Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Keep your team moving with healthy hustle challenge! Teams work together on daily wellness goals—whether it’s step counts, hydration, or stretching breaks—and track their progress in a shared spreadsheet. It's a fun way to keep each other accountable and celebrate small wins.

This challenge is a great motivator to stay healthy while working remotely, with a little team spirit and friendly competition sprinkled in.

How to play:

• Set daily wellness goals (e.g., steps, hydration, or workouts).
• Teams track their progress in a shared spreadsheet.
• Celebrate the team with the best overall progress at the end!

Discover more fun team-building ideas to keep your team energized and engaged in our full guide.

How to host Departmental meet and greets

Do you have different departments that tend to work in silos? In this case it can be a smart idea to organize happy hours where everyone can meet and mingle. You can go as far as assigning tables with mixed groups, or just encourage people to network more organically. A cross-departmental meet and greet is a simple and intuitive way to chat and get to know each other.

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 Case study problem solving

Many consulting firms and other businesses include small case studies as part of their interview process. You can do the same by having a single small group (or even smaller pairings) consider a particular problem and come up with a solution. This can be something a bit silly, like “How would you survive if you were stranded on a desert island?” but it’s more effective if the issue is centered on your real work.

For example, if sales of a certain product line are lagging, have the team discuss strategies for what they would do to fix it. It’s a good way of getting everyone’s brains channeling the right energy before digging into more complex work.

How to play Yes, and collaboration

This game is all about collaboration and building on each other's ideas. One person starts with a statement, and the other person must say "yes, and" then add to it. You can begin with a fun statement or something related to your work or team. Many people use this form of game for improv exercises where the comments pertain to made-up events.

Focus your teams into an agile mindset with a game of Iteration Auction. The game moves quickly and helps employees to prioritize, negotiate, and adapt quickly, which are all core staples of agile methodology.

Set up:

Give each player a set amount of “iteration dollars” to spend on actions (tasks, improvements or project features) on a shared board. These actions will apply to a basic project you give them, such as delivering a product to a certain market. Assign each action a cost based on its complexity or value (how much you think it will help their project). Let them bid, apply the action and review after each round, letting them bid again in the second round. These are the “project updates.” By bidding on tasks, team members are getting used to weighing impact and urgency in iterations, much like in real agile sprints.

Our final minute-to-win-it cup game is a hilarious way to round off the list. It also takes a steady hand and a surprising amount of patience! You’ll need a few rolls of toilet paper, some cups and refillable water. Here’s how to play:

Set-up:

1. Prepare your contestants: Each player should be given 1 roll of toilet tissue. At the end of a long table, place one cup per contestant. Fill the cups up (it shouldn’t be too heavy, as the paper will rip). Under the filled cups, place the end of the toilet tissue roll, and let the toilet tissue unravel all the way to the other end of the table.

2. Wind the cup towards you: On your mark, each player then carefully rerolls the toilet tissue, slowly dragging the filled cup toward them. Things can get really fun when a player is losing halfway through the race. They start to panic and speed up the rolling process. This often causes a bit of spillage, tearing the paper. When that happens, they need to clear up and reset their roll.

This super simple game is a barrel of laughs, so try it out with your teams today. It’ll bring team members closer together and keep everyone on a roll!

How to play Colleague feud

Like Family Feud, but with coworkers! You’ll need to do some prep for this game, as you’ll have to not only divide people into smaller teams of 4 or 5, but come up with categories. If you want to keep them work focused, try topics like “Things you find in your office breakroom”. Keep points for each correct answer given and then announce a winner at the end.

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.

Discover even more fun team-building activities in our complete guide.

Next up is the game of “taboo”, a hilarious office game that is challenging and has the means necessary to improve the entire teams communication and creativity skills.

How to play:

1. Divide into teams and choose a team leader.
2. The leader selects a card and tries to get their team to guess the word on the card without using any of the taboo words listed.
3. The team earns a point for each correct guess.
4. Rotate leaders and continue until each team member has had a turn.
5. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Playing Taboo in the office is a great way to foster collaboration and promote out-of-the-box thinking, while enjoying a few laughs and a break from the daily grind. Just be sure to keep the office-appropriate words flowing – we don't want any HR incidents on our watch!

How to play Resource scramble

In this game, teams will have the opportunity to practice some critical thinking and problem solving skills (as well as collaboration). Put people into groups of no more than 8, and give everyone a basket of simple supplies. For example, markers, paper clips, glue, and clay - things you have around the office are fine. Provide each team with a problem and have them use their set of resources to solve it.

Obviously this game works better if the resources could actually be applied to the problem, so you might want to suggest something like “Design a new logo” or “build a prototype of a new seasonal product”. Ideally, the group will come up with a few solutions and decide on their favorite, but they may only produce one if everyone is in agreement and timing is tight.

This indoor game is super simple yet strangely addictive. Played in small teams, you stand at a distance and take turns tossing rings at a pole on the ground. If the ring slots successfully over the top, then your team gets a point! Whoever has the most points after a certain number of attempts, wins.

Want to make things more interesting? You could have multiple targets spread across the office, with some that are closer/easier and others that are further away. You can purchase actual ring toss equipment, but it isn’t essential! Frisbees (or anything else you have that’s ring-like) and empty water bottles work just as well.

Squirt gun water races are an exciting alternative to traditional water fights. To play, you’ll need plastic cups (one per team of two people), string, scissors, duct tape, and enough squirt guns for every second person in the group (i.e., 10 people will need at least 5 squirt guns).

How to play Squirt Gun Water Races

Set up for the game by:

• Making a small hole at the bottom of each cup, close to the edge
• Threading a long line of string (e.g., 15 feet long) through each cup
• Use duct tape to suspend the string between two fixed points that are slightly closer together than the length of the string (e.g., a tree and fence about 12 feet away from each other). The cups should be facing the same direction

Play the game by:

• Dividing into pairs and blindfolding one member of each
• Giving the blindfolded members a squirt gun
• Ensuring the cup starts at the end of the string, closest to the teams
• Pitting pairs against each other to see who can squirt water into their cup fastest, pushing it to the other end of the string

The first pair to get their cup to the other end wins. Of course, only one member can see what’s happening! The sighted person must communicate effectively to guide their partner in the right direction.

Squirt gun water races are unique, exciting, and awesome for team-building. Yet another benefit is that they’re accessible to everyone. Unlike other Field Day games for adults that involve physical activity, you only need the ability to fire a water gun!

Ever had the fantasy of basking in the glory of a well-deserved standing ovation? Well, guess what – you're about to live it! In this activity, team members take turns stepping into the limelight, imagining they've just knocked it out of the park and achieved something monumental. Remember that celebrating success is not just reserved for the grand finale – it's an integral part of the journey. This activity cultivates a positive and supportive atmosphere motivating participants to conquer their goals.

Tips For Facilitators:

• Remind everyone that this is a space to celebrate successes and lift each other up. High-fives and virtual confetti are totally encouraged!
• Encourage participants to share their achievements. The more specific, the better!

How to play Gratitude Hot Seat

A gratitude hot seat is an exercise where employees express gratitude or appreciation for something or someone in the workplace.

In this exercise, one person sits in the "hot seat" and shares what they are grateful for or appreciative of at work, which can be anything from a relationship with a coworker to a successful project outcome. Other participants in the group are encouraged to listen as well as offer acknowledgment.

How to play Brain teaser challenge

Test everyone’s problem-solving skills with some fun riddles. Put together a list of brain teasers for everyone to take a crack at. This is a great activity to take a team approach to. Break everyone up into small groups and share the list of questions with a time limit. Highest score wins!

Get ready to get soaked! Splash battle royale is basically dodgeball, but with water balloons. Teams face off and try to eliminate opponents by hitting them with balloons—easy enough, but staying dry? Not so much.

It’s a great way to cool off, get competitive, and share a few laughs—especially when that one overly serious teammate gets soaked. Perfect for those hot summer days when the office needs a little outdoor chaos.

How to play:

• Split into teams and arm everyone with water balloons.
• Eliminate opponents by hitting them with balloons.
• Last team standing wins (and stays the driest—maybe)!

If you’re planning more outdoor activities, explore our full list of fun team-building games for even more ideas.

How to play Tug of War Challenge

Instructions: Divide participants into two teams and provide a long rope. Each team holds onto one end of the rope and pulls in opposite directions. The team that successfully pulls the other team over a designated line wins.

Materials needed: Rope.

Tug of War encourages teamwork, communication, and friendly competition. It promotes unity, camaraderie, and creates a sense of strength and determination among team members.

How to play Most difficult prospect

Every sales person has come across a prospect that is full of objections and generally makes their job harder. The better that people are able to deal with such individuals, the more effective they will be at a sales job. Sort people into pairs and have them act out a sales meeting, with one of them playing the role of a difficult prospect. That individual should impersonate the toughest prospect they have come in contact with, rolling out all the usual objections and talking points, while the other person tries to overcome them and answer questions. Then, bring everyone back together for a discussion about how the conversations went. Everyone will have something to learn about how to deal with their next challenging sales meeting.

How to play Remote FM

Remote FM is a nice recurring theme for the remote office. Employees take it in turns to host the company radio. This can be done by creating a playlist in Spotify and sharing the link in the team chat.

How to play Coffee run

For this game it’s ideal to play on a surface that’s easy to clean or outside. Each team splits in two groups and races against each other relay style, tagging in the next team member to run to the finish line. Sounds easy enough, but where the challenge comes in is each team has a full cup of coffee that they need to run with.

The coffee run is a perfect combination of physical exercise and coordination skills, just make sure you don’t play where you’re not ready to spill some coffee.

Pipeline doesn’t just foster trust between colleagues. It’s also an awesome way to cultivate collaboration, communication, and listening skills.

How to play Pipeline

Here’s the basic idea:

Each team member has a small half-pipe with which they have to transport a small ball/marble between point A and point B, without letting it hit the floor.

Each person rolls the ball along their pipe and onto the next person’s, before running to the end of the line so they can take the ball again when it arrives there! This continues until they deposit the ball into a basket at the end of the course.

If they drop it, though, they start over.

Of course, the more people on each team, the easier it becomes, and vice versa. Try to spice things up by adding a time limit and offering prizes to the victor. You could also put obstacles in the way to make the task harder!

Another advantage of Pipeline is that you can play it anywhere. Indoors or outdoors, confined to one room or spread across many, it’s your choice. However, the bigger the space, the trickier the task.

What you need:

• Small sections of half-pipe
• Small balls (marbles or ping pong balls)

How to play One-word story

Storytelling exercises help people to overcome shyness and work on their articulation skills. In this game, a group of people takes turns saying one word to create a story. Start in a circle and move clockwise or counter-clockwise. Many times this exercise starts with “Once upon a time” and goes from there. The final players should say “the end”.

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.