Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Rev up your office adventure with the Desk Dash Dash, a high-energy escapade through the corridors of cubicles and the realms of workstations. Teams must maneuver through a maze of office furniture, execute synchronized chair spins, and complete paperclip toss challenges. The twist? Team members can only use office supplies to communicate and navigate. The rush is on, and the winner takes the title of the ultimate Desk Dash Dash champion!

Instructions

• Form teams with a mix of skills.
• Create a course with obstacles through the office space.
• Teams navigate the course, completing challenges at each station.
• Use only office supplies for communication during the challenge.
• The first team to complete the course wins.

This activity tests the strength of every link in the chain. In paperclip chain relay, teams compete to craft the longest paperclip chain within a time limit.

‍Set up:

1. Split everyone into teams of 4 to 6. Enough brains to brainstorm, but not too many cooks to spoil the broth.
2. Hand out equal piles of paper clips to each team. Ready, set, clip!
3. Decide on a time limit. 5 to 10 minutes should do the trick. Start your timer and keep it viewable.
4. Roam the room and cheer teams on as they make the longest chain possible. When time’s up, measure each chain to find the longest.

Minefield is a fun energization game that improves communication and listening skills. All you need is an open space and a bunch of soft-edged objects.

Great for: Listening skills, communication, energization

Duration: 10–15 minutes

You’ll need: Various soft objects like balloons, foam blocks, plastic cups, etc.

How to play:

• Divide your group into teams of about 4–5 players and blindfold one player from each team.
• Spread out your soft-edged objects throughout the space.
• Ask the teams to stand at one end of the room.
• When you shout “Go!” the blindfolded player must make their way to the other side of the room without touching any of the objects on the floor. The players without blindfolds are allowed to give verbal commands to the blindfolded player. They are NOT allowed to touch or guide the blindfolded player in any way.
• The team to reach the other side of the room first without touching any of the objects wins. If a team touches an object, they must return to the start.

Another classic game, the javelin toss, was played alongside the discus. It would be impossible to throw a javelin in the office unless you have extraordinarily high ceilings or none at all.

How to play Pencil toss

Use what you have in the office and grab some pencils to create a miniature version of the javelin.

Like rubber band archery, mark a point where you will throw the pencil. Since the pencil will not stick to the ground, you can establish who has thrown it farthest by marking off the point with tape. Alternatively, the game can use a trash can or open container, and see which team can make the most accurate shots.

As you know, strong communication is one of the hallmarks of effective teams. It facilitates problem-solving, prevents conflict, and fuels innovation, among a slew of other benefits.

If you’re looking for a way to teach the value of it via video call, then give Unseen Drawing a go at your next virtual meeting! Sometimes called “back-to-back drawing”, this awesome trust-building exercise encourages colleagues to work together and think about how they communicate.

How to play Unseen drawing

In the usual variation of this game, you’d divide your team into pairs and ask them to sit back-to-back. You’d then give a pen and paper to one member of each pair and an obscure photo/image/drawing to the other.

From there, whoever has the image must describe what they’re looking at (and/or give verbal instructions) so the person with the paper can draw it.

To complicate matters, the “artist” can’t talk! They simply have to listen to their partner and do their best to recreate the image.

When doing this task as a virtual team, you explain the task as a group, assign the roles of “talker” and “artist”, then break off into separate video calls – with each pair on their own call. For efficiency, you could send emails in advance to set the duos, assign roles, and pass on the images for them to describe.

Each pair has about 10 minutes to complete the task, before swapping roles.

Having completed the game, you hop back onto the group call where everyone compares images and discusses the experience.

What did they learn about the importance of clear communication? What problems arise when they’re vague and imprecise? How could they implement those lessons in their daily work lives?

What you need:

• Images/photos for people to draw
• Pens and paper for each pair

Setting clear goals involves defining your objectives with precision, making them more achievable. The SMART criteria are a useful framework for goal-setting:

• Specific: Clearly define what you want to accomplish.
• Measurable: Establish concrete criteria for measuring your progress. This might involve quantifiable metrics or milestones.
• Achievable: Ensure that your goals are realistic and attainable.
• Relevant: Align your goals with your overall objectives and values
• Time-Bound: Set a timeframe for achieving your goal.

Instead of a wishy-washy goal like "be better at work," let's get as specific as a project deadline. Say something like "we will increase project efficiency by 20% in the next three months by focusing on XYZ "

SMART Activity:

Introduction (15 minutes):

• Explain SMART goals and its components in simple terms.
• Stress the importance of clear and realistic goal-setting.

Examples and Discussion (20 minutes):

• Provide examples of SMART and non-SMART goals.
• Engage in a discussion on why goals meet or fail to meet SMART criteria.

Breakout Session (30 minutes):

• Divide participants into small groups.
• Assign each group a broad goal (e.g., "improve productivity," "enhance communication").
• Instruct groups to break down the goal into specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound components.

Group Presentations (20 minutes):

• Each group presents their SMART goals.
• Encourage constructive feedback and group discussion.

Reflection and Adjustment (15 minutes):

• Facilitate a reflection session.
• Participants share insights and challenges.
• Discuss adjustments to make current goals SMART.

Individual Goal Setting (20 minutes):

• Participants set a personal or professional SMART goal.
• Provide guidance and support as needed.

In this classic family game, players compete by listing down words that start with the same letter. Make a sales-training version where you can hone more business development skills. You’ll need a letter spinning wheel, pens, and paper.

Here are the instructions to play:

1. Make a table with products in a row and characteristics in one column. Some good characteristic ideas include product features, benefits, and disadvantages.
2. Have several players spin the wheel and then mention products or services that start with the selected letter.
3. Give players a few minutes to fill in the categories.
4. Host a discussion about the importance of product features in closing a sale.

Ever seen superheroes team up? That's what collaboration feels like—bringing unique skills to the table, solving problems faster and having each other's backs. Another fantastic way to build relationships within the team.

Collaboration activity - Puzzle challenge:

• Provide each team with a jigsaw puzzle of similar complexity.
• Divide colleagues into small groups and give each group a puzzle.
• Instruct teams to work together to solve their puzzle within a specified time frame.
• After completion, have teams present their finished puzzles and share their collaborative strategies.
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This hands-on activity emphasizes the value of teamwork, communication and problem-solving in achieving shared goals.

How to play Paper Plane Contest

Instructions: Each participant creates their own paper airplane using a standard sheet of paper. Measure the distance or time each plane stays in the air. The person with the longest distance or longest airtime wins.

Materials needed: Sheets of paper.

Prepare to fold, fly, and fiercely compete in the epic Paper Plane Contest. It's a creative extravaganza that will take your team back to childhood dreams of aeronautical glory. Bring your finest folding skills, unleash your inner innovator, and get ready to soar to victory in this friendly battle of airborne awesomeness.

For this game, you need a large space to accommodate everyone.

Here is what to do:

1. Have all players get together and form a circle.
2. Choose a random item within your reach and give each player up to 60 seconds to pitch to other participants.
3. Have everyone focus on the notable features and try not to repeat a sellable attribute that another participant mentions.
4. Any player who cannot remember a feature within 60 seconds leaves the game.
5. The last standing player is the winner.

Get ready for a storytelling showdown, emoji-style! Each participant receives a handful of those tiny expressive symbols, and their mission, should they choose to accept it, is to concoct a tale or spill the beans on a personal experience using these digital hieroglyphics. It's like writing a story, but with smiley faces and thumbs up emojis stealing the spotlight!

Emoji storytelling is an exercise in creativity and interpretation. It's like decoding a secret language. As the stories unfold, the hilarious attempts at translating emojis into real-life adventures begin. It's a light-hearted, laughter-inducing journey into the world of shared imagination.

Instructions:

1. Grab your personalized emoji set - it's time to flex those creative muscles.
2. Cook up a short tale or spill the beans on a memorable experience.
3. Present your emoji masterpiece to the eager crowd.
4. Witness the guessing chaos unfold, crown the emoji storytelling champion, and bask in the glory of a well-told tale.

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How to play Custom Word Search

Word searches are common fun for people of all ages, but they can really help with word-play. A word search is perfect if you want to use a handout with a group. You can also play via teleconference using a whiteboard feature. Research some options online to come up with a personalized word search with words that apply to your business or industry.

We all fall on hard times. But victimising ourselves and dwelling on the negatives can lead us to overlook growth opportunities. Silver Linings alters perspectives of apparent failures and misfortunes.

Great for: Mindset development, positivity

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 6+

You’ll need: Nothing

How to play Silver Linings

Setup: Divide your group into pairs. You might wish to pair employees together who don’t often have the opportunity to interact.

To play: The first partner starts by sharing a negative experience. This could be something from their personal or professional life, as long as it’s true. Upon hearing the experience, the second partner attempts to reframe the story in a positive light. Then, the first partner retells their story, highlighting silver linings they may have missed the first time around. The players then switch roles and start again.

Tight-knit teams need to understand how their colleagues like to work. Who likes to work in silence and who likes to exchange ideas? Who likes to take phone calls and who prefers emails? By creating Personal User Manuals, new and existing employees gain a deeper understanding of their peer’s workplace preferences.

Great for: Onboarding, company culture

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 4-15

You’ll need: Nothing

How to play Personal User Manuals

Setup: No setup required.

To play: Ask your employees to record a short video of themselves that can be used as a Personal User Manual. In the video, the employee should introduce themselves, tell an interesting fact and discuss their workplace preferences. Once everybody has recorded a video, you can upload them to your company intranet or knowledge hub.

How to play Trivia Time!

Instructions: Prepare a set of trivia questions about the company's history, products, or famous employees. Divide participants into teams and ask questions. The team with the most correct answers wins.

Materials needed: Trivia questions, answer sheets.

Get ready for Office Trivia, the brain-boggling showdown that proves knowledge is power and a hilarious conversation starter. It's a crash course in camaraderie, where teammates unite to celebrate their shared team culture and flex their mental muscles. Prepare to be enlightened, dazzled, and maybe even shocked by your team's epic achievements.

How to play Value vs. feature

Knowing the difference between a feature and a benefit is essential, especially for more complex offerings like technology or industrial supplies. To begin with, everyone will need to review a document or a matrix that lists features as well as the benefits associated with each (obviously this is something you’ll need to prepare in advance if you don’t already have something like this created). Then, bring your group together for a virtual meeting and run through the different features or benefits. Pick them randomly so there’s no pattern.

After you share one, participants should chime in with whether that was a feature or a benefit. Finally, host a discussion about how easy or difficult the process was, and how people can better differentiate in the future.

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!

This game is simple, yet so effective for online teams. This activity encourages employees to put time aside for getting to know one another.

How to play Mister rogers calls

Using a randomiser, pair two employees together every week. The new pair must schedule a 20-30 minute call that week to try and get to know one another as well as possible.

At the end of the month, a host can test their knowledge by asking questions like, ‘Do they have any pets?” One point for each correct answer! The colleague with the most points wins a prize!

Building forts inside the office might sound juvenile. And it is! But that’s the point. Fort building is fun, silly, and creative – a perfect antidote to the usual stress and responsibility associated with work.

For this game, get everyone to bring things like bed sheets, cardboard boxes, and string to the office. Then divide the group into teams and give them a 30-minute time limit to construct the best possible fort! Each group then presents what they’ve built for you – the judge – to decide who won.

How to play Mirror game

Two people stand across from each other and mirror each other's movements, trying to stay in sync.

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Pinball plays on the vulnerability people feel when they’re blindfolded to improve relationships among colleagues. After all, when your sight’s taken away, you have no choice but to rely on others for guidance!

This powerful trust-building exercise takes that concept and turns it into a game.

How to play Pinball

However, unlike the actual pinball machines that you find in old-school arcades, the “pinball” in this scenario is one of your employees…

Wearing a blindfold, they stand in the middle of a circle formed by the rest of the team, getting pushed gently from one person to the other. Whenever they reach someone at the edge of the circle, that individual spins them around and nudges them back across to the other side.

It might sound easy, but the combination of being dizzy and blind puts you in a bizarre and helpless position. It forces you to trust your teammates – to put your fate in their hands. This naturally makes you feel closer to them.

There’s no time limit on this activity. It ends whenever everyone has had a go at being blindfolded!

What you need:

• A blindfold

How to play:

Write down various safety-related terms (e.g., "fire drill," "first aid kit," "slippery floor") on slips of paper and place them in a container. Divide employees into teams, and have them take turns drawing a term and illustrating it on a whiteboard while their team guesses.

This quick team-building game combines creativity with learning, making it an enjoyable way to reinforce safety concepts. It breaks up the monotony of regular training sessions, and the abstract drawings often lead to plenty of laughs.

How to play Pretty windy

This game is fun because it’s so active and engaging, it makes for a lot of laughs! To play, you’ll need balloons and plastic cups. The goal is to blow plastic cups over using only air from an inflated balloon. You can start by lining up 5 or 10 plastic cups on an empty table. Then give each player a balloon. Everyone has one minute to blow up their balloon and then release the air from the balloon to knock the cups over or off the table. Whoever has knocked over the most cups in one minute wins.

How to play Red ball game

A group of people pass around an imaginary red ball and must come up with a story about where it has been. You can change the color of the ball or even the imaginary object, the point is to mix up the start and stop of the story and get creative.

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