Library of teambuilding games & icebreakers

How to host Video game projection

Do you have some gamers in your crew? If so, set up a large projection screen, some comfy seating, snacks, and drinks, and let everyone go nuts. Make sure you have a variety of controllers and games available and plenty of space for everyone who is not actively playing a game at the moment. Keep things really comfortable and casual. This is a great activity for an office-takeover type of event or a fun Friday activity to close out the week.

How to play:

‍Set up a relay race course with different safety-related tasks at each station (e.g., putting on personal protective equipment, bandaging a wound, fire extinguisher drill). Divide employees into teams and have them race to complete each task as quickly as possible.

The safety relay race combines physical activity with safety training, making it a fun and dynamic way to learn. It encourages teamwork and quick thinking, all while reinforcing essential safety skills. A great way to get the blood pumping and learn.

Note: Make sure this is in an outdoor setting! We don’t want accidents whilst playing a safety-based game… Facepalm…

How to play 3-Question mingle

This is a bit like the previous game, but also a different game in its own right. For this one, every participant should write down 3 separate questions on 3 pieces of paper. The questions should be thoughtful and meant to engage in real conversation, not just things like “where do you live?”

Then, have everyone begin to mingle around the room and start to engage in discussions in pairs. People will ask their questions and get answers. The trick is, after asking a question and getting the answer, you hand over that piece of paper to the person you’ve spoken to. They’ll do the same. This way, in your next conversation, you’ll have new questions to ask your next partner. On and on the game goes until everyone has paired off or the timer that you set goes off. Many people find this is ideal for a large group of over 50 or 60 people, and is good for encouraging participation among even your quietest team members.

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”.

How to host Food drive competition or poll

There is great joy in helping the community around you, and your staff surely agrees. Invite your staff to bring in nonperishable food that counts toward a prize. You can make things really straightforward and provide small incentives for every item donated, or you can make things a little more fun. Setting up a “food pantry poll” is a fun idea that is more interactive. Create a poll about something that impacts everyone in the company, where they can share an opinion, and then have the non-perishable food items be “votes”.

So, for example, you might have a poll regarding where to hold the company holiday party. Offer a few choices, and then have people bring in canned goods toward their favorite option. Set up boxes with the choices written on them, and have people drop their items in the box. In the end, the box with the most items is the winning option. This is a fun way to make some non-critical decisions and a great way to help others.

Every team's got its hiccups, but conflict resolution is the superhero cape. It saves the day by smoothing things over and turning tense moments into learning experiences.

Conflict resolution activity - Role play resolutions:

• Develop fictional workplace scenarios involving conflicts or disagreements.
• Pair colleagues and assign each pair a scenario to role-play.
• Partners take turns assuming the roles of individuals in the conflict and work together to find constructive solutions through communication and negotiation.
• After role-playing, each pair presents their conflict and proposed resolution to the larger group.
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This interactive activity hones conflict resolution skills, encourages creative problem-solving and enhances communication strategies.

There’s nothing like a spot of mischief to bring colleagues closer together. With office makeovers, different teams within the company have the chance to “redecorate” another team’s space. From unraveling rolls of toilet paper to putting up posters of people’s favorite boy bands, the options are endless.

Set some ground rules beforehand to stop the pranks from going overboard though. The atmosphere should be light and full of laughter – not frustration at the state of your redecorated space!

How to play “I expect”

You can kick off a training session and spur engagement with this simple exercise. You’ll need a blank wall and a few colored post-it notes. Break the white board or chalkboard into 4 quadrants and label them “the training”, “the trainer”, “from myself”, and “from attendees”. Each participant should take a turn filling out 4 post-its that begin “I expect”. For example, “I expect from the training to learn how to better resolve customer conflicts.” Everyone should place their sticky notes in the appropriate quadrant. Then the moderator should go through and read them, highlighting which ones are repeated often.

How to play Review lottery

If customer service is part of your company culture, reviews are important. One fun way to incentivize more positive reviews and reward your team for great performance is by holding drawings of reviews. Every week, pick the new reviews submitted and print them - both bad and good - and then randomly draw one. If the review is positive, reward your team with a pizza lunch or other small prize. If the review is negative, share the feedback with your team and host a discussion on how to improve.

You might even add some low-stakes repercussions such as having to take out the trash or replace the water filter for non-stellar reviews. Note: this sort of contest tends to work better than simply encouraging employees to ask for reviews. In those cases, the most outgoing and charismatic staff tend to get the most reviews, not necessarily the ones who serve customers best. A random drawing rewards the entire team while still highlighting individuals that might be mentioned. Getting more positive reviews can become an important goal for everyone in the department - more positive reviews equals more chances at fun perks.

“It’s 11.30am on a midsummer’s day and your plane has just crash-landed on a remote desert island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Your task is to rank these 20 items that were salvaged from the plane in order of their importance to the survival of you and the team.”

That’d be one way to introduce the classic team and trust-building exercise called Desert Survival! A powerful way to demonstrate that teams outperform individuals and that collaboration’s key to success, this activity always goes down well.

There are three ways to play:

• With actual items that the team can hold and put in piles
• With pictures of each item or
• With items simply written down on a board or piece of paper

In any case, the team gets around 40 minutes to discuss each item, reflect on their respective pros/cons, and work together to decide what they’re going to keep. In the process, they’ll realize the:

• Need to speak up if they wish to make a point
• Problem with stubbornness in a collective environment
• Value of compromise and sacrifice in search of unity
• Gaps in their personal knowledge/reasoning that others can help fill

From a managerial perspective, the Desert Island scenario also reveals how well the team works together and how easily they find solutions to a problem. You’ll see how rapidly they approach a state of synergy – where collaboration enables them to leverage their individual strengths and become greater than the sum of their parts.

What you need:

• A selection of items to be used on a desert island (or pictures of them) – unless you choose to write them down instead.

Can you imagine a scenario where the TV is on mute and you lose the remote? Well, as horrific as this may sound, there may be some fun in this. Welcome to TV On Sound Off - an engaging activity that sharpens your active observation and interpretation skills.

How to play

1. Assemble your colleagues in a comfortable space with a TV or projector where you can watch a show or movie of your choice.
2. Turn off the sound completely, no subtitles allowed. You're going to rely solely on visual cues.
3. Start with a scene from the show or movie. Make sure it has a mix of dialogue and action.
4. Each participant takes turns guessing what the characters are saying and what's happening in the plot. Keep it concise and imaginative.
5. After everyone has had a turn, unmute the sound and compare your guesses with what actually transpired in the scene.
6. Discuss what you've learned about active observation, interpretation, and the value of non-verbal cues.

In this speedy activity, the team carry out a rapid pulse-check on recent work, honing in on the focus of continuous improvement, even when time is short. Here’s how to set this one up quickly:

Set up:

Hand every employee three sticky notes, and set a timer for one minute. Have them think about their last project or sprint period, and jot down one thing they think went well, one area for improvement, and one quick idea for moving forward. At the end of one minute, they stick their notes to your board, and you reflect on common themes or action items. Quick, simple, and to the point.

As a child, was there anything more fun than playing balloon keepy-uppy with your friends or siblings? Well, it’s time to relive those memories in the office with this simple yet entertaining team-building game!

Great for: Energising your team

Duration: 5 minutes

Players: 6+

You’ll need: Balloons in a variety of colours

How to play Keep up the Balloons

Setup: Divide your group into teams of three or more. Then, hand each team a set of coloured balloons. The number of balloons per team should be at least double the number of people in the team. For example, if team 1 has four people, they would get eight red balloons.

To play: When the referee sounds their whistle, the teams throw all their balloons into the air. The aim of the game is to keep the balloons from touching the ground for as long as possible. If any of the team’s balloons touch the ground, they are eliminated. The winners are any teams that make it to the end of the time limit without their balloons touching the floor.

Put on your thinking caps for code breakers! Teams are given a series of cryptic riddles and challenges to solve, with each solution leading to the next clue. It’s a mental race to crack the final code and declare victory.

This team-building game is perfect for testing problem-solving skills and teamwork. Plus, there’s nothing like the thrill of solving that final puzzle before the other teams.

How to play:

• Give teams a series of riddles and cryptic challenges to solve.
• Each solution leads to the next clue.
• First team to crack the final code wins!

How to play Sinking boat

This popular team-building activity involves participants imagining themselves stranded on a boat that’s sinking. You’ll need to break people into small groups and instruct them on this exercise. The objective is for the group to work together to decide who should be saved from the sinking boat based on their overall importance to the group and what they value. This encourages communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. It’s also a good way to spark discussions about teamwork and decision-making and can give everyone insight into the talents and personalities of their colleagues.

How to play Snowball fight

This activity is pretty simple and straightforward. If you live in a climate where snow is on the ground, get outside and dig in! Organize your larger group into smaller teams and have an old-fashioned snowball fight outdoors. For maximum fun, you can set up barriers or partitions in advance for people to hide behind, or set out supplies for building a “fort” for protection.

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.

Another activity utilizing an online whiteboard, the Four-Step Sketch develops scrum skills and rapid ideation as teams work together to find solutions.

Set up:

Step 1: Present a challenge (e.g., design an app dashboard). Each member sketches their own solution.

Step 2: Break into teams, share and discuss sketches in breakout rooms.

Step 3: Teams combine the best ideas into one refined design.

Step 4:Reassemble to present and explain final solutions, focusing on iterative improvement.

Scrum values are promoted when everyone comes together to share their sketch and innovate a new solution.

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Example challenges:

‍a. Design a user-friendly app dashboard‍

b. Sketch a creative marketing campaign

c. Design a remote team-building activity

d. Visualize our sprint workflow

Explanation:

‍Team members switch roles for the day—the accountant becomes the designer, the manager takes on the IT role, and everyone gets to try something totally different. It’s all about experiencing a new side of office life.

In the hybrid version, both in-office and remote employees swap roles, but the twist is they’ll shadow their swapped roles virtually if they’re in a different location. Remote workers can sit in on video calls or collaborate on shared tasks, while in-office workers can hop on a call to learn about the ins and outs of a remote teammate’s role. The key is to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, even if it’s virtually.

It’s a fun way to gain empathy for each other’s daily challenges and maybe even discover hidden talents along the way.

Archery is a classic game that also can be a little dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. Luckily, there is a way to play the game, office style, using a common stationary material: the rubber band.

How to play Rubber band archery

Instead of a bow and arrow, players use their fingers to pull back the band and shoot it at the target. Marking out a spot on the floor with packing tape, team members all shoot from the same location at the target, which can be anything that makes it evident that it was hit, like a bell or bowling pin.

This simple game needs little material and is a perfect icebreaker—a perfect in-person game for company retreats and onboarding events.

How to play:  

‍One person from the group, ideally a team leader, calls out the facts or questions that team members just asked one another. Individuals have to make teams as quickly as possible based on the call-outs, like” people with one cat” or “people who play video games.”

Individuals must quickly figure out who meets the criteria and form a team. This exercise can be repeated with as many questions as you like.

Materials you’ll need Just yourselves and some places to sit. If you have a large team, ensure enough space to play.

How many people: Small to large teams (8 to 25+ people)

How to play Rice bowl

Everyone could use more practice with chopsticks. Have players use them to transfer as much rice as possible from one bowl to another with only one hand (and their chopsticks). If you want to make things more difficult, you can use uncooked rice, which is much harder to maneuver.

How to play Posture obstacle course

If you have a space that is good for moving around, such as an open concept office, you can give this one a try. Use various furnishings or furniture to create a short obstacle course that everyone must go through in one minute. The catch? They need to balance a book on their head to ensure “proper posture”. If the book falls off they must start over. Have everyone go, one at a time, setting a minute timer for each instance.

How to play Ranking race

Thinking critically - and quickly - is a highly coveted skill in the professional world. This game calls for creating a ranking system, which is a natural way of thinking through information and categorizing it. It’s a really versatile exercise since no materials and very little prep time are required. Start by getting people into groups of no more than 10. Then, set a timer and give each group a list of items to rank, such as the best local restaurants or top movies of the year.

Task each group with coming up with their own ranking system. When the timer goes off, everyone should present their final rankings. They can describe to the group how they came up with their ranking system and why the items are weighted the way that they are. Have teams make notes if they find a certain ranking system particularly helpful - maybe that’s a matrix that more people can use in the workplace going forward.