Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

Ready, set, puzzle! In puzzle dash, teams race against the clock to complete a jigsaw puzzle or brain teaser. The fastest team to finish wins, promoting problem-solving, quick thinking, and a bit of healthy competition.

This group teambuilding game is perfect for sharpening your team’s focus, collaboration, and time management skills. Whether it’s a jigsaw or a tricky brain teaser, puzzle dash brings out the best in quick thinking under pressure—all while having some fun.

How to play:

• Divide into teams and give each team a puzzle or brain teaser (e.g., a 100-piece jigsaw or a Sudoku challenge).
• Set a time limit and race to complete it as quickly as possible.
• The team that finishes first (or makes the most progress) wins!

How to play Who am I? Game

One person writes a name on a piece of paper and sticks it on another person's forehead. They must ask yes or no questions to figure out who they are. If you have ever played the game 20 questions (or the fun iPhone game of Heads Up) then you’re familiar with the premise.

How to play:

Host a fashion show where employees model various types of personal protective equipment (PPE). Have participants walk the runway and explain the purpose of each piece of equipment. Judges can score the presentations, and winners receive prizes.

A PPE fashion show catwalk adds a fun and creative twist to learning about essential safety gear. It helps employees become more familiar with the equipment they should be using and encourages them to take PPE seriously. Watching coworkers strut their stuff is always hilarious

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How to play:

Create bingo cards with different safety-related actions or reminders in each square (e.g., "wore safety goggles," "reported a hazard"). Distribute these cards to employees and encourage them to mark off squares as they observe these actions throughout the day. The first person to get a bingo wins a small prize.

Safety bingo blitz makes safety awareness engaging. It's like regular bingo but with a twist that reinforces good safety practices. Everyone loves a good game of bingo, and it's a great way to keep everyone alert and involved in maintaining a safe work environment.

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How to play Blind square-build

This is a fun, problem-solving game that’s often used in business environments to support teamwork and critical thinking. To begin, tie a long piece of rope into a circle. Let attendees know that their job is to turn the circle into a square - while blindfolded. Break the session up into two, 15-minute sessions. In the first session, they can plot and plan but must not touch the rope. In the second session, they can work together moving the rope. This game is simple and effective and has materials that are easy to come across and cheap to buy.

How to play Finding Bonds

Try an identity game that will help players to find common bonds. Everyone takes a turn making “I am a…” statement. Some examples could be “I am a mother” or “I am a runner” or “I am an amateur chef”. Other players who identify with that statement should move to stand near the person speaking. To begin the game, players should be spread out across the room, and move toward speakers as they identify with statements shared.

Explanation:

‍Teams create a movie poster that represents their remote work experience using an online design tool like Canva. The poster can be as funny, creative, or wild as the team wants.

For the hybrid version, remote workers and in-office teams collaborate to create a movie poster that captures the essence of remote or hybrid work life. Everyone can contribute ideas through online brainstorming, and both remote and in-office team members use design tools like Canva to put it all together. Maybe it’s a comedy about juggling work and life or an action-packed poster showcasing the chaos of virtual meetings. It’s a fun, collaborative way for employees to show off their creativity and storytelling skills.

How tall can you go? In spaghetti towers, teams use dry spaghetti and marshmallows to build the tallest structure possible within a set time limit. It’s a challenge of creativity, problem-solving, and a little bit of engineering.

This game encourages teamwork, planning, and resourcefulness, as teams work together to build a stable tower. Plus, it’s hilarious to see which towers soar and which ones collapse in a heap of spaghetti and marshmallows!

How to play:

• Split into teams and give each team dry spaghetti and marshmallows.
• Teams must build the tallest tower possible within the time limit.
• The tallest (and most stable) tower wins!

How to play Pantry pop quiz

A piggyback off of the desktop exercise, learn about your colleagues favorite foods with this challenge. Have each person send a photo of the inside of their fridge or pantry and then show them during the meeting and have everyone guess who each picture belongs to. For example, many people will think it’s obvious that the bachelor in the group has only ketchup and beer in the fridge. This is a fun peek into the lifestyle of the people you work with.

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Time to test your team's agility with relay rampage! Teams compete in an obstacle course, with each member racing to complete a section before passing the baton. It’s part speed, part strategy, and all fun.

Expect a lot of cheering, and probably a few stumbles, but that’s what makes it hilarious. This is perfect activity for building energy and teamwork with a side of competition.

How to play:

• Set up an obstacle course with different sections.
• Each team member completes their section before tagging the next.
• First team to finish the entire course wins!

You might be surprised how many workforces enjoy a game of chess!

How to play online chess club

Creating an online chess club is easy and free. Schedule regular games throughout the year and reward the winner with a small prize like a voucher or cash bonus - monetary rewards are a great incentive for driving online social interaction.

How to play Watermelon Eating Contest

Instructions: Provide each participant with a slice of watermelon. The objective is to eat the watermelon slice as quickly as possible without using hands. The first person to finish their slice wins.

Materials needed: Watermelon slices.

The Watermelon Eating Contest is a fun and delicious game that promotes friendly competition and brings out the laughter. It adds a lighthearted and entertaining element to the picnic while allowing team members to bond over a shared experience.

This simple game tests your historical knowledge and is a great way to spark conversation outside the office. While organizing a company retreat that emphasizes relaxation, this game is a great way to get people talking.

How to play:

‍Hand out several coins, around five max, to each person. Go around in the group and have them start with one currency and tell a personal story that was meaningful for them.

If they are the only person with that experience, they can place the coin in the center of the table. If another team member shares a similar experience, they must put theirs.

The game is played until someone gets rid of all their coins.

Materials you’ll need A handful of pennies or equivalent coins in whatever currency you use. Just make sure the currency is recent (not older than 20 years old)

How many people: Small to mid-sized teams (8 to 16 people)

How to play:

Divide the team into pairs or small groups and provide them with a random scenario or prompt. The teams must improvise a skit or scene based on the given negative scenario, using their creativity and spontaneity to deal with the issue

For example; the scenario could be “Child screaming in a supermarket”. Teams have 30 seconds to act out deal with their scenario

Materials needed: None

Benefits:

• Quick-thinking superheroes: Tap into your team's mental agility as they come up with witty lines and hilarious improvisations on the spot. It's like a comedy club where your team's creativity takes center stage.
• Teamwork with a twist: Collaborate with your scene partners and build upon each other's ideas, creating a seamless and entertaining performance. It's like a theatrical ensemble where the final act is a testament to your collective genius.

How to play:

Organize a scavenger hunt where employees search for potential hazards in the workplace. Provide a checklist of items to find, such as trip hazards, improper storage, or blocked exits. Once found, employees report them to a supervisor or safety officer.

This game turns safety into an interactive challenge, encouraging employees to be more observant and proactive about identifying risks. It's like playing detective with the reward being a safer workplace. Who doesn’t enjoy a bit of healthy competition?

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.

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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How to play Solving a riddle

If you don’t have time for an entire case study resolution, start simpler: a riddle. Check our article with plenty of riddles that don’t take a lot of time to solve. You might want to make it a little contest, and begin by sharing the riddle and seeing which team can solve it first. Need some inspiration? This one is from the classic book, the Hobbit: “This thing all things devours; Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town; Beats the high mountain down. What is it?” The answer is time!

Costume races are fast-paced, hilarious, and ideal for both small and large groups.

To give them a try, you’ll need:

• A briefcase for each team
• Enough old/used clothes for each member of the team to get fully dressed, such as hats, dresses, shirts, skirts, pants, and jackets.

You then fill each briefcase with clothes and mark a track with a start and finish line. Next, put the briefcases at the end and line up the teams (each should have the same number of people, if possible) at the start.

When the whistle blows, one person in each team races to the briefcase opposite them and gets fully dressed as quickly as possible, pulling the clothes over the top of whatever they’re already wearing. They then rush back to the start in their costume, at which point the second person in their team has a turn.

The first team where everyone is dressed in a costume and back at the start line wins! However, if you want to make this game even more memorable, design it so each briefcase follows a certain theme. You could have one team dressing up as pirates, for example, another as famous Disney characters, and so on.

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How to play Balloon stomp

For this game, you’ll need tons of balloons in two different colors. You need to be outside or in a large space, and divide your large group into two smaller groups and assign them each a color. Set a timer for one or two minutes, and the goal of the game is for each team to pop all the balloons of their own color - without accidentally hitting the other color. At the end of the game, the team who popped most of their own color balloons wins.

How to play Human snake

In this highly effective team-building game, players can focus on the value of trust and collaboration. The game requires people to follow the lead of the first player in a line to manage obstacles. This will require a large space that you can manipulate. Then come up with obstacles like books, chairs, or folded paper that you place on the floor. Have participants stand in a straight line to begin, and cover the eyes of everyone except the first player with a blindfold. The first player will walk through the space while other players follow in a line. The first person should help to guide everyone to avoid the obstacles and work as a team. If everyone successfully makes it to the end without stepping on any obstacle, the team wins!

Test mathematical agility and strategic thinking! In 21, participants take turns adding 1, 2, or 3 to a running count, with the goal of avoiding reaching the number 21.

Instructions on how to play:

1. Participants sit in a circle.
2. The first person starts with a count of 1, 2, or 3.
3. The next person adds 1, 2, or 3 to the count.
4. Continue in order, with each person adding to the count.
5. The person who reaches the number 21 is out, and the game restarts.

Why it's a great team building game:

• Mathematical agility: Challenges participants to think strategically and make calculated choices.
• Team dynamics: Promotes a sense of competition and camaraderie as participants strategize together.
• Quick thinking: Enhances cognitive skills as individuals make decisions on the fly.

Top tip to help the game run smoothly: Keep the pace quick to maintain engagement. Encourage participants to strategize together subtly and have fun with the challenge. After each round, discuss strategies and celebrate successes.

Explanation:

‍Teams compete to create the funniest or most relatable memes about remote work life using online meme generators. Afterwards, everyone votes on the best one.

In the hybrid version, both remote and in-office teams get together to create the most hilarious or relatable meme about their work experience. Using online meme generators, each team collaborates to capture the ups and downs of remote work life—whether it’s Wi-Fi issues, Zoom fatigue, or the joys of working in pyjamas. Once the memes are created, they’re shared with the whole team for a vote. After all, who doesn’t love a good meme to brighten things up?

How to play Dance-freeze

A very popular high-energy game, this one is great for students and teams. You’ll need music that you can dance to and participants that aren’t too shy about dancing. The concept is simple: everyone must dance when music is playing. When the music stops, everyone must freeze just as they were when they were in motion. Anyone who keeps dancing is out of the game and it continues until there is a single winner.