Prepare and serve meals side-by-side with your colleagues at a nearby soup kitchen or food bank during the holidays or whenever they are accepting volunteers. You can find one close to your office using resources such as Feeding America. Through competing in a series of challenges, teams earn school supplies and bags to put together the ultimate backpack donations.
Once assembly is finished, your group sends the bags to local children in need. Try this heart-warming activity at a company holiday lunch, celebration, or annual winter retreat. Break out into groups and task each team with putting together a decorated hamper for a family in need.
This is one of the most basic ways to give back. Simply head to a hospital, school, or senior center and volunteer alongside your colleagues. This activity can help you bond with your peers as you take part in an exercise of pure empathy and compassion.
Using tools, parts, and hardware, your group will need to collaborate in order to create musical harmony. Show off your trivia knowledge in this fun game show-style competition! Split into teams and face off against other groups in five rounds of photo and trivia challenges that cover everything from pop culture to politics. This activity can be as simple as creating questions for three teams in the style of the popular TV show. But if you feel like really getting into it, Career Trend offers step-by-step instructions on how to put together a Jeopardy game for your office.
Let out your inner artist as you bond with your team over a game or two of Pictionary. Choose someone to hold the phone to their forehead, while the rest of the group gives clues without saying the word onscreen. Try to get as many right as you can! In this activity, based on the popular TV show, groups are challenged to tackle fun second tasks before time runs out. Groups will need to work together, communicate, and cheer each other on in order to be successful.
Using PowerPoint, you can easily put together your own version of this exciting game show. An article from Techwalla shares in-depth instructions on how you can customize your presentation for your group.
Take some inspiration from this always-entertaining improv show and let the laughter begin! Ask employees to write down imaginary scenes that actors can choose from — without looking — when they go up to perform.
If you and your team are looking to show off your consumer knowledge, try setting up a few different games inspired by The Price Is Right! Our Pastimes offers easy ideas on how to do just that by making use of day-old newspaper advertisements. Whether you form a group or perform a solo number, this activity is pure, energetic fun! Ask employees to choose and memorize a song ahead of time and then let them lip sync their hearts out in an epic battle between colleagues.
You can play a free online version of this popular game via MSN Games. Get it up on a big screen or projector, split your colleagues into teams, and see if you can guess the most popular answers to quirky survey questions! The below 8 activities offer team building options that are solely focused on working together and strengthening employee bonds. Provide your team with sheets of paper or canvases and art supplies for this creative group activity in which employees create a crest to represent your company.
You can choose to break out into smaller groups, or task everyone to work together on one big crest. For your next company event, why not cook the food yourself? Task each department with preparing a portion, such as appetizers, sides, and desserts, or work on the entire meal together. Head out for a group cooking class instead!
Head to a nearby studio for a dance class and get in rhythm with your colleagues! Or if you have a team member who loves to dance, ask them to put together a sequence to teach the rest of your group. Offer the chance to learn the routine, before doing a final number for other departments during a company lunch or event. The remaining participants will be responsible for guiding their colleagues through the course, using only their voices. This activity is a great way to bring your colleagues together, recharge, and find your inner Zen as a group before tackling the rest of your workday.
If your entire company or department was stranded on a desert island, what would you do? Challenge your team to determine the top 10 things they would absolutely need to survive and safely get home. Teams must cross the spider web to reach the other side without touching the string or going in the same shapes as anyone before them. The challenge gets harder as more people cross to the other side and requires everyone to remember and communicate with each other. Goal: Submerge a ballon in a bucket of water using only the supplies given.
Balloon in water is a great way to see how your team solves problems together, particularly when faced with limited resources. Each group must immerse an inflated balloon in a bucket of water for a minimum of 5 seconds. They can only use the provided materials to complete the activity. The brick goes in the bottom of the bucket of water.
Teams have a minute to strategize and flesh out their plan and only 5 minutes to do the activity. Only the provided materials can be used during the challenge. The 3 binder clips and inflated balloon given to the team cannot be altered in any way.
Before starting the activity, the team has one minute to plan and they have to plan without touching the materials. After planning, the team is given 5 minutes to execute their plan. The balloon must be fully immersed in the water before the 5 minutes is over.
The balloon must remain immersed for at least 5 seconds, and the team must notify the trainer s when they are ready to be timed.
Goal: Teams must retrieve a ping pong ball from the pipe by filling it up with water and floating the ball to the top. This game can get a little messy, so it's recommended for outside. Leaky Pipe is a highly interactive activity that requires groups to work fast and efficiently together.
You'll need water, buckets, several cups, 2 pipes with holes drilled in them, and 2 ping pong balls. To win, teams must retrieve a ping pong ball from the pipe by filling it up with water and floating the ball to the top. Participants will need to work together using the cups to carry the water from the bucket to the pipe, relay race style with cups of water to fill it.
The pipe has holes drilled in it, so they will have to plug the holes as the water gets higher. To complete the challenge, each team will receive a bucket of water which is placed 10 metres away from the pipe and several cups.
Remember to set a countdown, so they are racing against the clock. Items Needed: Ball Goal: Have every participant say their name. For new groups, check out an icebreaker and memory game called Group Juggle.
Participants form a large circle facing each other. If you have a large group, break into groups so there are no more than 20 people in each. Throw a ball to one person.
They will throw it to someone else, but must say that person's name first. The ball goes around the group like that until a pattern starts. Once the group seems comfortable, throw in more balls to increase the difficulty.
Time: 50 Minutes. Items Needed: Bags, Random objects. Goal: Create a 10 minute skit based on random items in a bag. Acting and improv exercises can be a humorous and energizing way to bring your team together. Grab Bag Skits is a short activity in which teams will get out of their comfort zones by creating fun skits. Split the group into teams of 3 to 8 and have each team choose a bag. They don't know what is inside, but it is stuffed with unrelated and random objects. Each team is given 10 minutes to put together a 2 to 3 minutes skit that uses each of the items.
Every person in the group must take on a speaking role. Encourage groups to be as creative as possible. For example, they can use an apple as a meteor or a paintbrush as a witch's broom.
Each team will preform their skit for the group. Although some individuals may be more introverted, Grab Bag Skits can encourage them to get out of their comfort zone and connect with colleagues. Goal: Have the team correctly line up in order of a specific criteria.
Ask the group to line themselves in order based on certain criteria. Make it more challenging by setting a rule that members can't speak to each other.
You can do this as a get-to-know-you-better activity. Some examples are by:. As members move around the room to organize themselves in order, you'll notice how they communicate to complete the task and who takes on the role of organizers or leaders. Follow Up Questions. Time: 25 minutes to an hour. Items Needed: Smart phone one per each participant. Goal: To make others laugh while collecting 7 cards to win the game. Evil Apples is a mobile app inspired by the party game, Cards Against Humanity.
Other players submit cards anonymously to fill in the blank. The person with the game card chooses the best, and often the funniest response. Players will bond over laughs and may appreciate the creativity of other group members. You will need to be cautious how you use it some cards can be considered inappropriate or offensive which for many is the fun of the game.
However, you can download different decks that are more work-appropriate or use other card apps to create your own decks. Number of Participants: Players. Items Needed: Smart phone or tablet, Jackbox games , video calling software. Goal: Every player will make a drawing based on a prompt. Players then submit a title for these drawings and try to pick out the real title from the fake ones.
Drawful is the perfect solution for remote teams. It can easily be played over Zoom or other video calling software, as well as in person. In Drawful, each player receives an unusual prompt they need to try and draw on their phone in a limited amount time. After someone finishes and submits their drawing, everyone else submits a title anonymously that could fit the other player's drawing.
These titles can be humorous or serious, it's up to each player. The goal is to find the correct drawing prompt while fooling others into selecting decoy answer. Bonus points are awarded to the decoys that are particularly clever or funny. Create a video meeting with team members and share your screen. Start the game! Every player uses their phone or tablet as a controller, so it's important that everyone has access to a device. The game will run everyone through the instructions before playing so everyone viewing the screen share will get the gist.
Items Needed: Each participant needs a mobile device. Goal: Work together to save the world from a growing pandemic. Based on the cooperative board game, the Pandemic mobile app centres around teams working together to fight and cure deadly diseases. Each player has a specific role that they must fill in order to succeed. Roles can be anything from an engineer building satellites so the CDC can communicate to a scientist collecting data and samples to test for a cure.
The premise for the game is the perfect setup to teach risk management and foster teamwork. It shows that every role is needed to reach the long-term and tough goals. Goal: Score the highest number of points while laying tiles. Another board game turned mobile app, Carcassonne focuses on laying tile to strategically gain control of map's cities, fields and other terrain with the end goal of earning the most points. The game is best played in groups of four players and as a pass-and-play for teams.
Everyone can also play together or remotely on their own device. With each new tile that is laid, individuals must adjust their strategy. It can get people thinking about how to formulate strategies and use logic to reach long-term goals. Goal: To complete all tasks before being killed by the imposter. Among Us is a multiplayer game that combines strategy with sci-fi.
Individuals are assigned roles: either as one of the crew members on a spaceship whose goal is to complete their assigned tasks or an imposter who poses as a crew member and whose goal is to kill the majority of the crew members while sabotage the mission. Similar to games like Mafia and Werewolf, the crew will gather after a dead body is fond to discuss who everyone believes may be the imposter. At the end of these gatherings, someone will be voted off the spaceship. Players will find there's a strategy to sticking together with other crew members and collaboration is necessary to complete all tasks and find the imposter.
Communication is also key to winning the game. Number of Participants: 2-Unlimited. Goal: Team up and go on quests. It can be download on Android or iOS devices. People can communicate, barter, form alliances and show what they are capable of when they work as a team. Playing a fantasy multiplayer RPG game may seem like an unconventional way to build your business team, but it can foster real-world teamwork.
It also taps into the imagination of your members and their ability to communicate. Team building games and activities for teams with more time available. All activities should take between minutes of participants time. Items Needed: Anything they could use to build a bridge.
Some suggestions: tape, paper, marshmallows, straws, Legos, popsicle sticks or Jenga blocks. Goal: Have two groups independently build bridge halves that must fit together. To tap into your team's creativity and communication skills, try bridge build. Divide into two different teams. Each must build half of a bridge with the materials provided.
The goal is for the two bridges to have similar or identical design and be able to fit together when finished. The challenge is that the teams must be separated so that they can't see the other team or what they are building. But, they are allowed to communicate verbally or through chat e.
Depending on what you use, you may want to also supply them with tape, paper and pens. This exercise is good for developing communication, creative thinking, and leaderships skills. What was the hardest part of this challenge?
How did you overcome that? Did you miscommunicate at any point? How did you fix miscommunications and get back on track? Time: 40 minutes. Items Needed: cue cards, post-its or scraps of paper, pens. Goal: Participants must guess the name on their forehead using only yes or no questions. Create a set of names, which can be celebrities and icons like Beyonce or Mickey Mouse or types of professions like actor, football player or doctor. You can use Post-It notes or tape and small slips of paper.
Have each person place a name on their forehead. Make sure that they can't see who it is. Set a timer and instruct everyone to move around the room asking different people yes or no questions until they guess correctly or time runs out. This gets people to move around the room and interact with people they may not spoken with before. It also makes them more aware of stereotypes and categorizing others based on certain characteristics. Number of Participants: Unlimited.
Items Needed: Cue or index cards. Goal: Find pairs. Similar to "Concentration", in which you flip over cards two at a time to try to find matching pairs, this activity focuses on learning and memory. You can create cards with photos and names of team members or with company information like products, logos, and values. Face these cards down on a table and then break into teams.
Each team must find the pairs in the cards while only facing 2 cards up at a time. Time each group and whichever finds all the matches the fastest is declared the winner. Company concentration teaches employees more about your business while playing a fun game. How to play: One person from the group is chosen as the guesser and briefly leaves the room. While the guesser is gone, the group elects one person to be the leader.
This person will make movements that the followers can quickly mimic scratch their head, jump on one foot, pat their stomach, etc. Improves non-verbal communication, cooperation skills, builds trust and team cohesion, as well as leadership.
This super easy team building game will take your employees back to the time when they were just kids and teenagers. What were their accomplishments at the time? Who was the local spelling bee champion and who broke records in track? Find out! How to play: Ask your employees to share their biggest accomplishment that occurred before they turned This game will reveal a little more about your employees and get them to open up.
Get your team out of the office but still managing to stay indoors for an escape quest — a live action game where the team works together in order to find an exit by solving riddles and puzzles. How to play: Your team will be given a mission and placed into a themed room. In there, you must explore to find hints and clues to ultimately free yourself.
This can be anything — from containers with passwords to locks needing a key. If your company is large in numbers, split up into several groups and have each team try a different quest.
By solving puzzles and riddles together, coworkers build a stronger bond and start feeling more comfortable around each other. In murder mystery games, one of the dinner guests is secretly playing a murderer, while the other attendees must determine who among them is the criminal.
The dinner party then follows the instructions on your chosen murder mystery scenario, passing out name tags, maps, suspect dossier files, and more. This fully immersive team building game improves critical thinking skills, boosts teamwork, and is simply very fun.
In this improvisational team building game also called PowerPoint roulette or Battledecks , each person presents a slideshow to an audience without knowing the contents of the slides.
Based on the slides, the players give presentations to a live audience — their coworkers. To see which presentation wins, have the audience applaud for each presenter once all the presentations are done. The name that has the loudest cheer is proclaimed the winner. This team building activity tests presentation and improvisation skills, and will easily get people laughing. You probably played charades as a kid or in parties, but this old-school game can also be used in a workplace setting for enjoyable team building.
How to play: Before beginning the game, pick several categories like Movies, Bands, Cartoon Characters and so on. Write them on separate envelopes.
Think of about items or words for each category and write them down on a small piece of paper, then put them in the particular envelope. Separate people into two teams. Each team will take a turn and send out a representative to act out the items in the category of his or her picking. The actor cannot speak or draw any words, while the others in the group try to guess the item.
If the group guesses the name of the item, they get a point for each right answer. The team with the highest score wins. This team building game can help build team camaraderie through lots of acting. If you think video games are just about fun, think again. Create your own small collection of video games focusing on the ones that require coordination between players — like Halo, Rock Band, or Just Dance for an added physical activity bonus.
The next step would be trying to introduce a video gaming break once a week or organizing a video gaming tournament after work hours. Engaging and stimulating, video games are proven to boost business morale and improve productivity even in adults.
This fun drawing-based game will make a great addition to the next board gaming night at the office. Googly Eyes is similar to Pictionary and requires you to draw, but comes with a silly twist — you have to wear goggles. How to play: Players are required to get to the finish first by winning the drawing challenges.
Each player wears goggles that blur their vision while guessing what their teammate is drawing. This game is easy to learn, yet it will bring your team lots of laughs.
A simple, yet meaningful team building game that will set the tone for the event and build consensus on shared values. In this activity, teams list what matters to them on a whiteboard. Each participant tells the group what makes this event or seminar meaningful or pleasant. Record the notes on the whiteboard with sticky notes.
The activity builds mutual trust and establishes group values. Perfect for the start of an event, seminar, or a workshop. Going down the memory lane is a great way to get team members to bond with each other. However, not everyone will recall an event in the same light as others. One team member shares a negative experience from that experience, while the other team member shares the same experience, but focuses on the positive aspects of it.
Then they switch, the latter telling a negative memory, while the former tells a positive one to counteract it. This team building activity reframes experiences, improves morale, and shifts perspectives.
This team building activity will let people appreciate their differences, and at the same time find something in common to improve team bonding. How to play: Create a list of odd pairs of objects that go well together — salt and pepper, Sonny and Cher, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, peanut butter and jelly, etc. Write down the objects on separate pieces of paper. The participants then mingle with the group.
When the players have figured out what they are, they have to find the other half of their odd pair. How to play: The group stands in a straight line side by side. The goal is for the participants to organize themselves in order by their birthday month and day without any talking.
If they do start to talk, they need to start from the beginning. If you want to add an extra challenge to this activity, try blindfolding a couple of participants. Practices problem solving, cooperation and non-verbal communication skills. Have the team stretch their creativity and communication skills by having them plan, script, direct, and perform their very own cinematic masterpiece.
How to play: Disclaimer: you will need specific equipment for this team building activity cameras or smartphones with decent inbuilt cameras, tripods, computers with video editing software, TV. Split the participants into smaller teams — each of them will create their own movie. Each team picks a mystery envelope containing a film genre or theme.
The final cut of each movie will need to reflect the genre. Set a deadline for each final cut for the film premiere normally hours after you begin the exercise. Now, the production starts! Each team member should have a specific role — the director, the producer, video editor, actors, etc.
At the end of the activity, all the films are watched, and the best ones receive awards. Popcorn and drinks for the final screening will be a nice touch! How often do we stop to compliment our coworkers on a daily basis?
Probably — not often enough. Improving self-esteem is a team building activity that will boost confidence in your team. How to play: Everyone writes down their name on the top of a piece of paper. They pass the paper to the person on their left. Each person must then write something they admire about the person whose name is on the top of the page. The papers are passed around to the left until each sheet ends up back with the person named on the top. The game also reveals the ability of a seemingly random group of people to find a commonality.
To do this, remove key nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Create a worksheet in which the removed words are shown as a blank line with instructions on what kind of word is needed. In groups of two, have one team member ask for the correct type of word and the other team member supply the word.
Or, if you do not want to break the team into groups, ask the team as a whole to supply one word at a time. Once there are enough words, read the mission statement back. It will sound silly. Now that the team knows what the goal is, ask them for the same word types. See what kinds of words they supply. Repeat the exercise until you get a mission statement that the team feels is correct.
A variation is to categorize the types of words before the first round. So, tell them you are looking for words that apply to the team without telling them you are working on a mission statement. By stripping away the jargon and stiffness and allowing the mission statement to go through several rounds of nonsense, you allow your team to help you craft a statement that is more relaxed and honest.
Using wooden blocks or an actual Jenga game, mark blocks according to the hierarchies present in your company. For example, you might have some blocks denoted as the IT department, and others as HR. Divide your team into groups, giving them an equal number and kind of blocks. From here, either specify the type of structure each team must build, or provide guidelines and allow them to build any structure they want.
When the time limit has been reached, each team, taking turns, must begin to remove a block at a time without destroying their structure. Do not inform them ahead of time that you will be asking them to do this.
If time allows, you may ask them to repeat the exercise. See if they find a way to build a structure that can withstand removal of blocks. Purpose: This exercise is meant to show how each department and the various managers and staff positions are necessary to complete the task, and that without everyone in place, things fall apart. Divide your team into groups of two each. Have each person sit with their back to the other.
One person will have a picture. The other person will have a blank sheet of paper and a pen. The team member with the picture must not show the other person the image. Instead, the are to describe the image without using words that give it away, while the other team member is to draw what is being described.
For example, the picture might be of an elephant standing on a ball. After a set time limit, the drawing time ends and both team members view the original picture and the drawing. Purpose: This is an exercise that focuses on communication and language.
While the final drawing will seldom look like the picture, it is revealing to participants to see how different the interpretation of instructions can be even when they are supposedly talking about the same thing. Gather your team in a circle, and have them sit down. Each team member should then put on a provided blindfold.
Leave the circle. Instruct them to form a perfect square out of the rope without removing their blindfolds. You can introduce variations into this game. For example, you might, at random, instruct a team member to not speak.
One by one, members of the group are muted, making communication more challenging. Or, let the team come up with a plan before putting on the blindfold, but once they cannot see, they also cannot talk. Purpose: This exercise deals with both communication and leadership styles. There will inevitably be team members who want to take charge, and others who want to be given direction. The team will have to work together to create the square, and find a way to communicate without being able to see.
On name tags or similar labels, write down the name of a famous person, or write down people types e.
For a set amount of time, the entire group should mingle, and ask and answer questions. They should treat each other according to the stereotypical way based on what kind of person they have been labeled. Each team member can use that treatment, as well as the answers to questions, to figure out what the label is. As each team member figures out who they are, they can exit the game and let the rest continue.
Purpose: By confronting stereotypes in both how people treat us and in the questions and answers used, the team can get a better sense of how we mistakenly see people as well as how it feels to be so narrowly defined. This is also a good ice-breaker activity if you have team members that do not know each other yet. Using masking tape, create a large polygonal shape on the floor. It should be about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide, at least.
Mark the start and stopping points. Make the shape a bit convoluted, choosing a shape that is elongated with the idea that people must make their way from one end to the other.
Place a few squeaky dog toys inside the shape, and twice as many full sheets of paper with a large X on them inside the shape. The paper is the mines. At least two at a time, each person on your team must make their way from start to finish blindfolded.
They cannot step outside of the boundary, nor can they step on a mine. If they do, they are frozen. They can only be unfrozen if someone else inside the shape steps on a squeak toy. Their only guidance is the vocal commands of those outside the shape who are not blindfolded.
Purpose: This game is about communication, and trusting each other. Players learn to be observant of multiple action as well as give clear and timely advice. On a bulletin board or other surface which accepts thumbtacks, create a blank timeline. The timeline should start as far back as the oldest member on your team was born or when the company was founded, whichever came first. Mark each year on the timeline. Then, using narrow strips of paper, write down important dates for the company e.
Give your team members four slips of paper, and ask them to mark down four important moments in their life. Let them pin them to the timeline. Purpose: This exercise helps show, in a visual way, the different generations and experiences of your team. It leads well into talking about cultural and generational differences and the effects that has on how people work and communicate.
0コメント