You've probably guessed what this game is about based on its name, but guessing an emotion can be trickier than you think. Practicing your ability to read people’s feelings can pay off in the long run, especially when it comes to reading the room at company meetings and asking the right questions if something feels off regarding an employee's emotional state.
You've probably guessed what this game is about based on its name, but guessing an emotion can be trickier than you think. Practicing your ability to read people’s feelings can pay off in the long run, especially when it comes to reading the room at company meetings and asking the right questions if something feels off regarding an employee's emotional state.
Your team is split into two groups and draws a card from a deck with emotions written on each card. One team chooses someone to have the lead role and act out an emotion while the whole group tries to guess whether or not they're angry, sad, happy, etc.
If a team correctly guesses the emotion, they win ten points. The groups can rotate like this through as many emotions as possible, or at least until each team member gets the chance to act.
Materials you’ll need: A deck of cards with emotions written on them.
How many people: Small to mid-sized teams (8-16 people)
5-minute energizers don’t get much better than this one. Got Your Finger is fun, fast-paced, suitable for groups of all sizes, and sure to lift the mood. Oh, and it requires no prior planning or preparation either.
5-minute energizers don’t get much better than this one. Got Your Finger is fun, fast-paced, suitable for groups of all sizes, and sure to lift the mood. Oh, and it requires no prior planning or preparation either.
Ask the team to stand in a circle, close together, and face inward. Next, tell each participant to stick their right hand out with their palms facing the ceiling. They then have to put their left index finger on the open palm of whoever’s standing to their left.
Now the fun can start! When you shout “Go”, each participant must try to close their hand around their partner’s finger before they escape. It’s multi-tasking at its finest – trying to stop the colleague to your left from catching your finger, while simultaneously trying to grab whoever’s on the right.
Provide each team member with a journal or notebook and encourage them to engage in creative journaling. They can write, draw, or use any form of artistic expression to capture their thoughts, ideas, and reflections.
Provide each team member with a journal or notebook and encourage them to engage in creative journaling. They can write, draw, or use any form of artistic expression to capture their thoughts, ideas, and reflections.
Materials needed: Journals or notebooks, art supplies (optional)
Benefits:
This game is simple, yet so effective for online teams. This activity encourages employees to put time aside for getting to know one another.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.
This game is simple, yet so effective for online teams. This activity encourages employees to put time aside for getting to know one another.
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!
This game is a bit random but great fun. Each player takes a turn thinking of a specific ‘thing’.The other players must then figure out what that ‘thing’ is by asking comparative questions like, “Is it more like… or…?” Traditionally, the first question is always, “Is it more like a tree, or Bob Ross?” Play continues with similar comparative questions until the guessing team has successfully identified the ‘thing’.
This game is a bit random but great fun. Each player takes a turn thinking of a specific ‘thing’.
The other players must then figure out what that ‘thing’ is by asking comparative questions like, “Is it more like… or…?” Traditionally, the first question is always, “Is it more like a tree, or Bob Ross?” Play continues with similar comparative questions until the guessing team has successfully identified the ‘thing’.
Kanban is a Japanese word literally meaning “visual card.” It is one kind of agile methodology first developed by Toyota, and in this system, teams use visual cues to keep all tasks flowing in a process. One of the best ways to make an agile game with this system is by creating a simulated pizzeria.
Kanban is a Japanese word literally meaning “visual card.” It is one kind of agile methodology first developed by Toyota, and in this system, teams use visual cues to keep all tasks flowing in a process. One of the best ways to make an agile game with this system is by creating a simulated pizzeria. Let’s break it down:
Create a pizzeria with stations for each pizza-making step (e.g., dough rolling, cheese sprinkling, baking), represented by sticky notes as orders move through. Your teams will iterate with each order to speed up every round. Improving each round and redesigning how many workers are at each station makes great practice for agile methodology.
Another game that’s best for outside! If you have ever seen YouTube videos of dropping a mint into a soda bottle, then you know that a large explosion happens. This is a fun little experiment that you can make into a game by seeing who can reach the explosion first. You may also want to name a winner for the highest-reaching eruption too.
Another game that’s best for outside! If you have ever seen YouTube videos of dropping a mint into a soda bottle, then you know that a large explosion happens. This is a fun little experiment that you can make into a game by seeing who can reach the explosion first. You may also want to name a winner for the highest-reaching eruption too.
Don’t let daily drudgery drain your big dreams. As a leader, you can help encourage your entire team to keep sight of those bigger life goals. Start your next event or meeting by asking everyone to share one of the items from their bucket list, with a brief explanation of why. You can encourage dialogue by asking if they think they’ll ever accomplish that goal, or how they might go about it. This is a great way to learn about what the people you work with really value and what matters to them outside of work.
Don’t let daily drudgery drain your big dreams. As a leader, you can help encourage your entire team to keep sight of those bigger life goals. Start your next event or meeting by asking everyone to share one of the items from their bucket list, with a brief explanation of why. You can encourage dialogue by asking if they think they’ll ever accomplish that goal, or how they might go about it. This is a great way to learn about what the people you work with really value and what matters to them outside of work.
You may have played Word Association to pass the time on long journies. Well, funnily enough, it also works brilliantly as a quick team-building game!
You may have played Word Association to pass the time on long journies. Well, funnily enough, it also works brilliantly as a quick team-building game!
Great for: Quick thinking, communication
Duration: 5 minutes
Players: 4+
You’ll need: Nothing
Setup: Position your group in a circle facing inwards. Players can be sitting or standing.
To play: To start the game, somebody starts with a one-word prompt. Then, play moves around the circle as each player replies with a word they strongly associate with the previous word. For example, if player one starts with the word “tree,” player two might say “leaves” and player three might follow up with “autumn.” Play moves around the circle until the time runs out.
Get ready to wield your balloon-bashing skills in the exhilarating Balloon Sword Fight challenge! As your teams gear up for friendly combat, the atmosphere will be filled with excitement and laughter. Inspired by the fast-paced action of sword fights, this game replaces steel with balloons, turning your colleagues into balloon-busting warriors. It's not just about popping balloons; it's about teamwork, strategy, and the art of joyful competition.
Get ready to wield your balloon-bashing skills in the exhilarating Balloon Sword Fight challenge! As your teams gear up for friendly combat, the atmosphere will be filled with excitement and laughter. Inspired by the fast-paced action of sword fights, this game replaces steel with balloons, turning your colleagues into balloon-busting warriors. It's not just about popping balloons; it's about teamwork, strategy, and the art of joyful competition.
Our penultimate improv game for virtual teams is far more relevant to professional settings – especially if you work in sales!With a potent combination of improvisation and sales training, your team should end the call feeling more confident in their ability to sell, more comfortable speaking in front of a group, and more bonded with their colleagues.
Our penultimate improv game for virtual teams is far more relevant to professional settings – especially if you work in sales!
With a potent combination of improvisation and sales training, your team should end the call feeling more confident in their ability to sell, more comfortable speaking in front of a group, and more bonded with their colleagues.
To play Sell It to Me, teammates take turns trying to sell the group a random item on their desk (or that’s in the vicinity). The twist is that they don’t get to choose what they’re selling! Their colleagues do – by looking at the items they can see (on the screen) in the person’s room and deciding from there.
Once the participant’s been told what they’re selling, they get 30 seconds to prepare a pitch. They then have another 60 seconds to persuade their teammates to buy that item! When their time’s up, everyone else rates the pitch’s quality from 1 (needs work) to 10 (world-class). Whoever has the highest score at the end gets a prize!
Want a slight variation of this activity?
Consider calling for a sales pitch in between other parts of the meeting. It becomes a less structured exercise, but it adds an element of surprise – keeping everyone on their toes and making the meeting more interesting.
Whichever approach you take, try keeping the atmosphere light and jovial. The point isn’t to highlight your employees’ sales skills! It’s to have fun, make each other laugh, and work together to come up with successful sales pitches.
Teams work together to create a time capsule that captures the personality and vibe of your office. Each department adds a fun item, memory, or note that reflects their unique style.In this hybrid version, in-office workers can physically contribute items, like quirky gadgets, notes, or office mementos, while remote workers can submit their contributions digitally, like a fun video, a favorite meme, or a virtual memory of a great team moment. The digital items can be printed or stored on a USB drive to be included in the capsule. Once everything is ready, the capsule is sealed up and stored away to be opened in the future. It’s a fun way to bond and celebrate the unique quirks of both in-office and remote team members, all in one cool time capsule.
Explanation:
Teams work together to create a time capsule that captures the personality and vibe of your office. Each department adds a fun item, memory, or note that reflects their unique style.
In this hybrid version, in-office workers can physically contribute items, like quirky gadgets, notes, or office mementos, while remote workers can submit their contributions digitally, like a fun video, a favorite meme, or a virtual memory of a great team moment. The digital items can be printed or stored on a USB drive to be included in the capsule. Once everything is ready, the capsule is sealed up and stored away to be opened in the future. It’s a fun way to bond and celebrate the unique quirks of both in-office and remote team members, all in one cool time capsule.
Want to discover new things about your workmates or challenge them to do silly stuff? Truth or Dare is a classic question game where you take turns choosing between a “truth” and a “dare.” If you pick the former, you have to answer a personal question from one of your colleagues – no matter how embarrassing it might be! Opt for the latter, and you have to do something embarrassing, awkward, or otherwise unenjoyable. As you can imagine, the truths and dares you’d do with close friends are likely to differ from what’s appropriate in the workplace! We suggest you keep the game “PG” when you’re with workmates – avoiding questions or dares that might make people too uncomfortable.
Want to discover new things about your workmates or challenge them to do silly stuff? Truth or Dare is a classic question game where you take turns choosing between a “truth” and a “dare.”
If you pick the former, you have to answer a personal question from one of your colleagues – no matter how embarrassing it might be! Opt for the latter, and you have to do something embarrassing, awkward, or otherwise unenjoyable.
As you can imagine, the truths and dares you’d do with close friends are likely to differ from what’s appropriate in the workplace! We suggest you keep the game “PG” when you’re with workmates – avoiding questions or dares that might make people too uncomfortable.
Potential “truths”:
Potential “dares”:
Test your team’s spelling skills with a spell-off showdown! Contestants take turns spelling increasingly difficult words until someone slips up. It’s like a mini virtual spelling bee, but with more laughs and less pressure.This game is great for keeping the brain sharp and having fun at the same time—especially when you realize nobody remembers how to spell "mnemonic."
Test your team’s spelling skills with a spell-off showdown! Contestants take turns spelling increasingly difficult words until someone slips up. It’s like a mini virtual spelling bee, but with more laughs and less pressure.
This game is great for keeping the brain sharp and having fun at the same time—especially when you realize nobody remembers how to spell "mnemonic."
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.
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.
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:
Sitting in a circle, players take turns whispering a question into the ear of the person on their right – the answer to which is someone else playing the game. Whoever’s asked the question then points at whoever they believe is the answer. For example, you might ask, “who is the best-looking person in the group?” to Alice, who might point at James across the room. But poor James doesn’t know what the question was! Hence the name, Paranoia. The only way for James to find out is to accept a dare/forfeit. If he’s unwilling to do so, then it becomes Alice’s turn to whisper a question to whoever’s next to her. A word of caution: Paranoia’s a fun and unique question game, but it isn’t without tension! We recommend you only play if everyone on the team is close friends.
Sitting in a circle, players take turns whispering a question into the ear of the person on their right – the answer to which is someone else playing the game. Whoever’s asked the question then points at whoever they believe is the answer.
For example, you might ask, “who is the best-looking person in the group?” to Alice, who might point at James across the room. But poor James doesn’t know what the question was! Hence the name, Paranoia. The only way for James to find out is to accept a dare/forfeit. If he’s unwilling to do so, then it becomes Alice’s turn to whisper a question to whoever’s next to her.
A word of caution: Paranoia’s a fun and unique question game, but it isn’t without tension! We recommend you only play if everyone on the team is close friends.
Gift wrapping is a true talent! See who on your team has this skill by tasking everyone with wrapping gifts in under a minute. You can either have several packages ready and see who gets the most wrapped, or pick containers that will be especially difficult to wrap and see how far each player gets in one minute. You might be surprised how difficult this can be. Remember that for this one everyone will need their own scissors, tape, wrapping paper, and area to spread out.
Gift wrapping is a true talent! See who on your team has this skill by tasking everyone with wrapping gifts in under a minute. You can either have several packages ready and see who gets the most wrapped, or pick containers that will be especially difficult to wrap and see how far each player gets in one minute. You might be surprised how difficult this can be. Remember that for this one everyone will need their own scissors, tape, wrapping paper, and area to spread out.
“Yes, Let’s” is a classic improv game that’s taken straight out of drama class. We like it for a host of reasons! However, one of its main draws in the context of boosting collaboration is that it involves everyone who is present.Unlike other activities of this nature, the focus is never on a single person – which is ideal for anyone who doesn’t like being the center of attention.
“Yes, Let’s” is a classic improv game that’s taken straight out of drama class. We like it for a host of reasons! However, one of its main draws in the context of boosting collaboration is that it involves everyone who is present.
Unlike other activities of this nature, the focus is never on a single person – which is ideal for anyone who doesn’t like being the center of attention.
In a large open space, ask everyone present to start walking around the room. Next, shout out a suggestion for something the group should do.
For example, you could yell, “let’s go swimming in an ice-cold lake”, “let’s ski down this mountain”, or “let’s crawl on our bellies through this minefield.” It can be anything you want, but the game works best when it involves movement.
Whatever you suggest, the group has to respond enthusiastically by yelling back, “yes, let’s!” Everyone then does the action in question, moving around the room “swimming”, “skiing”, or “crawling”. After a while, someone else shouts out another action (“let’s cook a feast for our Viking guests”), and the process repeats.
Hilarity ensues as colleagues look around at their teammates doing all manner of crazy movements and mimes! Expect to energize the room, laugh until your belly hurts, and remember the joy of playing.
Furthermore, you’ll reaffirm a key element of collaboration: that there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Creative problem-solving demands a culture of acceptance, where people feel confident about raising their hand to offer a suggestion. “Yes, Let’s” normalizes unexpected ideas, rewards engagement, and stops people from feeling self-conscious. You’re sure to reap the rewards in the office.
How well do your staff know each other? This activity has players use their observation skills to guess who owns each office desk based solely on its contents.
How well do your staff know each other? This activity has players use their observation skills to guess who owns each office desk based solely on its contents. Here’s how you go about it:
Imagine a workplace activity that draws inspiration from the intense suspense of "Squid Game" while honing active listening skills. That's "Green Light, Red Light" – a thrilling and enlightening game that can elevate your workplace communication.
Imagine a workplace activity that draws inspiration from the intense suspense of "Squid Game" while honing active listening skills. That's "Green Light, Red Light" – a thrilling and enlightening game that can elevate your workplace communication.
Learning about your coworker's wants and dreams outside of the office is a great way of building stronger, lasting relationships.
Learning about your coworker's wants and dreams outside of the office is a great way of building stronger, lasting relationships.
Great for: Interpersonal bonding
Duration: 5 minutes
Players: 4+
You’ll need: Nothing
Setup: Ask your group to sit together in a circle, on chairs or on the floor.
To play: One by one, players tell five items from their bucket list to the rest of the group. This gives employees vital insight into the aspirations of their coworkers.
Ever helped a buddy with moving house? Offering help is like that—showing you've got each other's backs and creating a vibe of togetherness. Offer assistance activity - "Helping hands": Create a designated area, either physically or digitally, where colleagues can post requests for assistance or offer help with specific tasks or projects. Participants can write down their requests or offers on sticky notes or digital platforms. Encourage colleagues to browse the requests and offers and connect with each other to provide assistance or collaborate. Regularly update and promote the exchange to ensure ongoing engagement and support within the team. Helping Hands fosters a culture of mutual aid, teamwork and resource sharing. All the perfect ingredients to boost working relationships!
Ever helped a buddy with moving house? Offering help is like that—showing you've got each other's backs and creating a vibe of togetherness.
Offer assistance activity - "Helping hands":
Helping Hands fosters a culture of mutual aid, teamwork and resource sharing. All the perfect ingredients to boost working relationships!
Relay Sack Race encourages teamwork, coordination, and builds camaraderie among team members. It adds an element of fun and nostalgia to the picnic while providing an opportunity for participants to cheer on their teammates.
Instructions: Divide participants into teams. Each team stands in a line, and the first player in each team gets inside a sack. On "go," they hop to a designated point and back, then pass the sack to the next teammate. The team that finishes first wins.
Materials needed: Sacks or large bags.
Relay Sack Race encourages teamwork, coordination, and builds camaraderie among team members. It adds an element of fun and nostalgia to the picnic while providing an opportunity for participants to cheer on their teammates.
Here’s another awesome energizer for small groups that enables co-workers to have fun and get to know each other at the same time.
Here’s another awesome energizer for small groups that enables co-workers to have fun and get to know each other at the same time.
To play, you’ll need to find a sturdy chair for each employee and put them all in a single line. Next, ask everyone to stand on one, facing the same direction. From there, the group must reposition themselves in order of age (or height, or some other metric of your choice) – swapping places without touching the ground.
It goes without saying, but make sure a) your office chairs are sturdy enough to hold people safely and b) everyone is physically capable of doing the task! If there’s any risk of harm, or if somebody may feel left out if they’re unable to play, consider skipping this energizer for something else on this list.