Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Explanation:

‍Teams take creative photos that capture the spirit and quirks of the office, like the breakroom plant or that one messy desk. The goal is to create a fun photo journal that showcases the character of the workplace.

For this hybrid setup, in-office workers can snap photos of the office environment—those little things that make the space unique. Meanwhile, remote workers can take photos of their home office setups or capture quirky things around their workspace. All the photos are combined into a digital photo journal that showcases both the in-office and remote workspaces, reflecting everyone’s unique style and creativity. It’s a laid-back way to celebrate both environments and have fun seeing what makes each workspace special.

Where Do You Stand? Is a simple energizing game that’s perfect for large groups and easy to set up. All you need is an open space and a handful of ‘this or that’ questions.

Great for: Energization, session icebreaker

Duration: 10–15 minutes

You’ll need: Cones to divide the room

How to play:

• Divide the room in half with a line of small cones and then ask your group to stand more or less along the line.
• Ask a ‘this or that’ question to the group such as “pizza or pasta?” and assign an answer to each side of the room. For example, if a player wants to answer “pizza”, they need to run to the left side of the room.
• Keep the energy up by asking questions in quick succession. The idea is to get your group moving and acting impulsively.
• By the end of the game, your employees will know a little bit more about their colleagues’ preferences.

How to play Drama-freeze

Best for small groups, this option can be really interesting. You start with pairs of two and a supervisor. The first team will act out a spontaneous scene without discussing it beforehand. While they do so, the supervisor of the game calls out “freeze” (any time they want). At that time the acting team must remain still. Then the next team of two begins and will start upon the supervisor saying “action”. They need to come up with a scene entirely different from the one from the pair before them. This will go on until each team gets a turn to act and freeze.

How to play:

Write down various safety scenarios on slips of paper (e.g., "using a fire extinguisher," "performing CPR") and place them in a hat. Divide employees into teams and have them take turns drawing a slip and acting out the scenario without speaking, while their team guesses what it is.

Safety charades showdown adds a playful twist to learning important safety procedures. It encourages teamwork and creativity while reinforcing vital safety knowledge. Watching coworkers try to mime "emergency exit plan" is always entertaining.

How to play Six thinking hats

If you want your team to focus on coming up with more creative solutions, this activity can help. You’ll need to organize people into groups of no more than 10, and have several different color paper hats. Each hat represents a different perspective. Here are some sample colors and what they correlate to:

• White: Facts and information
• Red: Emotions and feelings
• Black: Critical analysis
• Yellow: Benefits and positives
• Green: Creativity and alternatives
• Blue: Big picture thinking

Give each group a problem to solve and tell them to approach the issue from their unique “hat” perspective. Using these different philosophies, the group should come up with a solution that works for everyone and takes all of these positions into account. You can have a debrief where everyone discusses the process and what they found most challenging. If you have time, you can always add a second or even third round where people switch their hats and approach a new issue from a different perspective. This is also a great exercise for managers to observe closely. It’s a great way of seeing how people think and where their strengths lie.

How to play “MacGyver” challenge

MacGyver is an older television program where the hero escaped sticky situations by improvising tools made of unlikely materials. You can recreate this set-up in your event space or office. To play, challenge participants to use 3-5 items to reach a desired end result. For example, something like “a way to pick the door lock” or “escape vehicle” are fun options. You can either set out some various equipment, or have people collect their own based on what they can find around the office. Note: if you are doing this in a conference room or other rented space, it makes sense to have a table set up with random odds and ends for people to pick from.