course).

Anyway, this Panty Hose Game is one example of a minute-to-win-it game that always goes down well. Here’s how to play:

• Lay rows of 5+ water bottles on the ground, with one row for each person/team
• Give everyone playing a small ball (e.g., a baseball) and some pantyhose
• Tell them to shove the ball into the foot of one pantyhose leg
• Tell them to pull the top of the pantyhose over their head, so the ball dangles at the other end like a strange antenna
• Their task is to move up the line of bottles, swinging the ball (no hands allowed!) to knocking each one over as quickly as possible
• The first person/team to knock their bottles over wins

Office FM is an ongoing team-building activity that boosts morale and encourages employees to collaborate.

Great for: Company culture

Duration: N/A

You’ll need: Access to a music streaming service (Apple Music, Spotify, etc.)

How to organise:

• Create a collaborative playlist and invite everybody as a contributor. If you like, you can create a theme such as “90s Party Classics”.
• Ask each employee to contribute a maximum of two songs to the playlist.
• Hit “play” on the playlist whenever a morale boost is needed!

This indoor team-building game involves together to write a story on a sheet of paper. The catch? You do it one line at a time, taking turns to contribute a sentence before folding over the sheet (just enough to cover the line) so the next person can’t see what you wrote.

You continue in this fashion until everyone has added a sentence! Whoever goes last then unfolds the paper and reads the story aloud. Not only is the game fun to play, but the random (and often amusing!) nature of the story demonstrates how valuable clear communication is in a team environment.

Torpedo is a fun activity that involves some players being partially “blind.” It works best with teams of more than 5 members, and there’s a slight amount of coordination needed without members being able to see, so make sure you’re using an open, clear area free from any dangerous hazards.

Set up:

Form two or more teams. Each team lines up, one behind the other, and each person puts their hands on the person’s shoulders in front of them. Everyone needs to close their eyes, apart from the member at the front and the person at the back. Slowly, everyone steps forward, and the back person guides the “torpedo” by tapping the left or right shoulder of the person in front, to turn. The objective is to hit another “torpedo” while maintaining coordination, which makes this a great exercise in clear signaling and trust.

How to play Team story weaving

Start with a random sentence, and each person in the group adds one more, crafting an unpredictable and often hilarious story. The key here is to embrace the absurdity and let creativity flow without overthinking it (or without using any materials!). As the story moves around the room, everyone gets a chance to contribute, which often leads to surprising twists, unexpected endings, and lots of laughter. It’s a great way to loosen up the atmosphere and let everyone feel comfortable being a little silly, which can lead to more open communication down the line.

This is perfect for breaking down communication barriers and showing off everyone’s quirky sense of humor. It’s especially great for larger groups, as it gives everyone a chance to participate, without putting too much pressure on any one person. The beauty of this game is that no one knows where the story will end up, and sometimes it goes in directions no one could’ve predicted!

In this physical activity, there will be a facilitator instructing the larger team. You’ll also need ample space so make sure you are in a location that can accommodate a large group moving around. Have the facilitator start by instructing people to do some simple, engaging activities. For instance, they could start by saying “stand up”. Then, the facilitator says “stop” and then the instruction is flipped to its opposite. So, if they say “stand”, that really means “sit”. If they originally had said “walk”, that would now mean “stand still”.

As you can imagine, this leads to pure chaos and a lot of laughter. This is helpful for getting more physical but also in encouraging people to communicate better throughout the day.